Micheal Canzano and others,
I consider myself racist in the sense that I am aware of race and I think that this awareness is generally informative. I also consider myself of a race and tend to support the efforts of that race of people and feel myself closely associated to the land from which my nation comes. If that support comes at the expense of other groups, so be it. The only country which I give equal support to is the US and consider the interests of both my countries, both my people, and our common G-d to be congruous and mutually beneficial. I do not, on the other hand, consider myself a race supremacist. I don’t think that any one race is better then the other. I relate to individuals, as they are, and do consider some individuals generally superior to others but this is not related to race. Some individuals are more worthwhile to me then others. On the other hand, I have met many “superior” individuals who are not as good at specific tasks as some folk who are generally “lesser” people. Still, all people, no matter their race, color, creed or level of success in any field, are equal under the law and equally loved by G-d. So long as the law remains blind then we are as liberal as we are likely to be.
As an aside, Zionism is racist and should be. On the other hand, Zionism is not Jew supremacist. It is an ideology in which a religion/race of people should have a homeland. If that comes at the expense of another group who would like to be given the Jewish land for their own racist/religious use then so be it. Might sometimes is right.
Regarding the prison issue. If people, be they Black, White, Latino, Asian just took responsibility for their actions, didn’t break the law and tried to make something of their lives through some hard work and proper organization then those people would not put themselves in a position to get screwed over by the system. Stop smoking crack or dealing it and you won’t contribute to the figures quoted by Hello. The system is not victimizing innocent people. If that system is rigged against certain people then the argument for them would be valid if not made in defense of convicted scumbags. Take the mirror image of what Hello’s argument tries to prove, that the system is rigged, and instead choose to say that Blacks are more likely to commit crimes, to have cases which a jury of their peers are less likely to acquit them of, and less inclined towards recovery from their criminal behavior. With that mirror you are simply using the same facts to suggest an equally valid point. The way to alter those arguments is to make them moot by living a law abiding life.
What is in Michelle Obama’s heart? I don’t know. I find the quotes I have read and heard her to utter to be contra my view of this country, my community and my desires for the direction our country should take. Her college papers indicate a thinking full of twisty thoughts and convoluted logic. According to her thinking nobody can really understand anybody else seeing as none of us have had the experiences of the other. According to her logic, as well as the expectations created by the misunderstanding we all seem to share of her husband’s words, no one is really expected to understand what anybody says, what they have done, or what they think. To understand the Obama’s we should have to have had a wealth of experiences that could then contextualize what it is they really mean to say. Seeing that I am not an underprivileged, black woman who managed to survive magnet programs, the Ivy League school curriculum, the hard work of community organizer or have faith in Black Liberation Theology, I have little hope of understanding Michelle and ditto for her husband. Seeing that I am looking for someone who I can relate to, whose ideas represent mine to as great a degree as can be, and who I can understand, I think I’ll vote for McCain. At least I’m not expected to have been a prisoner of war, a navy pilot, a US Senator, or a white guy raised in a military family to understand what McCain says, means and wants.
