Ferraro, Clinton, Obama

Recent comments by Geraldine Ferraro:

“If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman of any color, he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept.”

Then, after the expected criticism of those remarks, she said:

“Every time that campaign is upset about something, they call it racist,” she said. “I will not be discriminated against because I’m white. If they think they’re going to shut up Geraldine Ferraro with that kind of stuff, they don’t know me.”

I wish I could say, "what's up with that?" What's the matter with Ferraro that she's said such things..." but frankly, this is just another example of a subtle kind of racism that does not get acknowledged always and which exists in various places. I wish she and others could stop for a moment and realize that they just reduced Obama, and others, to nothing but race. That comment was extreme essentialism, and a shameful reduction of his personhood for cheap political gain. Ferraro, and the Clinton campaign, -- (and let me apologize for this sounding so cynical but I don't believe for a minute that this was just something that Ferraro decided to say just like that. Fact is that in campaigns you send messages through various channels in order to separate them from the candidate, and this is precisely the role that Ferraro is playing here) -- dismissed Obama's education, his skill, his ability to move others, his political savvyness, and branded him Black -- both as if that was the greatest boon in this culture, and as if that were a danger.

At the same time, paradoxically they reduced Blackness to something empty of value in itself, to something that while according to them is supposedly the reason why Obama finds himself where he is now, is in reality not something that is important, nothing that should be given the value that it is given. In highlighting his skin color, Ferraro and the Clinton Campaign have aided and abetted an all too real enemy out there, and are playing not the race card, but a virulent racism that they should be trying to vanquish instead of trying to awaken. That comment made my hair (and I don't have much of that anymore) stand up.

In doing so, the Clinton campaign has truly sunk low. If they did it in ignorance and political stupidity, they have played into the hands of white supremacists extremely well. If they did it purposefully, knowing what the outcome and repercussions of this would be, they have "sold themselves to the devil" in an extremely tragic manner. For they have in short, given comfort to racists everywhere, activated that kind of attack and line of argument, and posited Obama as not being any more than "Black" in the sense of all the negative connotations and articulations historically associated with the term. What Ferraro has done is essentially say "he's nothing more than Black, and will never be more than Black." And, I doubt she, or the Clinton campaign behind her, meant it as a compliment.

Her statement on being silenced because she is white is another attack, even if it sounds as if it were a defense. I do get tired of some white folks saying these things. First she attacks him because he is Black, then she attacks him and the campaign for being supposedly racist by calling her remarks racist. This constitutes a double attack, playing the role of victim, and asserting the privilege of whiteness against being called racist, turning the claim onto the other while not having to own up to her own transgression. Who's silencing who?

Comments

[Karen]

No one is silencing anyone. It's called samsara. Silence would be the cure.

[Nacho]

Hi Karen, thanks for stopping by and commenting. This is indeed Samsara. But operating from the point of view of race relations, and racist history in this nation, a powerful silencing ensues when this Black candidate is painted into a corner of 1) being essentialized by race, 2) being accused of racism (the Ferraro argument about she being the victim), 3) effectively limiting his possible response about racism because to do so would be an attack and/or being highly sensitive (this is already circulating), etc. So there is a kind of silencing or muting that the person attack can feel> I know I've felt it in my past when attacked in racist ways, or when others I know have been so attacked. You struggle over whether to speak, whether to counsel patience, whether to allow your voice to be part of the suffering, and over once again feeling self-censored and other-disciplined, knowing that interventions on one's part will be taken to prolong the pain, but that not intervening also prolongs the effort.

It is indeed pure samsara, but how frustrating that the Clinton campaign has permitted this to take place. And all because, I suspect, they need a strategy for Penn., Kentucky, and the Appalachian states.

: (

Thanks again Karen!

Best Regards,

N