GRIEGO: Like a foundation, our past is to be built upon
By Tina Griego, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Thursday, March 20, 2008
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You should not be surprised to hear Barack Obama's speech on race moved me to tears. I am like my father was in that way, a heart close to the surface, too close sometimes for my own good.
I read Tuesday's speech twice, the second time repeating passages over the phone to my husband, who caught most of it on the radio. The same line got me both times. "I'm here because of Ashley." If you don't know what I'm talking about, I'll still be here when you finish reading the speech.
The Rev. Jeremiah Wright's incendiary rhetoric and Obama's long and close association with him hurt his presidential bid within my family. "I'm not voting for him anymore," my brother tells me. "Wright's crazy." My youngest sister says much the same.
"What? Really?" says my husband, an Obama supporter. It takes a second to digest the news my right-leaning brother, a Marine during Desert Storm, was actually going to vote for Obama.
"It does raise questions about Obama's judgment," I say.
The speech didn't undo all the damage. But Obama's words, in the honest appraisal of race, in the appeal to our better selves, resonated deeply. So, too, did his call to recognize the history still influencing our present.
He did not ask this to excuse Wright, he said, "for comments that are simply inexcusable," but to acknowledge "a racial stalemate we've been stuck in for years" in this country.
"Working together we can move beyond our old racial wounds . . . we have no choice if we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union."
Many people have no patience for this. Past is past and all that. It has been my experience, certainly within this space, that how past influences present holds little attraction as a conversation. Discussion of race and racism holds even less, and that would be putting it mildly. I can't say I hold out much hope it will be my generation that will navigate these tricky waters.
But this subject is, as Obama puts it, "seared" into his DNA. Black father, white mother, the discussion, thorny, uncomfortable, goes on whether he likes it or not.
He must, for the time being, negotiate questions of racial identity even as he strives to illustrate what is becoming increasingly clear: the old categories, the false dictates that we must be one thing or the other, either/or, are falling by the wayside. Obama reminds of essayist Richard Rodriguez in his embrace of human contradiction, in his optimism that what is born from it can be not only healing, but wondrous.
Demographics will help guide the conversation. I look at my own family. I have 19 cousins who are married. If I'm counting right, 14 have children of mixed race/ethnicity, white, black and Asian. My siblings and I? One married a Dugan. One a Johnson. One a Smith. I married a man raised with the sensibilities of his mother - a Candelaria who defies all ethnic boxes - but who walks through this world with the looks and last name of his Anglo father.
The speech makes us think and my husband and I talk, particularly about the role of successive generations in "narrowing the gap" between the ideal of "a more perfect union" and the reality. Are we living up to our responsibilities? My husband tells me then that our daughter has told him she does not want to be a Latino.
I could make much of this, but I know what is important to a 9-year-old girl is that she not be viewed as different. What is important to me is that she not come to equate Latino with "less than," with limited horizons, an equation popular again on the ugly fringes of the illegal immigration debate.
Obama said of the responsibilities of black parents to their children: "They must never succumb to cynicism or despair; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny."
That should hold true for all parents.
It will be up to me and my husband to give meaning to our children's heritage and history. To give them the beauty without the baggage. We want them to understand where they have come from so they do not take for granted what they have now. We want them, too, to understand that equality's pursuit is a moral obligation.
"I won't take them to the barrio," my husband says. "That wasn't our experience. But I will hang my portrait of my grandparents in a bean field because that is true."
It is a narrow path Obama asks we walk: Be informed by the past - be saddened and outraged and uplifted by it - but do not be held captive by it. Honor your history, but know your future lies within the margins of society.
I once interviewed a Chicano activist in his office where a huge poster of Che Guevara hung. For most of my life I could not tell you who Guevara was, and after the interview, I said I suspected he thought me naÃve, blind to the struggle.
We have all been formed by our experiences, he said, and I can't judge you because yours were not mine. He could only offer me, as one adult to another, from one generation to the next, the lessons of his life. What I did with them was up to me.
griegot@RockyMountainNews.com
Comments
Posted by Konyok on March 20, 2008 at 8:44 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Tina, you're absolutely right. The past is our foundation and we really do have to work on it to get to a good future.
The problem is senator Obama is that he denies his own past in order to prop up his adopted identity.
He criticized his grandmother in public, his abuelita, in order to deflect criticism of his pastor.
The grandmother that raised him and had a hand in teaching him the social skills that have brought him to a serious candidacy for the president of the United States is expendable.
The pastor that gave him entry into the African American community and taught him the cadences of the speech and behavior patterns that the young man saw only distantly in his Hawaiian youth must be explained and understood.
It is obviously a painful choice for Barack Obama.
This story brings to mind the old argument about nature versus nurture. Is Obama ruled by his African genetic inheritance or his white upbringing?
Is denying his grandmother the most healthy way to solve this dilemma?
Posted by incognitoboy on March 20, 2008 at 10:25 a.m. (Suggest removal)
konyok, i think you might have missed obama's point in bringing his grandmother into the equation. he did not (go back and read the speech) say anything about not being able to love the woman, in fact he very much said the opposite. but rather that her race and the times she lived in colored (no pun intended) her views and language. that even a person who helped raise him and loved him was capable of racism to a degree. if she was from kansas, and i suspect she was, being that's where obama's mother is from, then i know the kind of talk he mentions. my own grandparents, from kansas, were OVERTLY racist in their speech, if not openly hostile, toward the 'coloreds'. i don't recall them specifically saying the 'n' word.
what obama was trying to get across is this; the era people grow up in and their personal experience PROFOUNDLY informs their views on ANYTHING, and so it was with his pastor, AND his grandmother.
if you're lucky enough in your life to know only people who are moderate and thoughtful and circumspect EVERY TIME they open their mouth, then bully for you. most of the rest of us know people who are intelligent, rational, and deeply thoughtful, yet occasionally will become incensed and utter things we never would have dreamed of hearing from them. the fact that his pastor was in a position of influence in his community and, yes, in obama's life, is just the way it is. people say things they may or may not regret all the time.
his point was, in the case of both his 'abuelita' and his pastor, THAT was NOT ALL they were about. that, and the real depth of the race problem in our country, which so many still have a hard time coming to grips with, was the point of what obama said.
Posted by Konyok on March 20, 2008 at 11:06 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Incognitoboy:
I read the speech very carefully. In that passage Senator Obama equated the fear of black men expressed by his grandmother, a private person, and unspecified "stereotypes" with public statements by Jeremiah Wright, a public person. (The clips of his sermons are taken from DVDs and tapes sold by the Trinity United Church of Christ - they are not surreptitious bootleg recordings made by somebody sneaking into the church. They are a source of income for Wright and the church.)
To further complicate the issue, Obama treats his grandmother's fear in his autobiography (Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance - p.88.) In that account his grandmother was frightened by an aggressive panhandler at her bus stop. A black man. In the book he speaks about his reactions as a 16 year old and his anxieties that his grandmother might be frightened of him as a young black man.
In the speech, Obama treats his grandmother as a cardboard cutout, a prop to make his point. An anecdote, not the person who nurtured him.
Posted by arby on March 20, 2008 at 3:14 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Racism is wierd. It depends on where you are raised. My mother was from a small Missouri town. She just assumed blacks had their place and whites had theirs. This town when I was a boy in the 1950's had a sign at the city limits "No colored allowed after sunset" Terrible! My father was raised in North Denver and didn't like "Hebs" and "Dagos" He had no problem with black people or Hispanics. I was raised in West Denver in a mixed community of Anglos and Hispanics. Neither one of my parents had a problem with our neighbors nor did I. But I did grow up with the idea of blacks being in their place and Jewish people being money lenders and Italians being gangsters. It took awhile after I grew up and away to sort all this baloney out. I think I'm good to go now. BTW I learned Spanish and peanut butter tortillas from our neighbor and babysitter Mrs. Sanchez.
Posted by Jimminy on March 20, 2008 at 9:24 p.m. (Suggest removal)
A rather subtle point is being missed in this whole debate....Rev.Wright's diatribes are exactly what should be expected from African-American men.Here's why:the minority empowerment initiatives of the last fifty years have concerned themselves with minority womens'issues,not mens'.The only effect upon African-American men is that the sanctification of bastardy,as celebrated in Tina Griego's recent series on Florence Crittenden,has served to euchre several generations of black men out of their fathers.In the March 3rd RMN,Attorney General Suthers said that seven out of ten Colorado prison inmates have never lived with their natural father.Probably coincidence,but seven out of ten African-American births are to unmarried women.
I'd suggest that what Reverend Wright has to say has enormous informational value.His anger is honestly come by.
Posted by gary on March 23, 2008 at 8:57 a.m. (Suggest removal)
How Tina does reporting??
A biker is riding by the zoo, when he sees a little
> girl leaning into the
> lion's cage. Suddenly, the lion grabs her by the
> cuff of her jacket and
> tries to pull her inside to slaughter her, under the
> eyes of her screaming
> parents. The biker jumps off his bike, runs to the
> cage and hits the lion
> square on the nose with a powerful punch.
> Whimpering from the pain the lion
> jumps back letting go of the girl, and the biker
> brings her to her
> terrified parents, who thank him endlessly.
>
> A NYT reporter has seen the whole scene, and
> addressing the biker, says, "
> Sir, this was the most gallant and brave thing I saw
> a man do in my whole
> life."
>
> "Why, it was nothing, really, the lion was behind
> bars. I just saw this
> little kid in danger, and acted as I felt right."
>
> "Well, I'll make sure this won't go unnoticed. I'm a
> journalist from the
> Rocky Mountain News , you know, and tomorrow's paper will
> have this on the first
> page. What motorcycle do you ride and what political
> affiliation do you
> have?"
>
> "A Harley Davidson and I am a Republican."
>
> The journalist leaves.
>
> The following morning the biker buys The Rocky Mountain News to see if it indeed
> brings news of his actions, and reads, on first
> page:
>
> BIKER GANG MEMBER ASSAULTS AFRICAN IMMIGRANT AND
> STEALS HIS LUNCH.
Nuff Said
Posted by Mtnsjohn on March 24, 2008 at 11 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Oh Tina,
What would your reaction be to a speech given by John McCain trying to justify his attendance at a white supremist church for 20 years.
Could he say anything that might bring tears to your eyes? Or would you call the speech a lame attempt at damage control?
Posted by arby on March 24, 2008 at 5:08 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Tina,
While I think you went a little overboard on the BO save my butt speech I don't think you need to get sliced and diced by "Gary" and his ilk. You can't please eveyone. Keep up the good work. BTW, when I was growing up all adults only had one first name. All adult men were Mr. and all adult women were Mrs. Maybe we could try that again?
Posted by gary on March 24, 2008 at 10:09 p.m. (Suggest removal)
arby
Maybe you need to research some of Tina's reporting?
Nuff Said!
Posted by yaakovwatkins on March 26, 2008 at 10:41 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Obama has two kinds of supporters. Those who hate and those who don’t.
You read his speech and the fact that it catered to his supporters who hate missed you completely. To be fair it also catered to his supporters who don’t hate. But they don’t concern me. If Obama is elected, his supporters will be appointed to powerful positions. I worry that some of those appointees will be supporters who hate.
Whom don’t they hate? They don’t hate Hispanics. They don’t hate Arabs. They don’t hate Blacks. They mostly don’t hate Asians. (I note that you are in one of the categories they don’t hate.)
Whom do they hate? Whites and Jews. I happen to be both.
I’m afraid that one of his friends who hates me will be appointed to a powerful government office and hurt me.
I think of R. Martin Luther King. He didn’t hate. Pastor Wright and Minister Farrakan hate. They hate me.
I know what Obama has said. Nobody admits while they are campaigning that they are prejudiced. Even the famed racist George Wallace claimed, while running for President that he wasn’t prejudiced. You know that you can’t trust politicians to admit it when they or their friends are bigots. You have to look at their history and who their friends are.
I know that some Hispanics were worried about both Bushes because they had connections to people who were perceived as bigoted against Hispanics.
What do I expect of Obama? I expect him to renounce the support of people who hate. I expect him to tell Wright and Farakan to vote for someone else. That is what he will do if he is an ethical politician.
Posted by arby on March 27, 2008 at 7:10 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Yaakovwatkins,
Good luck on your wish. Don't think it's going to happen. If the Reverend King were still with us maybe Mr. Obama would have a real spiritual advisor instead of a biggoted racist. Maybe we all would? I can't help but notice you have a little problem too. If we as a people can't get over this racial thing and move on then, we as a people are done for.
Posted by Jimminy on March 28, 2008 at 7:02 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Well,it's probably worth mentioning that people who hate feel entirely justified about it,and probably will be less than resposive to clarion calls to get over it and move on.It's a good goal,but the getting over it is going to take a great deal of work over a very long period of time,and I'm certain the confrontation will still be going on in the year 2525.
Posted by yaakovwatkins on March 28, 2008 at 1:16 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Arby
Thanks for your response. I guess all of us have some kind of racial thing. I know I do. But I try not to let it rule me.
When I lived on the east coast, I managed a bunch of minimum wage workers. I noticed that there were social characteristics of various cultural groups. Some of the those characteristics were admirable, some weren't. I treated each employee individually but I learned that certain cultural groups had more problems showing up to work on time, in other groups of men, some had trouble remembering to shave. Others would say yes and then ignore me.
The three men who physically threatened me were all from the same race. I noticed that because with all of them, I believed that they were willing to carry out the threat. The clerk-typist applicant who applied in torn blue jeans, got a negative 30 on the typing test and then sued for racial discrimination was also the same race.
But I refuse to hate that race. When today, I catch myself thinking negatively about a person from that race, I consciously re-evaluate the situation to make sure that I am not being unfairly prejudicial. However, I am painfully aware that perfection has eluded me.
Reverend King is dead. But we all have the responsibility to be replacements for the fallen heroes of yesterday.
"Oops I goofed, I'll try harder." is an excuse. "I'm not a good enough person." is not. If you aren't a good enough person, then get better.
Posted by arby on March 29, 2008 at 8:33 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Yaakovwatkins,
I don't know you. It seems you are a thoughtful person trying to do the right thing. We need more like you and less like some of the posters we have here. There was supposed to be only one perfect man and they hung him on a cross. Dr. King's 1st interest was of course gaining equality for black Americans but I believe he was interested in improving everyones understanding and consequently their lives regardless of race.
Well he got killed too. I sometimes think about where we would be if that had not happened. Well, we have the philosphies and teachings of both Jesus and Dr. King to model our lives by. Can we do it? I'm sceptical because we have all of these hate preachers, white, black, Hispanic, Jewish, filling peoples minds with garbage at their religious services.
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