Speaking of Silence...

My last post was about silence, and I must have needed some because I have not been inspired to blog about anything for a while.  I'm not necessarily inspired to do so today, but I figure that I should either write something soon or shut this thing down.

One thing that's been on my mind a lot lately (mostly because of the directions my classes are going in) is what I might call the "particulars" of American racism...and of course, the re-election of Barack Obama has brought my thinking out of a specific academic context and into the very real world.  I feel extremely proud of our country for who we elected in 2012, especially the amazing increase in female politicians that will be changing the discourse in the Senate with 20 female senators!!!!!

What's really unsettling to me in spite of these victories is the amount of racism and sexism that is still so prevalent in our culture and manages to keep this country polarized.  The thing is, I hear a lot of direct connections being made between racism and Barack Obama's election and sexism and women's issues in politics.  What I hear a lot less about is the influence of these prejudices on nearly ALL social policies like tax rates, healthcare, welfare, social security, etc.  It's not an easy direct line to draw, but that is precisely what makes the role of these backward forms of thinking so unnerving and difficult to unravel.  

As one example, it's not because Obama is black that "Obamacare" opponents are instantiated in racist thinking, although that is one sad truth that even Yahoo! news reported on.  It's also rooted in the fact that white people, men in particular, have enjoyed a privileged position in this country ever since the end of the 17th century when race was essentially "created" by establishing slavery along lines of skin color rather than class.  If you are interested in this history, there is an outstanding article by historian Barbara Jeanne Fields entitled "Slavery, Race, and Ideology in the United States of America" that I highly recommend.  

One of many connections between racism and anti-healthcare positions is the fact that free market competition has always been a model that benefits privileged people the most...and it benefits them at the expense of most minority groups.  Our country's history of disenfranchising minority groups is long and deep and complicated, and it is difficult to sift through the rhetoric of political positions to see how racism influences these positions.  

I'd like to see the media doing more of this.  I'm wondering if the outcomes of this election and the clearly delusional Republican pundits assessments of facts that predicted a Romney win even as the election was called for Obama will signal the need for more attention to exposing the deep-seated ideological issues that shape the conservative politics of social issues....