derivative work

Okay, still on hiatus, but this NYT Magazine article on Democratic presidential contenders Clinton & Obama annoyed me:

In other words, if you condescend to Southerners or simply don’t show up, then it’s all but impossible to erase the legacy of mistrust left over from the era of desegregation.

“Legacy of mistrust left over from the era of desegregation”? Please. I am so fucking sorry for the white southerners who feel so “betrayed” by whoever forced desegregation down “their” throats.

Earlier in the article the author, Matt Bai, described the South as a “less-welcoming political culture” for Obama and Clinton.First of all, let me just say that what we’re pussyfooting around here is racism and sexism. Can we just say the words?

Also, what fucking mistrust? White racist southerners may be pissed that segregation ended and that civil rights were enforced, but there was no “trust” that was “betrayed” — that implies some kind of innocence betrayed by a wrongdoer. Instead of innocence, we’re talking about ending the equivalent of apartheid in the US — state-mandated political, economic, and civic racial segregation, backed up by lynchings and mob violence.

Second, allow me to just fucking point out that “The South” includes people other than racist, sexist white people. The majority may be racist, sexist, white people, but it’s grotesque to write an article about racism and sexism in the South, never even straightforwardly label the phenomena, and worse yet, fail to acknowledge that there are people of color in the South. Not just Black people, but Brown people too. And while I fled, I’m pretty sure that there are at least one or two feminist atheist antiracist queers who are white down there.

Can we talk about the “mistrust” now, please?

Okay. My special anti-racism-in-the-media rant over. Happy MLK Day. Back to hiatus.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 21st, 2008 at 9:40 am and is tagged racism commentary, election 2008, racism, the South. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. 926 views.