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Edited on Tue Mar-11-08 12:53 PM by mythyc
I was originally going to post this as a reply in my other thread today, but thought it would be worth its own discussion. The point which was made that there was nothing wrong with what Ferraro said, that this is, sigh, 'oh you naughty sensationalizers,' just another instance of the race card. That there was nothing racist in her comments. On that, see my discussion below on the fine line (in this context, nearly non-)difference between 'rascist' and 'racialist' below. In the meantime, whatever moral disgrace I see in her comments, I think the social ineptness of them and disregard for the actual history of oppression every African American male carries in his mere appearance and the media-saturated presupposed identity that gets imposed on that is what really needs to be made clear. There is absolutely nothing "fortuitous" about this aspect of the struggle, and for Ferraro to demean it, whether unintentionally or not, is more than an insult, it's a serious case of societal, historical, and racial denial, delivered with poignancy at the expense of diminishing an authentic achievement that represents far more than the distinction of the man himself. This is more than insensitivity, this is political casuistry (if you don't know that word it's essential to look it up) of the worst kind, casuistry that dissembles itself as a sincere political commentary. period point blank immoral and wrong.
If you haven't read Brent Staples he is an amazing writer and social commentator. This is from his famous essay "Just Walk on By: A Black Man Ponders his Ability to Alter Public Space"; I teach it in my English classes and it's one of my students' favorites:
"I often witness that 'hunch posture,' from women after dark on the warrenlike streets of Brooklyn where I live. They seem to set their faces on neutral and, with their purse straps strung across their chests bandolier style, they forge ahead as though bracing themselves against being tackled. I understand, of course, that the danger they perceive is not a hallucination. Women are particularly vlunerable to street violence, and young black males are drastically overrepresented among the perpetrators of that violence. Yet these truths are not solace against the kind of alienation that comes of being ever the suspect, against being set apart, a fearsome entity with whom pedestrians avoid making eye contact...."
Staples' genius lies in his singular power to allegorize the universal experience within the quintessential instant. He's not just talking about walking down the street, but the entire stigma that exclusively follows the young African American male everywhere he goes regardless of the content of his character. Ferraro want to argue there's something opportune in that???? That Obama and the entire establishment are capitalizing? on what exactly? If it's the image it's ridiculous; if she means to argue that it's on guilt then luck is a sick way of characterizing it in my opinion.
But yeah, he's lucky. Even is Ferraro is not being racist in intent, she is being highly, disturbingly racialist in delivery and message, in a way that distorts the actuality of the situation and insults an entire negative history that this particular demographic has experienced. that's my opinion of it at least...
edit: type-o
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