President of the Diaspora

So, what I want to know is, how is our current president expected to "[tamp] down the emotions of the case" as Peter Baker and Helene Cooper report in today's New York Times?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/25/us/politics/25gates.html

"The case" being the arrest of the "belligerent" Dr. Gates on his own front porch in Cambridge, MA. Everyone is taking sides and placing bets. I'm in. Post-racial America has gone up in smoke and down in the ashes of illusion. History has risen up to greet us once again. The systemic nature of race, class, law and 'order' is staring us down head on, like an oncoming train. How will we transform ourselves in time to avoid the crash and burn? Stay tuned and fasten your seat belts because the ride promises to get even bumpier, as if that were possible. I'm keeping my eyes wide open and my pen poised to sift through the rhetoric and the behavior.

Law Enforcement

This week I've heard enough law enforcement stories to last me for a lifetime. My friends had a visit from law enforcement when they failed to make a prenatal care appointment (no kidding!). Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. was handcuffed on his front porch as he and the driver of his airport transit car were suspected of breaking and entering his own home in Cambridge, MA. Police state, police brutality, abuse of power, got a gun got a badge got a uniform makes right—all of this is swirling around and forming more poetry. "Land of the free and home of the brave," my ass. The 'free' are those who abuse power and the brave are those who refuse to believe that the 'free' are anything more than cowards. The true brave and free are those who speak truth to power and stand for something of value. What do you have to say? Who do you speak truth to? What do you stand for?

Are we ready?

I had dinner, drinks, smiles and belly laughs with two very wonderful friends on Friday evening. It was a delight to have conversations about things and people that are interesting, fascinating, compelling, and sometimes maddening. It was a joy to laugh, talk, wonder and commiserate about things and people I really do care about. It was sublime to sit with people who are compassionate and passionate about the world and the work that they are doing in it. It was sheer bliss to be in the presence of two women educators and writers who give a damn about something other than their navels.

In the midst of our verbal meandering the question of whether the country (the people, not the rulers) is ready for Obama as president. Are we more ready for Obama than we are for Hilary? Or put more simply, are we more ready for a Black man than we are for a white woman as president? I emphatically said that we aren't ready for a Black man as president. In that moment I couldn't find the words to explain why, but I just know that we aren't.

The first thing that came to mind is the fact that driving while black or brown continues to be an issue for so many people. It's also an integral part of the rite of passage for certain young men in this country. Police, highway patrol, sheriffs, and other (usually) white men believe it is their God-given right and a matter of routine to pull over cars driven by or ridden in by black and brown men. This is only one symptom of what's beneath the surface of America's collective conscious. The knee-jerk responses of the unconscious reveal a lot of unfinished business in a personal and collective sense. What is routine can sometimes be motivated by emotions that we're not aware of. I'm talking fear. Why might any person in the United States be afraid of or angry with a black man in a position of power? Talk amongst yourselves about the possible answers to that question.

Then I started talking about the fact that so much of what's lurking beneath the surface of all of our conscious minds about race is never discussed. The same is true for gender, but since I've been blessed to have both issues intimately intertwined with my day to day life and the legacies I've inherited, it's not possible for me deal with them separately. However, that's a topic for another post. Or for an essay, article or book.

There's never been any healing done around all of the history. There's a legacy of discomfort with the mere idea of black men holding positions of power. And have you noticed how many high profile people of color are forced to take the fall for their corrupt and inept bosses? One doesn't have to even jog one's memory to think of two or three names.

J told me that I should write about this. I'm just getting started.