An Inconvenient Color
If you remember anything former Senator John Edwards said during his (ignored) campaign for the Democratic nomination, it's that there are two Americas. And since the media pundits are still waxing rhapsodic over Barack Obama's speech, I can understand that there are indeed two and only two Americas: black and white.
Since liberal commentators can't ransack the thesaurus enough to find more superlatives for Obama's speech, let me be the one to ask: what about Native Americans? Are they included in your great discussion about race?
I'll spare anyone the chance to give a blank stare, or squirm in their studio chair. The answer is no, not one word was said about Native Americans or their grievances and history of abuse, dispossession, or squalid existence on (essentially) patches of land that are nothing in comparison to the lands of their forefathers. You can hear the crickets on this one.
Liberals are in love with Obama, whose speech was very well done, very expertly presented, but it skips the issue of his association with his church. And now, by scanning the talk shows and Web commentaries, they are helping put the Reverend Wright's entire verbal oeuvre into "context." In short, it's all pretty much a black thing; that's the way they are in their churches because of their history. And it's all okay, ain't nothing wrong with it because liberals are giving us the nuanced context they so love to talk about. So we no longer have an issue about Obama's church and his judgement to keep going to this church, because we now understand the proper context. Man, it's all good!
So, now that we know that Obama's speech ranks up there with the funeral oration of Pericles, and that he and only he can transcend everything, I still gotta ask: where in the two Americas do Native Americans fit? And if we're now in the business of understanding black rage (because liberals have told us how and why), is it okay for a Native American to run for the highest office in this country and still belong to a political or religious organization that excoriates honkies? After all, Native Americans have a list of offenses as well, and I'll name just a few: 1) they were here first and wound up on the losing end of a land conflict with European and later, American settlers; 2) they, too, were forcibly converted to a religion that was not theirs and had their children taken from them to be raised by civilized whites, thankfully changing names in the process; 3) given pox-laden blankets (!!) when forced to march on the Trail o' Tears while being relocated; 4) have faced widespread discrimination and lack of advancement in white society when leaving the reservations to which they were consigned. Hell, even beloved figure L. Frank Baum once commented that Native Americans needed to wiped out because of all the injustices visited upon them, and he wrote "The Wizard of Oz!"
Is that enough rage and grievance for you? Can I hear the howls of pain of generations of murdered Native Americans cut through the self-congratulatory chatter that liberal pundits are dropping on Obama and his speech? Can I hear the endorsement of a Bill Richardson to reward a Native American for his involvement in the American Indian Movement? Now that White America understands how evil it truly is, can we commute the sentence of Leonard Peltier and get on with the healing?
The whole Great Race Debate is a farce because fawning media sycophants have shoved it down our throats to the clear exclusion of others. And it's apparent that belonging to any political or religious organization that accuses the nation of selling drugs to blacks as a method of control, or celebrating the deaths of 3,000 people in a terrorist "chickens-come-home-to-roost" attack is actually okay since there's now a context for this stuff. Great! It's what I've been waiting for all my life.
So, my Native American brothers, have no fear about expressing your anger or bringing your own leaders who can forcefully remind White America about its sins against you, using as many profanities as possible. (It's all in the prophetic tradition, you understand.) The media pundits have conveniently left you out because Obama's talking points did so as well, and like I said, there are only two Americas that matter: white and black. Right now, us brown guys and the discrimination we have to put up exist since we are, how do I say, an inconvenient color that doesn't fit the current narrative.
Oh well, a guy can dream, can't he?