The Dalai ‘Bama Letters #2: MIddle East Meets 'West' (A Letter)

Originally, the following was in response to a close, and mostly liberal, friend’s series of anti-Obama postings regarding race, originally posted in March of 2008 or thereabouts. One or two of his posts were strongly negative, pro-Zionist takes on the Senator (mostly all posts were copies of articles my friend found elsewhere, and were not my friend’s own).

I have heard that some rightwing extreme groups are spreading outright lies in a whisper campaign about Barack’s Israel policy positions and this is disturbing if true. For a look at Barak’s actual policies on anything (instead of propaganda) please simply visit http://www.barackobama.com/.

For info regarding his beliefs and activity history specific to Israel I suggest downloading the PDF file on his Foreign Policy Page at his site here>>.

Also, more info is on his fact pages here>>

I may have revised some small bits, but the spirit remains.
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Hi, _______—

I do so understand your response— more than you may know.

There is a marvelous chapter in Cornel West’s ‘Race Matters’ on Black-Jewish relations which describes the ongoing dialog (like our own bit here) impeccably. I’m gonna do one of those excerpt thingies-- Please bare with:

“Without a sympathetic understanding of the deep historic sources of Jewish fears and anxieties about group survival, blacks will not grasp the visceral attachment of most Jews to Israel. Similarly, without a candid acknowledgement of blacks’ status as permanent underdogs in American society, Jews will not comprehend what the symbolic predicament and literal plight of Palestinians in Israel means to blacks...”

Later, same chapter...

“My fundamental premise is that the black freedom struggle is a major buffer between the David Dukes of America and the hope for a future in which we can begin to take justice and freedom for all seriously. Black anti-Semitism— along with its concomitant xenophobias, such as patriarchal and homophobic prejudices— weakens this buffer. In the process, it plays into the hands of the old-style racists, who appeal to the worst of our fellow citizens amid the silent depression that plagues the majority of Americans...”

Later, same paragraph...

“And without principled opposition to the xenophobias from above and below, these desperate channels will produce a cold-hearted and mean spirited America no longer worth fighting for or living in.”

This is simply a candid description of a Platonic dialectic— of a ‘process’. Much like Barack’s speech today pegged in so many ways. I have said over and over to my self and to others that life is not a ‘zero sum game’ (the exact words I heard in his speech today). One need not necessarily lose for the other, or all, to win. This is an old concept of win or lose, black or white... It’s like, the world is still flat and the center of the universe, ya know...

Those who would change our dialectic into a debate or argument want us to see it that way... I refuse to see life in that way; or there’s simply no reason to hope for the future. Real life has lots of gray, complexity and nuance...

And complexity? We can overcome this... Adult humans can do complexity well when we try... There can be peaceful solutions... and we cannot be sucked into the fears of our ancestors, nor allow rhetorical manipulation by today’s special interests that fear they’ll ‘lose’...

We are better for our progenitors’ struggles; not less than, otherwise we dishonor their memory, their souls (let alone our genes).

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Copyright © November 2008 by Gerald Ollison. All rights reserved.