Sun Blogs: In Residence
Nooses, Obama, and Us
October 28, 2007 - 11:00pm
Any American can rattle off a list of our nation’s enduring symbols. It might begin with the flag, the Statue of Liberty, or apple pie, and wrap around any number of entities, images, and landmarks. We trumpet some of these symbols; others we cannot escape. The noose now stands atop that latter list.
The case of the Jena Six nudged its way into the national consciousness more than a month ago – and since then, nooses have appeared eight times in the New York City metropolitan area alone. An African-American professor at Columbia University found the piece of rope dangling from her office door. A recently promoted deputy police chief in Hempstead encountered a similar affront, as did a worker for Nassau County’s Public Works Department. The meaning of the noose has changed little over the last century. In our day, as in the Jim Crow South, perpetrators use the noose to terrorize people, to warn African-Americans of the punishment awaiting those who ascend out of their “place.” In the era of segregation, that “place” was one of perpetual poverty, deference, and powerlessness. In our America, battles bubble up around this question at least once a year. They expose a society still shot through with racial inequality and tension.
Our own community has proved itself far from immune to such forces. The unnerving events at Ithaca High School – where students have recently been threatened and beaten, where hundreds have demonstrated against a school system ill-equipped to confront episodes of racial discrimination, and where some groups of white students have proudly dubbed themselves “rednecks” – seep into, even as they reflect, our university upon a hill and our town at large.
As the supposedly enlightened sections of the nation deal with these horrifying reminders of America’s racial torment, a black man runs for the presidency.
***
Over the past summer, I made a sarcastic comment about my father’s support of John Edwards – and asked whether he wished to thus ensure the persistence of white-male patriarchy. I scared him away from Edwards quickly enough, but realized later that I was wrong to do so. As I followed the Democratic campaign more closely, Edwards became much more appealing – the only candidate willing to say that poverty continues to define and divide America, and the candidate with the most serious anti-war stance.
Moreover, I agreed with my colleagues who pointed out that many liberals wanted to vote for Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama just to salve their own consciences, to feel good about themselves by electing an African-American or a woman – without any reference to their policy stances. Obama and Clinton often fall over themselves in their attempts to straddle lines, and they talk endlessly without actually saying much at all. But after some weeks of soul-searching – and absorbing the effects of the ongoing events around me – I am more than willing to give them both the benefit of the doubt.
Even if Clinton seems to lack dynamism and charisma, and even if she is up to her ears in corporate money and the politics of centrism, she strikes me as someone who would make a very good president. For instance, I am confident that she would seek a thoughtful exit from Iraq and that she would champion bills on expanded health care coverage. I believe she possesses a generally liberal outlook, and that she has exceptional political skills and knows how to employ them. I have never read her books, and have never gleaned all that much of substance from her speeches. I can only make an educated guess that she might move America, ever so slowly, closer to the type of country I would like it to be.
When I read Barack Obama’s memoir, Dreams from My Father, I was startled by its candor. It did not feel to me like something a politician would write, and it approached the issue of race in America with an impressive level of sophistication. While The Audacity of Hope was not quite as audacious, it contained more than a few imaginative policy prescriptions. Obama’s writing style again engaged me, and the content of the book rose well above the level of homily – a rare feat for any 21st century politician. All this is to say that I think Obama deserves much of the excitement he has generated. His politics are quite insufficient for those Democrats who think primarily in terms of welfare-state liberalism. And as someone who often does judge politicians by such standards, I find some of Obama’s utterances to be disappointingly middle-of-the-road. Still, I am drawn in by the hype and by the man. His words speak to me.
Perhaps I am one of those white Democrats who desire mainly to salve my own conscience. I sure hope not. If it were Alan Keyes running instead of Barack Obama, I would be less enchanted by the prospect of an African-American president. And if it were Condoleeza Rice in place of Hillary Clinton, no amount of barrier-breaking logic could win my vote.
***
I am persuaded that symbols still mean an awful lot in America. Many girls might grow up with the dream of becoming president, but those dreams remain disconnected from American history and 21st century reality. I am not sure I would congratulate myself if I helped elect the first woman next year; I merely think that our nation stands to gain from it. Hillary’s inauguration would carry undeniable significance – of which its symbolism would constitute no small part.
Obama, in both of his books, spills a lot of ink on dreams, hopes, and visions. While some of this rings hollow, Obama can place his finger on profundity. The Audacity of Hope contains a specific insight about the psychological effects of our racial past – about how the degradation and debasement, the whips and the nooses, functioned in the African-American mind. “In black America,” he writes, the notion “that one isn’t confined in one’s dreams…. represents a radical break from the past, a severing of the psychological shackles of slavery and Jim Crow. It is perhaps the most important legacy of the civil rights movement.”
The noose-hangers want to re-attach the psychological shackles. They cannot undo the legal equality that the civil rights movement won for black Americans, though they certainly aim to resurrect the fear, and the idea of “place,” that once reigned throughout the land. Their endeavor will fail. African-Americans (and many whites) may shudder when they see nooses strung up to the office door, but I doubt that the Columbia professor or the Long Island police officer will scale back their career aspirations in any way. In this sense, the nooses remain divorced from the America that they now inhabit. And yet, we are never very far removed from our history – or from the symbols of that past. What can shatter the notion of a racial or sexual “place” more than the fact of a president with dark skin, or the idea of a First Man? In a country where nooses still hang, an Obama victory could prove deeply meaningful both in symbol and substance.
Jason Sokol is a professor in the History department and is one of the Sun's faculty bloggers. He can be reached at blogs@cornellsun.com.
Jason Sokol's Blog
Evolution: The person for whom I would now work hardest would be, without doubt, Al Gore --
Fred Sokol - Oct. 29, 2007
Nifong Democrats Its
Nifong Democrats
Its astonishing that even after Al Sharpton was exposed in race bait scams like the Tawana Brawley scam and the Nifong scam the dems/media still ply their race bait tactics with Sharpton like they are doing again with the “Jena Six.”. Its been all over the newspapers, CNN, AP, Headline News, about the alleged “race problem in Jena, La.” Career race baiter Al Sharpton, the democrat controlled media, and some other professional race baiters like Jesse Jackson protested in Jena along with thousands of agitators they bussed into Jena. When a Sharpton mob shows up with the media, they are there to inflame hate and bait blacks into voting democrat. The democrat controlled media glamorizes race baiter Sharpton so dems can use Sharpton later to bring in black votes for white democrats in key elections. The upcoming presidential election has got dems into nifong race baiting mode to maximize black votes. The dem controlled news media will report racism epidemics on cue for the 2008 election to get the black vote.
To be consistent, protesters for the 6 black boys who beat up the white boy in Jena, must also protest to help OJ Simpson. Expect the media to lighten up on OJ, at least until after the upcoming presidential race. Its bizarre how much hatred the media has generated about the “Jena Six.” What actually happened in Jena has no resemblance to the media spin on it. Researching what actually happened at Jena shows the media simply created more race bait like the nifong media created with the Duke lacrosse players. As the presidential election gets closer, the democrat controlled media inflames hate and race baits more and more, in order to get democrats elected, like how democrat Nifong got elected.
Next time the dems are looking for a new poster boy to represent the ideals of democrats, the obvious choice is democrat Mike Nifong who embodies democrat politics. Nifong is as well suited as Hillary to run for president as the dem nominee. Nifong’s plan for getting black votes by using the Duke players as race bait exemplifies a standard demonrat election strategy to get black votes for white democrats. Nifong is a typical Democrat who used race bait to get elected by using blacks and whites at the Democrat Plantation. Wish we could all escape the Democrat Plantation but you must want to escape to get free.
The Duke lacrosse scandal began with demonrat race baiter Al Sharpton using a platform provided by the media to condemn the white lacrosse players for raping a black woman. The combination of Sharpton and the media with democrat politician Nifong exuded the sickening smell of race bait; think Tawana Brawley. Nifong and Sharpton are the essence of the Democrat party. Hillary is a nifong, Al Sharpton is a nifong, Ted Kennedy is a nifong; spread it around. The democrat party is the Nifong Party - Race Bait Party. The word democrat is interchangeable with nifong. And of course the media is controlled by nifong democrats. The nifong media is doing all they can to silence the Duke scam because it exposes the nifong party for what it is. But lets keep the light shining on this demonrat darkness. If the publicans let the dems get away with this they deserve to continue suffering the race baiting tactics of the dems.
The media such as CBS, CNN, ABC, NBC, AP are all trying to tell us we are tired of hearing about Nifong, that Nifong has suffered enough; any lame excuse they can imagine to hush up or distort the Nifong story. The democrat controlled media wants to silence the Nifong news because it exposes what the nifong party is. Nifong embodies democrat tactics, but if it wasn’t for evil Al Sharpton with the democrat media circus, Nifong may never have gotten up courage enough to attempt the Duke scam. With the media, Sharpton, and the dems backing him, Nifong was emboldened. Now that Nifong got caught, the media wants it hushed up. The dems/nifongs want to talk about something else, anything to take public attention away from Nifong. Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, and such non-news is used to focus attention away from the real news of how the demonrat party is the race bait party/nifong party; regardless of how trivial the non-news gets.
It speaks volumes how the media is so eerily silent on the Juneteenth news; blacks dragging non blacks out of their cars and killing and/or beating them to celebrate Juneteenth in Minnesota, Texas, New York and who knows where else. The dem controlled media wants to hush it up because it doesn't promote the demonrat hate and race bait politics and stereotypes of discrimination by whites against blacks. Imagine the uproar in the media, on the news, the 24/7 coverage, if gangs of whites pulled black people out of their cars and beat them to death. Imagine even more media coverage than that if the Duke scam had been black men and a white girl falsely accusing the black men. The nifong media covers up and hushes up even the biggest news when it doesn’t fit the nifong political needs. Anytime we see the sick old media/democrat pattern of ranting about white racists we realize its just more nifong lies.
If average non-democrat white people commit a fraction of the race bait scams against black people like Sharpton, the media, and Tawana Brawley committed against whites, or like Sharpton and the media played Crystal Mangum against the Duke players, those white people suffer greatly. Among other things, they are charged with hate crimes, false police reports, civil rights violations, and conspiracy to commit fraud. They are tormented by the media also. Yet career race baiter Sharpton along with his media accomplices have been getting away with it since at least as far back as the sleazy Tawana Brawley scam of the 1980s. For the media, dems, Sharpton, nifongs to be this desperate to find white racists just shows how hard it is for them to find whites actually guilty of real racial crimes. Since they couldn’t find any real white racists they tried to create some as in the cases of Tawana Brawley, Crystal Meth Mangum, and Nifong.
If the publicans allow themselves to continue being victimized and painted as racists by such despicable creeps as Nifong, Sharpton, and their democrat media friends, then the pubs are missing some great opportunities to expose race baiting dems and media creeps like those behind the Duke scam. It might help slightly if the slandered lacrosse players sued Sharpton and his media accomplices, but only prominent pubs in high office have any real power to stop the hate and race bait schemes of the nifong democrats.
This Lawyer Nifong who persecuted the Duke lacrosse players makes us wonder how many people who didn’t have high priced lawyers defending them have ended up in prison though innocent of the charges. The population was largely black, it looked like it would be a close election, so Nifong used the white Duke players as race bait to lure black voters into voting for him and got elected at the expense of the innocent white men. The reason Nifong charged the white men was to gain black votes in the election that was coming. Interesting how desperately the media tries to avoid reporting it. This was a tragic rush to race bait instead of a tragic rush to accuse or a rush to judgment. Look news media, lets see at least half the 5 years of non-stop coverage we get if its black men being falsely accused instead of white men.
The Duke lacrosse scam is just one more example of fake racism from the dems and media. The dems and media desperately continue to fan the flames of hate and racism in order to get the black vote just as Nifong did. The dems and media have been race baiting like this since the days of John Kennedy in the 1960s. The dems show no sign of stopping their hate and race bait tactics of pitting blacks against whites as democrat Nifong did in order to gain the black vote. Racism shams and phony news reports of racism is a classic strategy for white democrats to get black votes, so expect more such news as the upcoming presidential race heats up.
Instead of following the proven method of victimizing poor white men who couldn’t afford big money lawyers to defend themselves, Nifong made the mistake of attacking wealthy white men who had access to some of the best legal services. In this case the big money lawyers eventually got the race bait charges dropped. Nifong may or may not get away with his race bait democrat tactics. For every guilty creep who goes to prison there are about fifty to 100 who go free by one rule of thumb. How many other innocent people were fired or imprisoned or their lives were ruined by corrupt democrats plying their evil race bait politics like democrat Nifong did?