I had a conversation this week with a friend I respect. This friend is not a political junkie like I am, so my friend asked me who I supported for president. I said that I am fully supporting Obama. This intelligent, educated person looked me right in the eyes and said, "you would vote for a Muslim?"
My brain went into overload processing the question and myriad of responses that I might give. All I was able to say was, "Where did you get the idea that Obama is a Muslim?"
"I got an email that said he was."
We are still racist. Bigoted, frightened, ignorant racists.
After Obama became the presumptive democratic nominee last week he was approaching the podium for a victory speech when he was stopped for a moment by his wife, who held out her fist in a playful way for a fist-bump. It was a sweet, fun, deserved moment of joy between a couple who was taking a brief respite from the intense campaign trail that up to that point had been 16 months long.
A Fox news talking head questioned whether the dap was appropriate, suggesting that it was a greeting used by "terrorists". I laughed. I watched it over and over and laughed every time. Then I remembered my friend who believed the email. Surely no one could believe such a ridiculous suggestion.
But, when we want to find a reason to reject someone, we will. And we don't have to be bothered by the truth. We don't need a reason that contains reason. Any old reason will do. Obama is smart, articulate, even-tempered, polite. He ran a brilliant campaign. He refused to go negative. He graduated from Harvard and went to work for the middle and lower income citizens of Chicago instead of chasing the big bucks that would have been his for the taking. He is an advocate for military veterans. He is for fair trade. He has been an active member of a Christian church for more than a decade. He has been a member of a Christian church with a controversial preacher for more than a decade. He does not believe we can win the war in Iraq. He is more liberal than conservative. He does not have as much federal government experience as McCain.
He is black. That's the truth. But it is not a reason.
***
he is all those things you listed...but what if he WAS a muslim? would you still vote for him?
ReplyDeleteif i'm honest, it would most likely effect/affect (i can't off top of my head remember the right word here) the way i vote, but that just means i 'm bigoted too :(
yeah, that was one of the things I was pondering when my friend first asked if I would vote for a Muslim. My first mental reaction was, what difference should that make? But maybe it would, I don't know. My own lack of relationship with anyone of that faith makes it hard for me to say. I hate it when I am reminded of how small my little world really is. Thanks Debo.
ReplyDeleteI must be a terrorist myself. Tater-up is my preferred form of greeting.
ReplyDeleteI hope someone's religion or gender or skin color would not affect my vote. But I'd like to think that, even if it did, I'd be pretty freakin' sure I knew the truth about it!
anytime... :)
ReplyDeletei actually wrote that because i was having a conversation with a friend who i have always considered to be not just liberal, but pretty radical (i like that) but they admitted reservations about voting for him because of his muslim roots. and i let them influence how i felt about that. I have a couple of muslim friends who i would trust with my life, so i was surprized and disappointed in myself at these feeling of uncertainty. i do believe that i would vote for obama either way, but i'm sad at the degree of my relief that i can say "oh that email is wrong, he's a Christian"