October 22, 2008
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Getting Personal – Religion and Race
NOTE: This post is both on my Xanga site and the smaller blog I’ve started up on my Kizyr for Obama page.
I’m sure you’ve heard the good news by now, about Colin Powell’s endorsement of Barack Obama (BBC link). I mean, this is incredible as-is, for the number of reasons he cited. But, there’s something that Powell said in particular that really struck a personal note, and that I really, really appreciated hearing:
“I’m also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but what members of the [Republican] Party say… such things as ‘Well, you know that Mr Obama is a Muslim’.
“Well the correct answer is, ‘He’s not a Muslim, he’s a Christian, he’s always been a Christian’. But the really right answer is, “What if he is?’ Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer is ‘No’, that’s not America.”Powell touched upon something that has been bothering me since the election season began. There’s no easy, or calm way to say it, except… when the —— did my religion become an insult?
This idea that somehow being Muslim is bad, that choosing another religion besides (evangelical) Christianity makes you an bad person… It really infuriates me–to the extent that I really don’t know where to begin. Now, I did grow up with a little bit of this; I’m no stranger to being made fun of because of my religion, or my race, and I’ve been called some very unkind names in the past. So, it doesn’t surprise me that there are many people who buy into this. What does surprise me, however, is how this has persisted all the way through the election.
Do they not believe in the freedom of religion?
Do they believe in the freedom of religion, but think that mine is an illegitimate one?
Are they afraid of anything, or anyone, that believes something different?There’s a natural human tendency to fear what we don’t understand. And, there’re plenty of people who have been fed this idea that all 1 billion Muslims in the world are out to get them, or we’re all part of some vast, global conspiracy. When I run into that level of ignorance, well, I just avoid it and get on my way. But, I don’t have to worry about people voting for me–in fact, that’s specifically the reason I’ll never go into politics.
McCain Versus His Campaign
On a related note, a couple of weeks back, there was something pretty impressive I thought McCain did. Unfortunately, I think it’s a response to a problem for which he’s in part responsible, so he doesn’t get any “points” for it in my mind. But I’m still impressed:
McCain Calls for Respect for Opponent. Crowd Boos.
To summarize: First, McCain went out on a limb and publicly declared his respect (respect, not agreement nor support, just respect) for his opponent. Second, there was his famous line in response to one pitifully-misguided woman’s claim that Obama is Arab (and implication that all Arabs are bad): “No ma’am… he [Obama] is a decent family man, a citizen.”.
I have to give credit to McCain for this. How would you respond to someone who’s so blind to the obvious? McCain did the best he could, and went out on a limb to do it. Unfortunately, this is the product of his own campaign. He’s hired the same people who smeared him back in the 2000 campaign to help him win in 2008. The tone of his campaign up until now has served to instill fear of Obama–and, the different color of his skin, the unfamiliarity of his name, the fact that his upbringing has given him a lot of international experience, have, then, become targets of that fear. As a result, trying to cool down the crowd at this point is too little, too late.
I still think that McCain would rather have been respectful from the beginning. But, that’s not how he’s run his campaign. And so, while I respect him for this isolated moment, I can’t respect him otherwise–especially when his campaign has tacitly accepted, and even encouraged, denigration of my faith.
I started actually writing about issues like this because certain aspects of this election have gotten personal for me. This is one of them. Additionally, there are many related positive reasons for my support of Obama, such as the fact that his campaign, with its focus on inclusion and acceptance, has stood as a marked contrast.
Next update, how about we talk about “the real America”? KF
