Monday, February 11, 2008
Si Se Puede
Black Brown Yellow Red Minorities "Our Time Has Come"
Yo creo que espanol es la mas buena lingua todo el mundo, pero necesita practica como lo demas.
As a black high school student I learned spanish at the age of ten, and since that time no hay practica. Nevertheless, suffice it to say that as a professor of U. S. History I find this whole debate, which has been sensationalized by the media, laughable and most unbelievable. The truth is that there has always been more affinity between African Americans and latinos, hispanics, and mexicanos long before the Spanish-American War in 1898. And, just in case someone wants to challenge the interaction between blacks and native Americans they should get a grip and find out all they can about York, the black slave without whom Lewis and Clark may have failed miserably, and the rest would indeed be history as we say.
Baseball players from Cuba played in the Negro Leagues in and around Tampa Florida long before Jackie Robinson was allowed to crash the racial barrier around 1947. And when white miners were harassing Asians and jumping their mining claims, they found some semblance of solace by interacting with blacks and native Anericans. The truth is that the equality in Jefferson's Declaration is just now beginning to show itself politically as the dominant right, with two oil men in the White House, continues to share billions of dollars in oil profits among themselves, while minorities and poor whites struggle for survival.
The so-called Conservative Right has so inflicted hardship on the 295 million poor and middle class of this 300 million population that even those whites who make less than $200,000 per year are feeling the pinch. So what is the point? The point is found in a phrase that resonates in all of Barack Obama's speeches: "Our time has come."
The time for which all minorities (poor whites too) have been waiting for hundreds of years in America has come. The day has dawned upon a smothered and locked-out constituency who have yet to come to an academic definition of politics. For the past 11 years, I taught my university freshmen that a working definition of the word "politics" is "the struggle for who gets what, when, and how." In other words, whoever controls the politics will control how much money or food stamps you get, and how much help you get from the hospitals and clinics. They will determine when you get it, where you have to go to get it, and how high you have to jump to get it. In short, whatever terms or limits the power structure sets that's what you will have to do to get ahead.
And now, the time has come, and with Barack Obama, we minorities get to stand up. We get to make a statement. We get to continue King's non-violent protest and force America to sign the check for the promissory note so long delayed.
I also taught my students that women could win the White House and change this country if they all vote together because there are more women involved in the political process than men. Yes, this is what I taught for 11 years . . . and they bought it . . . and many female students registered long before this contest began. But now, minorities cannot afford to vote for any candidate who may have an alliance with Corporate America. John Edwards had a very good message, but down-trodden minorities, needed something more. We needed a charismatic, passionate, well-educated politician, who could electrify a crowd with a phrase, who could bring together Americans from every corner of the spectrum, but also one who was too new for the Washington city-fathers to have corrupted, and too out-of-the loop for Corporate America and its lobbyists to have under their influence.
The pollsters say Hillary Clinton has the Latino and hispanic vote sewed up. They say, she is the heir apparent because she could get things done with Corporate America. But that's not how I read it over the past 4 months. It would be a mistake to think that Clinton has the vote in the bag. And it would be a bigger mistake to count Obama out. After all, he's leading a movement . . . a movement cut short when J. Edgar Hoover said that he did not want a "nigger" King bringing a million poor black and white people to the White House. The movement has gained momentum with a new leader, and his rallying cry is "Our time has come . . . NOW IS THE TIME AND YES . . . SI SE PUEDE." Hola mi Amigos, mira. Escuchese bien . . . con Obama si se puede . . . si se puede.
Yo creo que espanol es la mas buena lingua todo el mundo, pero necesita practica como lo demas.
As a black high school student I learned spanish at the age of ten, and since that time no hay practica. Nevertheless, suffice it to say that as a professor of U. S. History I find this whole debate, which has been sensationalized by the media, laughable and most unbelievable. The truth is that there has always been more affinity between African Americans and latinos, hispanics, and mexicanos long before the Spanish-American War in 1898. And, just in case someone wants to challenge the interaction between blacks and native Americans they should get a grip and find out all they can about York, the black slave without whom Lewis and Clark may have failed miserably, and the rest would indeed be history as we say.
Baseball players from Cuba played in the Negro Leagues in and around Tampa Florida long before Jackie Robinson was allowed to crash the racial barrier around 1947. And when white miners were harassing Asians and jumping their mining claims, they found some semblance of solace by interacting with blacks and native Anericans. The truth is that the equality in Jefferson's Declaration is just now beginning to show itself politically as the dominant right, with two oil men in the White House, continues to share billions of dollars in oil profits among themselves, while minorities and poor whites struggle for survival.
The so-called Conservative Right has so inflicted hardship on the 295 million poor and middle class of this 300 million population that even those whites who make less than $200,000 per year are feeling the pinch. So what is the point? The point is found in a phrase that resonates in all of Barack Obama's speeches: "Our time has come."
The time for which all minorities (poor whites too) have been waiting for hundreds of years in America has come. The day has dawned upon a smothered and locked-out constituency who have yet to come to an academic definition of politics. For the past 11 years, I taught my university freshmen that a working definition of the word "politics" is "the struggle for who gets what, when, and how." In other words, whoever controls the politics will control how much money or food stamps you get, and how much help you get from the hospitals and clinics. They will determine when you get it, where you have to go to get it, and how high you have to jump to get it. In short, whatever terms or limits the power structure sets that's what you will have to do to get ahead.
And now, the time has come, and with Barack Obama, we minorities get to stand up. We get to make a statement. We get to continue King's non-violent protest and force America to sign the check for the promissory note so long delayed.
I also taught my students that women could win the White House and change this country if they all vote together because there are more women involved in the political process than men. Yes, this is what I taught for 11 years . . . and they bought it . . . and many female students registered long before this contest began. But now, minorities cannot afford to vote for any candidate who may have an alliance with Corporate America. John Edwards had a very good message, but down-trodden minorities, needed something more. We needed a charismatic, passionate, well-educated politician, who could electrify a crowd with a phrase, who could bring together Americans from every corner of the spectrum, but also one who was too new for the Washington city-fathers to have corrupted, and too out-of-the loop for Corporate America and its lobbyists to have under their influence.
The pollsters say Hillary Clinton has the Latino and hispanic vote sewed up. They say, she is the heir apparent because she could get things done with Corporate America. But that's not how I read it over the past 4 months. It would be a mistake to think that Clinton has the vote in the bag. And it would be a bigger mistake to count Obama out. After all, he's leading a movement . . . a movement cut short when J. Edgar Hoover said that he did not want a "nigger" King bringing a million poor black and white people to the White House. The movement has gained momentum with a new leader, and his rallying cry is "Our time has come . . . NOW IS THE TIME AND YES . . . SI SE PUEDE." Hola mi Amigos, mira. Escuchese bien . . . con Obama si se puede . . . si se puede.
Labels: Black and Brown Brothers, Black Voters, Latino Voters, Minorities: Our time has come
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