Yeah, he's black...and he'll make a damn good president too.

This morning I woke up to the voice of Geraldine Ferraro on NPR furiously denying that she is a racist. Ms. Ferraro "resigned" from the Hillary camp after making an off-hand comment about how Obama would not be where he is in the presidential race if he were not black. I don't think it's a racist comment. Actually, I agree with her, though perhaps not for the same reasons. Through her statement, she implies that it would somehow be more difficult for Barak to compete with Hillary if he were white. Well then the same argument could be true of Hillary. Would she still be in this race if it weren't for her gender? These are stupid, immeasurable questions. And I am particularly irritated by the implication that being black is now some kind of advantage in a presidential race. Not in this country! Quick, name the last black president we had...and if you say Bill Clinton, I will have to hurt you.

Here is my Public Service Announcement for today. I would like to remind all the white people who have somehow forgotten, that WHITE, is the color of the ultimate "race card". It is WHITE privilege (albeit combined with nepotism and a lot of money) that allowed for the Chief in Thief, an inarticulate, C average student, mediocre to the core, to ascend to the rank of President of the United States. Let's review, if you're black, scratch that, if you are NOT white and you grow up in America and want to get a job not at McDonald's, a C average will not get you anywhere. A C average doesn't get you into Yale, but the right (white) family name and some duckets does the trick.

In 1998 Peggy McIntosh published an article called White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack. She wrote: "I decided to try to work on myself at least by identifying some of the daily effects of white privilege in my life. I have chosen those conditions that I think in my case attach somewhat more to skin-color privilege than to class, religion, ethnic status, or geographic location, though of course all these other factors are intricately intertwined. As far as I can tell, my African American coworkers, friends, and acquaintances with whom I come into daily or frequent contact in this particular time, place and time of work cannot count on most of these conditions."

"1. I can if I wish arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.
2. I can avoid spending time with people whom I was trained to mistrust and who have learned to mistrust my kind or me.
3. If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area which I can afford and in which I would want to live.
4. I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasant to me.
5. I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed or harassed.
6. I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.
7. When I am told about our national heritage or about "civilization," I am shown that people of my color made it what it is.
8. I can be sure that my children will be given curricular materials that testify to the existence of their race.
9. If I want to, I can be pretty sure of finding a publisher for this piece on white privilege.
10. I can be pretty sure of having my voice heard in a group in which I am the only member of my race."

McIntosh goes on to list 40 more benefits to being white (which you can check out at http://seamonkey.ed.asu.edu/~mcisaac/emc598ge/Unpacking.html ), but really these are just the tip of the iceberg. Think of all the time Barak has wasted fighting racism in his life and all the doors closed to him on the basis of his blackness. Ferraro raises an interesting question though...where would Barak be if he were white? With all the added privilege and opportunity theoretically he could have been much more successful. Perhaps he would already be the president.

Another assumption I would like to dispel, while I'm up on my soapbox, is the idea that all black people are voting for Obama soley on the basis of his race. There is no such thing as a monolithic black people. We are not the Borg. We do not share one collective identity. Blackness is just as vast, diverse, and all encompassing as whiteness. Often I feel like we are pigeon holed into these incredibly simplified check boxes...if you are black you must _____________, if you are black you believe_________, if you are black you will act_________. No one ever makes these asinine fill in the blank statements for white people. It is not assumed that because you are white you must vote for a white candidate on the sheer basis of their race, or that you hold identical beliefs to all other white people. This is yet another white privilege...the privilege of personhood, the privilege of being able to have an opinion and then not immediately have it accredited to everyone in your race. "Well R think this, so that means all black people must think this." It's illogical, insulting, and stupid to insinuate that an entire population of people would be so uncomplicated, so simple, that we would just pick a president on the basis of one factor. Al Sharpton is black too, but I would never vote for him.

I digress. Back to Barak. I think I have already sufficiently extolled Obama's virtues in previous blogs so I'll just say that in addition to all the fabulousness he brings to the table (experience as a community organizer, experience abroad-beyond Mexico and Canada, a Harvard Degree, time in the Senate, and etc), his being black brings with it an understanding that no other president has ever had... the experiential knowledge of what it is like to be a person of color in the United States. I don't care who said it, Bill Clinton was not the first black anything....let's be clear. He is a white man, who grew up in a white country, with ALL of the benefits of white privilege. Hillary too has reaped every benefit of white privilege and exploited feminist ideals for everything she could, yet no one blames her success only on her race or gender....so why Ferraro would feel comfortable making similar statements about Obama is beyond me.

What I would like, is for Geraldine Ferraro, and a whole bunch of other white people, to stop staring at skin color and take in the whole person in the entirety in which anyone should hope to be known.....not just gender, race, and class, but ability, personality, values, education, and etc. I look at who Barak Obama is in addition to his blackness, or perhaps the person he has evolved into as result of having to work against the same systemic oppression that I do battle with everyday, and I think, this is a person I would actually want leading and representing my country. This is the person I want as my president. This is the first time since I've been old enough to vote that I can even think that with conviction.

Would I be AS compelled to vote for Obama if I didn't feel like he could empathize with at least a portion of the experiences I have had in my life? No. And that would make him like every other candidate in the field right now. Thankfully he is unique and also black...