tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13090306.post6992476641687114649..comments2023-10-02T06:13:32.418-05:00Comments on Moline Democratic Maverick: The Minority Vote for ObamaDave Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04289405215433867162noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13090306.post-88067534812564214702008-06-27T10:20:00.000-05:002008-06-27T10:20:00.000-05:00matt, Thanks for the comment. To be non-racist...matt,<BR/> Thanks for the comment. <BR/> To be non-racist does not mean that you are color-blind in the sense that you do not even notice someone's skin color or ethnicity. It means that you do not pre-judge people based on their race. <BR/> If Barack Obama becomes our President it will be a great accomplishment not only for him but for America as a sign that we have made a lot of progress overcoming our history of racial prejudice and intolerance.<BR/> I am also hope that electing Barack Obama president will be something of a short-cut in starting to repair the great harm that the last 7 years has done to our international reputation and our status as a beacon of hope and freedom in the world. I also hope that having a black president will speed up the process by which we regain the trust of people of color around the world that we are on their side in their struggle for democracy and freedom.Dave Barretthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04289405215433867162noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13090306.post-3741781712782889472008-06-27T09:41:00.000-05:002008-06-27T09:41:00.000-05:00ah, yes. during the last month of the Clinton-Oba...ah, yes. during the last month of the Clinton-Obama matchup, i think i developed a severe case of Ferraro Fatigue, and i wasn't quite sure if it was well-founded or not. see, a close friend and i recently had a discussion on the parts of this particular subject related to obama, race, claims of tokenism, and all that jazz. it's rather interesting just how complex all of our individual opinions are on those matters. it is going to be a discredit to try to boil the rather lengthy discussion down to one comment here, but i'll have to: <BR/><BR/>my friend was saying that she felt a particular pride about having Obama as our presidential candidate, and that the emotions she felt were directly tied to him being black. we talked a long time about that, and about similar feelings tied to Clinton being a female candidate that made it down to the last wire. as socially progressive 30-somethings it wasn't surprising to either of us that we ended up with these two candidates as "finalists," but i was surprised to hear someone with my similar political tastes saying Obaba's *race* gave her a positive emotional smack to the gut - brought a tear of pride to her eye. i could see how important this cycle's outcome was in terms of historical significance - as in, "we finally got there" socially, but that's as far as any potential pride" went for me. <BR/><BR/>we talked a lot about this and it became clear just how complex our feelings and opinions on that subject can be. in the end i came to realize that without thinking about it, i tended to be coming from the camp that took Dr King's dream approach - not only does one's content of character trump skin color in terms of judging — negatively or positively — it does in terms of an emotional pride (e.g. i'm proud to have Obama as our candidate because i think he is a remarkably intelligent thinker, not because he is black). my friend countered this by talking about what Obama's blackness "means," as in, his race is an integral part of all the other facets of his being that I enjoy. well, perhaps, and perhaps not. i had to disagree with her (it's a long-winded discussion as to why), and i think that might have me agreeing with the people who commented on the Latino blog you've quoted. however, the more i listened to her, the more i realized i shouldn't be so quick to judge her feelings as antiquated tokenism. if Ferraro is indeed coming from a background like I *thought* my friend was - a mindset that successful black people automatically evoke an emotional swooning because of the hardships they've endured in their lifetime, i'd disagree with her. i think we're beginning to move past race-based thought like that and more towards class-based thought.<BR/><BR/>all in all, this is neither here nor there when it comes to relating directly to your post and *votes*, but i thought i'd share anyways. <BR/><BR/>actually it all sounds jumbled and disjointed to me right now, so i apologize if it's difficult to follow me this morning.Matthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10640071593903513572noreply@blogger.com