Mixed Like Me

I've been thinking about this for a while. With Barack Obama possibly being the first African-American president, people can't help but wonder how race would play in the election. Not to mention, Colin Powell's recent Obama endorsement being downplayed by some as just a black thing. This made me feel the need to clarify my feelings and thoughts about this issue.

I don't think I'm the only person who thinks this but when I see Obama, but I see myself -- someone who isn't easily identified with the race of my parents. (Which is even more the case with my married name.) When filling out forms and the question of race comes up, there is usually no one box to check, aside from ''Other''. (And I hate it when people ask you to choose one. WTF? Now I've got to choose which parent I most identify with to make your survey work?)

Some people see Obama highlighting his family as ''code'' for he isn't one of ''those'' black people. I see it as an opportunity to show others we all have a diverse backgrounds and family histories that makes us what we are and that surface judgments only perpetuate stereotypes.

Am I saying I'm color blind? No. I understand that we all have biases of varying degrees based on skin-color. I see difference in the way I'm treated verses my mother, who's Chinese. (Of course, not to be ignored, culture and generational perspectives also play a big role in those differences.) So when some people bring up Rev. Wright and the infamous ''God Damn America'' thing, I'm actually not offended. I get the anger. And, as an American, I support his right to let his opinion be known but again, I see this as people allowing their prejudices to color their perspective. What most people miss about the sermon was it's title, ''Confusing God and Government'' (Yes, this goes against McCain's ''Country First''), which asks parishioners to look to God, not country for solutions to your problems.
Here's the sermon if you want to hear it in it's entirety for yourself.


On a related note, NPR has been running an interested piece, The York Project: Race & The '08 Vote. Here are a few interesting quotes so far from the series...

I don't want to sound racist, and I'm not racist. But I feel if we put Obama in the White House, there will be chaos. I feel a lot of black people are going to feel it's payback time. And I made the statement, I said, 'You know, at one time the black man had to step off the sidewalk when a white person came down the sidewalk.' And I feel it's going to be somewhat reversed. I really feel it's going to get somewhat nasty.

If Obama loses the election, there will also be African-Americans who will not accept that result as legitimate.] I guarantee it. I think even the black people who weren't that involved would have that disenfranchised feeling of, 'We got so close, and now we didn't get it, and now I'm angry about it.'

The York voters then dissected Palin's claim that she is the voice for the ''Joe Six-Packs out there''; they wondered whom, exactly, she meant.

Mohammad Khan, an immigrant from Bangladesh, owns a diner with a giant American flag painted on the building. ''Joe Six-Pack is people just like me — work every day, pay their taxes. But she is not talking for me.''

Others said that Joe Six-Pack is a white man.

It will be interesting to see the outcome of the election and what turmoil (if any) follows. Race does seem to have influence on what's being said and heard. However, it saddens me that it is so black and white. I wished more people thought of Obama as ''mixed like me.''

BTW, on a related note, I think the question, ''who is Joe Six-Pack?'' is interesting. The image that comes to my mind is some ass-hole and his buddies hootin' and hollerin' in a pick-up as an empty beer can is tossed from a window. Their tires squeal as they make a turn on to a small town main street a bit too fast. In the back window is a full gun rack and, streaming from the bed of the truck, is a gigantic American flag -- more of a symbol of dominance rather than patriotism. Who do you imagine when you hear the phrase ''Joe Six-Pack?''