Election Deciding itself without Mixed Me?

As the race that many say wont end appears to be grinding to a necessary halt.......
it looks like my tallying of Clinton and Obama pros and cons must also come to a long overdue halt.....

Lets see where was I.....?

1. I dislike the fact that Obama renounced his own minister.
2. I dislike the familiar racism of the press in dealing with this issue more
3. I think Clinton should have stuck up for Obama in this (and thus dislike her for not doing so). Call me idealistic but I expected more from the wife of our first black president (ok, just kidding. Why DO people say Bill Clinton was black? Was it just the sax? Does nobody remember the welfare reform he instituted that has resulted in twice as many black children now being in foster care? Does nobody recall how he refused to apologize for slavery? Alas, I digress.....)
4. I like the fact that Obama appears to be forming a multigenerational coalition that it is interracial and includes feminists (Is this true or just really good PR?).
5. I like the fact Clinton is a woman (with at least some proto-feminist leanings). Even though I know biology is not destiny, I would like to think the sexism she has inevitably faced simply by living in this androcentric and sexist society with a vagina her whole life must have influenced her to take women''s issues more seriously than most men would.
6. I like the fact that Obama wants to "change Washington." Somebody needs to!
7. I dislike the fact that Clinton is in so tight with lobbyists and I like the fact that Obama is advocating election reform and has passed legislation in Illinois to limit the influence of lobbyists.
8. I like the fact that Obama is committed to renewable fuel sources
9. I dislike Obama's patriotic rhetoric (sounds far too bush-like to me. UGH. Stop the war already!) but am quite fond of his support of the new GI bill and his commitment to providing better health care (esp mental health care) for veterans.
10. I like the fact that Clinton has the support of many feminist organizations but I dislike the fact that they don't identify key feminist issues that she has un-equivocally supported (and no, claiming that health is a feminist issue and therefore her universal health care plan is a FEMINIST project does not cut it)
......
.......
......
BUT in the final analysis,
I think I have to vote for the MIXED MAN, despite his unfortunate possession of a male member. In the end, I found Clinton's campaign racism of the last few days unsettling and divisive.

I wanted to vote for a an anti-racist feminist candidate but alas, neither candidate appears to have proven they are both.

Still, Clinton has made it clear she has some work to do on race and I am still not clear on her feminism. Since Obama has yet to make any explicitly sexist or racist moves I am gonna have to go with him. I'll hedge my bets.

Of course my late decision may be mute if the numbers already indicate Obama has the nomination....but I believe in slow and careful deliberation.

Can I vote for Father Michael Pfleger?

Notes from a disenchanted election observer....

Today my dad sent me a link (click the title to access link) to an amazing video interview of a white priest being interviewed about Reverend Wright. His name is Michael Pfleger.

The man is articulate, knows his facts, and has a passion we so rarely see expressed by public figures in the media. All efforts by the reporter to trip him up failed. He was unflappable: talked about racism, Martin, the right of Americans to dissent, poverty, our shameful foreign policy, and white politician privilege, all without breaking into a sweat. Here is a man with convictions able to stand up for what he believes in. Why didn't Obama respond the way this guy did?

This whole endless debate about Jeremiah Wright is God-awful (pun intended) and needs to end. This man - Micheal Pleger-does a pretty good job of putting the discussion to bed. Unfortunately he does not appear to be running for office.

Why the heck not?

Can I vote for Michelle Obama?

I have been sitting on the election fence for some time now. So long in fact that my backside is beginning to get chaffed by the sharp edges of the fence and my political allies are beginning to wonder. You can only put off people for so long. Eventually they begin to fill in the blanks with their own answers. They become suspicious. They come to unsound conclusions. They talk.

In order to save myself the effort of endless diversionary moves, I have of late been doing some serious online research on the candidates. I was a Kucinich delegate in the last election so I needed some time to mourn his no longer being a candidate. It looks like I will have to settle for a less progressive alternative.

So, publicly, I am working on a tally of pros and cons for Clinton and Obama. Privately I am fantasizing about various political coups. Can Michelle Robinson Obama be the first black AND woman president? Can she and Kucinich team up for a super ticket? She is smart, articulate, incredibly well-educated, and is a mother. What is not to love?

But back to the tally.......

1. I like Clinton''s universal healthcare plan
2. I like the fact that Obama spoke out against the Iraq war when it was not popular to do so
3. I like Clinton's plans to make higher education more accessible and to institute student loan forgiveness
4. I like the fact that Obama is mixed like me and as a result identifies with a great many people. I like what he calls, "the sum of [his] parts"
5. I dislike the fact that neither one of these candidates appears to be unapologetically feminist. Saying that you support a woman's right to choose but consider abortion "horrible" and insist it should only occur on "rare" occasions (Clinton) or saying you support a woman's right to choose but sympathize with the anti-choice people because they alone understand the "moral" implications (Obama) does not cut it.
6. I like the fact that both candidates want to leave Iraq but am unhappy with both their timelines. Exactly how many people have to die before we leave?
7. I like the fact that Obama has experience working against racial profiling and working for poor people.
8. I don't like the fact that Clinton voted for the Patriot Act
9. I disilike the fact that neither candidate supports gay marriage
10. I don't like the fact that Clinton argued in one of her speeches that if we voted for her, there would be a "wife, mother, sister and daughter in the White house." Shouldn't a woman candidate be beyond an androcentric relational female identity?
11. I find Obama''s stance on racism far too timid and Clinton's stance on racism invisible.

hmmm....

Can someone bring me a pillow for my toush? Alas, despite my best efforts, it looks like I am stuck on this fence a bit longer.....

"Indian Giving" and Other Racist Reminders

Yesterday, while pet-sitting for a friend in Sanford, Florida, I stood out in her driveway loading luggage in my car when two young white males walked by. Apparently perturbed by my brown skinned self in their lily-white cul-de-sac and further enraged by my "Support Indian Sovereignty" bumber sticker, they felt the need to remind me of my place. One boy loudly shouted to the other one, ""Hey Look, An Indian Giver."

I didn't look up. They were trying to get a rise out of me and I was not going to appease them. Or maybe I was just too shocked? Or maybe because as a person of color, I have developed such a thick skin and a slow response time to potentially dangerous stimuli that it sometimes takes a while for racist and derogatory statements to register? I don''t know. Maybe I should admit I was scared but that feels like defeat so I won''t. I was pissed.

I had been warned about this particular town and maybe I should have listened but after living all over this country, its not clear to me that racism is something I can avoid. Last year I was in my front yard in an entirely different part of Florida when a car full of white boys drove by and yelled "nigger" at me. It was the "Space Coast"- where the average citizen has post-graduate education and an income over $50,000. You don''t have to be a redneck to be a racist.

Am I a Black or an Indian? Does it matter? Racists, it seems, come in many sizes and shapes and their hate adapts.

Whether it is the little white boy in Frantz Fanon's story, saying to his mother, ""Look, a Negro", teenage redneck white boys saying "'Look, an Indian Giver," or a car full of rich white boys yelling, "Hey, Nigger" its meant as a reminder to those of us brown-skinned humans who have forgotten what our position is in society.

Just in case for a moment we have imagined we are human beings
living lives full of inspiring possibilities and beautiful promise........

The racists are always there to remind us.

Barack, Hillary, and Mixed Me

My Brown and Black family and friends want me to vote for Obama. My feminist friends, white, black, yellow, and otherwise want me to vote for Clinton. One of my Black feminist colleagues stopped to accost me the other day with the opening line, "You're voting for Obama arent you? Or am I gonna have to write you off as a friend?"

I am not answering any queries regarding my voting decisions this year because as a mixed race, multiply-positioned, radical, anti-racist feminist poet, I know better. There is no right answer. Barack could be my black daddy, Hilary could be my white mama and I still wouldnt be able to choose the best candidate for the job. Why? Because as mixed me I am always lurking in the shadows-- I am always running back and forth across the battle lines with plates of food and flowers. I like them both. But I know neither side represents me.

I have one fist raised in the air in a Black Power salute and my other hand is holding the latest draft of the ERA. I don't think I am alone but there is no guarantee I won't be taken out by those who perceive me as a singular trecherous crazy zebra lady. I think I will keep moving.

I want a candidate who will withdraw the troops yesterday. I want a candidate who will pass gay marriage legislation the day s/he gets into office. I want a candidate who is not afraid to talk about race- someone who is ready and able to begin writing anti-racist legislation designed to pick up the slack where affrimative action failed. I want a president who will make a formal and unabashed apology for slavery, and hold nationwide conferences on reparations.

I want a presdient who will pass a bill for universal healthcare. I want a president who is not afraid to call him or herself a feminist and to confront anyone who calls a woman of stature, whether it is Dr. Rice or Senator Clinton, out of her name. I want an openly pro-choice, pro-emergency pill, pro-birth control president. I want a woman or man in office who considers the rape and murder of thousands of women yearly by their boyfriends and husbands a crisis worthy of being declared a state of emergency.

I want a president who is going to destroy all the nuclear plants, nuclear weapons, and coal-burning plants in the US and begin a government-sponsored green energy, solar power retrofitting project for the nation. I want a president who is going to end poverty during my lifetime, abolish the debt of all the third world countries, and make it his or her goal to bring world peace during his/her administration.

I want a president who is going to take medicine making out of the hands of pharmaceuticals and put it in the hands of people who care about healing the planet.

I want a woman of color in the Oval Office. A gay woman of color preferably. Lets get one who grew up poor while we are at it. She should be radical, a feminist, a womanist, a woman who speaks more than one langauge- a kick-ass woman. She should be angry. She should be passionate and loving- unafraid to cry or laugh or yell in public. She should be a woman-dientified woman. Someone who can appeal to as many of the disadvantaged, oppressed, and marginalized Americans as possible. Someone who believes justice is the greatest goal.

I think my sister should run for office. I think she is the only one qualified to address all the issues that matter to me.

My woman is not running for office....yet

In the meantime, I wish both Clinton and Obama the best.
ABB

10 reasons why you should never ask a mixed person the question, "What are you?"

1. It is customary to use the pronoun "who" when talking of persons and to use the word "what" when talking about things. While it is appropriate to ask a mixed person who she is, it is not appropriate to ask her what she or he is. What we are is human.

2. If you feel compelled to ask someone what they are it is probably because you have never seen someone who looks like them before. This means you are ignorant. Asking your question will make your ignorance public. Is that what you want?

3. The compulsion to racially categorize every person you meet is one you should resist. The desire to put people in boxes is rooted in a fear of the unknown. Indulging one's fears is never good.

4. Without racial categories racism cannot persist. Do your part to be a part of the solution not a part of the problem.

5. Knowing the exact ethnic or "racial" ancestry of a person will not tell you WHO they are.

6. Most mixed people find this question very annoying. Some find it offensive. No one finds it sexy.

7. Many mixed people (like myself) are fond of giving false answers to the question just to mess with monoracials stupid enough to ask. Is being made a fool of a risk you are willing to take?

8. You are more likely to get laid if you ask better questions like: How did you get such cool hair? Do you taste as good as you look?

9. If you are only asking what racial components a person is composed of so you can then reduce him or her to one race (i.e black +any race= black, white+Mexican= Mexican) why bother asking? Go ahead and jump to your own conclusions and spare the mixed person the pain of witnessing you do your "monoracial math".

10. You might get an answer you can't handle.

All I want for Christmas Hannukah Kwanzaa, the New Year

1. More national holidays (Sri Lanka has about 30, lets catch up people!)

and in particular more holidays that are not dedicated to the celebration of war or the memory of dead white men who owned slaves (Washington) or recommended the extinction of Indigenous peoples (Lincoln) or lead a campaign of extinction (Jackson).

1b. Is it too much to ask that ONE holiday be dedicated to a woman? Just One?

1c. The national recognition of non-Christian religious holidays (Hindu, Judaic,
Islamic, Indigenous, Vodun. Santeria, Native American Church,Latin/Catholic
(think Day of the Dead)

2. To become the first poet to earn a million dollars as a result of poetry CD
revenue.

3. World Peace (overdone, I know but its elusiveness compels me....)

4. Invitations to perform my poetry in Tahiti, Ghana, Italy, Peru, London, South
Africa, Ireland, and Brazil.

5. The legalization of Gay Marriage and Gay adoption worldwide (straight people, get
over yourselves already!)

6.Reparations for the descendants of African slaves in the Americas ("white" people, get over your guilt already)

7. National Subsidy for any and all "feminine" products (tampons, pads, instead, sponges, etc.) making them all free for all women for all time.

8. National Public recognition, acknowledgement and gratitude paid to all women for
the pain and inconvenience they endure each month for their pivotal role in ensuring the survival of the species (men need to recognize!)

9. A Teddy bear for every child in the world (shout out to Joan Piper for organizing
the teddy bear drive in Volusia County! Way to Go!)

10. More rap music/hip hop dedicated to positive social change (shout out to Cornel
West! Way to go, brother!)

11. An international campaign to educate little boys and little girls (it may be too
late for us older folks) about the female body, female sexuality and in particular to educate them on the existence of the clitoris, its ability to produce pleasure in the absence of penises, or any risky sexual behaviors (numerous benefits of this campaign include bit are not limited to: empowerment of girls, reduction in STDs, and aids rates, reduction in date rapes, unwanted pregnancies, and orphans; overall increase in joy levels worldwide)

12. The overthrow of the Bush dynasty (Can I get a witness?)

13. Universal Free Health care (yes, that includes abortions)

14. Free university educations for all Americans and residents (Can a sister get a degree without starving?)


15. The organization of a federally-funded Task Force Against Misogynistic Terrorism
to end the epidemic of rape/woman beating/homicide rates in the United States


16. Free cake