I've studied anthropology. Unlike in political scientists (and pretty much everyone else), the vast majority of anthropologists don't believe in the term "race." It is an artificial, a priori term. The proper term is "ethnicity." But, either way, ethnicity or race - it doesn't matter what term you use - matter in American politics.
Politics is all about the issues. How many jails we build. How many schools we build. Where we drop our bombs. Where we make our bombs. We are essentially electing people to decide these things for us. It is a division of labor. Certainly, we would be happen to choose for ourselves, but we have other shit to do.
So it becomes necessary to elect people who are most like us, people who are more likely to do what we do. And, to this extent, race matters.
We make decisions based on our socialization. We are socialized based on race. And thus, we make decisions based on our race. It is that simple really.
Socialization forms a world view. Based on what we've experienced in school, at home, at work, in Church, Synagogue, Temple, Mosque, we have a sense of what we are here to do on this planet. We form a sense of good and bad, beautiful and ugly, friend and foe.
Many people still believe that "Islamic" terrorism or "radical Salafism" is a religious movement. Those who are trained in politics understand that there are more secular forces at work in the formation and organization of certain violent social movements in the Middle East. This difference in understanding alone is a starting point for two divergent policies.
But just as education can create this division in worldview, race can too. I don't necessarily mean in understanding the culture and history of the American ghetto - although that is a very real example. An example that points to necessity for racial representation. No. I'm talking about something more sinister.
Logic and emotion guide along the policymaking process. Some policies (and social movements) are forged with too much logic and not enough emotion or too much emotion and not enough logic. Though it certainly is better to err on the side of logic, the best policies come from a place of high intensity, a place of solid reasoning and immense need.
High intensity is completely lacking in our current representation. Where have the activists gone? There are only paper-pushers and democratic royalty left under the dome in DC.
This is why race is so important in the American democratic process. There is only very little about Social Security that can get people riled up. What's left in taxes? Foreign policy is completely an arm-chair game.
No white man or woman knows of the pains of being a black male in the United States. No third- fourth- fifth-generation American understands the humiliation of imperialism. Yet these are the people who continue to write our policy. What does a 60-year old white man born into wealth know about random searches in airports or on the highway - what will stop him from diluting his bill and boasting his support for colored America? What does anyone who is running or will be running know about forced subjugation, occupation, culture-termination?
Good sound policy is more than about logic. It is about emotion. Not only on the side of the policymakers - to fight to the end for full measures. But to understand how policies will effect the powerless, the helpless. The source of this emotion is race. There are certain things that only black men understand, things that only Muslims understand, things that only people from the colonized world can understand.
Enough of this rule from the top. It is about time for more color in DC. Not the Ivy Leaguers. Not the blue bloods. But the bearded man who is repeatedly hustled in airports. The black man who is stopped randomly in middle of the street.
Politics is all about the issues. How many jails we build. How many schools we build. Where we drop our bombs. Where we make our bombs. We are essentially electing people to decide these things for us. It is a division of labor. Certainly, we would be happen to choose for ourselves, but we have other shit to do.
So it becomes necessary to elect people who are most like us, people who are more likely to do what we do. And, to this extent, race matters.
We make decisions based on our socialization. We are socialized based on race. And thus, we make decisions based on our race. It is that simple really.
Socialization forms a world view. Based on what we've experienced in school, at home, at work, in Church, Synagogue, Temple, Mosque, we have a sense of what we are here to do on this planet. We form a sense of good and bad, beautiful and ugly, friend and foe.
Many people still believe that "Islamic" terrorism or "radical Salafism" is a religious movement. Those who are trained in politics understand that there are more secular forces at work in the formation and organization of certain violent social movements in the Middle East. This difference in understanding alone is a starting point for two divergent policies.
But just as education can create this division in worldview, race can too. I don't necessarily mean in understanding the culture and history of the American ghetto - although that is a very real example. An example that points to necessity for racial representation. No. I'm talking about something more sinister.
Logic and emotion guide along the policymaking process. Some policies (and social movements) are forged with too much logic and not enough emotion or too much emotion and not enough logic. Though it certainly is better to err on the side of logic, the best policies come from a place of high intensity, a place of solid reasoning and immense need.
High intensity is completely lacking in our current representation. Where have the activists gone? There are only paper-pushers and democratic royalty left under the dome in DC.
This is why race is so important in the American democratic process. There is only very little about Social Security that can get people riled up. What's left in taxes? Foreign policy is completely an arm-chair game.
No white man or woman knows of the pains of being a black male in the United States. No third- fourth- fifth-generation American understands the humiliation of imperialism. Yet these are the people who continue to write our policy. What does a 60-year old white man born into wealth know about random searches in airports or on the highway - what will stop him from diluting his bill and boasting his support for colored America? What does anyone who is running or will be running know about forced subjugation, occupation, culture-termination?
Good sound policy is more than about logic. It is about emotion. Not only on the side of the policymakers - to fight to the end for full measures. But to understand how policies will effect the powerless, the helpless. The source of this emotion is race. There are certain things that only black men understand, things that only Muslims understand, things that only people from the colonized world can understand.
Enough of this rule from the top. It is about time for more color in DC. Not the Ivy Leaguers. Not the blue bloods. But the bearded man who is repeatedly hustled in airports. The black man who is stopped randomly in middle of the street.
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