This may never happen again but I am going to stand up for Barack Obama. In the business world “lipstick on a pig” is one of those phrases that is overly used to describe trying to make a bad idea or policy look good. Then Sarah Palin tells her lipstick joke. Lastly a few days ago Barack used the lipstick on a pig phrase. And now we a big controversy about what he meant but I honestly don’t think he meant anything by it and simply didn't think it through. As somebody who sometimes has a problem with the English language I can sympathize. (Dare I admit that just yesterday when telling someone that they will have a run for their money it came out as “mun for their runey”?)
I think Barack was simply using a common business phrase but as soon as it came out of his mouth he realized that lipstick now has a new context since Palin’s speech. Oops. What bothers me isn’t that he said it, but the reaction by those who heard him say it. His audience immediately thought it was in reference to Palin and roared in derisive laughter.
Call me naïve but it seemed to symbolize not only the polarization between the two parties but also the downright hatred people are feeling for the opposite party. And the really scary part for America is that it no longer seems as if it is Democrats vs. Republicans but more like blacks vs. whites. In a way, I believe that Obama has set back racial advances for decades. Or maybe all whites have been naïve and the division has always been there but kept underground. Now it is out in the open.
Think about it. Remember this spring how stunned most whites were to hear what Jeremiah Wright was preaching and how we were even more shocked by the cheers and jeers from his church’s worshipers? Then yesterday I receive an email talking about Michelle Obama’s Princeton thesis on black separatists. Black separatists? Wow. And until this election, when have you heard newscasters reporting on how white woman are voting? After 2001 I really felt as if the nation had pulled together as one people. Today I worry we are further apart than in the 60’s.
All this from Barack’s “lipstick on a pig” comment? Yes, I know I am far off from where I started but then again, maybe this country has simply been putting lipstick on a pig when it comes to racial harmony. Now there is a good word – harmony; a pleasing arrangement of parts. That would be nice but, again, maybe I am naïve to think we ever really had it in the first place. And what scares me most of all isn’t who will win the election but how the losing half will react.
I think Barack was simply using a common business phrase but as soon as it came out of his mouth he realized that lipstick now has a new context since Palin’s speech. Oops. What bothers me isn’t that he said it, but the reaction by those who heard him say it. His audience immediately thought it was in reference to Palin and roared in derisive laughter.
Call me naïve but it seemed to symbolize not only the polarization between the two parties but also the downright hatred people are feeling for the opposite party. And the really scary part for America is that it no longer seems as if it is Democrats vs. Republicans but more like blacks vs. whites. In a way, I believe that Obama has set back racial advances for decades. Or maybe all whites have been naïve and the division has always been there but kept underground. Now it is out in the open.
Think about it. Remember this spring how stunned most whites were to hear what Jeremiah Wright was preaching and how we were even more shocked by the cheers and jeers from his church’s worshipers? Then yesterday I receive an email talking about Michelle Obama’s Princeton thesis on black separatists. Black separatists? Wow. And until this election, when have you heard newscasters reporting on how white woman are voting? After 2001 I really felt as if the nation had pulled together as one people. Today I worry we are further apart than in the 60’s.
All this from Barack’s “lipstick on a pig” comment? Yes, I know I am far off from where I started but then again, maybe this country has simply been putting lipstick on a pig when it comes to racial harmony. Now there is a good word – harmony; a pleasing arrangement of parts. That would be nice but, again, maybe I am naïve to think we ever really had it in the first place. And what scares me most of all isn’t who will win the election but how the losing half will react.
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