EleVate Yourself

Sarah Palin Plays the Race Card

Sarah Palin played the race card again - bringing up Todd's 1/8 Native Alaskan ancestry to dodge questions about her $150K wardrobe by saying she was now wearing beaded earrings from his mother. Ignoring the obvious misdirection, I was curious to find out about how that heritage she "values" so much has affected her policymaking. Guess what? Her love of Alaskan Natives is as fake as her claims to be qualified.

Here's an overlooked story from last month.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080929/ap_on_el_pr/palin_alaska_natives

And as far as Todd goes, he isn't recognized by any tribe and doesn't seem to be involved in any Native organizations (although his mother was). The only thing that does get mentioned is his status as a shareholder of the Bristol Bay Native Corporation. But that just means that he inherited the right to fish for Sockeye Salmon in native controlled waters. This allowed the Palins to make $46,000 in a month last year.

This blog post by a Native Alaskan has much more detail, including the fact that Sarah Palin's use of the term "Yup'ik Eskimo" is insensitive/offensive. FYI, the word "esquimaux" is French/Algonquin for "raw fish eater."


http://alaskareal.blogspot.com/2008/09/todd-palin-on-his-heritage-series-of.html

posted by D.J. EleVate @ 12:31 PM 0 comments

Why "That One" Matters

Watching the debate last night I, like many others, was taken aback when Sen. McCain referred to Sen. Obama as "that one." The question that is being asked by all the pundits is was it racist or was it McCain's style. And I wonder why it matters. It reminded me of the time when the first President Bush referred to his own half-latino grandchildren as "the little brown ones." Surely he had/has a lot of affection for them, but by his patronizing objectification he showed how out of touch and insensitive he was to our multicultural society.

So too with McCain, who may not have meant it as a racial slur but didn't have the sense to realize that others might see it that way. When you add to that insensitivity the dismissive and dehumanizing way he has treated the non-anglo world - "bomb, bomb, Iran; won't meet with our NATO ally President Zapatero, "I hate the gooks, I will hate them as long as I live", etc. - you get a clear picture of how he will continue George Bush's cowboy diplomacy and treat the international community like they are beneath him. He has made it clear that he views anyone who isn't like him as being less human.

It doesn't matter if it was racist, it was certainly dismissive. And we need a President who is going to treat every American and every citizen of the World with respect. Not this

posted by D.J. EleVate @ 10:26 AM 0 comments