hope

Myrtle Strong Enemy, 101, waits for US Democratic presidential candidate and US Senator Barack Obama, (D-IL), to speak in Crow Agency, Montana May 19, 2008. Strong Enemy is the oldest woman in the Crow Nation. REUTERS/Rick Wilking

Image and quote from Daily Kos.

Hope was the theme of Bill Clinton's successful campaign. Hope is the theme of Barack Obama's seemingly successful campaign. Perhaps the above picture best illustrates what this means.

Of all groups that make up "America," few need hope more than Native Americans. I am in the middle of a book called 1491 that discusses what the Americas were like before Columbus and the impact of European colonization. By some estimates 95% of the population of the Americas died in the century after 1492. The complete destruction of morale that even a fraction of that kind death rate entails is still a part of Native American culture from Alaska down to Peru. Through much of the Americas Native Americans are nearly powerless, often exploited, and often hopeless. Which is why movements like the Zapatistas in Mexico and people like Juan Evo Morales Ayma of Bolivia are so important.

LAST WEEK we watched a young man (whom one person wrote me and called "arrogant") engage the democratic process as he questioned Hillary Clinton during her Town Rally at the South Eugene High School (April 4, 2008). The bold student wanted to know if when all was said and done the Senator was more interested in her own candidacy than preserving or encouraging the viability of the Democratic Party's eventual as-of-yet-unselected nominee. In Part 4, this conclusion to our four part series, she responds.

(Please excuse the audio buzz that can be heard for aprx. the first 50 seconds.)

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4

The latest video by Oregon's Official MTV Choose or Lose Street Team 08 Citizen Journalist, Nezua.

Clicking the picture above will take you to the video page.

Crossposted to The Unapologetic Mexican and OpEdNews.

Some birracial negroes like Barack and me have what I like to call "the birracial strut". It is the kind of strut or body language that seems always relaxed, especially if the room is filled with white people.

I've been told more than a couple of times that my body language and demeanor is jolting to white people who don't necessarily expected to have a black latina talking to them as an equal. Actually, the people who have pointed it out as a positive have described it as "a breath of fresh air" or "a pleasant surprise". I just walk into room, make myself comfortable and dispense with the inanities of social expectations. To a lot of people who have not had the joy of socializing regularly with people "outside their tribe", this demeanor and way of being in society can be quite calming.

Yet there's the times that this same exact demeanor is described as arrogant in a "how dare you talk to your betters", sort of way. And even in the black community it is considered more uppity than the uppity negroes that Chris talks about in his post-Iowa post. I've been called an uppity nigger by black people.

It's not that biracial negroes socialize in a completely different way than black or white people. It's just that we socialize as equals to both black, whites (and usually any other race).

We don't see distinctions based on racial categories because in our mind there are none. In our minds, we are white. Not just "also white", but "white".

Think about it. The first expression of love for a biracial negro like Barack came from his white mother.

Biracial negroes like Barack Obama suckled from the tits of white mothers. It was our mother's eyes, lips, hair, voice and smell we fell in love. It was a the face of a white woman that we first gazed into and learned to love.

In a case like me, I look like a carbon copy of my mother. I have my mother's face with brown skin and brown eyes. By the same token, my mother has my face with white skin and blue eyes.

Is it any wonder why Barack walks among white people like it's not a big deal?

But it is and that's where that the t-shirt above comes into place.

“We’ve worn handmade peace shirts every Thursday since the first week of school, without fail,” Skylar said.

But what started out as a light-hearted gesture soon started to be taken out of context.

Students started approaching the group members, yelling obscene things at them, said Lauren.

“People just turned on us like that,” she said. “At least 10 boys stood up and yelled things at me at once, and we couldn’t even walk through the halls without a harsh comment being made.”

The heckling began early in the school year, according to group members. They said they were putting small posters promoting peace on friends’ lockers with their permission.

They thought it was OK, because the cheerleaders and football players had signs on theirs. Eventually, though, group members said they were told by the school’s administration they could no longer hang up the posters.

“People tore them down and drew swastikas and ‘white power’ stuff on them,” Lauren said.

Skylar had similar things written on her posters.

“Someone taped an ‘I Love Bush’ sign over my ‘Wage Peace’ sign,” she said. “So I tore it down, threw it away, and the whole commons starting booing. I walk by later and find that someone has completely tore my sign down and placed an ‘I Love America, Because America Loves War’ sign up.”

—Students Wear Confederate Flag Shirts To Oppose Peace-Shirt Group, commondreams.org | sombrero tip to C&L