A good friend of mine (a young black man) was a bit shocked at a situation that recently happened to him: He explained that as he casually walked down the street on the Upper East Side in New York City (in his sports clothes, since he just finished playing basketball on a nearby court), a young woman who was walking her dog in his direction on the sidewalk decided to immediately cross the street upon seeing him. I did not want to automatically assume that this woman freaked out upon seeing a black man and crossed the street on impulse, so I asked him if he thought her decision had anything to do with his skin color. Unfortunately, it did - he explained that she was walking her dog, her head was looking down, and when she looked up, they made brief eye contact with each other, she noticed he was walking in her direction, looked startled/shocked, and she (along with her dog) then made a immediate sharp right turn off the sidewalk and successfully slid between two tightly-parked cars on the street to get to the sidewalk across the street.
Note: He is black, and she is Asian. They have never met before or had any type of interaction.
My friend was quite confused about the whole ordeal, and didn't quite understand how, in the 21st century, in the age of Obama, that this woman could possibly have an irrational fear of a black man. He wasn't necessarily mad about it - but he was definitely surprised that a young woman (in her early 20s) could have reacted to him (in my opinion, a nice-looking guy who happened to be dressed in his basketball-playing gear) in such a drastic and strange way. Now, admittedly, not too many blacks live on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, so perhaps he looked out of place, but there was nothing menacing or strange about his appearance. I do, however, believe that she most likely has been heavily influenced by an incredibly biased media that has done an amazing job at convincing people that blacks - particularly young black men - are people to be naturally afraid of on a day to day basis ("negrophobia"). And yet, at the same time, the media is currently promoting positive images of President Obama and his family. Perhaps she, along with many other people, view the Obamas as the exception to the rule - that perhaps, they could very well be the Cosbys/the "family next door." However, I have never viewed the Obamas as the exception - I saw them as the rule and the standard, and I consider the negative images of blacks on television as the extreme exception that has been blown out of proportion by a media desperate and eager to pigeon-hole blacks into particular categories.
Interestingly enough, my friend noted that he found it strange that this woman happened to be a minority as well (Asian) and decided to react to him in such a harsh manner, particularly in light of the fact that a older white couple was simultaneously passing by him without even flinching. When he asked me about my thoughts on that particular issue, I reflected back to the beliefs we choose to accept/reject about the "other" - and clearly, the young woman had absorbed a perception about black men that directly led to her decision to act so irrationally. I sometimes wonder if the Obama presidency will help reverse erroneous, idiotic, and obviously stereotypical beliefs about black people and potentially reverse the negative stereotypes that may be embedded in some people's consciousness/subconciousness. I guess only time will tell...
Obama is President, and Yet She Crossed the Street...
President Obama Has a Teleprompter Obsession?
President Obama has a tendency to look right, then left, then right, then left, quite often during his speeches, which made me wonder why he didn't look directly at people on varying angles, or directly at the camera more often. Reason: he likes using a teleprompter a lot during his speeches. But overall, I don't see what the big deal is. Despite what some people may think about his use of the teleprompter, he clearly is a master orator - and besides, how many people can be placed in front of a teleprompter and deliver a speech with that much oratory talent? I don't think the teleprompter operates as the President's crutch - it rather operates as a device to maximize his incredible rhetorical skills in order to not only inform the American public to the best of his ability but also implicitly counter the obvious and sometimes amusing inarticulateness of our last President. See Politico's article below about President Obama and his use of the teleprompter:
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"Obama's Safety Net: The TelePrompter," Carol E. Lee, "Politico.com," March 5, 2009
President Barack Obama doesn’t go anywhere without his TelePrompter.
The textbook-sized panes of glass holding the president’s prepared remarks follow him wherever he speaks.
Resting on top of a tall, narrow pole, they flank his podium during speeches in the White House’s stately parlors. They stood next to him on the floor of a manufacturing plant in Indiana as he pitched his economic stimulus plan. They traveled to the Department of Transportation this week and were in the Capitol Rotunda last month when he paid tribute to Abraham Lincoln in six-minute prepared remarks.
Obama’s reliance on the teleprompter is unusual — not only because he is famous for his oratory, but because no other president has used one so consistently and at so many events, large and small.
After the teleprompter malfunctioned a few times last summer and Obama delivered some less-than-soaring speeches, reports surfaced that he was training to wean himself off of the device while on vacation in Hawaii. But no such luck.
His use of the teleprompter makes work tricky for the television crews and photographers trying to capture an image of the president announcing a new Cabinet secretary or housing plan without a pane of glass blocking his face. And it is a startling sight to see such sleek, modern technology set against the mahogany doors and Bohemian crystal chandeliers in the East Room or the marble columns of the Grand Foyer.
“It’s just something presidents haven’t done,” said Martha Joynt Kumar, a presidential historian who has held court in the White House since December 1975. “It’s jarring to the eye. In a way, it stands in the middle between the audience and the president because his eye is on the teleprompter.”
Just how much of a crutch the teleprompter has become for Obama was on sharp display during his latest commerce secretary announcement. The president spoke from a teleprompter in the ornate Indian Treaty Room for a few minutes. Then Gov. Gary Locke stepped to the podium and pulled out a piece of paper for reference.
The president’s teleprompter also elicited some uncomfortable laughter after he announced Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as his choice for Health and Human Services secretary. “Kathy,” Obama said, turning the podium over to Sebelius, who waited at the microphone for an awkward few seconds while the teleprompters were lowered to the floor and the television cameras rolled.
Obama has relied on a teleprompter through even the shortest announcements and when repeating the same lines on his economic stimulus plan that he's been saying for months — whereas past presidents have mostly worked off of notes on the podium except during major speeches, such as the State of the Union.
Ari Fleischer, a former spokesman for George W. Bush, said while it’s entirely a matter of personal style, using a teleprompter at these smaller events has its drawbacks.
“It removes you from the audience in the room,” Fleischer said. When speaking from notes, Fleischer said, the president can pick up his head and make eye contact with those in the audience, as opposed to focusing on the teleprompter to his left and right.
Bush, Fleischer added, “would use the teleprompter for his major big events, but when he would travel around the country or do events, he would almost always work off of large index cards.”
The White House says Obama’s point of reference is insignificant.
"Whether one uses note cards or a teleprompter, the American people are a lot more concerned about the plans relayed than the method of delivery. This is not always true of the media," said Bill Burton, deputy press secretary.
Obama has never tried to hide his use of a teleprompter. It was a mainstay during the final months of his campaign. He brought it to county fairs and campaign rallies alike — and once had it set up in the ring at a rodeo.
In a break from his routine, Obama did not use a teleprompter during his pre-Inauguration speech at a factory in Bedford Heights, Ohio — and his delivery seemed to suffer. He paused too long at parts. He accentuated the wrong words. And overall he sounded hesitant and halting as he spoke from the prepared remarks on the podium.
As president, the stakes in what he says are higher. Governing is not campaigning, and, as a former first-term senator, Obama has not held a previous elected position where his words carried even close to this level of influence.
“In this kind of environment, you don’t want to make mistakes — on the economy you’re talking about doing things that affect the markets,” Kumar said.
But be it extra precaution, style or a mental crutch, Obama has shown in the past that he needs the teleprompter. And while he still has his prepared remarks placed on the podium in a leather folder, the White House has shown no sign of trying to wean him off of it.
Before Obama entered a room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on Wednesday to announce his crackdown on defense contracts, a CNN reporter asked an Obama aide if the teleprompter could be moved further away from the podium or lowered. The answer was an unequivocal ‘no.’
“He uses them to death,” a television crewmember who also covered the White House under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush said of the teleprompter. “The problem is, he never looks at you. He’s looking left, right, left, right — not at the camera. It’s almost like he’s not making eye contact with the American people.”
Wednesday’s event posed another scenario photographers and television crews have to work around. Obama had five others join him at the announcement, including Sen. John McCain. The takeaway shot was of Obama and McCain. But the teleprompter on Obama’s left was almost directly in front of McCain.
“You couldn’t get a good angle on him with McCain,” said a White House photographer who also covered Bush. “So if there’s someone else important in the frame, it’s hard to get a shot without the teleprompter.”
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A Broken Economy and Bipartisan Politics
I'm not really into political blogging (I leave that to Huffington Post), but I figured I would take a moment to address the apparent fetishism for bipartisanship in Washington today. At a time where the economy is truly suffering, the stock market is in the dumpster, people are losing jos, and companies are shutting down, I think it is crucial to push forward Obama's economic stimulus agenda and let go of this interest in appeasing as many bipartisan interests as possible.
An interesting editorial piece sums up the bipartisan effort:
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"Obama press conference shows bipartisanship overrated" by George Harris:
"In tonight's press conference, President Barack Obama emphasized the urgency of the stimulus package legislation on which the Senate voted today to end debate, essentially insuring passage tomorrow.
Sixty one Senators voted to end debate on the stimulus package, including three Republicans. Some critics point to the few Republican votes as a failure of the president to achieve bipartisanship despite considerable effort to include the opposition party in the development of the legislation.
But achieving bipartisanship is and always has been unnecessary to achieving a more civil tone in political debate, and President Obama has probably incorrectly implied that one is equivalent with the other in his choice of language about the issue.
It is unreasonable to expect that 75 or 80% of any group of people will ever agree on complicated issues such as taxation, abortion, education or the stimulus package.
Bipartisanship is not likely, expected, necessary or even desirable. Good debate reveals differences of opinions and brings clarity to positions about proposals."
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Obama warned that that failing to act right now "could turn a crisis into a catastrophe,” addressing head on the concerns about his approach to the bill (which Republicans have chosen to not support). Translation: Stop the foolishness and let's get this done.
I admire Obama's interest in pushing for bipartisanship - but let's be honest - people don't really care for the Republican agenda right now, so why bother appease it? Their agenda encouraged the mess this economy is in at the moment (the past eight years of Bush proves this point). Oddly enough, I think President Obama has had an uncanny ability to reach out and shake the Republican party's hand while simultaneously dismissing the party's goals as flawed, which Republicans have noticed and subsequently labeled as "arrogant."
Perhaps it is time for Democrats and Republicans to truly let go of their political agendas and figure out what is best for the American people - but the question remains: can this actually be done? And how much longer can this broken economy wait in line for its political healing potion?
The New and Cool Black Male - The Obama Standard?
For a while, the "thug" look has been the in-thing for many men across America, particularly black men, and it has crossed over states and nations (thanks to the music industry), encouraging men of all races to embody the idea that the "thug look" is in, thereby supposedly gaining respect from others (or perhaps, invoke fear) as well as the digits from the ladies - if you can pull off the "thug look" with at least an adequate amount of authenticity. I've never been into the look - but that could easily be due to the fact that I grew up as a very sheltered girl in the suburbs of Long Island, and never knew anybody personally that even cared to embody the "thug look" -I only saw it on television for the most part and found it to be the opposite extreme of what I normally found attractive - the semi-preppy look (think "Theo" from the Cosby Show or Dwayne Wayne from "A Different World"). Furthermore, since I've always been attracted to smart guys, I struggled with equating "thuggy" with "smart" - there has always been a disconnect between being smart and being a thug that the media had no problem perpetuating within the music industry as well as on daytime/nighttime television.
Now that Obama is President of the United States, will he become the new role model for black men, embodying a new "cool standard" that black men will adhere to and as a result create a new cool standard across the nation and the world? Will a college degree and a quick wit make certain men rise above the rest when it comes to winning a woman's affection? According to CNN, black men have already started adopting Obama's hairstyle (originally called the "Caesar" in black barbershops, and has recently been relabeled "the Obama"). I wonder to what degree will this Obama fascination extend beyond a haircut style, and encourage young men across America and the world to finally forfeit this "thug" standard, and trade it in for "suave, cool, and smart." Many black men already embody this "suave, cool and smart" standard (think Morris Chestnut's character in "Two Can Play That Game") - perhaps Obama's presence in the media will finally push the thuggy standard into the shadows of the hip hop industry and allow the new "cool" to rise up to the pedestal.
Today is the Day!
It is 12am, 1/20/09, and today is the day that this nation will see its first black President. The point about Obama becoming the "first black President" has been repeated over and over again (CNN can't get enough), but come on now - this is huge! I feel like I was born at the right time in history - and this is the very day that so many people have waited to see their entire lives...
Some people wonder why the world is so obsessed with Obama, but I don't think it is as much of an obsession with the person, Barack Obama, as it is with the significance of what he represents - societal advancement, both in this country and abroad. People have always been struck by "underdog" stories - the stories of people who went against the odds and fought their way to victory. And some of the most classic underdog stories in this country focus on a minority, woman (or a minority woman) who was able to break a glass ceiling that was so firmly held in place for centuries upon centuries. I think it is incredibly fair to say that the title of American President is the ultimate glass ceiling in this nation!
America is a relatively young nation that has, within a few centuries, witnessed both black slavery and a black president - and it is very important to recognize the work that has been accomplished by women and men of all races to push civil rights in the direction of today's victory. The extremes of slavery and the first black president are connected by the pain, bloodshed, tears, and heartache that it took to get to this day.
The moment when Obama officially accepts the title of presidency is going to be overwhelming for millions of people - myself included! When I watch him today, I will also hear the voice of Dr. King, the words of Malcolm X, the memories of videos I watched of men and women fighting and boycotting for their dignity... it is a combination of various thoughts that can push anyone to run for a Kleenex and think about where we are today as a nation.
I think it is important for every person to now take steps to help make President Obama's vision possible - particularly in the area of community advancement. Barack is only one man - but together, we can all make his vision a reality and make a difference in the lives of the people around us. That could mean becoming a Big Brother or Sister, a volunteer at a nearby homeless shelter, participate in volunteer missions through your church, and the list goes on. Idealist.org offers plenty of great nonprofit organizations in your community that you can join and help others in need. I do not believe anybody is too busy to lend a helping hand. And I do not believe anyone is too busy or too preoccupied to stop, take a moment to check their thoughts, and look at a man or woman that you previously considered as "the other" as "the same" now, and realize that all of us are equal in the eyes of God, and we need to treat each person with the respect and dignity that they deserve.
Who Qualifies as America's Prominent Black Leader?
During my undergrad years at Harvard College, a non-black student jokingly referenced a controversy involving Al Sharpton and asked me, "How do you feel about your leader?" Despite his attempt to make a joke, I found the question a somewhat ignorant and failed attempt to make fun of a man considered by society (and clearly this student) as a prominent leader of black America. I have no issues with Al Sharpton - if I met him in real life, I hope that I would find him to be a pleasant individual. My central issue is with the fact that a prominent black leader in civil rights has not really existed since Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. And I've never considered Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton as their equivalents.
If this guy on campus asked me the same question today - "How do you feel about your leader?," I would actually respond with, "Oh, I love President Obama! Thanks for asking! And by the way - he is your leader too." It is as simple as that - I truly believe that Obama is the answer to my hope for another Dr. King. And I'm excited that he will not only qualify as a beautiful representative of black leadership, but a magnificent example of American leadership in the world today.
