The past week has revealed a startling amount of hatred and racist prejudice
emanating from the McCain/ Palin campaign and their supporters.  This is a
pivotal moment for the history of this country and for racial justice.  Its
important we are able to look back at this time and say that the people of
this country did the right thing – expose the Right’s tactic of racist
appeals and reject it!

The following video contains an important message that we need to get out to
communities (especially white communities) across the country.  WE NEED YOUR
HELP!  Please forward this video link to ALL your contacts.  Youtube videos
can take on a “life of their own” and go “viral” (i.e spread exponentially)
if forwarded enough times…  This is a video that all of the country needs
to see:

The video was produced as part of AWARE-LA’s “The Ballot Box and Beyond”
campaign and was created in collaboration with an allied multi-racial
organization, Community Coalition.  Visit www.DoubleTake08.org for more info
about the campaign.

No matter who you are voting for on November 4th…. REJECT THE HATE IN 08!

In Solidarity,
Active Resistance/ AWARE-LA

We commend the Center for Social Inclusion for their work to decode “Dog Whistle Racism” or “symbolic racism. From their blog:

Dog Whistle racism – also known as symbolic racism – is political campaigning or policy-making that uses coded words and themes that appeal to conscious or subconscious racist concepts and frames.

All too often, images, symbols and language are used intentionally and unintentionally in our political elections and policy debates. These trigger unconscious racial stereotypes. The viewer or reader isn’t even aware that he or she is responding to unfounded judgments based on stereotypes rather than facts.

For example, the concepts ‘welfare queen,’ ’states’ rights,’ ‘Islamic terrorist,’ ‘uppity,’ ‘thug,’ ‘tough on crime,’ and ‘illegal alien’ all activate racist concepts that that have already been planted in the public consciousness and now are being activated by purposeful or accidental campaign activities, media coverage, public policy and cultural traditions.

But when symbolic racism is exposed, many people reject it and return to a debate on real issues, not imagined fears. Both research and experience makes clear that when made visible and conscious, symbolic racism loses its power.

Senator John McCain’s campaign has done little to offset these stereotypes. In fact, in some instances, the Republican campaign reinforces or encourages this racist thinking. For example, Governor Sarah Palin last week suggesting that Obama has been “palling around with terrorists,” referring to a long-ago and vague connection between the Senator and former 60′s radical William Ayers

Or in this clip here, where a woman at a McCain rally says “I don’t trust Obama. He’s an Arab,” and John McCain responds: “No, ma’am, he’s a decent family man and citizen.” As if being an Arab and a decent family man and citizen are somehow mutually exclusive! The rage at McCain rallies in the last week often centers on this assumption that Obama is connected to terrorism and that he is a Muslim.

Don’t fall for these racist tactics and rhetoric. We at AWARE_LA encourage everyone to reject the hate in 08. No matter who you vote for, we must stop this racist rhetoric and thinking.

Fortunetaly, others are working on this issue. A non-partisan organization called FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) has launched an important campaign to look at anti-Muslim rhetoric in the news media.

Here is the Letter they’ve sent out:

Help FAIR challenge anti-Muslim smears

This week, FAIR released a first-of-its-kind report profiling 12 top anti-Muslim pundits who regularly project misinformation and innuendo about Muslims through the corporate media.

From talk radio host Michael Savage openly advocating killing 100 million Muslims, to CNN’s Glenn Beck stating that Muslims “will be looking through a razor wire fence at the West” within ten years, the report unmasks the pundits who have spread anti-Muslim fear, bigotry and misinformation in the media.  In the wake of distribution of 28 million copies of an anti-Muslim propaganda film, “Obsession,” to the doorsteps of newspaper subscribers in swing states, the report offers timely intervention. As Islamophobic mud-slinging shifts into high gear just a month before election day, the media’s response will be of critical importance to the nation: Will they continue to enable an entire  religious group to be smeared, or will they uphold standards of responsible journalism?

Your continued support helps us to step up to the challenge of fighting back against media bigotry. Your contribution today expands our outreach efforts [to the report's findings amongst] to journalists, editors and the public, and helps us challenge the media to treat more critically the new bouts of anti-Muslim mud-slinging that we’re sure to see between now and November 4.

Check out the full report at www.smearcasting.com .

We’re just beginning our extensive outreach campaign. Please help us spread the word by forwarding this study to friends and colleagues.  We’ll continue to update the website on coverage of the report and upcoming media appearances by FAIR’s analysts.

Check your local listings to catch Steve Rendall, co-author of the report, on NPR’s On the Media this coming weekend.

Fox News’ coverage of the Obamas’ fist-bump raises serious questions about the implications of such coverage. Why do we need such an elaborate analysis of, what essentially amounts to a goodbye/ good luck send-off gesture? Do we do the same thing when it comes to handshakes?

Of course we don’t because handshakes are the primary greeting among white folks, so therefore they are normal, but “the fist bump” is something that, within the lens of whiteness, is odd or peculiar: it is outside whiteness. More accurately, it is cast as something specific to black folks; not something the majority of white folks would do, much less understand.

Fox’s report sets up the experience of black folks as foreign to what is normal, where normal is equated with whiteness. And the assumption that whiteness is normal is thoroughly racist.

We made this video to point out what it would look like to flip the script on the racist assumptions of Fox’s report. While there are some subtle critiques of white supremacy, we primarily wanted to point out how patently absurd Fox’s coverage of “the fist bump” is, not to mention have a little fun in the name of white anti-racism!

What’s helpful about this poll, from a white anti-racist perspective, is that it focuses on various attitude of white Democrats in particular, how they view the experience of African Americans and how that impacts their vote. As someone who cares about building a culture free of racism among white people, it’s helpful to know how many liberal to centrist Democrats view race.

The survey provides statements about “the Black experience” and tests how much white democrats agree:

“Irish, Italians, Jews and other minorities worked their way up; blacks should do the same without any special favors.”

42 % white Democrats AGREED with this statement;

61% of those are voting for Obama.

“Over the past few years, blacks have gotten LESS than they deserved.”

20% white Democrats agree;

90% of them are voting for Obama.

“Generations of slavery have created conditions that make it difficult for blacks to work their way our of the lower class.”

27% of white Democrats agreed with that statement;
93% of those are voting for Obama.

These numbers communicate that most white Dems see racism as a Black person’s problem, and only a minority of white Dems view racism as a systemic issues. The title of the survey itself reflects this “race-as-a-personal-issue”: it’s called “Barack Obama’s race problem.”

I think “the race problem” actually belongs to white people. Such variant responses and perspectives among white Democrats, and also the general denial about the realities facing Black communities across the nation, speaks to the way institutional and cultural white privilege distorts many white people’s understanding of race relations in the U.S.

Because white people don’t have to think about race, we can fail to see clearly the grim realities facing people of color communities– realities that take root in generations and generations of state-facilitated poverty, trauma, and disenfranchisement.

As an example of how white folks can’t or don’t have to see race: an African American friend of mine recently pointed out how the stereotype that “Black people steal” follows her into every retail store. She has been followed, watched, and has witnessed other Black customers being followed. She makes sure to buy something every time she goes to a convenience store (even if she doesn’t find what she wants) JUST so the store owners don’t accuse her of stealing. As a white person, rarely does my race ever factor into considering how I’ll be treated.

Just recently, I caught part of a documentary of the Ku Klux Klan on the History channel. The history of the Klan is heinous in all respects, but what stuck with me is that in the 1920′s the Klan was 5 million members strong and brutal lynchings of Blacks were common place throughout the South. The 1920s! We are sadly mistaken if we think that that sort of trauma disappears in a generation or two.

Indeed, racism is a white person’s problem… and responsibility. And in that responsibility, there is opportunity to rectify the misdeeds of the past, and be active agents of change and healing in developing healthy, multiracial communities.

Come one, Come All! Join AWARE-LA, the labor Community Strategy Center, Community Coalition, Youth Justice Coalition and more TO MAKE RACIAL JUSTICE HISTORY!

This election season has brought us a historic opportunity to take the conversation about racial justice to the next level. No matter who wins on November 4th, the real work for change is in organizing our communities!

Join AWARE-LA for workshops and a community panel in how race and racism is REALLY playing out in our communities and on the ballot…. and how we sustain the excitement to “make a change” beyond election day.

See you on October 25th!!