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A good article about the essentialist take on the Democratic candidates and how they're so often broadly distinguished by their race and gender. Just as with the election of the conservative South Asian American, Bobby Jindal, as the governor of Louisiana, it's an important consideration whether a single person can claim to "represent" a community merely on the basis of her/his race or sex.

(Grace Lee Boggs is a Barnard alum, longtime activist, writer, intellectual, and Asian American Movement O.G. She was once a colleague of the black radical intellectual C.L.R. James, and she's been involved with Detroit community struggles for decades, along with her late husband, James Boggs. Her autobiography is titled Living For Change, and she's the recipient of many awards.)

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from the Michigan Citizen, Dec.30-Jan.6 , 2008
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This is a good question because it challenges us to stop glossing over the huge changes that have taken place, both positively and negatively, in black leadership over the last 50 years.

In the 50s and 60s we may not have called it "black leadership" but there was no doubt what we had in mind. We were talking about "the movement." Southern blacks, rising out of obscurity, determined to rid their communities and this country of Jim Crow, risking their lives by sitting in front seats on buses, sitting down at lunch counters, registering to vote. Small groups of deeply-committed and highly-disciplined individuals engaging in non-violent actions that forced millions of white Americans to look at themselves and recognize the crimes that have made possible the rapid economic development of this country. SNCC students transforming themselves and humanizing this country by simple acts that raised the fundamental question of what it means to be a human being, thereby inspiring women, Latinos, Native Americans and Asian Americans to challenge patriarchy and racism.

In the North men like Malcolm challenged us to look into the mirror by transforming themselves from hustlers into community leaders and searching for new ideas when those which had initially inspired their transformation tuned out to be too narrow. Students inspired us by walking out of schools demanding black history and black administrators.

Between 1965 (the year Malcolm was killed) and 1968 (the year Martin was gunned down) black leadership was taken to a new level by King. Agonizing over the twin crises of the Vietnam war and the urban rebellions, he called for a radical revolution in values, not only against racism but against materialism and militarism. Warning against integration into the "burning house" of U.S. capitalism, he emphasized the need for two-sided transformation by and of Americans, both of ourselves AND our institutions, a transformation that would take us and the world beyond both traditional capitalism and communism.

King was killed before he could put this new revolutionary/evolutionary transformational vision of revolution into practice and make it widely known to the world.

After his death civil rights leaders, ignoring King's warning, seized upon the opportunities that had been opened up by "the movement" to enter the "burning house" of U. S. capitalism. Instead of calling upon the American people to confront our consumerism and militarism, instead of challenging corporate globalism, these opportunists became a part of the system, evaluating black progress by how much they and other blacks were catching up with whites.

In 1977, with the support of the civil rights establishment, Maynard Jackson, Atlanta's first black mayor, used scabs to break the garbage workers strike. In the late 70s civil rights leaders turned blacks into a special interest group inside the Democratic Party, just as the Democrats were becoming indistinguishable from Republicans in their dependence on corporations for campaign funds.

As a result, the word "black" has lost all its movement meaning. So Bill Clinton, the man who sponsored NAFTA, who got rid of Aid to Dependent Children, who bombed Iraq, and who now suggests that Hillary's first act as president would be to send him and George W's father around the world, can be called this country's "first black president"!

Meanwhile capitalism has morphed into corporate globalization, the materialism of the American people has skyrocketed, inequality is mushrooming inside the United States and between the global north and the global south, violence continues to escalate both at home and abroad, and the planetary crisis is reaching the point of no return.

Had it not been for the movements of the 50s and 60s, Obama and Hillary would not be front runners in the presidential race today.

But neither Obama's ethnicity or Hillary's gender is enough to earn my support. Neither is calling on the American people to confront our materialism and militarism or challenging and proposing alternatives to corporate globalization. At this critical period in human history that is what we should be requiring of ourselves and of any presidential candidate, whatever their race, gender or religion.

Fortunately new leadership is emerging out of obscurity, at the grassroots level, building community instead of running for office.

Watch the debates live on msnbc.com. Whoa, corporate plug...

9:07pm: Clinton and Obama open by saying that they don't want race or gender to be a part of this campaign... Clinton talks about the Democratic party as a prominent player in equality struggles, Obama talks about that same "defining moment", and Edwards talks about a certain Woolworth's counter sit-in.

9:11pm: "All of the candidates" are committed to racial equality. Obama: "Race is a factor in our society" ... but goes on to say Iowa is a sort of proof against this?

9:16pm: To Edwards, "why should I not resent being forced to choose between the first viable woman and the first viable African American candidate?" and "What is a white male to do running against these historic candidacies?"

9:19pm: Hillary has a smug look on her face... liek, zomg.

9:22pm: Someone yells out in protest against "race-based questions"...

9:30pm: I am getting nothing from this talk. Edwards just said "fight" a billion times, Obama admitted his bad organizational skills, and Clinton... is still talking...

9:34pm: Xenophobia says hi! Emails to MSNBC claim Obama is a sleeper Muslim and pledges on the Koran. Wow.

9:37pm: I'm watching a silent camera being moved around the Decision 08 sign.

9:40pm: Brian Williams thinks it's considered "fundamentally wrong" for foreign countries to control these "American flagship brands"... corporations like Citibank, etc. Oh, no! I wonder what kind of fundamental wrongness he's talking about.

9:50pm: Wow, listen to Hillary. Economic disfortune falls "disproportionately on African Americans, on Hispanics, on some Asian Americans". Some Asian Americans? ... Are Asian Americans somehow privileged to a level farther away from other people of color? The emphasis bothers me, but I'll let it slide - she mentioned something worthwhile otherwise.

9:58pm: Brian is so funny! And his deadpan tone makes him even funnier!

10:10pm: It's been an hour.

10:14pm: OMG, Tim Russert says, "volunteer army disproportionately constitutes poor and minority students". What a concept! Just now it's a problem?

10:17pm: Wow, Obama just proposed to solve the problem with a problem itself... college aid to poorer students who serve in national service. Why not... just stop recruiting students and disadvantaged peoples?

10:20pm: Hillary calls post-traumatic stress disorder "traumatic brain wounds." Sorry, antsy neuroscience student talking.

10:29pm: Yay, Dems love scientists. (Energy policy.)

10:32pm: Thank gosh, on to immigration.

10:34pm: Tim just asked Clinton why one of her supporters said Hispanics are reluctant to vote for a black man. Pitting races against each other? C'mon, new tricks please. The candidates also keep saying black and brown, but never yellow. Apparently APAs don't have problems. Hillary: "This is a black brown debate." Thanks.

10:42pm: Hello, Virginia Tech. (Gun control and mental health.)

10:59pm: Debate just ended. No questions about, for, or from APAs.

Admittedly, we at The Blaaag have been slow to cover presidential election news. You might say, but we don't care about national politics to begin with! Well, it's time to quit that thinking, because a fundamental part of empowering our communities is using our votes to give elected politicians reason to hear our concerns and act on our issues. Then let's get started.

By word of Nhu-Y's amazing forwarded emails, tonight's Democratic MSNBC debates with Senators Edwards, Clinton, and Obama will feature discussion of race and "minority" issues. Although some of these candidates have explicitly said that they race is just something they just don't want to talk about, hopefully these debates will open eyes to the concerns and presence of communities of color in Nevada and across the country.

The debates are on tonight on MSNBC at 6-8pm PST... which is 9-11pm EST. If you want to ask a question to the candidates, fill out the form here. If I find the MSNBC channel on the McBain 6 lounge TV, I might just live blog the thing.

P.S. I hereby direct you to a post from Reappropriate about the representation of Asian American concerns in this race.

P.P.S. AAA is currently doing research into the candidates and their stances on APA issues in order to deduce the best candidate for Asian America. Our end goal will be to produce an election guide publication to help our fellow APAs to decide which candidate is best for them. Want to help us out? Just email whatever you find to theblaaag@gmail.com!


 

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