Romnial

Romnial

by Lori Latrice Martin | special to NewBlackMan (in Exile)

During the 2012 presidential campaign, the term Romnesia was added to the American lexicon. President Obama came up with the term as a way to describe Governor Romney’s apparent “flip flops” on a host of issues. The term, criticized by some on the right as trivial and unbecoming, described what President Obama said was Romney’s “changing up so much, backtracking and sidestepping.” It appears that while the election may be over, and diagnoses of Romnesia are now few, and far between, that Romney, and other members of his party, are suffering from yet another condition, one that could be called Romnial.

Romnial is a condition characterized by series of political denials, which began afflicting Romney and other Republican candidates, even Republican operatives, beginning election night. First, Governor Romney was so convinced that he would win the election that he apparently did not even prepare a concession speech. Romnial. Although the state of Ohio was called for President Obama by watchers at various news outlets, including at Fox News, some on-air analysts and personalities, refused to concede defeat. Even Governor Romney took his time conceding the election, hoping, and perhaps praying that somehow, someway, everyone in the know got it wrong. Romnial.

Governor Romney’s own analysis as to why he lost the election is further proof that he has come down with a case of Romnial. On a conference call to donors and fundraisers, Governor Romney attributed his defeat to the belief that President Obama essentially dangled a host of political gifts before the eyes of selected voters. These voters, according to Romney, already see themselves as victims, who are dependent upon government. These individuals, including young people and people of color, were undoubtedly, included in the now infamous 47%. They, say Romney, believe they are owed an array of unearned and underserved entitlements. Romnial. Romnial has clearly caused some to ignore the broad-based coalition; superior voter turnout machine; and republican gaffes; that led to the downfall of Governor Romney’s presidential aspirations.

As was the case with Romnesia, Romnial also appears to be contagious. Vice President Joe Biden observed that Congressman Paul Ryan had come down with a case of Romnesia. Other Republicans have apparently come down with Romnial. For example, Representative Allen West apparently developed a case of Romnial. West was defeated by Democrat Patrick Murphy, and refused for a time to concede. Legal challenges not only failed, but revealed, according to the Daily News, that West may have garnered less support than shown in the original count. West, also suffered from an apparent case of Romnial. Even more well-known Republicans, like Arizona Senator John McCain have come down with Romnial.

The pre-emptive attack on Dr. Susan Rice, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., led by McCain and others, is reflective of a serious case of Romnial. Michael Tomasky of The Daily Beast, said it best, “In reality land, she’s done nothing that ought to be considered all that controversial. But again, conservatives don’t like the outcome—Democrats having the upper hand on foreign policy and national security—so they’re trying to make her controversial.”

McCain, perhaps still bitter about his loss in 2008 and embarrassed by his party’s showing in 2012, is waging a war with the administration, when there are clearly more important battles to fight. Some have even said that the attack on Susan Rice smacks of racism and sexism, both aimed at her and the nation’s first president of color. Apparently, Romnial can result in political hallucinations and paranoia.

There is hope, not all Republicans appear to be suffering from Romnial. Some Republicans have not only publically refuted comments made by Governor Romney, but they have already started placing political and physical distance between themselves and their former “golden boy”. Even the governors of New Jersey and Louisiana have denounced his comments. Some on the Hill have even expressed a willingness to work with President Obama on a number of issues, including on immigration and the so-called, fiscal cliff.

Whether those afflicted with the most serious cases Romnial will recover remains to be seen, but the mandate that President Obama and his party received on election night, may indicate that they have no choice but to take a shot of reality and a sip of a serum called, truth.

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Lori Latrice Martin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Africana Studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and author of the forthcoming, Black Asset Poverty and the Enduring Racial Divide (First Forum Press, a Division of Lynne Reinner Publishers).

Election 2012: A Political Farmer’s Market

Election 2012: A Political Farmer’s Market

by Lori Latrice Martin | special to NewBlackMan (in Exile)

With Election Day a week away, many are reflecting upon the nation’s past and contemplating the nation’s future. The subject of whether or not President Obama can capture the hearts, minds, and imagination of enough Americans to win a second term has garnered a great deal of attention and print in some of the country’s leading newspapers.

One subject receiving a great deal of attention is whether or not President Obama has taken blacks for granted and whether the loyalty that blacks have shown to the Democratic Party, specifically to the nation’s first black president, has come at a cost.

President Obama’s attention, or lack thereof, to a laundry list of issues facing blacks is routinely compared with that of past administrations. At the same time, blacks scholars critique other black scholars for what they say is a failure to call out the president for turning the proverbial blind eye to matters, including: racial wealth inequality; racial health disparities; the mass incarceration of men of color; unemployment and employment discrimination; and racial differences in academic achievement and educational attainment; to name a few.

Such critiques are often limited in focus and misguided as they involve the comparison of what amounts to political apples and oranges. Not only are comparisons made between the current administration and previous administrations, but also between the days leading up to Election Day 2008 and Election Day 2012.

For one, this president and this presidency is unlike any other in history. The significance of the ascension of a black man to the highest office in the land cannot be overstated, muted, or overlooked. Race is as significant today as it has been in the past. Racism today is alive and well. It may not look like the racism of the days of old, but it is certainly not dead.

To say that race remains very visible marker in America society, is an understatement. Moreover, we must not forget that race is a social construct and as such we continue to give meaning to what it means to have membership in a particular racial group.

Membership is no more voluntary for the president than it is for anyone else. Thus, “the price of a black presidency,” includes the mistrust of a segment of the population still beholden to a narrative that says certain groups are more deserving of benefits and others more deserving of society’s burdens. Consequently, we continue to live in a society that differentiates access to wealth, status, and power on the bases of a number of sociological factors, including race. This system not only predated President Obama’s historic victory in 2008, but also his birth and the births of every one of us in this country.

This country was built upon a very powerful racialized social system that no one election or administration can dismantle, no matter how loud black intellectuals shout or no matter how silent they remain. Whether President Obama yells from his bully pulpit, with his fingers clutched and raised in the air, the system that privileges members of the dominant racial group in this society, over and above other groups, will remain intact.

Election Day 2012 will not be like Election Day 2008, not because President Obama has failed the nation or the black community, but because Election Day 2008 was an historic and unprecedented event, the likes of which may only be comparable to the election of Nelson Mandela after the dismantling of the oppressive Apartheid system in South Africa. No one expected that Mandela would be able to turn right-side up, what had been upside-down for some many years. Similarly, President Obama should not be saddled with the same unattainable expectations. The list of problems President Obama inherited from the previous administration are well documented, as are the list of inequalities, between blacks and whites, the rich and the poor, and men and women, which were written into the nation’s founding documents and principles.

Thus, comparing this president and this election to any other is tantamount to comparing political apples and oranges. Efforts to change societal patterns in fundamental ways will require a radical transformation, not attainable in four-, or even eight years. The groundwork is being laid however, in the uprisings we’ve seen spring up over worker’s rights, health care, education, equal pay, and the like.

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Lori Latrice Martin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Africana Studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and author of the forthcoming, Black Asset Poverty and the Enduring Racial Divide (First Forum Press, a Division of Lynne Reinner Publishers).

Repacking the Invisible Knapsack: White Privilege and the Killing of Trayvon Martin

Repacking the Invisible Knapsack: White Privilege and the Killing of Trayvon Martin
by Lori Latrice Martin | special to NewBlackMan

Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, a now classic work by Dr. Peggy McIntosh, addresses white privilege. Specifically, McIntosh outlines the unearned benefits that whites receive by virtue of their birth. Many whites, says McIntosh, have a difficult time seeing the daily profits associated with being white in America. She adds that while whites may acknowledge that racial and ethnic groups face disadvantages, most have been taught not to see white advantages. She describes the benefits associated with white privilege as “an invisible package of unearned assets,” filled with “special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools and blank checks.”

McIntosh even provides us with a list some of the daily privileges she enjoys as a white woman that her colleagues, friends, and acquaintances of color, rarely experience. She says,

1. I can if I wish arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.
2. If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area, which I can afford and in which I would want to live.
3. I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasant to me.
4. I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed or harassed.
5. I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.

In light of the tragic shooting death of 17-year-old, Trayvon Martin it’s time to revisit the list. The killing of Trayvon, an African-American male, at the hands of 28-year-old George Zimmerman, is an unfortunate reminder of the continuing significance of race. It is a reminder that the election of the nation’s first black president, while historic and powerful, is no match for the enduring racialized social system that has been at the core of American society since the birth of this great nation.

Many of us have been telling anyone who will listen, that race still matters. Such calls were often dismissed by blaming the victim. Unarmed black men who have been met with fatal violent force, (and the list continues to grow), are often vilified. They were, “in the wrong place at the wrong time” or they were “up to no good”.

Trayvon Martin was doing what many other kids were doing on February 26, 2012. He was getting a snack and talking on his cell phone, but for Zimmerman, and others, these very acts, when draped in blackness and clothed in a hooded sweatshirt, arouses suspicion. Now, a mother and father must bury their child.

The killing of Trayvon Martin is heartbreaking. The failure to arrest George Zimmerman is an insult to fair-minded Americans, simply put, it’s an injustice. The circumstances surrounding the killing of young Trayvon Martin, adds more baggage to the invisible knapsack. McIntosh’s list must now also include the following:

1. I can be confident that if I give my son permission to go to the store that he will return unharmed.
2. I can be sure that if my son is harmed, less than 100 feet from my home, that efforts will be made to not only identify my child, but to also notify me.
3. I can be sure that the clothes my son leaves the house in will not be lead others to look upon him with suspicion.
4. I can be confident that, should my son be the victim of a fatal violent crime, that law enforcement will neither assume that he was the aggressor, nor take the word of his killer, without a thorough investigation.
5. I can know that if my son is killed that the killer will be the one tested for the presence of drugs and/or alcohol in his system.
6. I can be sure that, should my son be the victim of a fatal shooting, that individuals and organizations that support me in my effort to seek justice will not be called agitators and racial ambulance chasers.

7. If my son is the victim of a fatal act of violence and there are concerns about how the case is being handled, I can be reasonably sure that mainstream media will provide immediate coverage.

8. If my son is killed, I can be sure that, if 911 tapes exist, they will be released without me having to collect hundreds of thousands of signatures through the use of social media.
9. If my son dies at the hands of another, I can have time to grieve his death and not have to do the investigative work that is commonly done by law enforcement officials.
10. If my son is killed and the identity of his killer is known, I can be sure that the killer will, at the very least, be arrested.

It’s time to unpack the knapsack and get rid of all this racial baggage. Justice for Trayvon Martin!

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Lori Latrice Martin is Assistant Professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice where her research areas include race and ethnicity, wealth inequality and asset poverty. Professor Martin is currently working on a book project about black asset poverty in New York City. Dr. Martin specializes in Demography, Race and Ethnicity, Race and Wealth and Community Development.