“Was not their mistake once more bred of the life of slavery that they had been living?—a life which was always looking upon everything, except mankind, animate and inanimate—‘nature,’ as people used to call it—as one thing, and mankind as another, it was natural to people thinking in this way, that they should try to make ‘nature’ their slave, since they thought ‘nature’ was something outside them” — William Morris


Wednesday, April 27, 2011

They Just Can't Believe a Black Man Is Their President

Take it away Mr. President:


3 comments:

Eileen Joy said...

Today I almost crashed my car when I heard about this and then had to listen to Donald Trump go on and on about it, like "it's still a question" even after Obama, embarrassingly, caved in and produced the document. What planet am I on? I'm so ashamed to be American today.

Timothy Morton said...

Yes, but I think the "cave" was effective. It reminds people that he really is under assault. Sometimes it's good to go along with the energy of your opponent. The racism in America has been fully and thoroughly exposed by this.

Bill Benzon said...

Alas, I fear that the birther problem is a deep one. The truth is irrelevant. If it isn't this issue, it would be something else.

It's about the fabric of myths and symbols that holds us together as a nation. It's become very weak over the past half-century and is now unraveling. The prominence of this absurd issue is a symptom of that unraveling, as was the hounding of President Clinton about his sexual life. We need to repair that symbolic fabric, perhaps even to create a new one. Otherwise, it doesn't make any difference who is President or what they're background. Some issue like this will dog them.

I've written more about this dynamic at my blog, New Savanna: The King's Phallus: Gold or Lead?