Fantastic post—illuminating, well-written, and rooted in an honest examination of personal experience. Looking forward to more posts from you, WaldenGirl.

Posted at April 2, 2008 7:28 AM in response to Talking 'bout my Generation, not my Gender

I think this a great post and am grateful that TPM is sponsoring this conversation.

I especially love the James Baldwin quote about belief in one’s own innocence. A false sense of innocence around race has really held back the conversation.

I think that false innocence has helped sustain the myth of the white backlash: “White voters, liberal politicians, and an ebullient media cheered along the Civil Rights Movement as it confronted a few backward white southerners. Then came black power movement with it’s in-your-face rhetoric and whites turned against the movement.” But the opposition to the civil rights movement was wide and deep all along. What look like laughably temperate positions today were greeted with scorn and finger wagging—‘You’re moving too fast!’—back then. The white backlash began long before 1968. (For anyone interested in getting a sense of the broader white response to the MLK and the Civil Rights Movment, I recommend Taylor Branch’s Parting the Waters and Harvard Sitkoff’s recent King: Pilgrimage to the Mountaintop.)

As for Senator Obama, I have qualms about aspects of his voting record and various positions (as I do about Senator Clinton). Nevertheless, his speech on race was substantive enough to persuade me that voting for him represents a great opportunity.

Posted at April 1, 2008 10:37 AM in response to Losing Our Innocence

Did anyone else notice that Sinbad anagrams to . . . Sinbad?

And that Fake Sinbad anagrams to Fake Sinbad???

Coincidence???

Posted at March 27, 2008 12:20 PM in response to In Defense Of Fake Sinbad

Stories like this point out the value of a things like TPM Muckraker. Does anyone doubt this is one more tip of a mammoth iceberg otherwise submerged below the surface?

Posted at March 27, 2008 11:46 AM in response to Today's Must Read

Chris,

Thank you for your post and for the courage in this comment, recognizing the racism within. I feel the same way about myself. In the deepest sense of the word, I think we’re all racists, whether or not we engage in obviously bigoted behavior. I think of myself as a recovering racist (as well as a recovering misogynist, homophobe, etc.). It’s nothing to beat oneself up about, but rather, as you suggest, something to motivate us all to do better. Very well said.

With that framework in mind, even a great blog like TPM has room to grow, as you and others here have suggested. I hope Josh reads your post and takes it to heart in the supportive yet challenging spirit with which you offered it.

Posted at March 19, 2008 10:05 AM in response to TPM Staff Racial Diversity

DF,

Another great post.

While I don’t know the full litany of Wright’s statements, and certainly disagree with some of them (his loopy theory about AIDS, for instance) I’m always struck by how White American umbrage at Black American anger contains so many unacknowledged ironies.

Furthermore, it would be interesting to go back through the various debates and tally up the number of questions that specifically address the challenges facing African Americans and what a President Obama or Clinton could do to remedy some of the problems. How many questions have been raised about the plight of the poor in inner cities? Historically, anger has been the only way to get these issues on the table, and I think that is true of this nomination contest. If so, then all of us are in some way culpable for Wright’s tone, even as we disagree with the content of select statements.

Everyone needs to cop to racism, misogyny, and our manifold forms of hatred and discrimination. The question is not “Am I a racist?” The question is “What am I doing about it?”

Posted at March 15, 2008 4:44 PM in response to Truth Time: Wright is Right

Exactly. "Are you now, or have you ever been, a muslim?"

Disgusting.

Posted at March 3, 2008 9:34 AM in response to Equivocating on Islam

The fact that James Jamerson was never even nominated, let alone elected reveals the system for the sham it is.

Having said that, I must say that, as a drummer, I find that your analysis leaves out key elements, especially questions surrounding equipment transportation, load-in, set-up, and break-down.

Don’t get me wrong: Bass players and drummers need to unite, but we must address fundamental areas of conflict before taking on the guitarists, who have more backing than many of us would like to admit.

Posted at March 1, 2008 10:24 AM in response to The Next Wave of Identity Politics

Great post, Zaftig Redhead.

Whether or not the eventual nominee breaks down barriers to become the first African American or first woman president and thereby changes one or another set of cultural assumptions, we should not delude ourselves about the depth of the problems of misogyny or racism. Part of the ongoing fights will be to better understand the rifts within both movements that have worsened as a result of this closely contested campaign for the nomination, as well as the related rift between the two movements.

Posted at March 1, 2008 8:52 AM in response to Divisive Primary Holds Potential Fallout for Women's Rights Community

Exactly

Posted at February 28, 2008 6:56 PM in response to In Defense of Louis Farrakhan