Former Black Panther, Bobby Seale will be David Hilliard's campaign manager in his run for the Oakland City Counsel--the West Oakland seat. And this from today's Oakland Tribune editorial page:
[_Why African Americans are standing by Clinton_, Bill Maxwell (St. Petersburg Times).
Many white people, especially conservatives, and the majority of the nation's leading pundits, are confounded that blacks are standing by President Clinton. Polls consistently show that a higher percentage of blacks than whites approve of the way Clinton is handling his job and view him favorably.
Clinton haters are further dismayed that he is more popular among blacks than either Rev. Jesse Jackson or Gen. Colin Powell.
As with O.J. Simpson verdicts, responses to the Monica Lewnsky phenomenon explain why blacks and whites continue to shout over a gulf of hatred, mistrust and fear. "Nothing," writes David K. Shipler in his book " A Nation of Strangers: Blacks and Whites in America, "tests the nation, or takes the measure of its decency, quite like the rift between black and white."
Black support of the president is rooted primarily in their perceptions of race and the realities of how they and their forebears have been abused by individuals and by American institutions. Based on this handling of issues important to them, most African Americans like Clinton and trust him to protect their interests. They see him as an ally in a society hostile to them....] ---------------------------
So, all this has been gone over before here on LBO and elsewhere, but it occurred to me today that this view in a certain respect is inside out, or has it, the wrong way out.
This morning at work, we were joking around about the Senate and one of the black guys re-told a joke from a young black comedian (can't remember his name), that Clinton was being impeached because he was the first Black President. Everybody laughed. But this recalled something I haven't been able to quite get a handle on until this morning, until that joke.
Why do the Rightwing Republicans hate Clinton so passionately that they are almost speechless with rage most of the time? Why is that, whenever they complain about his policies, those complaints don't make very much sense, since I can barely tell the difference between Clinton's policies and theirs? What is really going on here?
Finally, I think I've got it. It really is about race. Clinton really is the first black president. It has nothing to do with his policies on affirmative action. No it isn't that Clinton 'favors' African Americans. That is the wrong answer.
The answer is, that the Right sees him as the first Black President! Our boy has stinky finger, goes to those all black holy roller churches down home, loves his BBQ, plays the sax, and worst of all he let sweet miss Chelsey play on big old Vernon Jordan's lap, of all places! Lord have mercy. Just imagine what that little girl could have seen. Poor thing.
No, boys and girls Clinton isn't black to the black community. Clinton is black to a white community. That is, the white community of all the constituents who voted for the Right and Christian thing to do. Look who has systematically taken Clinton to task. The small white time little tyrants who rule the new south, the late great states of the west, the tight fisted midwestern bankers of the farm belt, and the old Dixiecrats who turned in their hoods for a hair piece and a bible.
The high toned moral outrage, are the Christian Right, sure. But, go back over what they are. Ask what they are really saying with their little prep boy hair pieces, their steel rim glasses, their genteel manners, and their dripping Jesus from every pore countenance. These moral, honorable men exude that frightened little white boy look, covering their tee-tees in a shower full of big black convicts looking for something new and tight. Our little moral majority are scared to death.
See, I kept thinking sure they are white southern, mid-western, west or whatever.. Sure, they are fake christians, little suburban business men, sure, they are racist--sure, we know all that. But see, I didn't get it.
This isn't that weak sort of racism that you can just shame out, maybe even wash off. This isn't that theoretical kind that we talk about here, or the fancy conceptual sort.. And, this isn't just a little bad habit or rudeness. This isn't what we used to call bigotry or prejudice.
No. The only thing that makes Clinton look black to these whitewing christians, is the real thing. The big, bad, ugly sort of racism that moves a primordial fear and loathing. These guys have that jones and it goes bone deep. It twists up their insides so they can't really make sense when they try and hide it. This thing inside they can't get rid of, has them so fucked up, they just fall down and piss all over themselves, like the sick little dogs they are. This is that White soul of mythic proportion that drove slavery, civil war, jim crow, lynchings, dogs, night sticks and church burnings--and evoked all those long dark riffs on the guitar and harmonica. These fastidious and concerned gentlement are the real face of all that. And that is why Clinton is supported in the black community. It isn't about Clinton. It is about who is lynching him, and why.
Chuck Grimes,
I keep thinking about the phrase, n-word lover. You're a n-word lover. That's the treason at issue. Wasn't it Baldwin who took that crime and savored its mysteries?