Friday, January 11, 2008
Nappy-Headed Candidates
Andrew Cuomo may or may not be regretting his oblique referrals to Obama's hopemongering as "shuck and jive"--he was kind of right, and heck, I'm mentioning him by name--but I really don't get what all the niggling is about. Ted Danson doing blackface is racially offensive. Jimmy the Greek talking about the physical prowess of the African race is racially offensive, though wouldn't you be disappointed if you tuned into a guy on the radio named "Jimmy the Greek" and found out he was a florist in the West Village? Imus, well, anyone who even looked at him could see he was all id and no ego. But Andrew Cuomo, the lion cub of one of the last great paleoliberals?
Look, our language is full of words and phrases built on the profane as well as the sacred. A recent new favorite of mine is a word used by doctors to refer to the process of removing damaged skin from a wound: debridement. Who said medical terminology was dull? Anyway, there comes a point when a word in practical terms ceases to make reference to the sexual orientation of the sitting archduke of Schleswig-Holstein, and becomes part of the more general argot, its arcane roots a source of amusement for us word-nerds. As an aside, if your name is Bob Smith, and the doctor tells you that you have Bob Smith's Disease, you know you're seriously fucked.
Here's the Real Beef Though
According to an unnamed Democrat operative on TNR's blog (we repeat--you decide!), Obama's candidacy is being received with less than hosannas in the highest by segments of the latino community.
This reflects a long-brewing and contemptibly under-reported aspect of race in America. Latino gangs like the MS-13 are displacing black gangs for control of the streets thoughout the country (don't read this LA Weekly article if you scare easily), while higher birthrates mean that Hispanics could in a generation or so replace blacks as the majority minority. There's also the added bonus that they are well on their way to achieving "good minority" status alongside Asians, due to significantly higher levels of family stability, education, and employment.
Obama's candidacy is fascinating in that threatens to expose many of the faultlines that are hidden by virtue of black and latino politics operating as wholly-owned subsidiaries of the Democratic party. Things will get really interesting as the immigration issue becomes more fully ingested into the debate, because while working-class whites are certainly impacted by the flood of Central American immigrants, the group most deeply impacted are probably lower-class black Americans, who would otherwise see significantly higher wages and job opportunities.
The sense of shared persecution that originally married these two groups is becoming obsolete. In that sense the ecumenical appeal of Barack Obama and Deval Patrick may represent the end of an evolutionary path. ¶ 12:48 PM
Andrew Cuomo may or may not be regretting his oblique referrals to Obama's hopemongering as "shuck and jive"--he was kind of right, and heck, I'm mentioning him by name--but I really don't get what all the niggling is about. Ted Danson doing blackface is racially offensive. Jimmy the Greek talking about the physical prowess of the African race is racially offensive, though wouldn't you be disappointed if you tuned into a guy on the radio named "Jimmy the Greek" and found out he was a florist in the West Village? Imus, well, anyone who even looked at him could see he was all id and no ego. But Andrew Cuomo, the lion cub of one of the last great paleoliberals?
Look, our language is full of words and phrases built on the profane as well as the sacred. A recent new favorite of mine is a word used by doctors to refer to the process of removing damaged skin from a wound: debridement. Who said medical terminology was dull? Anyway, there comes a point when a word in practical terms ceases to make reference to the sexual orientation of the sitting archduke of Schleswig-Holstein, and becomes part of the more general argot, its arcane roots a source of amusement for us word-nerds. As an aside, if your name is Bob Smith, and the doctor tells you that you have Bob Smith's Disease, you know you're seriously fucked.
Here's the Real Beef Though
According to an unnamed Democrat operative on TNR's blog (we repeat--you decide!), Obama's candidacy is being received with less than hosannas in the highest by segments of the latino community.
This reflects a long-brewing and contemptibly under-reported aspect of race in America. Latino gangs like the MS-13 are displacing black gangs for control of the streets thoughout the country (don't read this LA Weekly article if you scare easily), while higher birthrates mean that Hispanics could in a generation or so replace blacks as the majority minority. There's also the added bonus that they are well on their way to achieving "good minority" status alongside Asians, due to significantly higher levels of family stability, education, and employment.
Obama's candidacy is fascinating in that threatens to expose many of the faultlines that are hidden by virtue of black and latino politics operating as wholly-owned subsidiaries of the Democratic party. Things will get really interesting as the immigration issue becomes more fully ingested into the debate, because while working-class whites are certainly impacted by the flood of Central American immigrants, the group most deeply impacted are probably lower-class black Americans, who would otherwise see significantly higher wages and job opportunities.
The sense of shared persecution that originally married these two groups is becoming obsolete. In that sense the ecumenical appeal of Barack Obama and Deval Patrick may represent the end of an evolutionary path. ¶ 12:48 PM
