My response to an awesome blog !!!!!

My Blog will make sense as long as you read the following...

A blog by Dr. Yolanda Pierce from www.princetonprofs.blogspot.com called the Kitchen Table that I highly suggest you subscribe to... She and her partner typically address their blogs to one another so here is an excerpt ...Dr. Pierce writes ...

Melissa,

I had a wonderful, but brief conversation with a colleague this morning. As a political progressive, he was joyous in his opinion that we are looking at an Obama/Biden win in November. He was very thoughtful in his analysis of both the benefits and the limitations of a Democratic presidency after 8 years of Bush. As we were parting, he added that the greatest benefit that will come from an Obama win is that it will strike the deathblow against racism in this country.

I paused in my tracks. I said to him that an Obama presidency will surely strike ONE blow against racism, but we've got to keep the hits coming. Racism's deathblow is a long way off. We cannot afford to let down our guard against racism, overt or covert, in the likely event of an Obama presidency.

...Melissa



I thought I would share my comment on their blog with you guys.....(edited for imnprovement)

These ladies are my sheroes and I believe they have to a good degree received the contemporary torch as passed by bell hooks (my first shero)

As I read their blogs, I am always saying ..."that's what I said" (not always as articulately :-) or "that's what I was thinking".

Here goes ...

I have explained to a girlfriend that despite the deep trenches to which I support and volunteer with the Obama campaign, I am clear what this means for some African Americans, most African Americans and all African Americans or any minority or cultural group that suffers with any of the "isms" listed in this eloquent blog. There is a difference in what it means for each subgroup particularized by class, education and the varying shade of minority you are.

An Obama presidency does not end the white supremacist filter through which many Americans view minorities or the unfortunate lens of self hate steeped in white supremacy through which some African Americans actually see themselves.

I explained to the same friend that while Obama's background was meager his foreground (undergraduate, graduate and professional present) has been anything but humble and we must understand that his opportunities and his choices have made for what we hope on November 4th will be an unbeatable combination. It is this unbeatable combination that Americans en masse appear to be responding to. The first half of the story without the second would draw the same "looking down the nose" response it regularly garners without the second half.

We must all work to level the number of opportunities on the playing field for EVERYONE who is in anyway (nuanced or overwhelmingly) disenfranchised by the current systems and institutions that leverage their persistent racist survival of our backs.

Death to racism can be certain as long as wisdom, patience, passion, intelligence and love are our guides.

all love
danna "that one" kiel