Friday, November 19, 2004

On Condi

You know, Bill Clinton was celebrated for his progressiveness, and ease with African-Americans. But it's inconceivable that he would have given so much power and authority to a black female peer. Why does Bush get no respect on this score? I guess it reveals that much of the left's diversity mania is about the upholding of a certain political ideology, rather than ethnic or gender variety itself. Depressing.

When you're right, you're right.

Somewhat related, I remember a 507 class (intro filmmaking) where a classmate made a film about a hispanic housekeeper who works all day and goes outside to get a parking ticket for the amount of money she made. It was sad. The reaction from some in our class, "What are you saying? That only hispanics are housekeepers? Or only housekeepers are hispanics? Isn't that perpetuating a stereotype?"

Huh?!? Does these people have eyes? Look around. Reality is smack dab in all our faces and in LA, I'd guess that 90% of the domestic labor is performed by hispanic people - this is fact, not stereotype or myth. What that says is another thing...do we think that means hispanics are only capable of such work. Of course not. Does it mean that they are inferior or stupid? Of course not. All it means is that this what our society looks like.

Having a black female secretary of state is evidence we are moving into a post-racial society. Having 90% of domestic workers in LA being hispanic is evidence we are not completely post-racial. We'll get there.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

yo greg,
this is cindy. i just want to say, i believe we will never be a post-racial society. condi and colin are only superficial indicators of a post racial society. its all a facade, a way to stop allegations of racism. come on, look at michelle malkin - an asian american woman in favor of the WWII japanese internment camps. margaret cho had an interesting response to malkin which relates to this post-racial thingy you're talking about. check it out: http://margaretcho.com/blog/indefenseofmichellemalkin.htm

Jared Essig said...

Greg - you may want to allow anonymous comments, it'll allow you to get comments from people w/o blogger accounts.

Here's my take. 'Race' is a term for cultural patterns that arise out of biological differences (i.e. skin color, eyelid folds, dominant endocrine gland, etc.) Cultural patterns will exist as long as biological differences do. Similarly, Societal patterns will exist as long as cultural patterns do. Ergo, we'll be a post racial society when biological differences have become less noticeable than other 'first impression' like characteristics of a person.

This can happen before too long. Large cities in places like Cuba, Brazil, and the Phillipines are closer to this than we are, seems to me.

While we're waiting for this to happen, check out my blog. http://jaredessig.blogspot.com. I'm finally getting around to it, and its my new thing