The Southerner Journal

NORTH LITTLE ROCK - In spring 2007, I swore to more than one person that I would not get caught up in the presidential campaigns until it was actually time to vote. For more than a year I tried to keep my promise.

So … I lied. Isn’t that what politics is about?

I had no intention of lying, but I got sucked in watching the hyperbole about this historic event unfolding before our eyes. At this point, no matter what happens, the general election will feature two historic contenders – even the Republicans can claim to be running a minority with one of the oldest candidates ever. Be prepared for a media wave even worse than this come election time.

When I tried to stay away from the election, it ran into me. While teaching a literary journalism course at the University of Arkansas at Monticello, I tackled Hunter S. Thompson, proponent of Gonzo journalism, as an example of ethical issues within the genre. To prepare, I read “Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72,” a book cobbled together from Thompson’s Rolling Stone articles.

Thompson is Thompson, and those of you who haven’t read him may not appreciate his spot-on analysis of political machinery at work. He never claims to be sober in his analysis, but history relies on words and deeds more than state of mind. More than a few times I’ve told students that Barack Obama must read FLCT’72 if he wins the nomination, if only to keep from repeating the mistakes of history. If he will be the candidate of change, don’t disillusion those who want it. Salon elegantly laid out the Democrat Party’s quandary recently.

As I read FLCT’72, I marveled at the similarities to the current election, e.g. the importance of a minority candidate. Though not prominent in Thompson’s book, Shirley Chisholm ran for president as the first black woman candidate ever. Chisholm considered her candidacy as viable, even if the media largely disregarded it as an anomaly. I wonder what she would think about this election; i.e. are the Republicans correct? Is the country still not ready for a minority president? I believe Chisholm would claim it is, but she was an optimist.

Of course, 1972 also marked the last assassination attempt on a candidate, i.e. George Wallace, who believed the country was not ready for much of anything minority-wise. Recently, a few black students came up to me with a print-out of an online dispatch that claimed the Ku Klux Klan plans to kill Obama. They asked if it was true. I didn’t see a Web address on the print-out, so I searched truthorfiction.com and snopes.com and only came up with the satirical newspaper clipping claiming the KKK endorsed Obama. (By the way, that proved to be false.)

I wish everyone in the United States would grow past shooting people with whom they disagree. Unfortunately, history shows serious threats of change often bring out the worst in people. I do not think the Klan is any more likely to target Obama than an ultra-right wing fundamentalist is going to target Hilary Clinton; even less likely would be someone pissed about immigration targeting John McCain. I hope and pray we as a nation have grown to the point of letting our differences being decided at the ballot box instead of ending in a pine box. But I digress.

***

Regardless of the election’s outcome, America has been forced to reassess race, first with the anniversary of the ’57 Little Rock Central High Crisis, Katrina and Jena 6; more recently with the “race discussion” initiated by Obama. In the past month I’ve heard Black leaders including Obama, Condoleeza Rice and Julian Bond face the race issue simmering throughout America since my youth.

I applaud them for doing it.

Of course, Obama had no choice. Better to confront it now rather than waiting on the Republican machine if he wins the Democratic nomination. On the plus side, if America has been paying attention it now understands he is not Muslim, which made the rounds on the Internet and talk radio from the day the campaign began. On the negative side, some will claim Barack deserted his pastor in a time of need by not immediately standing up for him. I think he made a smart choice by noting you can believe in the same deity yet disagree with other practitioners of the faith. While I have faith, I detest being lumped in with those in The Crusades eons ago. But it’s like many things; you grow, you learn.

As a teenager I found it cool to have a Confederate flag on the front of my car because I thought I was a rebel. Once I finally realized the hatred it represents, it quit being cool. And the heritage argument holds no water with me; learn the facts. The flag most racists fly is actually the battle flag for the army of Northern Virginia. Besides, a symbol of hate must be disowned: e.g. the Native Americans don’t fly swastikas though it once was a holy symbol in their culture.

That’s showing some class, which is what you do as a defeated entity. They can take all of your earthly possessions but they can never take a person’s dignity. It’s something we can only give away. Once again, I digress.

***

Rice came via CNN into my living room one weekend. She spoke about the importance of race. She seemed very prim and proper. She’s getting first-hand experience with ethnic divisions in the Middle East. Her name gets traction as a possible vice-presidential candidate though she claims no interest presently.

My cynical side wonders if the Republican Party told Rice to get her ass on television because the Democrats seem to be getting more airtime due to race and gender issues; like Chisholm in ’72, Condi’s a two-fer. Yet if the racists cannot fathom Clinton or Obama, do you think they’ll be happy about the possibility of having a black woman ascend to the presidency if McCain cannot finish a term?

I used to like Rice, but ala Colin Powell she seems to be falling victim to the power behind the United States government and its inevitable share of skeletons in the closet. It’s going to be hard to take her seriously as a candi-mate with the claims of torture and the accompanying YouTube video — even though that would make her more hawkish than Hillary.

While any ticket needs a strong vice-presidential candidate, McCain’s presidential run must be viewed with the possible scenarios of health issues finally catching up with the grizzled veteran. Although modern medicine keeps folks around longer and longer and I wish no harm on any candidate, I will take the veep into account when voting this fall. Does anyone think McCain, a Prisoner of War from the Vietnam era, will want a running mate associated with torture? They say politics make strange bedfellows, but I cannot believe McCain would let that slide.

Of course, I also thought Clinton (i.e. Bill) would be the president to see through the sham of our incarceration system; instead, he threw more nonviolent civilians into it.

***

So just a few weeks ago I sat among approximately 240 Southeast Arkansans who witnessed Julian Bond address the race issue after he made his way to Monticello from Washington, D.C.

Rockefeller Lecture emcee and English professor Robert “red hawk” Moore noted many of the UAM students did not know who Bond was, and had no idea that the former president of the NAACP and one of the founders of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee during the Civil Rights era would give such a pointed lecture on the state of race in America.

Prior to Bond’s speech red hawk prepped the audience by saying: “I don’t think it’s unpatriotic to point out flaws in this country;” Bond proceeded to point the rest of the evening. He took Obama’s comments of the need for discussion on race to heart and gave a courageous speech (It made me wonder which route he took from Central Arkansas; as with many rural Southern areas, more than a few Confederate flags fly next to the highway).

Bond said he detests the implied “litmus test” for black leaders in the Obama-Wright predicament, noted the historical significance of both the present presidential race and the Civil Rights movement, and claimed the nation celebrated 50 years of Brown v. Board of Education by gutting it. He spoke of the social indicators reflecting disparities between the races. Throughout his indictment, he quoted luminaries including Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., historic black educator W.E.B. DuBois, President Lyndon Johnson and even Republican stalwart William Howard Taft while demanding improvements in criminal justice, health care, racial justice, economic equality and world peace.

“It’s not wrong to hold our country to a higher standard; let’s demonstrate that we are,” Bond said. “Criticism helps me to do better. People are always criticizing me and that’s why I do so much better.”

During a question-and-answer session with the crowd following his speech, Bond further elaborated on religion in general and Rev. Wright in particular, noting the quotes struck Bond as Wright’s role as pastor suggesting his God ought to damn America. “I think ministers have a license to say things we wouldn’t say,” he observed.

He noted the NAACP does not endorse political candidates and denied an e-mail rumor called “10 reasons not to vote for Clinton by Julian Bond.” Bond spoke of ethnic divisions in versions of the truth, claiming that while whites believe racial discrimination disappeared with King’s assassination, blacks believe discrimination persists through practices such as those leading to the current mortgage crisis. He even joked about the origin of King’s “I have a dream” speech, which made the crowd laugh once realizing it had been duped.

Photo by Eric Bell

Julian Bond addresses a question from the author.

Following the speech, the crowd purchased books and enjoyed refreshments while waiting to get Bond’s signature. As I was not among those who asked questions immediately following the speech, I queried Bond during the reception: Is Obama’s candidacy the most significant accomplishment in the United States since the Civil Rights era? The skilled politician hesitated, then replied:

“It is a result of the Civil Rights era. I hesitate to call it the greatest thing since the Civil Rights movement but it’s one of the things (to happen) because of the Civil Rights movement.” He didn’t elaborate on what else might be bigger; I failed to ask.

Drifting away from the table, I listened as tones of awe drifted through the Fine Arts Center’s Spencer Gallery from patrons discussing the significance of his speech.

“I thought it was a brave speech for this time in the South,” Moore said after noting the crowd attending the Winthrop Rockefeller Distinguished Lecture Series March 27 rivaled that of the record crowd of 260 for Robert F. Kennedy’s appearance a year before.

***

Photo by UAM Media Services

Douglas Blackmon (standing) speaks to Sitton’s class and visitors.

A week later I listened as the Atlanta Bureau Chief for the Wall Street Journal told my class (and later a university audience) about injustices Bond alluded to in his Rockefeller Lecture.

Douglas Blackmon graduated from Monticello High School and returned to the university he attended for a short time to promote his book, “Slavery by Another Name.” He read excerpts from the book that details industrial slavery perpetuated by business owners in Birmingham, Ala., following the Civil War and continuing through World War II.

Blackmon provides the background of an era often overlooked when discussing the differences between the races. He notes both black and white Southern families suffered from poverty following the “War between the States;” but his book explains how businesses benefitted from the work of Blacks arrested for trumped-up charges including vagrancy, and how some “free” Blacks got caught in a system that would ultimately result in their deaths.

Yet unlike the German perpetrators of the Holocaust who had to face their demons, Blackmon told listeners that American businesses have not paid anything for parts played during “The Reconstruction” of the South. He noted businesses like Wachovia Bank, which wasn’t even around during the Civil War, still found links to slavery when forced to disclose them by Chicago law. Due to acquisitions, Wachovia admitted to benefitting financially from the practice. Yet rather than social repercussions from minority stockholders when the news broke, Blackmon said the employees experienced a catharsis as blacks and whites cried about it.

The speech affected the predominantly black audience, many of whom a week before listened as Bond told them: “This was a massive system of racial preferences enforced by law and terror; we misunderstand today because we willfully misunderstood yesterday.” Some members spoke of Blackmon’s courage to discuss issues hidden in oral family histories for years. A few spoke of racial problems in Monticello during the 1970s. Much like the Wachovia experience, it seemed like the discussion provided a relief that someone finally was telling the truth.

***

And yet this reaction was not universal. At least one student claimed to be inspired by Blackmon’s speech but regretted Blackmon’s part in telling the story. At the next week’s Mocha Madness, a coffeehouse event hosted every semester by UAM’s Creative Society, the freshman told the crowd that black people should write their own story instead of whites recording it.

Honestly, his reaction caused me to pause.

Whose job is it to write history? Blackmon claimed people know more about the Holocaust due the education of the Jews, while illiteracy caused many stories of African-Americans to disappear with the deaths of the afflicted.

Journalists, predominantly white when the rule of thumb insisted freedom of the press belongs to those who have one, often take credit for writing the first version of history. While gender representation in the field more closely mirrors life than at any other time in history, minority representation still lags behind. But unlike any other time in history, nearly every human now has an equal opportunity to practice freedom of the press via the World Wide Web.

Will that cause people to document their family stories? I assume few will, even among those where opportunity knocks. How many people do you know who write for a living – or even for fun? If it’s going to stay around, somebody’s got to write it down.

***

I do not have black skin but issues of race directly affect me.

When grown humans cannot respect other humans with different hues of skin, strife develops and affects everyone’s happiness. It’s not a red or yellow, black or white or even a brown thing; the consequences affect us all.

Next weekend I will take a trip to see my best friend before he leaves for his second tour of Iraq. His first tour occurred during “Operation: Desert Storm,” when he first encountered the volatile Middle East with ethnic unrest centuries older than the racial issues America faces.

Back then, I stayed up nights watching CNN to see if his name scrolled across the screen, becoming part of the 24-hour-news cycle yet not knowing they’d sent him home on the first day of the conflict because his tour was up. Back then we spoke of the radical differences in the culture he encountered compared to our own. Back then the United States thwarted Iraqi aggression in the region and was roundly criticized for not taking care of the Saddam Hussein problem before stopping combat activities. Who knew then that we’d have to deal with what wasn’t finished?

This is now; so we talked the other night about the upcoming election.

“No way we elect Obama or Hillary. I have no doubt McCain will win the presidency,” he states, yet a minute later he asks if I think the country is ready for a minority Democratic candidate.

“Man, this will be an interesting, historic election with a minority president even if McCain wins. He’s the oldest candidate in history; they should get McCain to pander to the media by noting he’s a minority, too, i.e. an old POW still active in government. How many people can claim that?”

“Well McCain will beat Hillary or Obama.”

“I’m not so sure. Hilary makes McCain seem like a centrist on foreign policy and immigration. Besides, the radical right doesn’t like McCain.”

Momentarily, he ponders a rebuttal while I remind myself he’s not the groomsman who told me I’m the only liberal friend he has left – Micah always considers my position even if he doesn’t agree with it.

Then I notice it without comment: we continue exchanging barbs about the election rather than speak about his upcoming duty. After tentatively setting up a meeting during his four-day pass, I realize our discussions probably mirror that of thousands of soldiers hanging on to the present for as long as possible. I imagine soldiers of every race and their friends talk about some of the same things while hoping, praying there’ll be future talks of such trivial matters as war and politics.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 21st, 2008 at 10:02 pm and is filed under Arkansas Traveler, Elections 2008, Politics, Southern News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.