Wear Clean Draws  (because there’s 5 million ways to kill a ceo)

There’s been an on-going debate about Obama’s candidacy. A fellah named Julio Huato argued that Obama’s presidency would create a worldwide upsurge in the self-assurance of black people across the globe and seeing as how they are the most oppressed in this country and globally, then it would be a good thing:

“But the strongest reason in favor of Obama is, IMHO, that race largely intersects with class in the U.S. and in large swaths of the world. This reason alone really overwhelms the other ones — for me at least. Blacks in the U.S. are the most oppressed sector of the U.S. working class. Blacks in the world are the most oppressed sector of the global worker. Black and male in the U.S. is almost synonymous with political disenfranchisement, incarceration, and plain being the target of the nastiest forms of racism imaginable. Black in the U.S. is almost synonymous with worker. Black in the world fairs not much better. So I cannot but imagine that, even if Obama messes things up royally and disappoints (which he has a good chance of doing), his being Black is *very likely* to have a serious, positive effect on the individual and collective (civic, political) self-assurance of Black working people in the U.S., Europe, Africa, the Caribbean basin, and the rest of the world — and thereby on the mutual respect, collective self-assurance, and political involvement of working people in the world.”

Dwayne Monroe fired back, telling Huato that his argument reminded him of the bible salesman’s pitch: that the black bible would increase self-esteem, especially in a young black man. (I didn’t quote all of Dwayne’s post b/c it’s long, but go read it because it made me laugh so hard at work when I read it, it just slayed me. Especially the rocket imagery, which Dwayne’s excellent at.)

I think they both have a point. Consider this essay by Mr. Field, who’s been critical of Obama. But notice the difference. Huato emphasizes this in terms of the need to rescue blacks from their low self-assurance — which I’m sure he doesn’t really mean. That is, if I were to point this out directly, Huato would probably retort that he doesn’t mean it like *that*. So yeah, let’s assume a more charitable reading. Even so, contrast how Huato put it with the way Mr. Field puts it. For Mr. Field, it’s not that black folks are in need of a self-assurance boost, it’s that white folks are in need of, well, doing the right thing — even if, by Mr. Field’s reasoning, it’s not really the Right Thing, just the right thing, It’s a pragmatic “right thing” that assesses circumstances, history, particularities. This is a very different way of putting it:

“Still, the symbolism would be nice. And it would say something about A-merry-ca. I for one would have to reconsider some of my views of A-merry-ca and all the people in it. I would certainly start looking at my white neighbors in a more positive light. After all, if I am going to rip them when I think they do wrong, I have to praise them when they do right.”

The self assurance I think Julio means is really about what Mr. Field is talking about: do the right thing.

The funny thing is, Dwayne’s post, aside from making me laff, was that it immediately transported me to a couple of days earlier when I got my hair cut on my lunch hour. It was my first time with Donald. I showed him the Rachel hair cut which is always a safe bet with a new stylist. He looks a me and I can just tell… “I’m dating myself huh? It’s so ten years ago. OK. So do what you want with it. surprise me.”

So, as I sit down, I’m wondering, this guy seems quiet. Mostly, when you’re leaning back getting your hair washed, the stylist talks at you while you try to hear with gallons and gallons of water rushing around your ears. This guy didn’t say a peep. I was wishing I’d brought a book to read. Fortunately, Donald relieved my stress about have to sit in silence for an hour and a half saying, “So Shag, tell me, what would you do if you found your family inheritance was stolen from you.”

Me: I would wonder who my real parents were and why the parents who raised me never told me I was adopted.

Donald looks at me in the mirror, mid-cut, puzzling.

Me: Cause there isn’t any inheritance to inherit. You gotta juice up this story for me, because my reality isn’t helping me imagine it. Tell me more.

So he proceeds to tell me about how people stole property from his grandmother and how he’s discovered the will and the forgery and he was wondering what I would do. (Oh yea, I’m trying to figure out all the while why the hell he’s asking me, in the first place since I have no idea who he is or he me. I mean, sure, stylist and stylee, they often share intimate details of their lives, but I don’t usually hear too much about finances right out of the gate. Donald continues:

“Girlfriend, we’re not talking forty acres and a mule, we’re talking 400 hundred acres and 40 mules. What would you do?”

I looked up to where he held my hair, above my head, ready to place the scissors and trim. I was laughing, hoping to catch his eye without screwing up his hold on my hair. When you look up like that and move your head, it can throw them off.

“Well, I was gonna say, when you’re talking getting ripped off, I’m thinking wait, what *about* the forty acres and a mule? Put that together with what those people owe your mother and you — and we’re talking serious cash money.”

He looked at me and raised his eyebrows and the next thing you know he’s telling me about a deal he’d made with the mayor of another city five miles away and how said mayor had all this money, but said mayor ripped him off for the substantial chunk of change he invested, which woulda been worth half a cool mill by now. Daughter is at Howard, obviously on what should have been his money.

Babbling on, saying things that I think about everyday, too cacooned in discussion lists like LBO and forgetting that the discussions can often be so rarified at LBO…. Plus, I’m too often bursting to discuss books I’ve been reading lately. I just babble without thinking, not realizing that to suggest that he or anyone is owed reparations is to have insulted him. An insult from which he quickly recovered by reminding me that he had no need for 40 acres and a mule. His family HAD 400 acres and 40 mules, and they had it a long time ago. Not to mention the cool cash invested in the real estate deal with the mayor which was now sending Mayor’s daughter to Howard.

One of the only black people who has voiced support for Obama openly to me, he then when on to say, “Girlfriend, he’s got the most powerful black woman in the country behind him. Of course he’s gonna win.”

It hadn’t occurred to me that what I was saying was insulting. I suspect what Donald thought I thought was that he was black, therefore needed money. Dwayne’s retort at Julio reminded me of the conversation with Donald. Donald sensed paternalism in my statement, though it’s surely not what I intended. Similarly, Dwayne read in Julio’s statement was paternalism.

Not to mention that I suspect Dwayne and I share this: a pretty strong commitment to the idea that it’s *not* about appreciating differences and increasing self-assurance. Oh, that’s needed. But it’s not the answer — and we shouldn’t set our expectations so low.

Today, at work, I went in early. As folks came in to work, breaking the sweet morning silence of my office, I was walking in the opposite direction, headed to get more coffee. As I passed everyone. I wanted to grab everyone I said “hi” to and say, “IS your self assurance boosted today or what?” I refrained.