Here's Barack Obama's speech on race, in case you haven't seen it. I included the whole thing (it's 40 minutes long), in case you wanted to watch it. You can also see the whole transcript here.
No matter what your political leaning, I think it’s great that Barack Obama is addressing the issue of race. I mean, even though we're here in 2008 and supposed to be enlightened and all, it’s
obviously still a problem-we all have this sort of vintage racism in our families. Case in point: my grandma (who I seem to be discussing a lot this week) is 97 and was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, so you know she’s got some old-school racism going, and she doesn’t even think it’s wrong.
Here’s an example: a
couple of years ago, we were sitting in her living room watching tv (turned up
loud), and she turned to me, totally seriously, and said “Lori—Halle Berry is so beautiful. Why does she tell
people she’s black?”
I'll give you a second to soak that in. Mmmmm-hmmmm! That's good stuff!
So, obviously this is a hearkening back to the day when if you could pass, you would. I started to try to explain to her that Halle Berry is an Academy Award winning millionaire beautiful model woman, and that there is no reason on earth for her to lie about being black, and that, in fact, she's proud of her heritage and it's great that we live in a day and age where she doesn't have to hide her background just to be successful. I said this, of course, and she just stared at me and shook her head. She's racist in the past, you see, and since I can't go back in time and convince her that what's right to us now should have been right all along, I just have to listen to her questionable comments, some of which don't even make sense anymore because they're so antiquated. Not convinced? How about this one-- when my nana has to wait for more than ten minutes for her food in a restaurant, she will look at me and say: "This place is as SLOW AS INJUNS!" Um, what does that even mean? You seriously might have to be carrying a musket and wearing a coonskin cap for that to still be a relevant comment on the state of things.
Anyway,I think that's one of Obama's best points-- that America is changing, and that it's better to just acknowledge the racism inherent in our society, and do something about it.
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Also, in case you didn't hear, Arthur C. Clarke died-- he was a sci-fi writer and was the original author of 2001: A Space Odyssey and was 90, so that's sad but not unbelievable. But...did you know that he died of complications from POLIO? Is that even possible anymore? When I told Stephan this, he said "Wow,they should freeze his body and bring him back in the future, once polio has been eradicated-- oh wait, that's now." Ba da boom!
