The Scene in Ghana
So far, the massive crowds that the Secret Service feared woudl clog up the Barack Obama's motorcade routes have not materialized, which is not to say that the nation of Ghana is not thrilled by the presidential visit. Hundreds at a time have gathered along the roads, before clogged neighborhoods and open fields where kids play shoeless soccer. Even as the press busses pass, they wave and chant Obama's name, many wearing t-shirts that bear the U.S. president's likeness. Photo's of Barack and Michelle line the road, and one billboard near the convention center, where Obama is set to give an address in a few hours, welcomes both the President and "Honors Our First 'Rock' Michelle Obama." Another sign simply says to the first couple, "Ghana adores you."
Obama began the day, following the morning trip to the hotel gym, with a short motorcade to the Ghanian Presidential Castle, which is perched on the sea. One man played a trombone as Obama's limousine passed by. "Show some love for Ghana and President of United States of America," an announcer called out as Obama and his wife approached a diplomatic tent, where a portion of the ceremony took place. A reggae-style song played, which included an "O-bama, O-bama" refrain. (The song is "Barack Obama" by the artist Blakk Rasta. See the music video here.) The president did a brief shimmy.
Meanwhile, over at Accra International Convention Center, where Obama is coming to speak this afternoon, dozens of Ghanian officials have gathered, dressed in brightly colored quilted sheets, which they drape around their body, leaving one shoulder exposed. The speech is scheduled to begin at 12:40 p.m. local time, or 8:40 a.m. on the east coast of the United States.
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Maybe the people of Ghana have better things to do. Just a thought.
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No offense to anyone in Ghana, but I doubt it gunny.
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2.1
I take it that you didn't really mean the part about no offense meant to the folks in Ghana, because there was no escaping the offensive nature of your statement. Do me a favor and get rid of your tarzanesque imagery of Africa and realize that these people work, support families etc, just like you do, so they well have had other things more personally important to do.
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2.2
That's a whole lot of wordiness in response to a post about a visiting President, Dee. In ANY country the visit of a major world leader would be a huge event -- I've been in Western capitals when presidents visited, and it was definitely the big news in town.
Your outrage seems -- overblown.
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And I also doubt that the President's "shimmy" was anywhwere near as classic as this:
http://donstuff.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/bush-african-dance.jpg
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That video is really cool. It has a nice beat and you can dance to it. I love that colorful, joyful welcoming. Do you get out to go to the marketplace, Michael? Or is it all hit the keyboard in the back room for you?
Bushie too was received enthusiastically, not that the Ghanans were concerned with his incompetence and criminality in office. He brought about a billion dollars to give away on his last trip to Africa. It was about the only place in the world he could go where people seemed glad to see him.
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keyboard and backroom so far. and now must begin writing afternoon story. not pool today. was pool yesterday, but not all reporters got to go into Vatican, a group that included me. No complaints though. I have doubled or tripled the number of lifetime palace visits in last week.
as for bush, history will likely judge his African foreign aide initiatives, particularly to fight disease, as one of his clear successes, or at least as one of the things that had a clearly positive impact
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Well, even *I* give Bush credit for his malaria and HIV efforts in Africa. You didn't do a post about the papal confab. How about posting the pool report? That would be kewl.
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Read Jeff Israely's piece on pope visit. better than a pool report. http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1909969,00.html
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Will there be a pool report/vidceo during the Cape Coast Castle part of the visit? As I said in your Ghana thread last night, for me as an African American, the Cape Castle visit is what I am really looking forward to. As I said, Cape Coast Castle is more than just a seaside castle.
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"dozens of Ghanian officials have gathered, dressed in brightly colored quilted sheets, which they drape around their body, leaving one shoulder exposed."
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Are you kidding me Mike? As a reporter the best you can do is to denigrate these people's conscious effort to combat the devastating impact of the second-hand clothing market introduced by so-called helpful western non-profits that decimated the indigenous textile industry, which once employed 25,000 workers and by 2004 was reduced to a mere 3,000.
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I guess your quilted sheet reference missed the part about being known the world over for their magnificent silk weaving - heard of kente cloth much Mike? So instead of calling these traditional toga like garments quilted sheets (assuming you know that sheets are something people sleep on), perhaps you can report that instead of going with khakis and tieless for casual friday, these folks reintroduced traditional wear friday (that would be the togas) to help restore interest in the magnificent fabrics that were once generated by the country.
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Hey mike, even from your room you could have googled that. Instead of embarrassing your president, your country, your magazine and yourself. This is the result of white supremacy. I know we like to think of it as the KKK (who by the way actually did use sheets), but that is just one atrocious, albeit cartoonish aspect of it. The really thing is far more insidious and creeps up on those who think they don't participate in it. You wouldn't have called the traditional garb of any Asian country a quilted sheet, although there may very well be a chinese influence on Ghana's traditional wear from thousands of years ago but that's another post. I know it's hard, you've had to learn a lot lately, and perhaps once you learned about burkas you were stretched to capacity, but if there s any room left please try to learn a little about Ghana okay. Now that would be historic.-
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Remind me to stay on your good side Dee.
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Dee, for heaven's sake! News reports are not necessarily a thesis on the country and its culture!
You explain things through the medium your audience will understand. It's why when people ask me about my "necklace" I don't respond flatly "it's pounamu", I say "it's New Zealand jade". Do I explain the rich and varied history of the Maori and pounamu? Only if the listener is curious.
Quilted sheet's a way to describe the outfit to a foreign audience. I doubt people read it and think "ah, the streets are filled with people wrapped in duvets".
Just out of curiosity, have you actually LIVED in any of these places you're so fiercely defending?
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I have to side with Dee on this one. People wouldn't describe the papal robes as a dress even though it looks like one.
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Dee gets my vote, too.
MS gets paid to do this. A little history and research would help.
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Instead of embarrassing your president, your country, your magazine and yourself. This is the result of white supremacy
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Someone get the couch, I wouldn't want Dee fainting on the floor. -
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Dear travelinginatlanta -- or outtolunch, which ever is most suitable at the moment.
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No I have not personally been to Ghana, and considering the extensive background material Mike has been posting on his travels with the President, that we have applauded of late btw, I was sorely disappointed that he gave such short shrift to describing the Ghana trip. Now, as for my expertise to comment on that, which is what I suppose you were getting at with your little dig about my traveling habits, I think that the mere fact 700 thread count sheets I sleep on every night covers my qualification to distinguishes them from articles of clothing.
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Moreover, not only have I never heard of anyone's traditional garb called a "quilted sheet" which by the way could have just as easily been a reference to a roll of Charmin toilet tissue, thanks to HBO and Animal House I wouldn't have needed to travel to ancient Rome to have understood if Mike had chosen to liken these garments to a toga.
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The point here is that MS was insulting and it might have done him good to just goggle a little since his President often talks in terms of his programatic philosophy being three legs of a stool. Perhaps MS could have let his readers understand the Ashanti tradition of Ghana also gave rise to the stool analogy as well as the more famous kente cloth.
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So far from Mike's travel reports I've learned a little about the culture of each country he's visited except for Ghana unless I count Mike's sheet reference that could possibly lead someone like me, who has a pension for white sales, to believe that Ghana has a direct link with the folks at QVC.-
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"Now, as for my expertise to comment on that, which is what I suppose you were getting at with your little dig about my traveling habits, I think that the mere fact 700 thread count sheets I sleep on every night covers my qualification to distinguishes them from articles of clothing."
Dee, you're free to comment on whatever you'd like (though this particular quote came out as word salad -- seriously, it's incomprehensible). But your outrage does seem wildly out of proportion to the supposed "crime". What travel WILL do is expose you to the attitudes of the actual inhabitants of third world countries, who are much more likely to hear "quilted sheets" and shrug "eh, close enough" -- not because they're unable to tell the difference, but because it's not worth picking a fight over something as minute as a description of clothing. It's understood that outsiders just aren't that perceptive about that sort of thing (an attitude that also serves Americans well when travelling abroad and hearing lunatic American stereotypes).
It was a description of clothing -- ham-handed description maybe, but the post isn't about cloth, it's about politics. But I'd argue that your "toga" nitpick is just as flawed a comparison -- those aren't togas. At all.
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oops sorry spell check would have helped here but I was on a rant against ignorance, that sompeoplelikeit obviously shares, since you think the appropriate response to passionate views is a sexist reference to hysterical fainting.
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Dee,
Our esteemed Michael doesn't know the difference between a tenet and a tenant. Now you're expecting him to know the difference between a traditional African garment and a sheet?
Baby steps....baby steps.....
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I see Dee, there's your opinion and then there's ignorance and everybody needs to decide where they stand.
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This story is not about thread counts or the history of the textile industry in Ghana. Just because Michael failed miserably in describing a garment doesn't mean he's a racist and IMHO doesn't require the interjection of the KKK into the discussion.
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Also, the pearls and couch phrase is used quite a bit on the interwebs and to me isn't a sexist reference. Females have said it to me and I've said it to men. If I were a woman would it be okay? Isn't that kind of....sexist? It's just a euphemism for an over reaction, which I think you clearly did.-
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Please, somepeople there is nothing in my statement that suggests I have a problem with anyone expressing an opinion that differs from my own. However, dismissing my opinion as little more than hysterical ranting is sexist even if unenlightened females use the terminology. And admonishing me for demanding that a reporter do his homework and be accurate rather than be lazy and offensive is just ridiculous. A reporter by definition is supposed to be accurate in his descriptions, that's not my rule -- it's theirs!
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Now when it comes to illustrating an example of how white supremacy has come to be such an engrained part of our culture that most people are unaware of how easily and unconsciously they are impacted by its teachings is in no way calling anyone a racist, in fact it is quite the opposite. My humorous inclusion of the sheet wearing KKK was meant to highlight our tendency to think of white supremacy only in terms of the KKK and be less aware of the more covert and subtler forms it can inhabit.Moreover, this is exactly the kind of intellectual engagement that is appropriate for this medium and appropriate for inclusion in any intellectual discussion of the impact of the first African American president. If we can't have an honest discussion about race and its impact on all of us unintentionally or not without all of the hyper emotional crap that prevents face to face discussion of this kind then where will we ever be able to have them. I thought we were supposed to represent the intelligentsia, the enlightened, well all except rusty and friends, so why can't this discussion happen here or are you saying somepeople, that you aren't capable of it?
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"dozens of Ghanian officials have gathered, dressed in brightly colored quilted sheets, which they drape around their body, leaving one shoulder exposed."
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The first rule of wordsmithing, that I personally always ignore, is be brief. So MS in the statement above it took you 12 words and one huge insult to the people of Ghana to describe a garment worn by their officials. Just think how much time, energy, and ink, if this had been in the dead tree edition, you could have saved if you would have used only one word devoid of insult?
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"dozens of Ghanian officials have gathered, dressed in brightly colored togas...
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See how easy that would have been and you could have done that without any research at all. So for any of you that think this doesn't matter much. I'd keep in mind that diplomatic problems have been created by less. And you never know when a public official will resent something they see in the press and go all bat sh1t crazy (see Sarah Palin for an example). While it might not matter much this time, a lesson learned is a lesson learned and perhaps this will save Mikey from making this kind of mistake when he has something more personally important riding on it. -
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I don't have a problem with an intelligent discussion on race Dee. I agree with you that Michael butchered the description of the garments. To me that's not a signal to begin a discussion on race; bad writing or lazy journalism, maybe.
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I think the issue of racism should not just be attacked or discussed on a one way street. It's deeper than that. I think we should point out racist actions and statements and their impact. I also believe we should point out the other side. The side that wants to paint everything with a racist brush. The side that will slap the race card down in a heartbeat and expect everyone to be on their side because they're anti-racism.
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We need to, collectively, lessen the impact of racism on ourselves. I have a diverse friend base and our normal reaction to non-violent racism is a chuckle. It's funny to us that people are still that stupid in 2009. Only a fool thinks himself superior because of race, so why let fools anger us so easily?
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When I was a kid, if I got called a doody head I might try to put the person in the Iron Claw. Now, I would laugh if someone called me that. I've grown (a little) as a person.
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You said without all the hyper emotional crap, in my opinion I think your reaction was a little hyper emotional. Thus the couch reference. Nothing personal or sexist.
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And thank you for at least not calling me scum.
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Somepeople, it is absolutely within you're right to respond issues of race anyway you choose. I have to wonder though if your diverse friend base is sufficiently educating you to the nuances of the debate since they have failed to enlighten you that the use of term "race card" is inherently racist, despite it being in widely accepted use.
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Nevertheless, how you handle or confront examples of racism whether or not they are intentional is completely up to you, for me the appropriate response is to use these instances as teachable moments. So I generally don't attack people with accusations of racism. I generally just call their attention to acts that are inherently racist regardless of whether or not it was their intention. Sorry to disappoint you but that is not the same as calling someone a racist which ascribes motives to an act. In fact, I generally give people the benefit of the doubt and assume they are unaware of the full extent of their action. Moreover, using the opportunity to enlighten suggests that I also assume that once aware people will choose not to repeat those mistakes. Now you can argue if an act has a racial impact, but you don't get to decide the scope of my motives for calling attention to them, nor possibly project your own emotional response to those acts on to me.
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Have a great day
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Let me just pipe in to point out that Amertican cultural blockheadedness is not confined to racism. It's significantly more universal.
Any and all local customs the world over are viewed through a Disney/MTV lens.
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God knows I'm usually the last person to compliment/defend MS, but I'd say it's simply an inelegant and condescending turn of phrase, likely due to the rushed nature of his post(s), and perhaps jet lag/lack of sleep. These largely amt. to fly-on-the-wall writing/of little substance. I've noted of late that many commenters seem to fancy his otherwise innocuous observations.
Personally, Bush or 'Bama, I really don't much care about PR trips in the developing world. I read this last night before turning in and thought how would Graham Greene have put it, or a journalist less wowed by the pomp.
"And what have kings, that privates have not too,
Save ceremony, save general ceremony?
And what art thou, thou idle ceremony?"
-Henry V, Act IV, Scene IAgain, until we have a press less likely to cyclically produce hagiography/cult of personality pieces, we probably won't see much in the way of change.
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"God knows I'm usually the last person to compliment/defend MS, but I'd say it's simply an inelegant and condescending turn of phrase, likely due to the rushed nature of his post(s), and perhaps jet lag/lack of sleep. These largely amt. to fly-on-the-wall writing/of little substance. I've noted of late that many commenters seem to fancy his otherwise innocuous observations."
My reaction exactly.
Although if I were to choose a more critical interpretation of MS's comment, I would guess that this was also about him deeming fashion to be an insignificant "girl" subject where accuracy is not essential.
It would be nice to have joyomama's perspective on this
BTW, I'm not seeing any preview.
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Rose, I'd add that if MS were writing about Bush in this same fashion (e.g. "Obama began the day, following the morning trip to the hotel gym, with a short motorcade to the Ghanian Presidential Castle, which is perched on the sea."), many commenters wouldn't react so positively. That's Helperin-esque. And his article about O's speech to the Ghanian parliament is equally insubstantial. Note: the speech is not.
It's all about personality and stagecraft. As with our domestic reporting, where's the f'ing beef? What exactly is the diff between Obama and Bush vis a vis Africa? How are his policies a new departure? I get that he's on a tight schedule that demands prolificness but...
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"educating you"
"enlighten you"
"teachable moments"
"opportunity to enlighten"
"that once aware people..."
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Dee, you love you some you!! I don't mind you thinking you're so much smarter than me, you might very well be, but you're proving my point for me. Race card is inherently racist? The definition of the term doesn't imply any specific race over any other. You apply that yourself. This is the other side of the street I was speaking of.
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Playing the race card is an idiomatic phrase that refers to the act of bringing the issue of race or racism into a debate, perhaps to obfuscate the matter
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_card
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You talking about racism in response to Scherer's hackery is "obfuscating the matter", which is, Scherer's said hackery.
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I have no problem with a honest, open discussion on race, when race is the issue. I don't believe race is the issue here.
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Also you called for an "intellectual engagement". I don't believe belittling people who hold a different opinion than you "intellectual engagement". When you use the phrases I quoted above you're not engaging me, you're attempting to teach me what you know because you're right and smarter than me. It's condescending, not engaging.
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I hope you take my opinions as just that and not any attack on you or your beliefs personally. You're right, we should be able to have this type of discussion and I'm open to debating it with you.
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I hope you have a great day also!-
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Well its clear somepeople, the meaning you draw from what I say has a lot less to do with what I say and a lot more to do with what you interpret.
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Yes somepeoplelikeit, contrary to popular belief and as I said originally, despite its common use, the term race card is a derogatory phrase for many, although not all, African Americans. Not so hard to understand if you think about it. Regardless of what it says in wikipedia, white people don't get to define for black people when something is racially offensive. Now what you do get to do is say that you didn't mean to be racially offensive, or you can say that you were unaware that it would have that kind of impact, but you don't get to determine that I don't feel racially aggrieved. That is what the term race card represents. It is white peoples way of saying that my racial grievance is not only illegitimate but a ruse to gain favor where I deserve none. The idea that anyone gets to determine the motive behind another's actions on its face is appalling, it is even more so when the person doing so has no clue of what it feels like to be racially aggrieved. Race is not something one can take out or put away like a credit card when it's convenient and that is why the term is reprehensible and inherently racist. It is insensitive and anytime I hear someone use it I try to show them that there is another way to look at that phrase that is much less begin than it appears in wikipedia.
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Now, excuse me for trying to hare a point of view that I thought you were probably unaware of. But perhaps your response is not driven by a lack of awareness of how that term makes many of us feel, perhaps your reaction comes from not caring. So by all means draw your line here. If you have finished making accommodations to other races so be it. I won't lose any sleep over your unwillingness to accept my interpretation because that's your choice. But let's not act that it's because I'm suffering from sort of superiority complex.I don't profess to be smarter than you on any subject other than myself. You attempted to ascribe motives to my comments, which in my view were wrong so I chose not to call you names, I chose to explain what motivated my comments. Now it appears, even that is suspect. Trying to share my train of thought is now the same as being full of myself. So am I to assume the following:
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knowledge of self = conceit.
educating one to my point of view = condescension
sharing a perspective not always discussed = presumption got it.
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Dee, I appreciate your well thought out response. It's clear these types of subjects are important to you and you've got some very good things to say on the topic.
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I understand that you wanted to share your view on these issues but you used terms like "teachable moment". Of course I'm aware that some people are offended by the phrase "race card". But Dee, there are people out there that get offended by anything and everything. There are people that can't wait to be offended so they can be justly outraged. It's easy to offended. Not being offended is hard, and immeasurably more rewarding.
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Offensive phrases aren't going anywhere. Foolish people with big mouths will never vanish from this Earth. That will not change in this equation. The ONLY flexiblity is how you react.
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Secondly, as I said before, you have a lot of good opinions about this and other subjects. I read alot here even though I don't comment often. So trust me when I say that your argument is above this story. A sleepy, jet lagged Michael Scherer mutilating the description of a proud, culturally significant garment, because of his lack of knowledge on the subject and his lack of desire to acquire it, should not set off a deep discussion on race relations. It's a high minded argument with a low brow trigger.
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I think it dilutes the strength of your argument because of the source material.
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Thirdly, how to you know I've never been racially aggrieved? Isn't that the type of lazy assumption that you accused Scherer of? I don't think the idea that the phrase (RC) is offensive to some minorities is a unique one. I don't think this moment was a "teachable" one and my honest opinion was that the assumption that I didn't know such a basic thing is condescending.
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Thanks again Dee for your perspective. -
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While I thought about letting you have the last word on this subject, obviously I changed my mind. Two points of clarification. First: My attempt to keep MS on his toes is an ongoing affair. Yes, to some this entry may seem trivial but my aim is to have a cumulative effect. It wasn't too long ago, when MS was commenting on the brouhaha between Milbank and Stein, that he made a reference that presidential interaction with minority publications in the press room was an act of generosity. I was shocked by that statement. After all minorities make up a huge portion of Obama's coalition and clearly he could not have won the primaries without an unprecedented turnout by African Americans. So I became curious, why would Mikey think that President Obama was being generous by answering questions for Ebony, Jet or radio-one?
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The more I thought about it the more curious I became. Even without these publications having access to such an integral part of the Democratic base, I'm pretty sure that no mainstream member of the white house press corp would ever consider responding to the press a presidential favor. In fact, I believe they would say that its the president's duty to interact with the press. So you have to ask what makes minority journalists any different?
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It's not as if only black people have access to these publications, if they discriminated against other Americans then I could understand how allowing them to stay would be an act of generosity on the part of the President. Frankly it would be more than generous, because if they were exclusive to black readers only it would ignite a firestorm among the MSM--Rev Wright would be a day at the beach in comparison.
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No minority owned publications have a rich tradition in the black community and they are available to everyone so why wouldn't it be the president's duty to include them, why would Mike feel talking to the black press amounts to special favors? Is it because they don't really belong in the press room? Did the president handout a special decree allowing them in the room? No that's not it, I remember seeing April from the radio there questioning Bush. So is it because previous presidents haven't shown them the same level of respect as the rest of the corps and Obama does and to do so now comes across as an act of kindness? Hmm that would be interesting, but I don't remember hearing any stories about presidents treating reporters, from minority publications, in the press room badly. Well that wouldn't mean anything because maybe they just decided collectively not to print that kind of story.
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MS has yet to explain that statement just as I'm sure he won't explain today's post. But I won't give up. The one thing I know absolutely to be true (and that's probably why discrimination in the press room isn't common knowledge, or at least not as much as it is in the halls of Congress but I digress) that nothing bad in this world happens without good people turning a blind eye to some part if not all of it. Now I can't solve every problem in the world. I can't even solve one. But what I can do is make sure that when I see something that is not right I don't turn a blind eye to even the smallest part of it.
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The MSM has long given short shrift to minorities, unless its painting them as the most deplorable people on the planet. In my life time I have seen them make black folks the face of crime even when the criminals they are reporting on are white folks living and committing crimes in Sweden. The excuse they used in that particular instance was a lack of B-roll depicting white criminality. But the real problem is that the tendency of the media to stick to the script, to adhere to their narrative no matter what doesn't just happen in politics. We all are so fond of talking about how these rogue memes can have really bad consequences for the country -- news flash the black = bad narrative that's been around for centuries has done some real damage to my community and I'm pretty sure I'm not alone.
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Now I can't do anything about centuries of media abuses toward people of color. But now that a minority is in the white house, every time I see a white house reporter slip I'm going to draw attention to it if I can. I know folks in the white house are assigned to read this blog, just as Shuster, Maddow and Olberman read it. If I get the chance to bring greater scrutiny to these things then good. Hopefully Mike will be so embarrassed by being called out in front of the big guy that he will learn the error of his ways. That's my simple win.
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The second point: Some of it is just me being funny. -
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It really is a good occasion to project information to others that is of significant interest to the second largest, but undeniably oldest, of our minority communities.
Most people really do not understand clearly why Obama is so connected to Africa, even aside from his ancestry, which, completely unlike most Black Americans, is traceable in it's entirety to his ancestral homeland and tribe.
My POV is that like I posted on MS's following post, Black America has an Auschwitz too and that Black American history has every bit equal standing with the Holocaust, as they are similar in impact and death toll. The only difference is duration and primary motive.
Obama is, without saying so, is acting on that equivalence.
What Obama is doing is bringing into focus the fact that the stigmatization of everything Black is something that has been buried so deeply in non-Black society that it is important to relate information that may counter unconsciously denigrating (and I think unintentional in this case - MS didn't know to ask, and this isn't culpable in my own opinion) everything connected to the Black condition including Africa. I don't think that conveying pertinent information about Africa is really as much about 'Race Relations' as it is about learning something about a place that has rarely been considered. I know I did.
I think MS is doing a great job on this, because he actually is conveying the feeling and import of these events, but has refrained from spinning it.
I'm not really trying to initiate anything here either, other than just try to make people aware that this "other Holocaust" has colored the psyche of the Black community in the same way and with every bit as much intensity as the Holocaust has to the Jewish community.
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I understand you wanting to share this 53 because this aspect of the trip got very little attention beyond a cursory mention in the media. Perhaps I just missed it, so if anyone has any clips of a discussion by all means pass them along.
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I understand why people shy away from any conversations about race because no one wants to feel attacked. However, for the record, unless someone actually has called you a racist, bringing up the term in conversation is not an accusation. I read over the posts and to my surprise, my original comment about race was quite short. And perhaps the admonishments for calling out Mikey I received in return were also disproportionate.
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I didn't call Mikey a racist. What I was trying to say, perhaps in artfully, was that the by-product of white supremacy is a lesser respect unintentional or not, of things and people who are non-white. Now does this mean that Mike's shoddy post was a result of lesser respect? I don't know, the point of the post to let him answer that question. Perhaps it was that he was tired and jet lagged and couldn't write another thing. I still don't get why anyone would see that as an excuse to equate ceremonial garb with bed linens he doesn't but hey I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.
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I know that every time this covert kind of residual, I just don't have the same kind of respect for you as I do for others manifests I know it won't be earth shattering. But just as it took a long time and focused energy to get rid of overt acts of white supremacy like Jim Crow in our culture, it is going to take a long time and due diligence to get rid of the little covert, unintentional, just didn't think about it like that, little acts -- like possibly in this case being okay to pay lesser attention to a lesser nation or not showing respect for the cultures of others that is a huge problem in how we have conducted our foreign policy.
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Now this doesn't mean Mikey is a monster, I have just noticed a few things that I have called into question. Are they huge no, but that's how the more damaging aspects white supremacy works. The next time any of you are talking with you're more diverse bands of friends, ask them if they feel like there is a double standard in the workplace. Is it a sign on the bathroom doors or the water fountains? Probably not, overt racism is no longer acceptable in polite society -- unless of course you belong to certain swim club in Philly. But ask them if they share a sense that they have to work a little harder, pay closer attention to their expense account, that it takes them a little longer to gain the same level of respect as their peers, the answer might surprise you.
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For many people of color, its not the kkk or skin heads that are of immediate concern. We can see them coming from a distance and run if need be. No what we fear most is our inability bank social capital. That our standard for comparison is perfection (you might want to ask Obama about that). We come into the workplace taught from birth that we have to work harder, be smarter, take nothing for granted just to be considered equal and then once we arrive we find that its still not enough. That no matter what we do there is a certain kind of respect whites seem to give only to one another. A kind of cultural benefit of the doubt that is not shared with people of color, that nearly guarantees the repetition of certain kinds of scenarios: like an idea offered by a minority in a meeting is dismissed until it is repeated by someone white (of course this can also play out with gender), that when something goes wrong the first assumption is that it is the fault of the minority on the team, that when one minority is hired to do the job of two as soon as they are fired for not keeping up they will be replaced by two whites. Of course this is not the only way things happen and not all minorities share these experiences. Some of us can disagree with our peers without being labeled the angry black militant female -- of course Michelle Obama isn't one of them.
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Of course the sad truth is that most of the time when these kinds of things happen it isn't the result of conscious thought. I've seen companies waste thousands of dollars doing research with minorities on Medicaid because they just invited individuals on Medicaid and ended up with a room full of whites. It wasn't intentional and clearly they weren't trying to waste their money. It just hadn't occurred to anyone at the company to ask the participants their race because they assumed if they were on Medicaid in an urban setting they would be black.
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There's just no remedy yet for unconscious thought. You can suspect racism is the motive, but absent a smoking gun you will be accused of playing the race card. Think about the media, before Obama's candidacy how often did you see blacks discussing politics? The answer is rarely and when you question why they have no minorities or women for that matter, they say it's because they can't find any that are qualified. But of course after Obama and Hillary came on to the presidential scene they found some didn't they and in a hurry? Where did they all come from, did they just suddenly materialize? No, they were around all the time but no one thought to include them before because conventional wisdom is that you don't really go to blacks or women for political analysis and strategy, the public doesn't really buy them as experts. Of course no one sits down and actually has this thought out loud, consciously, its just part of the ethos. The insidious by-product of white supremacy that nobody talks about in polite company.
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I hit a nerve when I poked at it today. And if I never mention it again I hope that if I struck a chord with even one person it could make a difference when the are making subjective decisions hiring, promoting, or putting the right team together. If there was anything to be drawn from Obama's speech in Africa it was not to allow conventional thinking that houses the residuals of our past to interfere with our future.
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A number of my fellow commenters took issue with my picking at Mike, because they felt the issue was of small import and obviously unintentional. But I prefer to give Mikey more credit. It is my hope that as a wordsmith he knows that words matter. And if he learns that his carelessness might have made someone else feel small he might want to examine why he was careless. Does his carelessness make him a racist -- no. But feeling that he doesn't have to acknowledge his carelessness and do better next time could. We will never get rid of this thing unless we are willing to do the work that stamps it out.
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No one who listened to the story this week of the 65 minority children in Philly, who were thrown out of a pool they paid to attend because the color of their skin was unacceptable to the adults who proceeded to hurl racial epitaphs in their direction, can avoid acknowledging the insidious nature of overt racism, but the less overt form, the one that we can't quite put our finger on. The one that we can't prove but feel is there. The one that is unable to find any qualified employees of color until they absolutely have to. The one that tries black 13 year olds as adults but see white children committing the same crime as children. The one that is subjective and elusive and insidious precisely because it unintentional, it flies under the radar, it hides behind commonly accepted terminology and or behaviors. Its small things that happen everyday that we let slip by because its no big deal. That one will last a lot longer unless we are willing to recognize the vestiges of old ways of thinking that continue to reside in everyone of us. And it is as much a part of our paradigm as it will be for those 65 kids in Philly.-
23.1
Dee, your requirements for interactions with the people of other countries seem to lie somewhere in the "write a thesis, or don't write at all" region.
I think you're seeing racism (or white supremacy, whatever) where there's only culture shock. A "sheet" is not just a scientific term for a bed linen, you can say "a sheet of fabric" and it basically just means a big piece of fabric. When faced with an item that defied easy description (the cloths are not worn in the same way, as you know, and vary widely in appearance) MS just broke it down to its parts. At the very most, you could call it empirically condescending.
MS's coverage was fine. Your reaction is more telling about you than it is revealing of his supposed professional flaws. Quite honestly you're coming across as someone who manufactures occasions to ride into battle for pet causes, who is uncharitable towards the intent of others, and who has a totally unrealistic grasp of the causes you're supposedly defending.
It's actually a very elitist attitude, to singularly decide that Ghanians would be insulted and horrified that MS described a "cultural garment" as a "quilted sheet". Why would they care what a foreigner said to describe an unfamiliar item? Would I be shocked at a foreigner using his cultural terminology to describe one of my items of clothing to his countrymen? Nope -- doesn't affect me in any way, and it'd be a reach to see it as condescending.
Your view of the interaction is inherently empirical, because it relies on Ghanians looking to Americans (in the form of MS) for approval or validation. And they don't, in terms of apparel. So it's really just you.
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24
I see your points Dee. That's why I pointed out that this isn't really about the 'racial divide' per se, but the knowledge gap that's left behind because if it.
I see the perfection standard in action all the time. You see it in the statistics in traffic stops, job search/conduct, and, of course, Obama's approach during the campaign. Never once played race, even from the Black POV.
What I really, really, really like about Obama's conduct is that he is trying to make interaction with Black Americans an ordinary event and Black history (American and African) background context no more controversial than Japanese history when visiting Japan.
This approach is unique and eventually will serve to lower the bar for those who follow. All that faux-outrage the GOP has been spewing is really an attempt to keep that hurdle high. No one pays attention to the fact that Obama particularly has been uniquely treated in this respect. I've been around for long enough to see maybe 12 elections (and old enough to know about them) and I have never seen the level of vilification that this president receives.
So when I look at it over this long view, it is easy for me to see that this is yet another example of the entrenched racism being able to disguise itself as 'normal conduct' because most haven't had even six or eight elections to compare this one to.
As far as racism popping up in the forms that you have described (I saw the pool article), people forget that it's ok to disagree about Jena, or the pool, or whether OJ did it or not, but the thing that gets forgotten is the gifts brought by having these events placed under a microscope. Here are some I see:
Jena
Regardless of ones' views on this event, it placed the spotlight on customary racism in rural America and particularly the South. The end result has been that the remaining Jena's scattered around the US are on notice that their conduct will be exposed. As a case in point, there was a town in Texas that used traffic stops to seize property and money from Black Americans:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-texas-profiling_wittmar10,0,6051682.storyOJ
Regardless of ones' views on this, the gifts to the judicial system were numerous. One saw the end of the 'all white jury', a second placed a microscope on the participation of racially motivated investigators.I've been hard on Mikey too, but softer on him on this one than you have. Each to his own, but either way, the sum of events is to make everyone think about what they say in the context of the real real America.
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25
No one who listened to the story this week of the 65 minority children in Philly, who were thrown out of a pool they paid to attend because the color of their skin was unacceptable to the adults who proceeded to hurl racial epitaphs in their direction, can avoid acknowledging the insidious nature of overt racism, but the less overt form, the one that we can't quite put our finger on.
The one thing that struck me as most astounding about that incident is the fact that the comment thread on the nbcphiladephia site that originally broke the story ran about 35% in favor of the club and the commenters weren't the least bit shy about grossly racist comments.
While your points about subtle racism are certainly valid, the truth is, that we still need to work hard on what 'polite society' allows because there's still plenty of rude society out there. Seeming to be overly sensitive and using phrases like 'white supremacy' to describe behavior that is really just a matter of cultural tone-deafness actually makes it easier for real racists to cling to their worldview.
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25.1
Yeah, subtle racism isn't all we have to worry about: stupidity is an issue too.
I just heard Al Sharpton on MSNBC being asked if the Civil Rights Movement is over. It was obviously a set-up question, and she knew some stats about racial inequality, but it's damaging to have such implicitly racist statements shape media coverage.
It is impossible to imagine an MSM reporter asking if antisemitism is no longer an issue now that the Holocaust has been over for more than 60 years and Israel is economically and militarily the strongest state in the Middle East.
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