A Loathsome Day On Parade
MY HEART RACED faster and faster and when it was over I…I let the sadness wash through me as it had to for a few moments. The bold ignorance and hate and bigotry was…terrifying. And sad. And loathesome. And real. But not new. This energy takes people’s lives every day in some part of this land. But maybe we move closer to a new time. And simply that possibility is inspiring.
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SPEAKING OF THROES AND SPITTING AND HISSING, this short montage of McCain Palin disciples reacting to Obama supporters is just amazing.
Watching, my heart raced faster and faster and when it was over I…I let the sadness wash through me as it had to for a few moments. The bold ignorance and hate and bigotry is…terrifying. And sad. And loathesome. And real. This is really a part of our nation. And it’s been in the air and the water and the books and the tvs and movies and my own days in various forms for all my life. This energy takes people’s lives every day in some part of this land. And it is the same energy that inspired me to begin El Grito, after all. It was just pointed at Mexicans, not Muslims, “Socialists,” “Communists, ” or what most of that is code for these days: African Americans.
How do we leave behind this type of view? How do we cut it loose? It has been a part of the USA from the start. Do we advance past it, heal past it just by living and talking about these things? Time passing? Natural change?
We are doing it now, aren’t we? Step by step.
Fear, yes. Loathing, yes. Revulsion, yes and sadness, too. But I am also very excited because I feel we actually move closer to purging—no…simply engaging, or recognizing—some of the ghosts here in even these instances as of late, these spiritually sulphurous expulsions of violent energy and racism. At least on a large, collective level. Part of that shift in dialogue and awareness is vastly facilitated by the Internet, of course. And we move closer not by electing a black man per se, but rather by meeting these conflicts together and suddenly being forced to discuss them (which of course only rise because of Obama’s candidacy). When I first wrote that piece about The Haunted Land, I don’t know, even, if Obama had begun to run. In this short, short span of time, we have confronted ideas in the public dialogue that seem to have hurled us huge distances forward. (And a large part of that has been Senator Obama, too.) Perhaps only in relation to the progress I felt I had seen in my own sentient lifetime (again, very short!), but yet…I feel more hope than I did when I wrote that Haunted Land entry. Not because of a logo on a blue press pass stuck to my corkboard (I have the Hillary creds up there too!) but because I didn’t imagine I’d see these moments play out in front of me. As scary as they are. They are surreal to me. Because all I can really associate them with—in the very political frame this hate exists in here—is what I’ve seen on film of the civil rights struggle.
Of course it is good not to let a YouTube world seem to be all the world. What is isolated into a frame becomes vast. An uplifting thought is that this is definitely the minority in our country! That’s how I see it. Not blacks, browns, gays, others. The real minority here are these hateful, ignorant fools. Sadly, Bush and his evil cohorts tapped into the darker parts of the human psyche and really scrambled some brains and pulses. But as scary as it can feel when this crowd projects their own fears upon us, we can at least take comfort in the idea that they are not the model of the future. They are remnants of the past.
Yet this, combined with the ongoing assault on mi gente…it is scary. It makes me angry. It’s a dangerous time. But it gives me hope, too. Turbulence is a signature of change. Always I stand ready with my chocolate amigo@s. Now, more than ever, I want to lend what I can to them. And, siempre, mi gente.
And you!
Tags: Change, Fear, Hope, John "Racist" McCain, Muslims, Racism, Sarah "Fascist Betcha" Palin
Posted in African Americans/blacks, Citizen Journalism, Cultura, Hate Groups, History, Indigenous, Mexico, Race for 2008, Republicans, The Long War on the Indigenous, United States Politics, Violence, White Supremacy
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uh oh! okay! i’ll do my best to hit this soon. thank you.
What a perfect description of the physical reaction to seeing such horrific displays of “American patriotism”. I have such intense visceral reactions to that kind of hatred, especially when it’s been transferred to children.
Why is it not considered abuse to poison children that way?
Unfortunately, I live in the thick of mentality like that. My voting experience was even sullied by the mouths of bigots… ok, well maybe just one, but I was genuinely hoping to make it through the line and to the booth without incident. Alas, I found myself having to firmly correct the ignorant once again… not to mention practice those ever-valuable anger management techniques.
I do not disdain my citizenship, in fact I am often shocked when people ask me if I plan to give it up after I expatriate. Of course I love my country and what it stands for, and I hope (and believe) that soon enough our Commander in Chief will be a true reflection of our country (and not just our elite). I am grateful, however, that my daughter will grow up around people who will not look down on her for her skin tone, her dual languages or her culture.
i don’t know yet how to “love a country.” never met one. i’ve lived in a number of states and cities as i’ve grown and aged. and i know i love parts of this land more than others. and for different reasons. but when i meet that type of energy anywhere, it’s gross and i reject it.
i am glad for your daughter, too.
Hrmmm… my statement that I love my country was not at all meant to imply that I accept the hateful, classist, racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, dangerously nationalistic and hateful mentality found in it sometimes. I merely meant I’m deeply emotionally attached to this country and did not have reason to realize it to this extent until faced with leaving it. At the same time, having love for my country doesn’t mean I agree with it, or even necessarily like where it’s heading at times. The beautiful thing is, there are people here who are working hard to change it.
I don’t know if that served to clarify anything or not.
i think i got ya. but i dont think i feel the same, is all. maybe once i live in mexico, spain, germany, france or other places (guatemala would be nice) i can then compare. but i dont’ know what “my country” is, really. even though i’ve lived on both coasts west and east, and in northern as well as mid-western and southern states. i dont know that i love my “country.” i love people, i love rivers and beaches, i love the sun and the woods. i love the village in nyc, i love miami beach and ft. lauderdale, i love orlando and san diego and iowa city and the woods of montague, NJ. i love brooklyn and lake minnewaska and i love the trees of oregon. but i just dont know what a “country” is yet.
i would move from here if i had the money, sure. i’d try some other place out. i feel no need to be rooted here. i dont “belong” to the USA or to Mexico or any government. i’m just a creature with no wings who woke up on a piece of land i later learned was called “America.” so maybe i have to know Not-America to feel I love “America.” or maybe there is not a wire in me that connects the heart to a nation-state.
beautiful as always, Nezua.
you perfectly captured the best part of this campaign: for a change, it is the Haters who are now in the minority.
of course this means the Haters will get much more vitiolic in their hate, they are not used to this outcome. i think we need to, while not ignoring the Haters, also train our focus on the beautiful things and awakenings that many in our country are celebrating.
this is a VERY special time in America, the people who read and write progressive hopeful blogs should all enjoy it, after all, you are the ones who helped get us to this place. sincerest thanks
At the end of the video and the blog my only reaction as a half in half out kind of person is merely visceral. I watch as these people, who seems as though they feel they’ve been backed into some social or moral corner and can only laugh, and no it’s not because of schadenfreude (at least not entirely). Really it’s because one of my first lessons as a child was “history will repeat itself”. It seems though that yes, this is a necessary dance, that is courting the coming of change. People will always wage war: literal or figurative, big or small; internal or external, and depending on the situation, sometimes one will lead to the other. It’s all about taking these things in stride and sometimes even those who ask for change, who fight for it, forget that or don’t know it to begin with. This is just how I see it.
yes, sometimes i can intellectualize these things, but in this case it was a visceral reaction for me (tho not “mere.”)
“really its because one of my first lessons as a child…” you’re a funny one, obi wan. i’m coming up on twice your age.
thanks charles.
Then that just makes me feel like I’m 22 going on 50. lol
yeah…i think maybe i’m 39 going on 9. or maybe 390. i fluctuate from moment to moment. anyway, enjoy the feeling of surety. if you are lucky it will fade.
esta cabrona la cosa. That’s what abuelo use to say anyways… hahah..
Thanks for this Nez!
I find myself trying to keep all this hate from sucking me into hating right back. This helps!!!
And it also reminds me of what Derrick Jensen talked about in his book “The Culture of Make Believe” on the transparency of hate. When the transparency is stripped away – the hate is laid bare for all to see. We’re certainly seeing it these days, but it looks like more people are rejecting it than buying in.
Down here, where there are real socialists (and fascists, too), the whole “Obama is a socialist” screed seems surreal.
The Socialists worry as much — if not more — about an Obamista “economic and institutional hegemony” (i.e., the usual attempts to control LA resources through U.S. financial sources and domination of international bodies) than about McCain’s “territorialismo”. In other words, Obama is just seen as a “kinder, gentler” version of neo-colonialism.
While Obama is obviously the better candidate (and will be the better U.S. President), the U.S. isn’t about to turn socialist, though if it becomes a little less Fascist wouldn’t be a bad outcome.
i’m sure its been not so long you cant remember, bro, it feels surreal up here too! how ridiculous. anyway, thats just a whistle to the old folks. that’s not a term that scares a single person under 50 or 60 that i can imagine.
and i do agree on your final thoughts!
Hola Nez, y muchas gracias para compartir su experiencia con nosotros.
I especially give you major props for having the stomach (and self-control) to sit through an entire video featuring such hate-filled, Manifest Destiny lovin’ vitriol from the McCain-Palin camp. I doubt I could do it, personally. Palin in particular is so full of hate and bile towards this country’s indigenous peoples and African-Americans, she approaches the rhetoric used by the racist 19th-century British imperialists, who spoke about how they were going to subjugate and civilize (aka mass slaughter) all those “benighted” darkies in India and Africa, while their Anglo counterparts in North America did the same to the Meso-American “darkies” in what’s now the US Southwest.
The good news is that at least here around LA, seems like people of all hues are favoring Obama. There are still plenty of Anglo James K. Polk worshippers who hate us brown and black people so much that they’re backing the bigoted Palin (who seems to be the real focus of the GOP ticket).
But most of my White amigos are not only voting for Obama, but spending their evenings and weekends volunteering for him (though most of them describe themselves as German or Hungarian, for example– these folks hate the “Anglo” description as much as we do).
Still, we gotta be on the lookout for all the hi-jinks and vote theft that the Rethuglicans are still planning for November 4th– things like putting obstacles up in minority communities to prevent voting, blocking ballot access, tampering with voting machines, pushing employers to refuse to let minorities vote and of course, purging the voter rolls.
Remember that by federal law, any jurisdiction with greater than 5% Latino population is *required* to have ballots available en español, and furthermore, employers are forbidden by law from preventing their employees from going to vote– both access provisions that the GOP is desperately trying to thwart.
If you all have any parientes o amigos dealing with such crap, make sure to notify the local Obama camp, who will sic a team of lawyers on the company and sue them into bankruptcy for breaking federal law.
Also, if you can, vote early before Election Day itself– in the West especially, most states have early voting provisions that’ll cut down on the need to wait in line.
Viene pronto la hora para nuestra gente, y desde 2008, los políticos en este país sabrán que los Latinos tienen el poder decidir el liderazgo aquí!
i’m not sure why i didn’t pass this video by. you are right! ugly. couldnt turn away.
yeah…ive filled out my ballot. sealed up. just need to drop it in the box or at the building myself, which i will try to do tomorrow.
gracias for dropping these energies and information and reminders.
and word. sabrán que los latinos tienen eso poder…y pienso they already do. we just have to follow through now.
almost time!
Thanks, Nezua. Another good post. We must never turn away from the ugliness of irrational hate. We must observe it and bear witness that it does exist in order to combat it. Yes, I agree, to subject children to this kind of hate should be classified as child abuse. These parents hold their hatred above the love they may feel for their children.They see nothing wrong with their biogtry and hatred. They were taught by their parents and desperately want to pass it on to their own youngsters. But, change is coming.
[...] Hattie. And on my bold remarks above, please see also Nezua for a kinder, gentler, and much better documented [...]
These people make me physically ill.
You might want to check your ads- for some reason I keep seeing McCain pop-ups. And given the tone of this post, that seems very odd.
its nice to meet you! yes, those people make me sick too. thanks for looking out for my ads. none should “pop up.”
i was posting a response to this (oct 25th) when my lap top had a melt down…it did not go thru. i am thinking this video was too much; as when restarting my ex
lap top, it from then on, literally screams as it boots up and became objectionable in my use. my ex 
lap top sounds like i felt after i watched this. i am not watching it again, and will save my new/used lap top from the trauma, (and me too).
it is good to be forewarned, and therefore aware, to this sickness of ignorance. thanks for being the scout you are nezua.