With all of the recent drama involving Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Obama is once again being pressured by certain African-American leaders to address the race issue. The controversy surrounds remarks that Reid made during the 2008 election about Obama being a viable candidate due to his "light skin" and lack of a "Negro dialect". Obama, among others, has been trying to put the issue behind him seeing as how Reid has already apologized both publicly and privately.
Aside from the conflict between those who wish to start a race dialogue and those who do not, another interesting tidbit from this article actually supported part of Reid's claim (sadly enough). In 2009, researchers from various east coast universities conducted a study in which they showed people three pictures of Obama and asked which was real. One picture was lightened, one darkened, and one left untouched. People in favor of voting for Obama were more likely to choose the lightened picture while people against him were more likely to choose the darker picture.
Personally, I find race issues in America both sad and occasionally interesting. I've even read stories in which people argue that something as simple as the term "melting pot" is offensive when referring to the nation, stating that immigrants do not assimilate and lose their unique qualities. Instead, they advocate the term "salad bowl" instead, since all the components of a salad retain their qualities and are well represented.
Well Deserved Criticism Open Thread
2 hours ago
4 comments:
I know Reid's comment was incidental and regrettable but this mistake just proves that even the most rank, liberal Democrat makes the occasional "socially intolerant" racist error. By no means is this the end of the world. I am just disgusted that Hannity and the other remaining Republicans are making a HUGE stink out of this small error. He apologized and moved on, professionally. Like the Republicans were all for civil rights in the 60s.
PLEASE ... !!!
Reid's comments were definitely questionable and I would say not so much racist as ignorant.
The remarkable thing about Obama is that he has created a personal context for himself that stands as a paradox in view of the stereotypical African American context. He has done this by defining what it means to be African American on his own terms and even transcending that level to define his own humanity based on his own terms and not those designated by stereotype.
Pretty much, Obama has achieved what is the essence of America: the freedom of self-definition and expression as a human regardless of race, color, creed, religion etc.
What Reid probably saw is the fact that Obama does not line up with the African American stereotype. Regardless, His comments can in no way be considered an uncommon outrage. The world will be perfect the day everyone sees everyone else and themselves as human and feels the freedom to define themselves within that broad classification.
I also agree that this was just a slip-up, however, what really shocks me is the statistics that people will pick the "lighter-skinned" Obama. This shows the hint of many years of racism our nation has endured. I believe this connects to what I saw on CNN a couple of days back. They did a study and African American children still like playing with the lighter skinned doll. I believe our schools are doing a good job by educating us on the civil rights movement and hopefully within a few decades, there will be no race issue.
-Henry Zhang
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