Alice Walker on Obama

Parent Cafe
21

<p>marite: When I worked with raped, battered and incested women at a Women’s Crisis Center I could not have said that female oppression is less than race oppression.</p>

<p>And right now minority men still earn more than women and can menace and threaten women.</p>

<p>Does that argue against the fact that many many women enjoy white skin privilege and a luxury life style provided by themselves or their spouses? No, it doesn’t.</p>

<p>That’s why I think that jostling for the most favored victim status is beside the point. Neither should be DENIED votes because of her/his race or gender, though both will.</p>

22

<p>This is a nice example of eloquent drivel. 2 things struck me as incredibly, incredibly stupid:</p>

<p>1) The flippant and remarkably shallow summation of the complicated Palestine/Israel issue as one of Israeli subjugation alone.</p>

<p>2) The outrageous insinuation that Hillary would not be able to have discourse with others because she would bring some kind of racial baggage along with her. Walker says she’s not supporting Obama based on race, yet a simple reading of what she writes begs to differ</p>

23

<p>marite, I did not intend to turn this into a racism vs. sexism debate. I was asking a genuine question about both Clinton and Obama’s dual roles, belonging into a group of oppressed people and oppressors. I agree with mythmom’s post, but I really don’t want to get involved with debating who is more historically oppressed. I just find it disingenuous to oppose Clinton for her privileged white status while overlooking Obama’s male privilege (though I would not use either as a criterium in deciding who will get my vote).</p>

24

<p>I still haven’t recovered from reading the book written by Alice Munro’s daughter, Rebecca Walker. Alice Munro has ZERO credibility with me, even though I support Obama and liked some of Munro’s books, including The Color Purple. </p>

<p>In “Black, White and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self,” Alice Munro’s biracial daughter Rebecca Walker Levine (born from a white Jewish dad who came to her state as a Civil Rights Movement lawyer in the l960’s) represents her mother as an emotionally oblivious and absentee mother. Even as she ramped up her inquiry into Black identity and heritage, the mother (Alice) did nothing to help educate, expose or guide her daughter to Jewish community. No Sunday school, no books, nothing is represented in that home to help her own biracial/bi-religious child understand both sides of her self. </p>

<p>In the quoted article, Alice Walker just threw off that unbalanced one-liner about Israel and the Palestinenas because, I suspect, based on how she BEHAVED for 30 years towards her own daughter…she harbors no respect for the Jewish culture or civilization that is also her daughter’s birthright to explore. </p>

<p>Following her divorce, Alice Walker moved cross-country to San Francisco to find more like-minded friends, women who would nurture her as a writer. She and her husband arranged a bizarre and self-serving custody arrangement that required Rebecca to begin a new school on either coast every two years throughout middle and high school. </p>

<p>Rebecca’s father remarried a Jewish woman who tried to be a positive stepmother to Rebecca, but by then the extremely rebellious teen wouldn’t have any of her, finally throwing the stepmother against a mirror to ensure her ejection from that middle-class, bourgeois household. Finding herself pregnant at age 14, the most helpful thing Rebecca says her mom Alice did for her during those turbulent times was to set up an abortion in San Francisco.<br>
Much of the time, according to her daughter, mom Alice travelled or absented herself from their two-bedroom apartment so the mom could write without distraction.</p>

<p>No, Alice Walker impresses me not at all.</p>

<p>I currently support Obama, and will support either Democrat who takes the nomination that Obama deserves. But as a Jew, I want to point out to fellow Obama supporters that this article by Alice Walker, which I’ve now read 6 times from my leftwing friends, is extremely unsettling to read. She picks out no other political example except Israel, and continues to demonstrate her cold disinterest in Jewish future, including within her own flesh-and-blood daughter. </p>

<p>One reason I do support Obama is he was the first candidate to call for improved relations between American Jews and African Americans, who used to know how to communicate better 40 years ago than today. Alice Walker must be missing the memo from Barack that we’re going to try to bridge gaps between communities. Please let’s try.</p>

25

<p>Mythmom:</p>

<p>White women did not endure the Middle Passage during which more than half of the Africans brought to these shores died. They were not sold and made to breed for the benefit of their masters, they were not separated from their husbands and children, etc…
By the time women received the right to vote in this country, many African-Americans of both genders still could not vote.<br>
An African-American might have been allowed to attend an Ivy League school. He might also have been the only one of his race to do so.
About ten years ago, in the mid-1990s, some African-American students at Harvard were challenged by the university police. Their crime: sitting on the steps of one of the college buildings, talking desultorily. The policeman did not believe they belonged there. The one who took it the hardest was the one who had not previously experienced discrimination (his dad was in the army, and the army has done an exemplary job of integration). No female student would have thus been challenged.</p>

<p>Having said all that, I agree with razorsharp that Alice Walker’s argument in favor of Obama are not convincing. But her experience is important to bear in mind.</p>

26

<p>If a President should be elected based on hardship as Walker suggests, then McCain is the one who should be President. Why? Obama has supposedly suffered as a black person. Clinton has supposedly suffered as a woman. But only McCain has actually been a slave. He was a slave for 5 years in Vietnam. We don’t call it slavery, we give it a nicer name --prisioner of war --, but it was probably as bad or worse than being a slave prior to the civil war. McCain was kepted in a cage and beaten. Walker should be supporting McCain because only McCain has any real idea what it is like to be a slave.</p>

27

<p>Yes, I am not negating that in the least. Not in the least. Slavery and all that is/was attached to it is an abomination. There is no argument.</p>

28

<p>I so agree with your post 21, marite, and with reference to current/recent relations as well.</p>

29

<p>

</p>

<p>Last time I checked the UN created an israeli and palestinian state in 1948. Following the arab led invasion of Israel on the day of it’s creation Israel turned the West Bank over to Jordan and Gaza over to Egypt. Following the 67 war Israel said screw it and occupied both lands. In 05 Israel withdrew all forces from Gaza along with the entire Jewish population. Despite being offered a Palestinian state numerous times the PLO has shown to be a less than credible negotiating partner. </p>

<p>I suggest you take a course on the history of Israel before you jump to conclusions. I took one and it opened my eyes…I went from being a pretty ardent supporter of Palestine againt Zionism to much better informed in the matters and much more sympathetic to Israeli “occupation” since then.</p>

30

<p>Horrible thread posting. Shameful. You guys have said it all.</p>

<p>I’m (very) glad to hear of your change of heart, LaxAttack09. reality is often inconvenient to those who hate Israel. Your story gives me some hope for people.</p>

31

<p>When I read the Alice Walker essay/poem (what was that, anyway?), I had a difficult time trying to pull all the threads of her scattered thoughts together—and they did seem rather scattered. I hardly knew how to react to them, or even understand exactly what it was she was trying to say. A lot of what she said didn’t really make much sense to me. Other than her recollections of the racism she experienced in her youth (memories I could entirely relate to, as I experienced similar things), I couldn’t really grasp where she was going. I think I need to reread what she wrote (though, I’ll admit to being somewhat disinterested in doing so). Her opinions have never held much sway in my mind…:o</p>

32

<p>There are many, many, many people in America who are eager to equate any criticism of Israel as anti-American and/or anti-Semetic. The prevalence of this attitude has led to a blank check in the court of American public opinion on Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians. Israel has committed many, many human rights abuses against the Palestinians. This is fact. Criticizing Israel is such a politically incorrect thing to do that we hold them completely unaccountable for it. It’s not about the history of the Jewish state or Zionism, it’s about how Israel’s unexcusable treatment of Palestinians.</p>

<p>It is sad that Ms. Walker’s brief statement is considered radical, and that asserting that a government should be held accountable for actions that the United State and the United Nations concede to be illegal (which is truly ALL that she asserted) is enough to immediately turn people here away from her entire essay.</p>

<p>In my opinion, the trade embargo with Cuba is reinforced because no one is willing to put their neck out there, admit that it is foolish, and end it. Honestly, any president who tried to end it would probably lose the Florida vote. Crazy country.</p>

33

<p>BandTenHut, here’s how your argument sounds in reverse.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Many around the globe are taught to equate support of Israel with racism and imperialist oppression. </p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Unchallenged presentations of anti-Israeli sentiment are abundant. Israelis have lived under a state of constant seige since l948, characterized by Arab embargo (closing of the Suez canal), raids across borders, sniper-fire, kidnapping of soldiers and civilians, launched missile attacks and homicide-bombers. </p>

<p>To defend against such attacks, territory was occupied for military strategic purpose (West Bank, Gaza, Sinai desert, Golan heights). Sinai and Gaza were abandoned, at one point Sinai in a hope for “land in exchange for peace” and Gaza because the occupation was an impossible heartache for everyone. During occupations in Gaza and the West Bank, Israeli soldiers were frequently attacked in street riots by young boys in an Intifada (revolt) fueled by nationalist propaganda exemplified by Yasser Arafat. Arms were smuggled in from other Arab nations who funded this intifada. </p>

<p>

</p>

<p>For example, Israel created checkpoints along its highways where the occupied territories end and mainland Israel begins, to check incoming cars for smuggled weapons and suicide bombers. Sometimes the checkpoints close off completely, especially after a rainshower of katusha missiles launched by Palestineans in Gaza or the West Bank into mainland Israel. Sometimes, Palestineans endure long wait-times at checkpoints while their vehicles are searched for bombs, particularly in the days immediately after scores of Israelis are killed on the mainland, eating pizza or clubbing on the streets of Tel Aviv or Jerusalem, observing Passover in Haifa, or having a wedding in Netanya. Sometimes the Israeli soldiers yell at the Palestineans at theses checkpoints or shoot at the backs of cars that try to speed through without stopping to be checked. </p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Israel is readily criticised for self-defensive moves. The United Nations originally voted in l948 to establish the modern State of Israel, 3 years after the end of WWII and Nazi concentration camps in Europe. In l948, the U.N. expressed the world’s post-war realization that a modern Jewish state was essential to Jewish survival. Subsequently, votes cast by nations eager to appease Arab nations were quick to condemn Israeli actions that would have been deemed “self-defense” by other
nations. England and America were the rare dissenters to these U.N. votes. </p>

<p>Not all of the world’s criticism has foundation in fact, however. For example, when Israel was criticized by Palestineans for not allowing their ambulances through checkpoints into Israel, Israel had to explain to the world how, during previous weeks, Palestineans had been using ambulances as cover. They smuggled weapons and suicide bombers, hidden in carved out spaces beneath the floorboards of ambulances.</p>

<p>If you heard about Israelis stopping Palestinean ambulances at checkpoints, but never knew why (I just told you why), then you’re a victim of unbalanced reporting.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>War creates human displacement on both sides. Following the establishment of the modern State of Israel in May, l948, approximately 800,000 Jews voluntarily left their homes in Arab nations from Morrocco to Iraq to come to Israel, and were given immediate citizenship as Israelis. That was the whole point of a Jewish state: to be in charge of the government, to open up immigration for Jews living in oppressive regimes worldwide. As the Jews left these Middle Eastern and North African countries, their homes and businesses were taken by the governments of the Arab nations they left, but good riddance. </p>

<p>The fate of Palestineans was quite different. Some went abroad, some to Jordan. Jordan and Egypt, rather than accommodating their Muslim brethren through immigration, told them to stay put on the border of Israel to continue the struggle against the new nation of Israel. Their temporary refugee camps in Gaza and parts of the West Bank have become permanent homes now for 3 generations of Palestineans. The crowding and poverty are terrible. The Arab nations of the Middle East have never been held accountable for their failure to absorb these refugees.</p>

<p>Giving up on the hope of absorption of Palestineans by other Arab nations, within the past l5 years or so, the Israeli government has declared its readiness to exist side-by-side next door to a Palestinean nation, but with two preconditions: recognition of Israel’s right to exist as a sovereign nation, and the government taking steps to halt the violence by Palestineans against Israelis.</p>

34

<p>Are you saying the US is not a major food trader with Cuba? Look it up.</p>

<p>[U.S&lt;/a&gt;. food sales to Cuba hit new peak in 2007 | U.S. | Reuters](<a href=“http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN1557515120080216]U.S”>http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN1557515120080216)</p>

35

<p>

</p>

<p>That’s the way a democracy works. Politicians have to satisfy the desires of the voters of Florida or they lose elections and get tossed out on their tushes. That’s the whole point of the system our founding fathers created. Accountability to the voters.</p>

<p>You seem to be arguing against the very priniciples of a democracy?</p>

36

<p>I guess you missed some of the laws banning Muslims from wearing their garb to schools. See France. If anything Euro governments are anti-religion which is the opposite of what we have here.</p>

37

<p>That was a smokescreen. And yes, but not to the extent that Europe does where it trends to being anti-religion.</p>

38

<p>

</p>

<p>I defy any person to make an intellectually honest argument that I did any such thing. All I was saying is, don’t you think it’s ludicrous that a candidate running for the highest office in the most powerful nation on Earth is forced to support a policy that affects relatively few of his or her country’s citizens, in order to please an immigrant population in a single swing state noted for some of the most bizzare and sensationalist politics on the planet?</p>

39

<p>BandTenHut, it is worth noting that if the Cuban population had settled one state to the west in Alabama, they’d have a tiny fraction of the political power they have now. Accidents of geography are part and parcel of the electoral-college system. I’m not crazy about it, but it isn’t going anywhere.</p>

40

<p>My daughter recently sent me this article and it reminded me of this tread. </p>

<p>I thought it apropos of Ms Walker’s political positions and life-views. It is by her daughter, Rebecca Walker. In the article she takes great exception to the conflict in her mother’s public ideals and her private life. It is worth, I believe, a read. Here are excerpts from the article:</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>[How</a> my mother’s fanatical feminist views tore us apart, by the daughter of The Color Purple author | Mail Online](<a href=“How my mother's fanatical feminist views tore us apart, by the daughter of The Color Purple author | Daily Mail Online”>How my mother's fanatical feminist views tore us apart, by the daughter of The Color Purple author | Daily Mail Online)</p>