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17
Tim Wise’s This is Your Nation on White Privilege
Filed Under Barack Obama, Campaigning, Culture, Elections, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, John McCain, leadership, Ohio, Politics, Race, Sarah Palin, WH2008, Writing | 19 Comments
Seems that a lot of people don’t really understand what it is to be anti-racist. That’s okay – because several months ago, I didn’t know either. And I’ve been working hard at reading, listening, asking questions, engaging when others will allow me to and trying to actively be anti-racist. I’ve had a few tangible successes and I’m very proud of them, but it’s a lifelong effort, especially for a class-privileged white woman like myself. I may take that for granted and I may need reminding, but I’m getting there.
However, it seems that not everyone gets what white privilege is about – like the Ohio ORP’s Kevin DeWine who thinks that there are no racists in Ohio. I am sorry too, Kevin, that there are in fact racists in Ohio but here’s something we can both do: spread Tim Wise’s article, This Is Your Nation on White Privilege, far and wide. You reach a lot more people than I do, but if posting it here makes even one reader think twice and realize, yes, Ohio, there are white people in this state who will not vote for Barack Obama because he’s black, I’ll feel like I’ve succeeded, again.
Now, to be fair, I vote for Clinton over Obama in the primary because I preferred her experience and entrenchment to his lack of it, in comparison. So, I understand that there are people who prefer McCain for whatever it is they believe McCain stands for and is, or isn’t. But we also know that there are people who aren’t so into McCain who simply will not vote for Obama. I know – I’ve listened to them and I’ve read e-mails and comments and blog posts written by them. However, regardless, white privilege is a problem that goes far beyond this election, but it’s impact on this choice we’re making for our country is truly profound and maybe unprecedented. Thank you to Tim Wise for writing about it so clearly.
This is Your Nation on White Privilege
For those who still can’t grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.
White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because “every family has challenges,” even as black and Latino families with similar “challenges” are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.
White privilege is when you can call yourself a “fuckin’ redneck,” like Bristol Palin’s boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you’ll “kick their fuckin’ ass,” and talk about how you like to “shoot shit” for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.
White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.
White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don’t all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you’re “untested.”
White privilege is being able to say that you support the words “under God” in the pledge of allegiance because “if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it’s good enough for me,” and not be immediately disqualified from holding office–since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and the “under God” part wasn’t added until the 1950s–while believing that reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals.
White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you.
White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union, and whose motto was “Alaska first,” and no one questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you’re black and your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she’s being disrespectful.
White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the work they do–like, among other things, fight for the right of women to vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child labor–and people think you’re being pithy and tough, but if you merely question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college–you’re somehow being mean, or even sexist.
White privilege is being able to convince white women who don’t even agree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a “second look.”
White privilege is being able to fire people who didn’t support your political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you must be corrupt.
White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict in the Middle East is God’s punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you’re just a good church-going Christian, but if you’re black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism and its effect on black people, you’re an extremist who probably hates America.
White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a “trick question,” while being black and merely refusing to give one-word answers to the queries of Bill O’Reilly means you’re dodging the question, or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.
White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and experiencing racism is, as Sarah Palin has referred to it a “light” burden.
And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world opinion, just because white voters aren’t sure about that whole “change” thing. Ya know, it’s just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more years of the same, which is very concrete and certain…
White privilege is, in short, the problem.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:17 pm September 17th, 2008 in Barack Obama, Campaigning, Culture, Elections, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, John McCain, leadership, Ohio, Politics, Race, Sarah Palin, WH2008, Writing | 19 Comments
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Sep
17
Exit polls show Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has won the Kadima party primary by a double-digit margin.
Livni received between 47 and 49 percent of the vote, while her closest challenger, Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz, won 37 percent, according to exit polls conducted by three Israeli TV stations.
By winning more than 40 percent of Wednesday’s vote, Livni will avoid a runoff and immediately can begin trying to assemble a governing coalition. Once that process is complete, Livni will formally replace Ehud Olmert as prime minister. If Livni fails to assemble a coalition, Israel will hold new general elections for Knesset and prime minister.
The voting Wednesday was not without controversy. Livni asked that the polls stay open an extra hour due to “congestion” at polling stations, but Mofaz opposed the request. In the end, Kadima officials extended the voting by 30 minutes.
More than 74,000 registered party members were eligible to vote at 114 polling stations around the country.
The issue here was that if no Kadima candidate could win 40% they would have to run in a general election that very likely would have been won by Benyamin Netanyahu.
More from YNet News. Very exciting indeed.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 4:01 pm September 17th, 2008 in Israel, Politics | 1 Comment
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Sep
17
McCain campaign performs magic & make Fiorina disappear
Filed Under Campaigning, John McCain, Sarah Palin, WH2008 | 3 Comments
From John King, the replay:
Asked by a St. Louis radio station whether she [McCain campaign surrogate Carly Fiorina] thought Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin could run a company like Hewlett-Packard, Fiorina responded: “No, I don’t.
“But that’s not what she’s running for. Running a corporation is a different set of things.”
Asked about that remark on MSNBC, she made the same unprompted assessment of the GOP presidential nominee. “I don’t think John McCain could run a major corporation.”
She also said she did not believe Democrats Barack Obama or Joe Biden had the right business background either.
The call:
A top McCain official contacted by CNN said, on condition on anonymity, “No big deal, but not how you get on the surrogate all-star team. Very Biden-like.”
The penalty:
This campaign source said Fiorina would be discouraged from additional media interviews.
Another top campaign adviser was far less diplomatic.
“Carly will now disappear,” this source said. “Senator McCain was furious.” Asked to define “disappear,” this source said, adding that she would be off TV for a while – but remain at the Republican National Committee and keep her role as head of the party’s joint fundraising committee with the McCain campaign.
Fiorina was booked for several TV interviews over the next few days, including one on CNN. Those interviews have been canceled.
A third source said “it was another bad day for her, and important people are mad because the timing is horrible… But I would not necessarily buy the Siberia storyline.”
Hattip Progress Ohio.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 11:59 am September 17th, 2008 in Campaigning, John McCain, Sarah Palin, WH2008 | 3 Comments
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Sep
17
Hear it from the heart: jimi izrael today at Tric-C Metro 12:30pm on blogging
Filed Under Blogging, Cleveland+, Education, Ohio, Writing | 9 Comments
jimi izrael is a hip-hop journalist whose work can be read at The Root and heard on NPR’s The Barbershop. You can read his blog here. I love jimi – we met while working on the KnowledgeWorks Foundation’s small schools effort.
Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any link for the event but here’s what jimi sent over via tweet and I’ll repeat in full lingo:
ji’s Tri-C lcture series on blgging begins today @TriC Metro 1230 in thtre bldg. West 9/19 and East 9/26 call triC or tweet jimi fr details
This is to say, Go to the theater building on Tri-C’s Metro campus (see here) today at 12:30 to listen to and gab with jimi about blogging.
Then, he’ll be at Tri-C’s West campus on 9/19 and East campus on 9/26 doing his about blogging thang. I’m going to try to make it to the one at the East location.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 11:35 am September 17th, 2008 in Blogging, Cleveland+, Education, Ohio, Writing | 9 Comments
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Sep
17
Haveil Havalim #182 (Carnival of Jewish Blogging) posted
Filed Under Blogging, Israel, Jewish, Judaism | Comments Off
Jewish blogging has never been more active and you can visit Haveil Havalim #182 this week at two different locations (though the same edition, the different posts might have different comments):
At Me-ander and at Shiloh Musings.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:55 am September 17th, 2008 in Blogging, Israel, Jewish, Judaism | Comments Off
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Sep
17
Carnival of Ohio Politics #134 posted
Filed Under Blogging, Carnivals, Ohio, Politics, Writing | 1 Comment
Please welcome Daniel Jack Williamson‘s debut as co-editor of the Carnival of Ohio Politics in edition #134. Thank you, Daniel and thank you contributors. As Lisa Renee mentions here, we’ve got some amping up going on and hope you’ll be part of it, as reader or otherwise.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:50 am September 17th, 2008 in Blogging, Carnivals, Ohio, Politics, Writing | 1 Comment
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Sep
17
World Evangelical Alliance wants end to dialogue, increase in conversion of Jews
Filed Under Jewish, John McCain, Judaism, Politics, Religion, Sarah Palin, WH2008 | 10 Comments
A formal decree drafted by the World Evangelical Alliance’s (WEA) Theology Commission during a Berlin conference held in August, has world Jewish communities up in arms: The decree, which explores “Jesus’ individuality and Jewish evangelism,” is meant, according to the WEA, to find ways in which Christians can profess their true love for the Jewish people, especially those residing in Europe.
The conference, which was attended by German Christians and Messianic Jews, ended with a statement calling for forfeiting the Christian-Jewish dialogue in favor of distributing the gospel among the Jewish people. This act, said the WEA, “should be made with a true concerns for the Jewish people’s redemption.”
The document that contains the directive is called, “The Berlin Declaration on the Uniqueness of Christ and Jewish Evangelism in the World Today” and you can read it here (pdf) (but you can see the full thing in this post, by an American who attended the Berlin conference, at Bible.org). The writer of this Daily Kos post does a good job of outlining why then it is so unsettling to learn about the current GOP VP candidate’s history of religious affiliations. And if you google blog search the name of the document, you will find some very frightening results which I don’t want to link to because frankly, I don’t want them coming to this blog.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has issued this statement:
Promoting a campaign to convert Jews away from their faith is a serious affront to the Jewish people and disrespectful to Judaism’s own teachings. Though the World Evangelical Alliance claims it seeks to convert Jews out of their “love” for Jews, we believe that if the WEA really loved Jews, they would respect Jewish teachings and recognize the integrity of Jewish tradition.
It is especially troubling that the WEA includes and validates the deceptive proselytizing tactics of Messianic Jews and groups like Jews for Jesus. To issue this declaration from Berlin, where the Nazis directed their Final Solution to exterminate the Jewish people, is the height of insensitivity. This Evangelical document is not an offer of love, but a prescription for hate. As long as the WEA teaches that Judaism is incomplete or misguided, anti-Semitism will continue.
We urge on the WEA to withdraw its call to target the Jews of Europe for conversion and immediately begin serious dialogue with Jewish interfaith representatives, so they can understand the immense pain and anger they are causing with their ill-advised and theologically misguided position.
Rabbi Brad Hirschfeld seems to think that dialogue is the answer, even though the statement clearly doesn’t embrace dialogue as much as evangelism, and admonishes the ADL and the Christians:
There are however two fundamental questions which the WEA must confront. First, is it possible that as much as they need to witness their understanding of the truth, they need to separate that public witness from the stated outcome of seeing me and my brothers and sisters join them in faith? In other words, I am calling upon the ADL, and all those who share their views, to reconsider the notion that Christian evangelism may be an act of love from their perspective. But I also ask if evangelical Christians are willing to consider that it may not be an act of love, if those on the receiving end do not experience it as such?
The second question is simple: can anyone out there point to a single time in human history which ended well, when the success of one group was defined by their ability to convert their neighbors? There isn’t one. You may not think I am right, but the damage done by those who wanted to “repair” the spiritual shortcomings of their neighbors, and judged that repair as necessary to attain blessing or salvation, is too vast to detail here.
So why not try something new for most of us? Genuine inter-faith dialogue in which each group tried to understand the logic and the love which motivates the other side. We are not likely to agree many things, I know. And it will be hard to give up the sense of moral superiority that we all love so much. But it strikes me as far healthier than Jews who intimate that Evangelicals are in cahoots with Nazis, and Christians who refuse to admit the damage done by well-intentioned people who just never got over seeing their neighbors as spiritually damaged goods.
The WEA declaration is pretty clear on not wanting more dialogue so I’m not quite sure why the rabbi is making this suggestion. On this one, I lean in the ADL’s direction, especially having just spent several hours at Yad Vashem which offers proof after painful proof of all the influences that contributed to the Holocaust, and I struggle to imagine how Jews can feel comfortable supporting the McCain/Palin ticket, knowing the VP candidate’s religious leanings and its influence over her political efforts.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 9:57 am September 17th, 2008 in Jewish, John McCain, Judaism, Politics, Religion, Sarah Palin, WH2008 | 10 Comments
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Sep
17
Oh yeah – you forgot about this? If you want your head to spin, read that full New York Times article. Ah, coalition governments. Talk about thinking the grass is always greener, when we’re complaining about our two-party system.
Ha’aretz says that a poll showed Tzipi Livni, currently Israel’s foreign minister, winning in a landslide:
Two days before the Kadima party’s leadership primary, a poll conducted by a Haaretz-Dialog and Channel 10 predicts a landslide victory for Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni over her main opponent Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz.
According to the poll, in the first round, Livni is expected to win 47% of the vote and Mofaz 28%, while Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit and Public Security Minister Avi Dichter would each get 6%.
Who is Tzipi Livni? Here’s an in-depth profile of her by the New York Times Magazine from last year.
And if you’re wondering about comparisons to the GOP’s current VP candidate? This profile, also from the NYT, but two and a half years ago, might be helpful:
Tzipi Livni, 47, is the first woman to serve as Israel’s foreign minister since Golda Meir did so half a century ago. Some think she may be the first since Ms. Meir to be prime minister.
Tall, neat and unadorned, she is a most unusual Israeli politician, a lawyer respected for integrity and her willingness to confront ideology with pragmatism.
But she is also a deeply Israeli figure, the daughter of Zionist guerrillas — terrorists in some eyes — who met in the Irgun, the underground organization that fought the British and the Arabs, and that blew up the British headquarters in the King David Hotel in 1946, killing 91 people.
Her father, Eitan, was the Irgun’s head of operations, and on his gravestone is the map of greater Israel, extending over both sides of the Jordan River; her mother, Sarah, who lives in Tel Aviv, was an Irgun heroine who had a song written about her.
This description and quote resonates deeply with me, and anyone who has read this blog for a while will recognize why (Livni is also just two years older than I am):
But what makes Ms. Livni extraordinary for many here, and what made her such an ally to Mr. Sharon as he fought with Likud and finally broke with it, is her ability to honor the dream while shaping it to reality. “I also believe, like my parents, in the right of the Jewish people to the entire land of Israel,” she said. “But I was also raised on other values, the need to preserve Israel as a homeland for the Jewish people, and our democratic values. It’s not any less important that Israel be a democracy, and there must be a Jewish majority.
“So choosing between my dreams, and my need to live in democracy, I prefer to give up some of the land and to live in a sovereign, Jewish, democratic state,” she said. “But it’s important to do it wisely.”
Her commitment to a two-state solution predated her late entry into politics. She served in the army, becoming a lieutenant, and at the age of 22 began working for the Mossad, the intelligence service, where she stayed for four years. She does not discuss those duties. “It was wonderful,” she said, laughing. “But it taught me skills I cannot use.”
The Mossad, suggests Shlomo Avineri, a political scientist at Hebrew University, brought her into contact with a world that did not always conform to her ideologically driven childhood and allowed an intellectual journey much like that of the acting prime minister, Ehud Olmert, the cosmopolitan lawyer son of another Likud family.
“In the Mossad,” Mr. Avineri said, “you get a reality check, or a reality shock.” While the parental generation was ostracized by its ideology — Likud did not come to power until the late 1970′s — the children, like Ms. Livni, have become integrated. “It’s a journey from pariah to the establishment,” Mr. Avineri said. “There’s less anger and bitterness and more responsibility.”
Okay – no – I’ve never served in anything like the Mossad, but that idea of responsibility and less anger and bitterness, oh yes.
I can’t find anything that mentions how Livni might view the current GOP VP candidate, but this Jerusalem Post commentary states for the record just how different campaigning and politics are in Israel when it comes to kids and their connection to the parents’ political life.
I’ll try to remember to post results when they’re in for the Israeli election.
PS Here’s TIME magazine’s assessment, dated today:
The contrast between the two leading candidates seems to offer the voters a clear choice: Livni, 50, is an elegant but often humorless lawyer who did a brief stint in Europe as a Mossad agent. She is committed to seeking peace with the Palestinians, based on a two-state solution, and she is admired by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, among others, for her level-headedness and tenacity. A mother of three who lives in a modest Tel Aviv apartment, Livni’s image as “Mrs. Clean” resonates with Israelis tired of the sleaze associated with Olmert, the target of long police investigations into suspected fraud and bribery.
The Iranian-born Mofaz, 60, is selling himself to Kadima voters as a longtime soldier ever-vigilant against Israel’s enemies in the region. Mofaz distinguished himself through battlefield bravery as a corporal and then rose through the ranks to become army chief of staff and, later, Defense Minister. Officers who served with Mofaz praise his diligence, but say he lacks vision and flexibility.
Each candidate is likely to seek different allies in order to forge a coalition. Mofaz would be expected to try to form a coalition with parties to the right. But that would not include the Likud party of Benyamin Netanyahu, the hawkish ex-premier who wants to hasten Kadima’s demise because he thinks — and polls agree — that he would win a general election. Livni, by contrast, would tilt Kadima leftward, scooping up the far-left party Meretz and possibly an ultra-orthodox party, to gain a slim majority in the 120-seat Knesset.
Sigh, ah, yes, coalition government.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 9:21 am September 17th, 2008 in Israel, Politics, Women | Comments Off
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Sep
17
Reason #49 to VOTE FOR Obama/Biden
Filed Under 57ReasonsObamaBiden, Barack Obama, Health Care, Ohio, Politics, WH2008 | 1 Comment
Because I prefer Obama’s health care plan, by a long shot.
As I wrote yesterday, I tend to go for those politicians whose proposals are going to benefit the many, even if it’s at my expense, and especially if the alternative is that those people otherwise would be unable to get anything. And the differences between John McCain and Barack Obama‘s health care reform proposals epitomizes how that type of preference (as opposed to letting capitalism run free, with the hope that business will do the right thing to please the consumer) plays out in planning.
The Wall Street Journal actually published this article yesterday, stating a strong preference for Obama’s plan.
About Obama’s plan:
Rising health costs push total employment costs up and wages and benefits down. The result is lost profits and lost wages, in addition to pointless risk, insecurity and a flood of personal bankruptcies.
Sustained growth thus requires successful health-care reform. Barack Obama and John McCain propose to lead us in opposite directions — and the Obama direction is far superior.
Sen. Obama’s proposal will modernize our current system of employer- and government-provided health care, keeping what works well, and making the investments now that will lead to a more efficient medical system. He does this in five ways: [read article for full description of each way]
- Learning.
- Rewarding.
- Pooling.
- Preventing.
- Covering.In addition, tax credits for those still unable to afford private coverage, and the option to buy in to the federal government’s benefits system, will ensure that all individuals have access to an affordable, portable alternative at a price they can afford.
Given the current inefficiencies in our system, the impact of the Obama plan will be profound. Besides the $2,500 savings in medical costs for the typical family, according to our research annual business-sector costs will fall by about $140 billion. Our figures suggest that decreasing employer costs by this amount will result in the expansion of employer-provided health insurance to 10 million previously uninsured people.
We know these savings are attainable: other countries have them today. We spend 40% more than other countries such as Canada and Switzeraland on health care — nearly $1 trillion — but our health outcomes are no better.
About McCain’s plan:
In contrast, Sen. McCain, who constantly repeats his no-new-taxes promise on the campaign trail, proposes a big tax hike as the solution to our health-care crisis. His plan would raise taxes on workers who receive health benefits, with the idea of encouraging their employers to drop coverage. A study conducted by University of Michigan economist Tom Buchmueller and colleagues published in the journal Health Affairs suggests that the McCain tax hike will lead employers to drop coverage for over 20 million Americans.
What would happen to these people? Mr. McCain will give them a small tax credit, $5,000 for a family and $2,500 for an individual, and tell them to navigate the individual insurance market on their own.
For middle- and lower-income people, the credits are way too small. They are less than half the cost of policies today ($12,000 on average for a family), and are far below the 75% that most employers offering coverage contribute. Further, their value would erode over time, as the credit increases less rapidly than average premiums.
Unless you’re John McCain, you can google as well as I can and read and read and read, and in the end? The issue will be who you prefer to carry which and how heavy burdens. It’s really that simple.
Again – you aren’t going to get all kinds of number slicing and dicing from me, and that’s probably a good thing since, again, most Americans just aren’t going to be thinking that way. During the primaries, maybe us wonkier junkies wanted that, and we use the request of specifics as a way to learn more but also obfuscate.
The bottom line for me is: I believe everyone should have health care coverage and I do not trust business alone to do it. I want the government involved to the extent it’s necessary to ensure that all Americans are covered.
On November 4, vote for Obama/Biden.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 8:26 am September 17th, 2008 in 57ReasonsObamaBiden, Barack Obama, Health Care, Ohio, Politics, WH2008 | 1 Comment
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