“The Other:” Barack Obama and the Fight for American Identity
A scant nineteen months into office, Barack Obama has become the lightning rod for the unfolding fight for American identity—a fight that will last far into the twenty-first century as the country becomes minority white and dramatically more pluralistic.
That some twenty percent of the population (a significant increase since January 2009) think the President is a Muslim is but one indicator of the breadth of this fight and the success of those waging it. Religion, race, birth status, and the “legitimacy of citizenship” are at the very heart of the recent surge in attacks on Obama, and are at the core of the battle not only on immigration, but also on the “status” of all peoples of color. Making the President “The Other”—the One unlike the “us” of the dominant white Christian population—makes it so much easier to make “The Other” of all peoples of color and of all those of differing religious beliefs. Welcome to 1840 America. Read more
Dream Now Letters: Yahaira Carrillo
Originally posted on Citizen Orange on July 21, 2010:
The “DREAM Now Series: Letters to Barack Obama” is a social media campaign created to underscore the urgent need to pass the DREAM Act. With broader comprehensive immigration reform stuck in partisan gridlock, the time is now for the White House and Congress to step up and pass the DREAM Act!
Dear Mr. President,
My name is Yahaira Carrillo and I’m undocumented. As I write this, over 20 undocumented youth are risking arrest and deportation to demand that Congress take action for the DREAM Act. Just over two months ago, I, along with two others, became one of the first undocumented immigrants in U.S. history to do the same. Like Mohammad Abdollahi, who wrote you a letter on Monday, I too am queer. I risk being deported to a machista country, Mexico, where killings related to homophobia are rising. Read more
Birth Control is for Everyone
The government released a list of key preventative services Wednesday, which will be covered at no “out of pocket expense” when the new health care legislation takes effect. From counseling for kids who struggle with their weight, to cancer screenings for their parents, preventive health care will soon be available at no out-of-pocket cost under the new consumer rules.
Conspicuously absent is the promised list of women’s preventative services. That list won’t come out until August of 2011. And making sure that birth control is covered on this list is key for the health of all women.
“Avoiding unintended pregnancy is one of the most important medical issues for women,” said Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood. Read more
Ninety-Seven Years of Progress – Happy Birthday Grandma
Going home is always wonderful. But going home for special occasions is great. Today, July 13th, is my grandmother’s 97th birthday. She will not make it into any history books, but she is the history of our nation. While her life may not be extraordinary, her lifetime is an amazing tribute to those who are unwilling to give in or give up.
For my grandmother, education was separate and nowhere close to equal. As with many Black girls and boys of the time, my grandmother never graduated from grammar school. Before the sixth grade she had to leave school to help provide for her family. However, in her lifetime she was able to see her grandchildren go to integrated schools and see half of them go to college. This is because of the people of her generation who were unwilling to give in or give up, people such as Thurgood Marshall. Read more
Steve King Vies for Title of Top Political Bigot
House Immigration Reform Caucus (HIRC) member Rep. Steve King is one of the biggest immigrant bashers in Washington today. King represents Iowa’s 5th district, which is 95% white and has a population of just over half a million. He was elected to Congress in 2003 on an anti-immigration platform.
Since his election seven years ago, King has made a name for himself as one of the most outspoken anti-immigrant Congressmen. He’s a publicist’s worst nightmare as he can’t seem to think before speaking, which leads to ludicrous rants and rave. He was in the news again this week for comments he made about racial profiling and President Barack Obama. With these in mind, Imagine2050 presents the top five reasons why Steve King deserves to be called the biggest bigot in Congress: Read more
Just a Chip Off the Old Block
Last week Fox News commentator Glenn Beck went on a rant against Barack Obama simply because his mother and father chose to name their baby after his father. He has been named Barack for 49 years, and managed to do very well in school, work, and civic affairs. But media buffoon Beck thinks that he can determine how “American” someone is just by the sound of his name.
Glenn Beck said of President Obama: “He chose to use his name, Barack, for a reason. To identify, not with America — you don’t take the name Barack to identify with America. You take the name Barack to identify with what? Your heritage? The heritage, maybe, of your father in Kenya, who is a radical? Really? Searching for something to give him any kind of meaning, just as he was searching later in life for religion.” Read more
No Doubt About It, Glenn Beck is Racist
Remember the time Glenn Beck suggested that President Obama was burning down the country by trying to repair the immigration system? When he pretended to be the President in a skit in which he doused an actor with make-believe gasoline and lit a match? Or the time he called President Obama racist? That was idiotic and insulting. But what he did Thursday was worse. Because this time he didn’t just insult the President, he insulted all of America.
Many of us know already what an obnoxious bigot Beck is, but somehow he has managed to keep his FOX network TV show and nationally syndicated hate radio platform. What he said a few days ago should leave no doubt about it, Beck is racist.
BECK: He chose to use his name, Barack, for a reason. To identify, not with America — you don’t take the name Barack to identify with America. You take the name Barack to identify with what? Your heritage? The heritage, maybe, of your father in Kenya, who is a radical? Really? Searching for something to give him any kind of meaning, just as he was searching later in life for religion. Read more
Afghan War Collapses, U.S. Withdraws After 14 Years
Washington, D.C. December 2, 2015—After fourteen years of deadly fighting that took tens of thousands of Afghan lives and cost over $830 billion, the President announced today that all U.S. troops would be withdrawn from the battle-worn country by next March.
Almost six years to the day that a major troop buildup was ordered in Afghanistan, the President conceded that the plan had fallen far short of expectations. Latest reports from Kabul indicated that insurgents had, in fact, taken over most government offices and operations, and that no support remained for U.S. intervention. Since U.S. forces entered the country in the fall of 2001 over 85,000 Afghans have been killed in fighting. U.S. casualties have topped 19,000, including over 4,500 dead, largely as a result of intense fighting since the spring offensive earlier this year. Of the ninety thousand U.S. troops remaining in the country, fewer than 5,000 will remain into the summer of 2016 to complete the pullout. Read more
Of Hope and Pathos: The Failure of National Leadership
Being the week for year-back reflections on the election of Barack Obama, one is hard-pressed to find or feel the euphoric spirit of the nation and the global community that beautiful evening when the new President took the stage in Grant Park. Welcome promises have dissipated. Harsh realities have set in. And the new President has lost his tarnish.
Americans have an innate and insatiable appetite for quick fixes, are inherently pragmatic, and restlessly seek solutions to rectify every problem or ill. Therein lies THE problem—there are no quick fixes to the challenges before us. This is not an excuse for this President who seems, indeed, to have lost focus, resolution, and the capacity to deliver on promises made during his campaign. He is fundamentally and finally responsible, and can no longer cloak his administration in the waywardness of his predecessor and the economic and political disaster he left behind. Read more
Right Wing Extremism in America is Real
Are birthers and town hall protesters right-wing extremists? You better believe it!
In May of this year the Department of Homeland Security released a report on right-wing extremism in the United States. The report describes right-wing extremism as:
“Broadly divided into those groups, movements and adherents that are primarily hate orientated (based on a distrust of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly anti-government, rejecting federal authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. It may include individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration.”
Health Care Reform: Help Get It Done
by Kathleen Duffy
“The principal weapon of those who want to maintain the status quo is, as always, fear. Fear immobilizes. And fear of the unknown crushes the desire for change, even in the midst of conditions that cry out for change.” – Robert Creamer, 7/30/09
In moving health care reform ahead, we are doing battle not just with the status quo, but with people who are willing to grotesquely distort the truth and outright lie in order to sway public opinion. When Sen. Boehner issues a statement saying that health care reform means that Democrats are trying to kill seniors, he knows that that is completely untrue. He knows, as you and I know, that Barack Obama is not trying to kill your grandma. He also knows that if he can push people into full-blown fear, that he has a good chance of getting them so freaked out that they subsequently advocate against their own best interest. What kind of people would use this baseless and deplorable tactic and still be able to sleep at night?
The fact is that on every single factor, health care reform will benefit the American people. We will pay less in health care costs and see more of every premium dollar we pay used for actual care and not multimillion dollar bonuses to insurance company executives. We will be able to escape the abusive practices of the insurance industry, like denying care because of pre-existing conditions, or rescinding insurance once you actually have a need for using it. Read more
Tea Party Update
Gordonskene reports on the Santa Monica Tea Party where he ran into members of the John Birch Society:
Seems the JBS is alive and well and kicking up all sort of under-the-radar dust. This time it’s not communism but EU World domination and of course government meddling in private lives (read: guns, taxes, far-right ideology and oh yes, massive funding from people like the Koch family). So, you roll all those things together and its the same old Leopard of the 50’s and 60’s, only with new Millennium spots. So I stumbled across a news item from 1965, a review of a new film put out by the Society in an effort to drum up support.
Seems after over 50 years of being around, the John Birch Society is still around and paranoid as ever.
Sam Stein wrote on post-tea party fallout for the GOP on Huffpost:
While the anti-tax sentiment of the protests may have been sincere, the images pulled from the events have often been offensive, embarrassing, or politically problematic.
It is a development that has tripped up the GOP before. The rallies outside McCain-Palin events included some of the same bile that was seen at the tea parties: charges of fascism, terrorism and other malicious criticisms leveled at Barack Obama. And it did the Republican ticket little good in its efforts to bring moderate voters to the cause.
Sinfonian recounted his speech at a Pensacola Tea Party, and a video of the whole thing. Pretty awesome.
I enjoyed the part when I asked, “How many here make less than $250,000 a year?” and there’s a big cheer … then it goes quiet again when I tell them they’ll pay less in taxes under the Obama plan. That’s about when the murmuring started …
My favorite part, though, is as I continue to gripe about the years from 2000 to 2008 (yeah, it’s ‘01 to ‘09, but you have to “speak to your audience,” y’know), and then I hit them with “place the blame where it belongs: squarely on the Republican Party and the Bush administration,” they pretty much lost their shit at that point. That was fun.
Rush Limbaugh Isn’t Racist, He Just Sounds That Way
Since the election of Barack Obama four months ago, one man has emerged from the ruined right standing tall. That man is conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh. He has enjoyed a big boost in ratings since Obama’s election much to the guile of the GOP. Limbaugh is a man who cannot get enough of the spotlight. He is no stranger to controversy and attacks anyone he believes is getting too much media attention. This was the case in October of 2006 when he stated that Michael J. Fox was “exaggerating the effects” of his Parkinson’s disease. On January 16th of this year he caused a stir by saying “I hope he fails” referring to Barack Obama. He later attempted to retract the comment by saying that he hoped Obama’s policies fail and not the man himself.
One of Limbaugh’s biggest fans is Andrew Klavan, the contributing editor of City Journal magazine. Mr. Klavan was recently published in a Los Angeles Times op-ed piece where he stated “I listen to Limbaugh every chance I get, and I have never heard the man utter a single racist, hateful or stupid word.” As if that wasn’t enough, Klavan went further and challenged “liberals” to: “Listen to the show. Not for five minutes but for several hours: an hour a day for several days. Consider what he has to say — the real policy material under the jokes and teasing bluster. Do what your intellectual keepers do not want you to do and keep an open mind.” Read more
Touchstones
“He entered upon the canvass with a reputation confined to his own state. He closes it with his name a household word wherever the principles he holds are honored and with the respect of his opponents in all sections of the country.” Joseph Medill, writing of Abraham Lincoln, 1858.
Those of us who grew up among the vast prairies, rolling hills, and city streets of Illinois are steeped in Abraham Lincoln. As school kids we visited his New Salem and Springfield homes, and stood quietly in the solace of his tomb. We joined thousands over the years who rubbed the nose of his likeness outside that last resting place, shining it as though to keep his spirit alive and vibrant. We did not know then of his ambivalence about the rights of slaves, only that he freed them and preserved the union. We still go to the Lincoln Memorial and are deeply moved. We are of him; he was of us. Read more
Obama and the Environment
I looked over the Energy Plan at barackobama.com today, and I can’t help but feel hot and cold about it.
His plan unquestionably aims to give assistance to middle class and low income households, which is certainly imperative at this point in time….and a exhilarating change from the current administration. However, being someone who is legitimately concerned for the environment, I have to put my foot down and say that his plan does not dis-include practices that may be highly detrimental to this planet, and contains propositions calling for relatively unsustainable energy procurement and management. The following is my summary of his Energy Plan, approached and illuminated by the way of an ecological eye… and with commentary, of course. Read more
White Nationalists Prepare to Oppose Obama Administration
The Republican Party is in disarray after its loss to Barack Obama, and on the sidelines white nationalists are skillfully preparing political attacks on the new American president.
Since the weeks leading up to the most significant elections ever to take place in the United States, federal law enforcement agencies, the media and human rights organizations have paid close attention to threats made against Presidential-Elect Barack Obama. Some of these threats have been made by individuals with ties to the neo-Nazi movement in the United States.
Read more
Saddleback or Brokeback? The President-elect’s Penchant for Preachers.
For Barack Obama to wander from the progressive United Church of Christ to the conservative Saddleback Church, from a prophetic pastor to a placid one in such a short period is a stunning religious-political journey on many levels. This is a journey from a historic church rooted in the abolitionist movement and fundamentally committed to civil and human rights—including gay rights—to a church with little visible connection—save a few recent forays—to the perils of human oppression. Read more
Hate Crimes and Hate Group Activity Rising
Last week I asked our readers if they thought hate crimes were increasing. I posted the poll on a whim; we’d been writing a lot about hate crimes at Imagine 2050 and felt that there was something deeper and more menacing behind the recent spree of attacks. As of this writing 63% of you thought that hate crimes were increasing, and there is mounting evidence that you were right. We already know there has been a steady increase in crimes against Latinos since 2003, as reported by the Southern Poverty Law Center. This has been attributed to anti-immigrant rhetoric that has gone mainstream thanks to groups like Federation for American Immigration Reform, anti-immigrant politicians and TV commentators, such as Lou Dobbs. And there is a very strong link between the communities where anti-immigrant groups are active and hate crime incidents. Read more
Fight for Citizenship Should Engage Blacks and Gays
California’s recently passed Proposition 8, a constitutional measure, now defines “marriage as between a man and woman” and eliminates the right of same-sex couples to marry. Many people, either in error or racist intent, have attempted to argue that Proposition 8 passed because of the large black voter turnout for President-Elect Barack Obama.
The real truth, devoid of bigotry, according to Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight, is that new voters for Obama overwhelmingly voted to defeat the measure. New black voters were stronger supporters of gay rights than the “more experienced voters” that the mainstream LGBT leaders were focusing on for support. Read more
There is no Promised Land without Black America
The emerging new black leadership owes black America tangible change. Across the blogosphere, in newsprint and on television and radio pundits are breathlessly hailing the rise of the Joshua Generation.
While initially used by the Barack Obama campaign as a title of a program that reach out to potential young evangelicals and Catholic voters it is now used to distinguish a growing group of young black leaders from those that participated in the 1960s Civil Rights movement. In short while the biblical figure of Moses (i.e. Martin Luther King, et al) led people out of captivity it was Joshua (i.e. new black leadership) who finally got everyone out of the wilderness and into the Promised Land.
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