There was a story from the Chicago Tribune about Margo Howard--daughter of the late “advice” columnist Ann Landers--who slighted the Spanish-language television station Telemundo after its reporter tweeted something about deliberations in the Rod Blagojevich retrial being in their seventh day, as opposed to the first trial's 14 days. Howard tweeted back “Not sure why Telemundo cares. Their soap operas off?” Illinois state representative Deborah Mell, sister of Blagojevich’s wife Patti, responded “Wow. That is so racist,” to which Howard shot back "Not racist at all, & not meant to be. Y would People in Mexico care? & they ARE known for their shows." The Telemundo reporter who initiated this little exchange had to remind Howard that Telemundo is an American television station broadcasting in Spanish, and has been covering local news in Chicago for 25 years.
What does this little story tell us? First of all, it tells us a great deal about Margo Howard. Howard, like many “real” Americans, obviously feels contempt for "Mexicans" and what in her mind constitutes “Mexican” culture, which implies an apparently child-like lack of interest in the issues of the day. This dismissive attitude obvioulsy explains why there is so much license in engaging in dehumanizing propaganda. Secondly, Howard apparently believes that Latinos—even those who are U.S. citizens—live in an entirely separate world from the “mainstream,” or rather prefers that they do. They have no business “butting-in” in “real” American business, even though they are the largest minority group in the country (over 30 million who are U.S. citizens) and even have soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is a function not of reality, but of her own prejudices. While I admit that soap operas on Spanish-language television tend to be “racy” relative to American soap operas, what I tend to notice about them is that everyone seems to be white, quite apart from the stereotypical “little brown one” in white American paranoid fantasy. On the other hand, people who have actually examined the content of Spanish-language television report that far from being ill-informed, viewers are provided news content that tends to be much more socially and politically proactive, and news that the white American media prefers to keep hush-hush.
It is interesting to note that Howard writes for a website called “Women On the Web,” where gossip columnists like Liz Smith pretend to be political paladins. A “Mr.WoW”—“he” doesn’t actually have a name “he” is willing to disclose—has this to say about recent comments by Barack Obama:
“Obama said that the thought has crossed his mind that ‘one term was enough.’ And he revealed that if he said to Michelle and the kids, ‘You know what guys, if I want to do something different,’ they would be fine. ‘They’re not invested in ‘daddy being president’ or ‘my husband being president.’ REALLY?!! I don’t give a rat’s ass if Michelle Obama is invested in her husband’s presidency. I didn’t vote for Michelle or their two children. I voted for him. She can go off and do the Jackie Kennedy thing — clothes and foreign visits and flirtations…I wasn’t even that invested in Obama. But others were, deeply. What a disappointment for those who put their heart and soul into Obama; those who thought he was putting his own heart and soul on the line…What kind of fire in the belly of voters does Obama think he can light, with his own belly so empty and weary?”
Now, I admit that Obama does seem a little laid-back at times, but there are worse ways of being, and given the constant barrage of racially incendiary “commentary” by Fox News—and often repeated on CNN without comment—I think his restraint is nothing less than admirable. Obama is forced to always walk that racial tightrope, avoiding saying or doing the “wrong” thing lest (white) people get the wrong "impression"; he can’t be seen as helping unduly the “undeserving”—i.e. “his” people. The tendency to downplay his accomplishments, and the fact that a majority of Americans were ignorant enough to buy all the propaganda lines of the right and vote for Republicans in the mid-term elections, only goes to show that voting on paranoia and prejudice only makes fools of people. The Republicans have once more shown us that when it comes to domestic crisis, they’d rather just sit back and watch ordinary people suffer. Remember their “file not found” health care “reform” plan? It’s still not found. I also find it immensely fascinating that the so-called “liberal” or “progressive” critics of Obama have failed to discern that their “influence” on public debate is next to zero (thank you very much), and has been no help at all to the president even when he has pushed progressive agendas. Furthermore, the ironic thing about the critics of his handling of the economy is that while their target audience is white America, there is still a great disparity along racial lines; the May unemployment figures showed that white men and women 20 and over continue to have the lowest unemployment rates—7.6 and 6.9 percent respectively—while black males in the same group have a 17.5 percent rate.
With “friends” like these, who needs enemies? I supposed it goes without saying that a website that serves women (and employs at least one contributor who has a racial bias against Latinos) has an alternative vision. Need we ask? After unloading the latest gossip on Hollywood celebrities, Smith opines “However, it is Mrs. Clinton who intrigues. Many still think this woman subliminally seeks the presidency sooner rather than later. With the economy stymied and the job situation desperate, Barack Obama is vulnerable. It’s nice that Osama Bin Laden is dead, but you can’t run for re-election on the body of a dead terrorist.” You’d think Smith prefers that he was still around so Hillary could get a crack at him and hog all the credit. After listening to a recent Republican debate, Smith gushes that Hillary “could eat them both up and spit them out without so much as appearing to chew.” You think so? She didn’t do so hot when she was debating other Democrats.
I have no illusions about the world I live in, and I’m certain Obama doesn’t either. Clinton’s supporters apparently do.
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