The Blues in the White House

Caught some of the Blues show at the White House on TV last night. On hand among others: BB King, Buddy Guy, Trombone Shorty, Shemekia Copeland, Keb Mo, Jeff Beck, Derek Trucks, Susan Tedeschi Warren Haynes, Booker T. Jones, and a somewhat uncomfortable and seemingly out of place Mick Jagger. There were some compelling performances (under such circumstances one imagines there's a great deal of P.C. TLC going on not to mention the sense of propriety and formality that permeates the atmosphere and mindset of the performers) but it would be foolish to expect much more than a kind of all-star love fest featuring more in the way of cheerful celebration than heartfelt passion. But what kept me tuned in was the sheer enormity and gravity of the fact that I was watching a U.S. President of African American descent with his African american wife grooving to the music born of the African American experience in America played by a group of predominantly african american musicians and broadcast to millions of viewers around the nation (world?) who I can only hope had a similar reaction to mine. There was Barack and Michelle nodding, grinning, closing their eyes and letting their shoulders swing and sway to the depth and beauty of all that blue suffering and bliss. It occurred to me that some of their most rabid foes and critics were cringing at the sight. To many people in this country, I can imagine that it was a sight that reflected their own worst fears carried over from hundreds of years of inherited ignorance and prejudice.

I have always thought that much of the intensity, anger and resentment fueling the Tea Party movement as well as resistance to Obama's initiatives in HealthCare and other domestic agenda issues are in large part fueled by nothing more complicated than racism. The anger toward him is so great and the tone is so shrill and it's all coming from those who I'm willing to bet have little or no understanding of the issues themselves. ObamaCare ( A term they created to feed the frenzy) is a perfect example. It's been misrepresented and misunderstood to the point of absurdity...and yet rational voices and clear heads have no chance to quiet the din.

I've had arguments with friends about this. And I think what's hard for some enlightened and decent people to accept is that their enlightened attitudes and sense of human decency, justice and fairness is not shared by as many as they think. Obama won the election--so how can he suddenly be so bereft of support? Well, it doesn't always take a big crowd to start trouble. And add to the fuel the fact that most people can't connect our current economic woes with their root causes which occurred before anyone even knew who Obama was. " We got problems today, so whoever's in charge today is responsible".

It's also easy to forget that though we've come a long way (as the saying goes...) we also had a long way to come. And where we've arrived ain't exactly the promised land. Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball less than a generation ago. Augusta National golf club took in a token black member only about a decade ago. And who are we fooling if we think either of those breakthroughs mean all that much when we're still debating the pros and cons of racial profiling by law enforcement.
Progress is slower than it seems when you take the advancements off the history book timelines and drop them into the day to day world we all live in where old habits die hard and old attitudes die even harder. And my jewish brothers and sisters should be the first to understand since it wasn't so long ago that anti-semitism was so prevalent and part of mainstream thinking that some of the most prominent and public figures in society didn't hesitate to express it in no uncertain terms.



Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) Third President of the United States



“I advance it therefore as a suspicion only, that the blacks, whether originally a distinct race, or made distinct by time and circumstances, are inferior to the whites in the endowments both of body and mind.”



Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 1882) Transcendentalist essayist, poet, and lecturer



“I think it cannot be maintained by any candid person that the African race have ever occupied or do promise ever to occupy any very high place in the human family. Their present condition is the strongest proof that they cannot. The Irish cannot; the American Indian cannot; the Chinese cannot. Before the energy of the Caucasian race all the other races have quailed and done obeisance.”



Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885) 18th President of the United States



“I have long since believed that in spite of all the vigilance that can be infused into post commanders, the special regulations of the Treasury Department have been violated, and that mostly by Jews and other unprincipled traders. So well satisfied have I been of this that I instructed the commanding officers at Columbus to refuse all permits to Jews to come South, and I have frequently had them expelled from the department, but they come in with their carpet-sacks in spite of all that can be done to prevent it.



Henry Adams (1838–1918)Historian, novelist, grandson of John Quincy Adams



“I detest [the Jews] and everything connected with them, and I live only and solely with the hope of seeing their demise, with all their accursed Judaism. I want to see all the lenders at interest taken out and executed.”





Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919)26th President of the United States



“It is of incalculable importance that America, Australia, and Siberia should pass out of the hands of their red, black, and yellow aboriginal owners, and become the heritage of the dominant world races.”



Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)28th president of the United States



“Segregation is not humiliating but a benefit, and ought to be so regarded by you gentlemen. If your organization goes out and tells the colored people of the country that it is a humiliation, they will so regard it, but if you do not tell them so, and regard it rather as a benefit, they will regard it the same. The only harm that will come will be if you cause them to think it is a humiliation.”


Robert C. Byrd (1917–2010) U.S. Senator (D–W.Va.)



"I am loyal to my country and I know but reverence to her flag. BUT I shall never submit to fight beneath that banner with a Negro by my side … Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds.”


AND LET’S PUT A CHERRY ON TOP WITH…

“I mean, there needs to be a wholesale effort against racial profiling, which is illiterate children.”

George W. Bush