Saturday, June 7, 2008

No to NObama-mania

Ok, now I, too, have been feeling sad as the next Hillary supporter about our gal's loss. But are there really going to be Hillary supporters out there sporting t-shirts with "NObama"? I have a hard time believing it. And if I see one, you better believe I will have something to say.

Do check out Gail Collins' thoughtful oped in today's NYTimes, "What Hillary Won," and Bob Herbert's too (thank you Catherine!). I'm moved by them both. Herbert reminds us not to overlook the wonder of this moment:
"Racism and sexism have not taken their leave. But the fact that Barack Obama is the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party, and that the two finalists for that prize were a black man and a white woman, are historical events of the highest importance."
Indeed, we should not overlook this moment. Nor should we take it for granted. Doing a search for this t-shirt just now made me crazy. I found SO much anti-Obama propaganda online -- xenophobic stickers, racist cartoons, and worse. As of today, I stand with Obama. And we have so, so much work to do.

Part of our work, of course, is to continue to analyze the impact of race and gender on this campaign. And I hope those of you in the area will join me at a forum on June 17th, "From Soundbites to Solutions: Bias, Punditry and the Press in the 2008 Election," from 9am-noon, sponsored by The White House Project, The Women's Media Center and the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education. The forum is free of charge and open to the press and the public and will take place at the Paley Center for Media, 25 West 52nd Street (Between 5th & 6th Ave). Register here.

3 comments:

Marco Siegel-Acevedo said...

What is constantly overlooked is that the coming election is not about politics as usual. This is not the same America that Bush and his cronies hijacked in 2000. This administration has gravely damaged our global credibility and our constitutional infrastructure in ways that its citizens can barely fathom. We have always had the task of improving our nation, of righting gender-, race-, and class-based injustices, of fulfilling the promise of our founding ideals. But now we have the added task of salvaging those ideals, saving the country really, before its too late. "NObama"? Hand the country back to the Republicans? Really? Where have people been these last eight years?

Unknown said...

Go Marco!

Dr. Paul Rutter said...

Ditto, what Marco said.