I am still euphoric over last night's victory. And I am outraged that HRC refuses to concede. This is unprecedented, at least in my memory. Obama was very gracious toward her last night. But I fear this means might choose her as VP. I'm hoping that his shout out to her as future crafter of universal healthcare suggests he may give her a cabinet position to oversee this initiative for reform. Given that he has formed a 3-person VP search committee, the best case scenario for me is that they are looking outside the usual suspects, such as Bloomberg.
Now Obama has to do his homework in regards to Latinos and some of the issues that concern many of us. I thought it was outrageous that he referred to us as "Hispanic.....Americans" - Somebody has to school him in nomenclature. Also, his position on immigration is problematic. So I am not an uncritical fan of Obama who has drank the "yes we can" Kool-Aid, but I think he's the best we've got and I hope he picks a VP who is towards the "left" rather than towards the "right" such as a Bloomberg. Granted, he has to make political calculations and to figure out which group counts more - Jewish voters, Latinos (and if so, which ones?!), women, working class people, fiscally conservative independents, etc. Of course, the latter sentence is absurd because just as I abhor facile analyses that assume "Latinos" (or: "Hispanic.....Americans") are monolithic, I know that this is true of every so-called voting demographic. But unfortunately, it seems that politicians and the media view such groups in these reductive, simplistic and short-cut ways.
4 comments:
I like your blog too... Very nice commentary/analysis. While I'm excited and happy Obama is the nominee, I'm worried about what is to come.
and I have yet to find a concensus on what term latinos like to be called. i went to college in california and there was a huge debate about this. those of mexican heritage were to be called chicanos, some were open to latino, while i know others that prefer hispanic. i usually go with latino but that is such a blanket term. latino could be anyone from any spanish speaking country and that's not very descriptive of anyone.
I am, too! I don't know if this country is ready for this, but let's hope for the best.
yes, that's true, but the main problem is that he's using "Hispanic" as the blanket term which is regarded by many as quite conservative, and it's preferred by those that are White-identified as it privileges the Spanish Colonial component of our history/ethnicity/race...
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