Sociology 255

What happens if Obama is an amazing success?  What happens if he fails in the eye of the country?  Will we never elect another minority?  How much does the future of minorities in the White House depend on Obama having a successful administration?

Now that we have a half-black president, if you were to make a bet on what minority representative would reach the office of US President first, who would you place your money on?   And this includes a “full” black president (for lack of a better term, and please dont pick me apart on this), hispanic, asian, middle eastern, jewish, Indian, female (and by that I mean females are considered a minority in American politics) or the all encompassing “other.”    I suppose Obama is somewhat of an “other” in being biracial, but I would like to hear your predictions.

I want everyone to think about the way that Barack Obama speaks.  I felt that he adjusted his voice to sound more like Dr. King.  I remember watching when he traveled down to Selma, and listening to his speech on CNN.  He and Hillary both went to Selma to celebrate the anniversary of the march.  They both spoke at churches.  To my ears, Obama sounded different than he had before.  His voice was a little richer, a little more southern, and a little more black.  He sounded very much like Dr. King.  Since that point I just thought that he talked in this super dynamic fashion when he was making speeches.  There is certainly nothing wrong with sounding like MLK, I just think Obama’s speeches resembled some of Dr. Kings, not just in his rhetoric and message, but in how he spoke.  Thoughts?

Its kind of like how I think that Kobe tries (probably subconsciously) to sound like Jordan.  Both talk out of the side of their mouth a little bit and speak super low with similiar rises and falls.  I might just be imagining things, but I think its kind of cool.

This article says that the number of hate groups in the US has grown 54% since 2000. Among other things, the article cites the election of Obama as one of the reasons. In fact, 2,000 people joined a particular hate group the day after Obama’s election. The article link is below. 

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/02/26/hate.groups.report/index.html

My question is this: are these people simply irrational extremists who we shouldn’t waste time worrying about, or does this increase in hate group participation have a wider impact? Do these numbers mean that active racism has increased since 2000?

While I was surfing around tonight, I found this video:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/30136393#30136393

Though comical, it is a viable concern: is associating Obama’s name with a stereotypical black chain being racist, or are we attributing the racist meaning to it?

A woman in the video at the end commented with the point that we have “more important things to fight for”. This is another valid point…is it really worth arguing over something like this? Does it really achieve anything?

I read and commented on Raquel’s post about the black female doll and wondered if perhaps the doll most worth making is one of a black man.  Barack would be a good place to start, but what should a black male doll look like?  I mentioned in my comment the problems I have with dolls such as GI Joes and Barbies (encourage certain gender identities), but I hadn’t really thought about racial identies w/ dolls until Raquel’s post.  So my thought question is, what should a black male doll look like?  Do any exist?  I guess you could get a LeBron, Obama, or 50 cent doll, but what would/should a generic black male doll be like?

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/03/25/black.america.report/index.html

“Blacks remain twice as likely to be unemployed, three times more likely to live in poverty and more than six times as likely to be imprisoned compared with whites, according to the group’s annual State of Black America report issued Wednesday.”

The article goes on to say that Blacks have a status equivalent to 71 percent of the status of Whites.  Obama is mentioned in the article as a force that can help to change this status inequality.  Education reform, healthcare reform, and drug-law/prison reform can all help to improve the status of Blacks, but do you see the Obama Presidency as having the potential to significantly raise the status of Blacks?

Oh, Barack. Is there anything you can’t teach us about ourselves? As you may have heard, our president was on Leno the other night, talking about the economy. Obama is kind of witty, but sometimes he turns an opportunity for self deprecation into a major-league gaffe. This time it’s the Special Olympics.

It seems as though the president’s careless comment has a lot to tell us about the way we treat disabled communities in America. I think a lot of people can identify with the president, because they have made thoughtless comments of the same nature. We don’t consider disabled communities to be minorities of the same type as racial and ethnic ones, and comments like “That’s retarded” tend to slip by our usual filters. I think the president’s comments should give us pause to consider the invisible minorities which have been eclipsed by issues of race, gender and sexual orientation.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/

Apparently President Obama has some Irish blood in him and is not hesitant to admit it.  His great-great-great grandfather hailed from Ireland.  Clearly this does not change his “master status,” but it is interesting to note.  I want to know, though, how does everyone feel about St. Patrick’s Day?  I heard some Black students talking outside the Pub yesterday, saying “well I’m not Irish, why should we celebrate white day?”  I have a similiar sentiment; it seems not only dumb, but a little ridiculous to have a holiday that primarily exists presently as a celebration of whiteness.  How does everyone feel about President Obama claiming some Irish ancestory and the celebration of St. Patrick’s Day as a whole??

So I was talking to my younger sister today at dinner, and I found out that there is a joke that nonsupporters of President Obama spread, saying that they will move to Canada because he was elected.  I know that a similar one existed for McCain, but was not surprised by that.  However, the joke about Obama surprised me because his policies are closer to those existing in Canada than McCain’s platform.  And even more so, the last president to receive so much enthusiasm by Canadians was JFK.  This reminded me of what was said in class about how some people were fine with him in the White House as long as he isn’t in the house next to theirs, except this is to a greater extent.  I guess this shows that some people are fine with him as a president as long as he is not their president.  This definitely shows that racism is still prevelant in our society whether these people actually move or not, the reference to the joke is enough.

So….I was fuming this morning when I received this picture on my phone today. My friend thought it was funny but I’ll let you be the judge of that. (I wasn’t laughing) It’s a picture of Obama and the first lady in the oval office…obviously….so I had to cover up some of the explicit parts but I’m sure you know what it was. I didn’t really want to say to much in the post because I really wanted to get the classes interpretation of what it says about blacks? What it says about Obama? What is the underlying reason and meaning of why people would create a picture like this? I don’t remember seeing Bush in the white house like this. What’s your opinion on the matter?

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