While recovering from my throat problems, I read an interesting editorial from my college's newspaper. The young man who authored the piece was expressing his frustration over one of his friends giving him grief because he is not going to vote for Obama in the election. The friend's argument?
"Well, you are young, so you should vote for Obama."
The author continued his piece by encouraging students to thoroughly research each candiate and then vote their conscious.
Seams appropriate doesn't it? But the truth is, the world is riddled with perceptions. We presume that if you are a young person you will vote a certain way. If you are older, you will choose an older candidate. If you are Black...
You get the deal.
After reading the piece, I started to wonder if I am the only person of color who will probably not vote for Obama. I mean, this is really bucking conventional wisdom. isn't it? I am biracial, half Black, half White. Surely I should vote for Obama...right?
Look, I think that what Barack Obama has accomplished is incredible. And for him to accomplish this in my lifetime is something remarkable. I mean he is biracial, like me and he is about seven years older than me. I admire him for that.
But, that does not mean he has my vote.
See, what I don't get are those who are voting or not voting for a candiate because that person is or is not what we want them to be. Voting for someone because that person is of particular race, gender, age or whatever is no better than those who will not vote for someone becuase of the same criteria. What is wrong with actually doing the homework necessary to choose the right person for the job, regardless of external criteria?
That is the problem with perception. It is not based in reality. We make assumptions about people based on criteria that does not necessarily make a good President, or any position for that matter. We forget that this person has a job to do. All of those external things like age, race and gender don't make a bit a difference.
At least they shouldn't. But we all know that there are those who think they do matter. I look back at my own life and remember people who said that I wasn't Black enough becuase I preferred Bruce Springsteen and U2 to Tupac and Public Enemy. That somehow I was "acting" White" because I spoke a certain way, did well in school and married a White guy. Remember all the hoopla over whether Barack Obama was "Black enough" becuase of his biracial heritage? Now, it seems that we have to prove our "worthiness" by acting a certain way or voting a certain way. Not voting for Obama would certify that I am "less Black" than those who do.
Look, all I am saying is that we need to put the assumptions aside. Do your homework. If after doing your homework, you believe that one candidate speaks to you more than the other, then go with that person. Vote your conscious. Don't assume that a person should choose a candiate for something that at the end of the day, makes no difference.
Because when you assume, you make an ass out of a dyslexic emu.
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- Seeking Solace
- I am a college professor who is fumbling through the chaos of academia, rheumatoid arthritis, working on my PhD and just being a 40 something woman. I used to be a lawyer, which made me a snarky little person. I have a wonderful Husband and a German Shepherd named Junior. They help keep me sane.
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4 comments:
You are not the only person of color not voting for Obama. While in college at the Citadel, I was a socialist and loved the study of economics. We had a Greater Issues series where distinguished people would come to address the corps and the community. George Mason economics professor, Walter Williams, was to be our speaker on one such occasion and my econ professor asked Dr. Williams to visit with he and two of his students, me and another of my classmates before his address.
I was prepared. I went in with my "helping the poor," "plight of black folk," etc. Within that 10 minute conversation, my eyes were opened, which led me to a deeper search of truth with regard to economics. My search led me to the University of Edinburgh and a man by the name of John Locke.
John Locke said many things writers a century before said who had written about Scottish Law or Natural Rights, like Grotius and especially Hobbes, but he said it better. Their idea was that a man ought to own himself and the fruit of his labor. He said that the role of government is to protect a man's life, liberty and property. A century later, Thomas Jefferson diggin' that wrote, "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator....Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. Some scholars argue that Jefferson's manuscript was altered against his wishes because he wanted it to read "pursuit of property."
He eventually got his way in the due process clauses of the 5th and 14th amendments;" life, liberty and property."
Many people see Adam Smith as the father of capitalism but not Karl Marx, he identified John Locke. The first tactical objective of Marx's Communist Manifesto is " Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes." Property rights are the key to prosperity and ours is the only country in the world that was established based on that fundamental principle. Other countries around the world have had slaves, and other things that liberals say give us an unfair advantage but none has enjoyed the prosperity and unprecedented liberty we have. Property rights and liberty are inextricably linked.
Why the long preamble? Obama represents the biggest threat to property rights in the history of the republic after the end of slavery. We have rescued the rest of the world from what he and the Democrat majority in Congress want to do TO us. I don't want to sound hyperbolic but 100 million murdered attest to the failure of the erosion or elimination of property rights, but The One, just wants to "spread the wealth around."
Irrespective of the melanin content in his skin, I can't vote to put my own or my family's future in jeopardy.
Everyone should vote for who they want to, and you are entitled to your own opinion. I also know that you live in a state that always goes for the Democrat, so I'm not too concerned about your choice. If you lived in my state (a swing state), I might be trying really hard to get you to change your mind! :) I hope your fall weather is as nice as ours right now! Take care.
What I think is amaz is how unpredicatable it is on who is going to vote for who - in any election. I've gone on voter registration drives (which are bi-partisan) and I love it how nobody fits the stereotypes.
I'm of the mindset that an individual's choice when it comes to voting is just that, individual. One shouldn't make the assumption that a person is going to vote a certain way due to race, class, kind of car one drives, to the type of shoes they wear. The desire to select a candidate is really personal and, in many cases, depends on the individuals values. That has nothing to do with race.
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