A handful of cultural feminists were part of our group; in my experience, this manifested itself in a couple of obnoxious ways. The feminists were particularly focused on superficial analysis of traditional texts and decided to impose their own form of censorship. For example, the Nicene Creed contains the following phrase: " who for us men, and for our salvation"; despite the generally understood nature of the term "men" being used to represent human beings and prominent female saints in the Catholic Church, these people went and scratched out the word in each missal; in fact, some of the staff priests also went along with this, deliberately pausing and skipping over the word during Mass. This brandishing of terms like 'racism', 'sexism', and 'homophobia' as if they are formidable weapons, in the nature of confronting a vampire with a cross, deserves the universally relevant response: "Get a life!"
A second example was more personal. We generally had a pair of lectors for our Sunday Mass readings: a man and a woman. It was not unusual for one of the scheduled lectors to no-show without securing a replacement, and one morning at the last minute I, an available lector, got approached to be the substitute lector. The only problem was that the absent lector was a woman. Now the reverse situation had taken place on a number of occasions, i.e., two female lectors, and it never really bothered anyone, particularly the cultural feminists. But after the Mass, I found myself personally attacked by the cultural feminists, as they furiously attacked the fact that I was a male substitute. As to why the facilitator picked me (I did not volunteer), I suspect it was basically a last-minute decision for a substitute and any qualified substitute would do. My only motive was to agree to help the facilitator out with a staffing problem.
The Myth of the "Magic Negro"
David Ehrenstein, on 3/19/07, wrote a column in the Los Angeles Times which argued that Barack Obama is the personification of the sociological construct (reintroduced into the culture by filmmaker Spike Lee) where a character of color serves a nonthreatening, often self-sacrificial role in the service of or on behalf of a white protagonist. Parodist Paul Shanklin wrote a relevant song called "Barack the Magic Negro", later played on Rush Limbaugh's show. (Limbaugh is the leading media conservative and considers himself a humorist.)
Chip Saltsman, the former Tennessee Republican state chairman who ran former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee's recent campaign for the Presidential nomination, is running for RNC chair and decided, as part of his campaign, to circulate on a gift CD on half of his campaign copies of the songs "Barack the Magic Negro" and an equally obnoxious "Star Spanglish Banner", Shanklin's contribution to the Mexican immigrant community. Saltsman has basically responded to subsequent criticisms by arguing that people like the uncriticized Erhenstein opened the door and the liberal media, by targeting Limbaugh and himself, are being hypocritical and that others don't have a sense of humor.
Commentary
In the aftermath of an election where McCain received probably a record-low 5% of the African-American vote and a third less percentage of the Hispanic vote since 2004 (despite his leadership role in the 2007 immigration debate), Saltsman has shown stunningly bad judgment and timing. I join Newt Gingrich, Mike Duncan and other GOP leadership in arguing that Saltsman is unacceptable as RNC head.
As a Maryland resident, I urge Republicans to take a strong look at our former lieutenant governor and Republican state chairman, Michael Steele, a former seminarian with outstanding character, ability, articulateness, and judgment.
I am not part of some political correctness committee trying to argue that criticism or comedy aimed at Barack Obama is off-limits. In fact, during the campaign, I was amused by the McCain campaign's distribution of a tire gauge, bearing the title of "Obama's Energy Plan", and the lampooning of Obama's over-the-top "we are the moment we have been waiting for" nonsense. But I also believe that Obama's more respectful and less confrontational approach with his adversaries is legitimate, dating back to his days as a community organizer.
To mock someone whom is intent on restoring some degree of civility to our political discourse is in exceedingly bad taste. I have, and will continue to have, disagreements on policy with Obama; I do fault him for not taking on a leadership role in cleaning up Chicago politics when he had the ability to make a difference there. I do think he exercised poor judgment at times at associating with people like Rezko, Ayers, and Rev. Wright. I am absolutely convinced that his policy positions are counterproductive for the American economy. However, I also recognize that an accomplished person of color graduating from Columbia and Harvard Law School could have put his own material interests first vs. taking a low-paid, often frustrating position as a community organizer. I do not dispute his motive and intent or his intelligence.
Saltsman needed to come to the campaign for RNC chair recognizing the core problems the GOP has with the American voter, including a deteriorating position with minority groups (a growing percentage of the American public) and erosion of GOP support nationally (e.g., no statewide offices in California and Illinois, no Republican Congressman in New England) . To many, the message has become all too predictable: tax breaks, limited regulation, national defense, and social issues like gay rights and abortion. Bush, the first MBA President, presided over growing budget and trade deficits, an invasion of Iaq (which did not pose an obvious military threat to the United States), the inexcusable bungling of Hurricane Katrina, one of the biggest expansions of government (Medicare drugs and Homeland Security), and an unprecented federal intervention into the economy. Despite holding the White House for 20 of the last 28 years, we have seen a growing dependence on foreign oil, much of which is produced by hostile interests. We have an aging population and a health care infrastructure unable to cope with it; more Americans are having to file bankruptcy to get out from under the burden of unmanageable medical bills. We are facing funding crises for Medicare and social security, writing more IOU's on the backs of young Americans just as they are beginning to face an increasingly competitive global economy.
The idea that the GOP would recruit a chairman whom thinks it's a good idea, in the aftermath of the election of the nation's first black President and the 2007 defeat of the immigration bill, to poke fun at minorities at precisely the time the GOP is losing more of their votes defies any logic whatsoever. Saltsman's response to blame others for employing double standards in judging him instead of apologizing for a mistake in judgment is unacceptable. Instead of recognizing Obama's appeal in terms of providing a more inclusive message and civil tone, Saltsman thought the way to go was to poke fun at people different from himself. What was he trying to do--run for GOP head or Rush Limbaugh's job? For shame!
