Anyway, I want to talk about three women of color with this post. Two of them lean right politically, and I am not too sure about the other one.
Two of them gave speeches at the republican convention last night, the other one also made news, but not in the way she wanted to.
I will talk about Condi first, because I think she has the most stature of the three. Condi stood in front of a room full of republicans last night and declared to us all what a great country America was. She said it was great because as a child of Jim Crow era Alabama, she never expected to become Secretary of State one day.
The theme of her speech was that anyone can make it in America, and that America opens her arms to all who will come if they are willing to work hard and buy into American ideals. She said it all to rousing applause and standing ovations from the the very white,very conservative crowd.
The problem is, of course, that Condi's party has been actively -- and not so secretly--- planning to suppress the vote of poor people and people of color because they believe that if those people vote they will not get the result that they like. If this sounds a lot like the poll taxes from Condi's Jim Crow days it's because it is.
Shame on Ms. Rice for invoking the civil rights movement and their struggle for equal rights in this country in such a forum. Offering sound bites so that folks ----who could give a damn about her rights as a human being-- can feel good about themselves was as disgraceful as her signing on to a war that caused thousands of young Americans and Iraqis to lose their lives.
Condi, I know that you were friends with those four little girls from Birmingham. I am sad to say that Addie, Cynthia, Carole, and Denise are crying from their graves.
Anyway, she too gave a rousing speech and praised the party that gave her an opportunity to be running for congress from the very lily white state of Utah.
The theme of her speech seemed to be the "American dream".
Ms. Love, of course, isn't from Utah. Her parents are Haitian, and she migrated to Utah from Connecticut.
Ms. Love represents the typical immigrant who came to America looking for a better life with her family. Her American experience is not like the American experience of the Negro born in America. She came here looking for a better life, and like most immigrants she found it. You could argue that anything would be better than the Third World existence that most immigrants left behind.
Ms. Love, in her mind, isn't burdened by America's sad history when it comes the blacks who were brought here under quite different conditions. So sadly she doesn't even view herself as one of those American blacks. When her white friends in Utah tell her that she is "different than those other blacks", she actually believes it.
I can speak to this, because I too came to America from a different country. I was brought here by my family as well. The difference is that my parents didn't come to stay. They came for an education and went back home to the country that they loved. I was taught to understand that I am no different than the Negro in America, the only difference is that my ancestors came off the boats just a little bit sooner. Ms. Love is the type of Negro who looks down on the American born Negro, because she has failed to understand their history and where she fits into it.
“President Obama’s version of America is a divided one — pitting us against each other based on our income level, gender, and social status. His policies have failed! We are not better off than we were 4 years ago, and no rhetoric, bumper sticker, or campaign ad can change that.”
“Mr. President I am here to tell you we are not buying what you are selling in 2012.”
More rousing applause. "We are not buying what you are selling". "We"??!!
Mia is talking about Obama "dividing" us. What she fails to realize is that she is doing some dividing of her own. The type of dividing that some people just love to see.
Finally, the third woman of color I would like to talk about is that camerawoman from CNN who had peanuts and slurs rained down on her from some of her friendly wingnut friends.
It seems like she is finally talking about the incident. Sort of.
Carroll said no one took the names of the attendees who threw peanuts at her Tuesday on the convention floor and told her, "This is what we feed animals." She alerted fellow camera operators, producers and CNN security. The head of the delegation — she was not certain of the state — told her the perpetrators must have been alternates, not delegates.
But Carroll, 34, said that as an Alabama native, she was not surprised. "This is Florida, and I'm from the Deep South," she said. "You come to places like this, you can count the black people on your hand. They see us doing things they don't think I should do."
Carroll noted of the Republican convention, "There are not that many black women there."
Ms. Carroll, Ms. Love would tell you that it's all in your head, and if you just work hard and speak properly these types of things will never happen to you.
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