You can see from the trailer that the point of all this is to suggest that Obama has a dream from his anti-colonialist Kenyan father (complete with a scene of an African American family coming to blows over a game of Monopoly) whereas the rest of "America has a dream from OUR founding fathers."
And if that isn't enough "othering" for you, take a look at D'Souza's speech at CPAC this year introducing the film. He not only leads off by saying that "Obama is clearly the most unknown guy to enter the Oval Office in American history," and "three years later he remains a mystery," he trots out every
This, my friends, is what's coming. Its the stealth campaign the Republicans will be sponsoring while Mitt Romney tries to walk the fine line of distancing himself from it...but not too much (he is, after all, banking on fundraisers with birther extraordinaire Donald Trump).
We can sum up the message in just 8 words: THERE'S A BLACK GUY IN THE WHITE HOUSE! These fools have never gotten over that. No matter what the President does or says, it all comes back to that one.
What we need to do is see this for what it is and call it out. Beyond this, (as Blackman so often says in the comments) "they got nothin'."
I was politically very desperate in 2003, as were a lot of people on the left. Bush riding high, etc., and everyone it seemed gobbling it up. I would tell myself, sometimes, "this is a clarifying process. It's showing what we are actually working with in our system." I tell myself the same thing with the racist response to the President. I don't know if it's for the better or worse, but it definitely IS. This is showing clearly that the Civil Rights Act did not end this nonsense, no matter how many "well-meaning" white people wish it to be so. We know what we're working with, I guess.
ReplyDeleteI am curious how it will function, though. A lot of white people are very comfortable with Reagan's "welfare queen" rhetoric because it masked itself in an argument about the effectiveness of policy as well as classism, an acceptable moral position for the well-off (if only in imagination) white.
DeleteThis is much more pure: Obama is simply "different" or "unknown." It will obviously play with many millions of people, but there's a huge swath of white people who become very uncomfortable, or more, when the racism becomes more unsubtle. They don't like white hoods, for example. This is coming very close to white hoods, and while it will motivate in the immediate for some voters it will have its corollary effects as well.
In terms of actual votes, it's more the actual electoral skewing effort that the GOP is intensifying that concerns me.
As AA, it easy for me 2 see the collary between the executions of MLK and Malcolm X and their attempt to whip white frenzy sufficiently for some group to step forward and do an attack! I am no precluding the Secret Service.
ReplyDeleteThe President has never been safe! His life is dependent on enough white, asian, native american and AA to maintain calm and not let them get away with anything. This time it cannot be AA burning their neighborhoods but the nation shutting down-totally! They dont get to move on as if nothing happened!
I pray it doesnt happen every single day, every moment it crosses my mind! But we cannot under-estimate the level of hatred this kind of madness can ignite.
Smilingl8dy
That's what concerns me too, Smiling lady.
ReplyDeleteThe level of hatred is just as high as it was during the civil rights movement. We may not see the contorted faces and the clenched fists, but we see something worse: guns at political rallies.
Never before has this been done, at least to my knowledge. These people are telling me something: if President Obama wins they are going to go crazier than they are already.
I don't look forward to that, but this country needs PBO right now, So,if folks want to go crazy, well, bring it on. Just don't even think of hurting the president and his family.
Throughout histroy certain castes were forbidden to being amongst the rulers, Barack Obama comes from what conservatives believe to be the wrong bloodline. It's as easy to understand as that he doesn't have the proper sangreal for leadership...
ReplyDeletePeople tried to tell D'Souza on Bill Maher's old Politically Incorrect show that he can't walk down the street in a neighborhood like Brentwood in the dark and possibly not be mistaken for an AA by a cop. He hasn't learned that his Indian dark skin is immune from racist just because he's Indian. He's been ahole for years and nothing he does would surprise me.
ReplyDeleteMo'nin', Ms. Pants
ReplyDeleteBack in the mid-West tomorrow. Atlanta has REALLY been a lot of fun.
Rather like Anonymous above me, what D'Souza and Malkin bring just makes one scratch one's head. As if D'Souza doesn't understand what Colonialism did to India. As I've said before, it's nothing new, though. And, most recently, Herman Cain was doing this foolishment as well. Self hatred, clearly, is VERY powerful and has these folks attempting to be accepted by people who, in truth, will NEVER accept them. Minstrelsy '12. And, there shall be more.
But, when YA GOT NOTHIN'.......
The trailer looks like the movie version of Glenn Beck's blackboards.
ReplyDelete