Elenamary

The election I most clearly remember of my youth was that of when I was 11-12. I remember Bill Clinton’s dream team. I had a crush on both George Stephanopoulos and James Carville. And I liked the slogan I often heard “Two for the price of one” referring to Bill and Hillary. Now, as I get excited about Barack, I wonder why no one ever says that with Barack we get Michelle, two for the price of one, no?

Michelle Obama is an independent strong woman. Her education is solid with her bachelors from Princeton her JD from Harvard. She has worked in politics, in non-profits and in higher education. If Michelle has worked hard along side of Barack as she continued to raise two daughters and maintain her own career why do we not applaud her as we did Hillary Clinton? Why aren’t people screaming “Two for the price of one!”?

We applaud barrack Obama for his accomplishments. Who would have ever thought a black man had a realistic chance of becoming president? Who would have ever thought that a black man could win the Iowa caucuses? Iowa, a state with a 2% African-American population where 27% of those incarcerated in the state are African-American. He won Iowa?!

Who would’ve thought Hillary could show her self to be a strong force to be reckoned with in the ol’ boys club? Who would’ve thought she could still stand strong as a politician on her own two feet after being knocked down so many times?

Michelle has demonstrated her ability as a lawyer, as an advocate, as a community organizer, as a mother, as a black woman who went through the aristocratic hoops of an education, political, and social system that has fought so long to keep both women and minorities out. She is someone who has fought through the glass ceiling in ways that Barack never did as a man, and Hillary never did as white. If Michelle is diplomatic and strong enough to successfully weave in and out so many places why aren’t we saying, “two for the price of one” ?

Why aren’t we screaming “TWO FOR THE PRICE OF ONE!”?

I was born to a Mexican mother and a white father. I was born to an immigrant and a third generation American. I was born to a parent who only spoke Spanish and a parent who spoke English and Spanish.

When Reverend Wright’s sermon on Hilliary Clinton first hit the news I wondered what he could have possible said to offend so many people. In fact I still wonder.

Here is a brief excerpt (for the full transcript and video go here):

I am sick of negros who just do not get it. Hillary was not a black boy raised in a single parent home. Barack was. Barack knows what it means to be a black man living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich white people!

Hillary can never know that. Hillary ain’t never been called a nigger. Hillary has never had her people defined as non-persons. Hilary ain’t had to work twice as hard just to get accepted by the rich white folk who run everything or to get a passing grade when you know you are smarter than that C-student sitting in the white house.

What about this sermon is untrue? What is so offensive? I am more offended that these things can’t be said loudly. I am also offended that to Obama’s response (full transcript and video here), right-wing radio accused him of throwing his grandmother “under the bus”. Obama’s speech reminded me of three things. He reminded me of my father, my friend, and of myself.

I can no more disown him [Reverend white] than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother - a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

My father often refers to me in terms I hate. Terms, that make me wince in pain. His racism sometimes overt but more often then not covert, is always there. I know however, that my father loves me. My father is just as much a part of me as my mother. The history that made him is also my history. My friend is still my friend. She may not understand how hurtful it is when she wants to ignore racism as I have it thrown in my face, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t love me, that she isn’t loyal to me. It just means that she has experienced the other side of the coin, the side with white privilege that doesn’t have to question any of this.

Obama’s speech echoed for me perhaps in a way it did for others that are like me. Those like the India María; ni de aquí ni de allá.

This is not to say that race has not been an issue in the campaign. At various stages in the campaign, some commentators have deemed me either “too black” or “not black enough.” We saw racial tensions bubble to the surface during the week before the South Carolina primary. The press has scoured every exit poll for the latest evidence of racial polarization, not just in terms of white and black, but black and brown as well.

We are divided by being “not enough” of one and then being told we are too much of the other. We are divided by ethnic and racial lines and sometimes by religious lines too. It is not a world I want my children to grow-up in. My children will be mixed too. They have to be, because I am. I think Obama shows us our real American future and it frightens us. Our children will be mixed, they will be the children of immigrants and non-immigrants, of black, white, brown, yellow parents too. They will be the children of Christians and Muslims and Jews and Hindus. They will be monolingual, bilingual and multilingual. And our children will reject and reform the world that puts them in boxes.

A white female friend of mine emailed me and asked me about Obama and his church affiliation and how she was bothered by his church.

Quite honstly, I think that the more you mention someone’s color, the more we are driving a wedge. It bothers me when people even mention it, because it doesn’t matter. If you really want to move on from racism, my opinion is that you forget about color and just deal with the person. I guess that is what is so unusual to me about the site and the church. I don’t recall the catholic sites or jewish sites talking about the white values and the white way.

I was angry at first. How could my friend be so ignorant? So obtuse.

I told her we had the Greek Orthodox church, the Russian Orthodox Church. That I go to catholic mass in Spanish, a mass dedicated to the helping of Latinos. And my church runs the Latino Center of Hope.
I used to go to a German Lutheran Church that came into being to protect German cultures and beliefs.
And that our mutual friend wanted to attend a Polish Lutheran Church but can’t find one in Columbus.

We can’t disregard race, ethnicity, gender. While Obama won in Iowa , we should recognize that Iowa has a 2% African-American population and that 27% of the prison population in Iowa is African-American. We have to recognize that we need to support disenfranchised groups. This is why we unite as feminists in the womens movement, not because we are trying to drive a wedge but because we are trying to support each other in an unfair and imbalanced society…the same can be said for my church.

I thought I had made a good argument but she responded to my rebuttal with “I’m not saying you should disregard your roots, I’m just saying I don’t care what color you are.”

How can you not care? How can she not, as my friend, recognize that color is important in this society and that effects my life every day, even if she doesn’t care? I care what color you are because I recognize that it effects your personal experience. I care what gender you are, what country you are from, what languages you speak, because it effects your personal experience. Doesn’t she know that it is white privilege that allows her not to care about race, that allows her to not have to deal with it? How can my friend be so ignorant? I emailed another friend asking for advice on how to deal with the ignorance. And she responded, among other things, that my friend will never care until she decides to care and that it doesn’t sound like she wants to care.

I don’t really know how to convince someone that race matters. Or that I sting from within when my friend, a person I love, says she doesn’t care what color I am, and ignores a part of who I am. The best way to articulate why it is wrong to just ignore race as the problem, that I have seen yet, is from my friend who I went to for advice, and she put it in this light:

Ignoring race is like saying - you know, I don’t think we should mention money. Poor people will just be more marginalized if we mention that they don’t have money. Let’s just ignore it and focus on individual people- but not their circumstances.

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day.

While you are celebrating with your Irish-Ameircan friends, or your Mirish friends, remember to spill a little of your green beer for the undocumented Irish in the United States.

Today is a good day to remember that it is not just Mexicans or Latinos that are not legally in this country but Europeans, Asians and Africans, too. And a good day to remind people that it isn’t as simple as “getting in line” to come to the United States.

I want you to know and to spread the word that only “…147 new un-skilled workers without US citizen or legal resident family already here were allowed to enter the US last year [2006] legally and receive green cards.” -Migra Matters

And that there are undocumented Irish in this country who would like to be able to work legitimately, have drivers licenses and more importantly not live in fear. People sometimes see this as a race issue or an ethnicity issue and it isn’t.

“I was not very long there until, like water, I found my own level. ‘My people’ — the people who know about oppression, discrimination, prejudice, poverty and the frustration and despair that they produce — were not Irish Americans. They were black, Puerto Rican, Chicano. And those who were supposed to be ‘my people’, the Irish Americans who know about English misrule and the Famine and supported the civil-rights movement at home, and knew that Partition and England were the cause of the problem, looked and sounded to me like Orangemen. They said exactly the same things about blacks that the loyalists said about us at home. In New York, I was given the key to the city by the mayor, an honour not to be sneezed at. I gave it to the Black Panthers.” -Bernadette Devlin McAliskey

Next time some racist person makes the argument that the Irish were different than Mexicans, remind them that they aren’t different and send them to these links.

Voices from the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform/The Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform “The Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform (ILIR) is fighting for the voice of the estimated 50,000 undocumented Irish in the immigration debate.”

Far From Home: A chronicle of the undocumented Irish in the United States (images of undocumented Irish in the United States).

Undocumented Irish in the US (Irish politicians try to lobby for the Irish in the United States)

Irish Immigrants Visit Congress to Ask for Rights

Which one of these two makes you laugh more and which one of these two gets you the most excited to go vote for Obama?

¡Ándale mi gente! ¿Cual de los dos te hace reír más?

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I am a women.

I am a Latina.

I am a feminist.

I am working class.

I like Hilliary Clinton.

I am voting for Barack Obama in the primary.  Barack Obama is the best candidate for women, latinas, feminists and the working class.

One persuasive argument on why we should vote for Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton.

Check out this blog entry “20 minutes or so on why I am 4Barack“

One of my phrases I often repeat is “I am fornicating, gay advocate, planned parenthood working, pro-choice, Catholic”.

I really dislike it when people think that because I am Catholic, I am not liberal. Or that because I am liberal I am not Catholic.

A formerly Catholic friend of mine who now calls herself an atheist, laughed when I told her I was Catholic.  Without pause she said “You are a bad Catholic”, I grinned “No, I am the best kind of Catholic.”  I view my Catholicism the same way I view my patriotism and my commitment to the democratic party.

My government, my country, may be funding a war in Iraq, abstinence education, enlisting undocumented immigrants to fight wars, and commits war crimes, but this is still my country and I am still an American.  I do my best to make my country better, not by giving up on it but by declaring loudly I am an American.  I am an American who voices her opinion against her appointed president, against unjust laws, against misappropriated funds.

I may not agree with the democratic party but it is still my party.  I work within it not to give up on it but because I want to make it my party.  I want government officials who truely represent me.  I want my Catholic Church to be my Catholic Church.

I have not given up on my party, on my country or on my religion because I love all of them and want them to truly represent me.  I want them to represent me because I believe in the end, they can be good and helpful institutions.

I wish I could include this image here but I’ve got to respect the photographer and blogger for which it originally appeared.

Go take a look at that image and then explain to me why it is that the GOP didn’t go to the debate hosted by the NAACP, the debate hosted by Univsion, the debate hosted by historical black college Morgan State University. The GOP blew off blacks and Latinos, just completely rejected to debate in forums that would reach these communities. Where were you GOP presidential candidates?

Sure you can’t make some events but for you to miss a debate by a big organization like the NAACP or Univision? And for all of you but one to fail to show up the the NAACP debate tells me that as a group you really just don’t care. My question to you, GOP, is where are you?

To the Democratic party I ask the same thing, Where are you? Why aren’t you screaming the truth from the hills? Why aren’t you letting voters know that they should look at the actions of the GOP? To take note that not one of those white men bothered to show up to a debate that would reach black or Latino voters! The GOP isn’t the party of the minorities, and you should be reminding the nation of that.

Yes, the democratic presidential candidates debated in English on Univision a Spanish language channel.

Yes, the democratic presidential candidates who speak Spanish fluently (Bill Richardson and Chris Dodd) were banned from speaking in Spanish on the Spanish language network because it would give them an unfair advantage.

Of course Richardson and Dodd have an advantage in speaking Spanish, but that doesn’t make it unfair. Would we ban Hilliary Clinton from discussing women’s health issues because she has an unfair advantage, having a vagina and all? Would we ban Barack Obama from discussing what it is like to be a studly black man because he would have an unfair advantage with that sexy body of his? Would we ban Dennis Kucinich from discussing short men from Ohio with crazy hair who have wives ten times hotter than themselves?

I like that I have the option of a candidate who speaks Spanish. I like that I have the option of a candidate from Ohio, I like that I have the option of a womyn candidate, I like that I have the option of an African-American candidate. I like options. Let the candidates play with their full deck and let me the voter decide who I like, do not restrict the candidates by language. Language is an attribute. Language skills are needed in international diplomacy.

I enjoyed reading about Condoleeza Rice and how while on a trip to Russia she corrected her Russian interpreter. Condoleza Rice studied Russian but wanted an interpreter just in case she needed them. Language is a skill and I admire it.

One of the admirable qualities of Pope John Paul II was his ability to communicate to the masses in many languages. It has been argued that he spoke 10 languages. Pope John Paul II made attempts to speak to the masses in their own language.

And don’t we often hear the quote from John F. Kennedy “Ich bin ein Berliner”?

The importance of language in politics is much like the important advice given to all travelers; the two most important things you can do when traveling is to know how to say “Thank you” and “Please”. With those two phrases you can win over just about anyone and they will be thoroughly impressed.

I didn’t need Hillary, Barack, Dennis, or John, to do their whole speech in Spanish. All I needed was for them to make an attempt at the end of their speech, to say in Spanish “Thank you for this opportunity”.

Sure, some of us may have giggled (I know I giggled in 2000 when I heard Al Gore attempt to speak in Spanish) but we giggle and greatly appreciate the effort. In fact your attempt to say one phrase in Spanish might end up carrying more weight then that of Bill Richardson spending the whole debate speaking in Spanish. Because what I want to know as an informed voter is can you pull off diplomacy?