Short Answer: Spite
Long Answer: My grandfather is a typical white man. He was born on a small town in rural Ontario and although his life was far from taxing, he believes himself to be a man of honest hard work and strong moral character. His successes he attributes to the practicality and modesty he learned in the Canadian Royal Guard along with God's gracious felicity. Life is that simple, even if it is not always easy. You live, work, retire and die. That the world could be more complicated than that, that forces move us that we can not control and are not metaphysical, is completely beyond his comprehension. Social sciences, therefore, are scant more than hodge podge ideology from atheist intellectuals. That isn't to say my grandfather is not a smart man. He's incredible shrewd. He prides himself on being a "man of the times" and staying current with economic and technology trends. He's been successfully trading stocks online since I was in kindergarten. But practical knowledge is very different from the type of self serving knowledge that preaches to the masses from ivy towers of academia. The type of self serving knowledge that leads liberal professors to teach his children and now grandchildren that racism is not a sordid fact of yesterday, but a material component of this country's past and continued existence.
True to form, during the past week as Obama has been getting all sorts of crap thrown at him for his ties to Reverend Jeremiah White, my grandfather has been forwarding articles from the slimiest of slimeball conservatives shouting from their righteous wings "HOW DARE HE!" How dare a preacher in the U.S. suggest that the plane hijackings on September 11, 2001 were reactionary to U.S. foreign policy. IMPOSSIBLE! How dare he suggest that there is something acrimonious about the fact that AIDS is largely an infliction in black, poor communities (and gay communities before that). THAT'S THEY'RE FAULT! How dare a man of faith or any true citizen of this country utter the words "God Damn America" under any circumstances. TREACHEROUS! The fact that right wing talk show hosts are having a field day with this is not surprising in the least, but my grandfather becoming implicit in their disgusting idiocy makes my blood just boil. Three times in the past two days I have sat down to write him back but been unable to. I rarely talk to him. Most of his emails I leave unanswered as he sends literally hundreds a year (a real life human spammer). There's no precedent for my cousins, siblings, or I ever contradicting my grandparents about anything - ever. I just can't bring myself to let it go though.
In particular this passage from the most recent article my grandfather sent me stood out: "America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known."
Part of me wants to say that racism this blatant and ingrained can not be argued with, but I am just not so easily pacified. So today, about an hour ago, I decided that I just might vote this election season after all. I hadn't been planning to. I was entertaining the idea of using that day to enact some other "civil duties" but perhaps I can do both. I still don't think voting does shit long term. I also don't think Obama's anything too special. He doesn't inspire me to ~*HOPE*~ for a better future; he just inspires me to hope that I get to see the look on every puckered asshole's face when along with my grandfather they have to seethingly address a 'black man who hates America' as "Mr. President."
Despite my general apathy toward him, I thought Obama's speech on Tuesday about race in the U.S. was pretty damn good; amazing for a mainstream politician. There's a really nice write up at the Infoshop [
here] that does a great job at highlighting both the ridiculous backlash over Wright and the strengths in Obama's response from an anarchist perspective. Recommended. Also recommended is watching the whole speech on YouTube. [
here]
I guess that's all I had to say. I've run out of steam. Bleh.
*Note: This premise presumes Obama will be the Democratic nominee. I feel it is a very reasonably safe presumption as it is nearly mathematically impossible for Hillary Clinton to overtake him in pledged delegates and highly unlikely to do so in the popular vote. Her campaign has been treading water for some time and unless he is caught in bed with a dead woman or a live boy I don't see much chance for her.
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}