Obama: Willamette Week plays the race card
T.A. Barnhart
To be fair, Obama is only 50 percent black.
- James Pitkin, Willamette Week
Barack Obama came to Portland last week, and the best Willamette Week writer James Pitkin could find to say about him is that he's not fully black. But if that's not bad enough — and to his credit, Pitkin did refrain from referring to Obama as a mulatto — there's this:
Some questioned if the late outpouring of support (the day before the event, organizers expected only 2,000 people) was just a symptom of white guilt.
To get this quote, Pitkin found one African-American, former legislature JoAnn Bowman who added her own narrative. Bowman asserts that Obama's supporters are mostly "suburban white folks" who think
"....going to see a mixed-race candidate 'is an easy way for so-called progressives to feel like they are doing something positive'."
She may have her reasons for saying that, and even for believing it — lord knows, I have no idea what it means to be a black woman in America — but that does not make her statement any less racist. Not to mention ignorant of who Obama's supporters are and what motivates them.
A few people came to see Barack Obama for reasons other than "racial" solidarity, appeasement of white guilt or to gawk at Oprah's boy-toy. He is a renowned national figure, a presence who burst onto the national scene in 2004 when his impassioned, eloquent keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention thrilled people across the nation with a vision of a truly united America:
The pundits, the pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I’ve got news for them, too. We worship an "awesome God" in the Blue States, and we don’t like federal agents poking around in our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and yes, we’ve got some gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and there are patriots who supported the war in Iraq. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.
After that speech, which was the highlight of convention, people were looking forward to the day when this amazing speaker would seek the presidency. No one guessed it would be so soon. But between Hillary's corporatist pro-war votes in the Senate and a group of also-rans chasing her for the nomination, Americans realized with no prompting from "above" that the time for Obama was now. He did not choose to run; he answered a call from across the country, a demand that he run.
And why would a first-term Senator with the wrong black creds be the choice of so many Americans, including the thousands who crowded into the Convention Center?
There are those who look at his career in public service, including not parlaying his Harvard law degree into big bucks but into a chance to help those who needed the gifts and skills he possessed. True public service is rare, but it's the proven hallmark of Obama's life.
Many Democrats, independents and even Republicans refuse to support candidates who had a chance to stop an idiotic war but let themselves be manipulated by Bush, Cheney, Rove and the rest. They have no trust to give to leaders who failed them so badly, but see in Obama someone who got it right and continues to get it right.
His record, and reputation, in both the U.S. and Illinois Senates is a willingness and an ability to bring together antagonistic factions. Over the years, Obama won the support of conservative Illinois Republicans for exactly that reason.
Many hear his message of hope and don't believe it to be either audacious or staged but the authentic character of a politician who believes in hope so deeply and speaks of it so passionately that jaded pundits and cynical political opponents are reduced to mocking him for it.
There are supporters who have read his books, listened to his speeches on tv and YouTube, who've compared him to the other candidates and realized that, for them, no one else represents or expresses their hopes and beliefs better.
And yes, there are supporters of color who are excited to see a black man — and anyone who calls him other than black hasn't looked at color picture of him — in a position to become president. Of course there are, just as so many women support Hillary. Affinity is a natural, and probably the predominant, means of making political choices.
My reasons for supporting Obama are varied, but they have little to do with policy (apart from the war). I find it amazing that we stand this close, in my lifetime, to electing an African-American president. When I was born, America was just beginning the process of integrating schools. And to get to this point ... wow. I also believe his election would send a message of change to the rest of the world no other candidate could make. And I see in Obama, and his grassroots campaign, the natural — and more politically adept — successor to Howard Dean's campaign to empower grassroot Americans and to take back our country.
And yes, perhaps some people came to the event deal with their issues of "white guilt", and if so, good for them. If they feel they have benefitted from historic institutionalized racism, then they do need to do something. I hope it goes farther than a symbolic act, but real action often follows an initial step. Especially when that first step exposes you to the most dynamic person in contemporary American politics — and thousands of fired-up, ready-to-go enthusiasts. Maybe instead of just feeling guilty, they'll find ways to bring healing. And if all they do is contribute the maximum allowed to Obama's campaign, I'm fine with that. It's not my job to judge their hearts and motives of other people.
Willamette Week's job, on the other hand, has always been to be too cool, too hip, too everything. Now and then, they provide some useful dining or concert information, but it appears that one reporter winning a Pulitzer has gone to everyone's head (cf: the Betsy Johnson debacle). To accuse thousands of Oregonians of racist motives for coming out to support a man who has demonstrated a broader base of support across the country than any other candidate is not only a slur on those supporters but Foxian ignorance of what is happening in the Obama campaign nationally. But it's not the Willamette Week way to look into the substance of an event if there's a cheap shot and easy punchline available.
JoAnn Bowman and James Pitkin may think I was just there to feel better about my cracker heritage (said heritage being predominantly about Daniel Barnhart and his family being driven out of Germany 300 years ago for worshipping God in the wrong way), but their ignorance and bigoted views won't deny the authentic nature of what I shared with Barack Obama that night.
Because of my work as a local campaign organizer, I was able to attend an earlier small gathering of supporters who had donated $500. As a result, I got to hear and see Obama in a more intimate setting. And when I got to ask the final question — about my son in National Guard and could he assure me this war would end and my son not have to fight — he looked me in the eye for most of four or five minutes as he answered my question. I've been looked in the eye by car salesmen and others whose gaze is intended only to get something from me. Instead it was Barack Obama who gave something to me: his assurance that he was listening and that it mattered to him that a parent was asking his help for his child. Before he left the room to address the rally, he reached across the people between us to shake my hand, to speak my name and, again looking me in the eye, to tell me he'd be remembering my son.
It is impossible to express how overwhelming that experience was. Not star-struck "oh wow, Barack talked to me!" awe; what was overwhelming his authentic concern for me and my son. After ten years in politics and the hundreds of campaign stops he's made while running for president, not to mention the unbelievable acclaim he's received in such a short time — the next day, as you know, he was off to Oprah's mansion and a $3 million party from Hollywood — despite every opportunity to become convinced that he is what the whole story is about; instead Barack Obama understands what's really going on in and around his campaign:
Americans have recognized a great leader, and they recognize that he's one of them. Maybe he is half-black, half-white; who gives a damn? Americans are mutts, as are the best dogs. What Barack Obama is, is an American, and that's all that matters. Or as he said on that night that we now recognize as the beginning of a movement of which he is but the head,
I stand here today, grateful for the diversity of my heritage, aware that my parents’ dreams live on in my two precious daughters. I stand here knowing that my story is part of the larger American story, that I owe a debt to all of those who came before me, and that, in no other country on earth, is my story even possible.
Diversity. Heritage. Hope. This is Obama's story. This is the story of all of us. And that's why we came to the Convention Center last week: To celebrate what is most human about America: all of us, united in a goal and work of hope and change.
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Sep 13, '07
For one, I am stunned that JoAnn Bowman actually said that to be quoted in the press. Not cool on a whole bunch of levels.
10:46 p.m.
Sep 13, '07
I imagine that there are far more racially prejudiced haters than there are racially guilty White persons that Obama will have to contend with.
Sep 13, '07
I tried to satirize this, but it's quite hard. I had something about T.A. being a Klan member for liking the white half of Obama, which led to psychoanalysis of other candidates' supporters and the inevitable conclusion that voting is anti-American, but then I re-read the post and realized I hadn't really upped the stakes much. If a rally for a black presidential candidate is an expression of racism, then of course the act of voting is an expression of anti-Americanism.
But when it comes to white people supporting Obama because he's just half-black, I'll leave the satire to Stephen Colbert. That was a masterstroke.
12:06 a.m.
Sep 14, '07
That surprises me from Bowman. I've never seen anything from her that would lead me to expect such a blanket statement of bias.
1:26 a.m.
Sep 14, '07
I have to wonder whether Pitkin took Bowman's quote out of context.
Sep 14, '07
If there is a racial distinction to be made here it is that Obama, as the son of an African immigrant, does not fit the sociological categorization of an African American descendant of freed slaves. This may be more what Bowman meant by "mixed-race." But even then, the true meaning of Bowman's statement still holds:
Obama is basically a white man who looks black, and that allows so-called progressives, even those with racist tendencies, to readily support him and feel good about it.
So it follows that Bowman, a black woman who also looks black, had to work harder than he to gain the support of the so-called progressives. There is no way to prove it, of course, but this is probably true, because yes, race is an influence. In every aspect of our lives. And Portland's got a pretty well established racist history, and it continues to be a pretty racist town in many ways. As an old friend of mine used to tell me, a white Portlander denying the existence of white privilege is like a fish denying the existence of water.
If the Willamette Week really wants another Pulitzer, they should get down and dirty on the topic and get to the bottom of it. Instead, they're going to continue to reduce the issue to a soundbite when it's convenient for them, like Fox12 News, or worse. I mean, really, if they spent half the time reporting on racial issues as they do reporting on prostitution and exotic dancing... I don't even know how to complete that sentence.
The bottom line, though, is that Obama's message is what we need most, and it's what is most diluted because of all this nonsense.
Sep 14, '07
Wheels, you're assuming people are supporting him because of his race to begin with. I like both Edwards and Obama because they seem to be progressives who have the potential to be transformational presidents. That's exciting to me. I think there are an awful lot of people who are torn between Edwards and Obama. Do you really think it's because they're unsure whether they are guilty for being white?
And do you really think it's his lineage that makes Obama "basically a white man who looks black" to you? If everybody were excited about Barack Huxtable, descendant of slaves, would you question why Barack Huxtable appealed to people who wouldn't support Jesse Jackson?
Sep 14, '07
"That surprises me from Bowman. I've never seen anything from her that would lead me to expect such a blanket statement of bias."
If you’ve ever listened to Ms. Bowman’s radio show on KBOO you’d regularly hear her make bigoted, biased comments regarding ethnicity.
I wouldn’t go so far as to call anyone a racist without knowing what’s in their heart but many of her comments could be interpreted that way.
Sep 14, '07
lord knows, I have no idea what it means to be a black woman in America
The problem of course, is neither does Obama. Neither of his parents were native black Americans. One was an immigrant from Africa and the other a white American. The reality is that to racist white America who determine race by skin color, Obama is black. And his children will be black. But it shouldn't surprise anyone if many black Americans do not recognize their affinity so clearly.
And frankly, as someone who has not decided who to support, part of Obama's appeal is that he is a person of color. I think electing him President would be a good thing for the country and good for America's position in the world. That isn't enough reason to make me vote for him, but it is certainly one good reason.
Sep 14, '07
C'mon people.
You're not supposed to actually read the articles in Willamette Weak.
They're just filler. You know, like the articles in Playboy are just filler for the spaces in between the cartoons and the pictures of naked ladies.
The articles in Willamette Weak are just filler for the spaces between the porn ads and music listings.
You can tell just by reading that article this stuff isn't supposed to be taken seriously, Sheesh.
If it was, they wouldn't hire self-absorbed maroon's like Pitkin who write articles that reveal more about the author than the subject he's failing to attempt to report on.
Sep 14, '07
Ross, is "descendant of slaves" a race? Heritage, sure, but a race unto itself? I think of race as a superficial construct that's always been about skin color. There's certainly no scientific basis for the idea of a "black race," "white race," etc.
Sep 14, '07
To be fair, Obama is only 50 percent black.
To be equally fair, Pitkin is 100-percent, grade A jackass.
Sep 14, '07
I'm trying to figure out if it's "male guilt" that motivates the men who support Hillary. Whatever it is, I say great!
Sep 14, '07
Well, the US obviously needs to continue its conversation regarding race. Many many people, black and white, still have issues that they need to work through if we going to move in a positive direction.
As a white person working as a volunteer on the Obama campaign, I forget about his race as I get caught up in his ideas. Until articles like this pop up and I am reminded that many are still struggling with this. So the conversation is a good one to have and very necessary.
And in response to the WW article, no I did not endure 8 hours of driving out of guilt. Nor am I backing Obama out of guilt. His ideas, vision and character are 2nd to none and are what have me on board for the duration.
Sep 14, '07
There's certainly no scientific basis for the idea of a "black race," "white race," etc.
No, there isn't.
think of race as a superficial construct that's always been about skin color.
Not hardly. There are plenty of "white" people with darker skin than some "black" people. Race has always been a cultural construct. If one of your parents was black, you were black. It didn't matter how light your skin was.
Sep 14, '07
I'm trying to figure out if it's "male guilt" that motivates the men who support Hillary. Whatever it is, I say great!
Just to balance things. Yes. Part of why I might support Hillary is that she is a woman. But that is hardly enough.
The question is how many people are supporting Edwards, in part, because he is the only white, male in the top three. I suspect more than will admit it even to themselves.
Sep 14, '07
I think that when we try to get in the heads of people we don't know and have never met --or even spoken with --so that we can label them as "racist" or suffering from "white guilt," we are making the same mistake Pitkin and Bowman made.
Or maybe I'm wrong. Maybe you guys and Pitkin have special ESP powers that I'm not aware of.
Either way, I think it's usually more a sign of the authors' prejudice than that of the people they are writing or talking about.
As far as the quality of Pitkin's article and hypothesis:
Some questioned if the late outpouring of support (the day before the event, organizers expected only 2,000 people) was just a symptom of white guilt.
Ahh, the old "some say" construct, the last refuge of lazy hacks.
Apparently this "reporter's" case, it's tough to be "edgy and hip" and competent at the same time.
Sep 14, '07
Race has always been a cultural construct. If one of your parents was black, you were black. It didn't matter how light your skin was.
While I do agree that people think about culture when thinking about race, I don't think the one-drop rule disproves that skin color was the basis used for creating the constructs of race. If I'm not mistaken, Blumenbach wrote the book on race, and he came up with white, black, yellow, red and brown. Sure, he came up with that horrific skull chart, too, but that doesn't mean race was about skull sizes. And I'm sure that if East Africans were white-skinned and West Africans were black-skinned, with no other distinctions than otherwise existed, we'd have had different racial categories for them, too.
Now, there is also the fact that many people once did not consider Italians to be white, which indicates skin color wasn't everything. But one could also argue that people just didn't think Mediterranean skin was "pure enough" of a white to qualify.
Hm ... what's the difference between an Italian American not being white and an "African African American" not being black?
(Man, this is so not what I thought I would be talking about this morning.)
Sep 14, '07
I'm reminded of local treasure Ursula LeGuin's book The Lathe of Heaven. It's science fiction, so it was possible in the book for a character to attempt to stamp out racism by making everyone's skin a uniform gray. The effect was that, in addition to loss of beauty in the world, many characters (one African-American woman in particular) lost the vital essence of their personalities that had stemmed from their ethnic/racial identity.
To deny that part of Obama's appeal and dynamism comes from his black identity is simply denying the obvious. But acknowledging this reality in no way detracts from the qualities that mark him as an individual of extraordinary talents and ability. The power in the personas of most of our memorable leaders is in some way interwoven with their ethnic (JFK) or regional (LBJ) distinctiveness. (Image John Edwards without the drawl! Imagine what Chris Dodd might do if he had one.) It's a package deal.
10:08 a.m.
Sep 14, '07
I'm taking a deep breath and bracing myself for the onslaught...
I saw Obama last week, thanks to an old, dear friend who proudly works on his national staff. I have also been excited about Obama since his 2004 speech when I was left in tears alone on my couch and wishing there were someone else watching it with me. It was unbelievable and completely inspiring.
After the speech, I still felt proud of him, though still wishing Richardson had a viable chance to win because of his vast foreign policy credibility. And, when Dale and I sat down to talk about it, we both feel like we wanted something more from him than hope. He asked me why I thought so many people were there and my answer reflected Ms. Bowmann's quote in the Willamette Week. I did not mean it in a racist or bigoted way and I know that people do want to support Obama on his message of hope in action. But I meant it in a way with my own experience; because my life as a Black person is not at all similar to an American Black person (with slave ancestry), having not been born in America.
I too feel - as Ross said above about Obama - that the Black American experience identification isn't there for me and I think that makes others more comfortable around me because I don't "act" like "them," them being stereotypical Black folks. Many teachers, elders, and so-called friends have made that statement to me several times in my life. They've also said very hurtful things in my presence because I'm allegedly not like "them" and apparently can tolerate references to "porch moneys" and the like (yes, this happened only a month ago in our liberal town, Portland). But guess what, I'm still Black, regardless of nationality. I believe Obama likely has had the same experience and he may make many people "comfortable" but can commiserate with racial bias and inequality.
Is that a reason for the vast crowd of Whites at his speeches? I doubt its the only reason - he's a great candidate and it is really nice to throw support to someone who isn't another WASP who's out of touch. It's scary for all of us to address our own internalized racism but its worth doing and will help to keep moving us forward.
If we are going to honestly discuss race in America - and a Black or Hispanic president - we need to acknowledge that there are some assumptions, perceptions, and real facts that contribute to certain opinions. And perhaps Ms. Bowmann was starting a discussion and we should pick that up here. Again, I don't want to be racist at all. I am very interested to hear more opinions on this issue.
PS: Please don't call me names...that's the worst part of this blogging business. :)
Sep 14, '07
I like Mort Sahl's comment that Obama was made in a lab by a bunch of white guys.
Look, Obama came out of the Democratic machine in Illinois, for God's sake—one of the states that's defined all that's wrong with Demo. party politics: The Machine. Does anybody really think he's going to be that much different that Clinton or Joe Biden or any Democratic candidate? Same ol' same ol'.
Sep 14, '07
I stood in line for 2 hours with an excited ten year old who jumped up and down and sang the national anthem loudly along with the kids at SEI. He couldn't care less what Obama's skin color is (so far he's holding out for Richardson).
The line to get in was really long. It was exciting to see so many happy people lining up for a political speech - rather rare! We were all ready to vote NOW. The street kids dressed up as Ron Paul supporters (the one in the confederate cap + his girl friend are regular loungers in front of the Central Branch library) were amusing.
WW has been a boring paper for a long time. They've had a hard time keeping up with news and maintaining staff for a couple of years. I regularly feel diminished by turning the pages (just timed myself with the latest issue - 22 seconds.)
11:31 a.m.
Sep 14, '07
Repeat after me: it's class, not race.
The attacks on Obama are from people who see the word "black" as largely a class issue. They can talk about being the descendants of West African slaves and whatnot, but what they're really talking about is cultural socialization, economic circumstances.
Hell, this is hardly new - I remember as a kid back in the 70s a school friend/acquaintance who, as the son of a black doctor, was routinely accused of not being "black". This, despite the fact, that his skin tone was darker than that of his accusers. The fact that he hung around white kids, spoke English better than we did, and wanted to be a highly talented professional, were three unforgivable strikes against him. To be "black" as a kid, you had to be alienated, unwilling to follow authority (even educational authority like doing your homework), and follow a number of black counter-culture shibboleths dealing with acceptable sports, acceptable clothing, acceptable accent, etc.
I don't know where he ended up, but given how he was treated, I do see how a guy like Ward Churchill grew into doing what he does.
Insofar as Senator Obama is concerned, I think he is perfectly aware that Americans will not vote for a member of the underclass. But this is hardly unique to Americans. I doubt the British would vote for a party led by a cockney.
Sep 14, '07
Peter, with all due respect, you need to familiarize yourself with this candidate. He is the anti-machine, anti-lobbyist, pro-transparency in government candidate.
His proposals for ethics and governmental reform are incredible. Please read them and then let me know what you think.
In addition to these policies that he will institute for his administration, he has also "walked the walk" by taking the lead on disclosing his earmarks and disclosing his tax returns. Both Hillary and Edwards have declined to do likewise. Although Edwards to his credit has refused donations from federal lobbyists as has Obama, Hillary has not.
So yes I do believe he will be different based upon his proposed policies and his actions.
Sep 14, '07
yup. class is a bigger issue than race in this country, though the two are so deeply intertwined that it can be impossible to parse them out.
the thing i'm left with after all this is a sense of puzzlement as to what i, a white voter, am supposed to do when a person of color is on the ballot.
am i not supposed to support/donate money/vote for/etc. him or her because doing so is merely acting out white guilt? am i supposed to NOT do those things because of his or her race? but then - isn't that racist too?
is there any vote a white person cast vis a vis a candidate of color that is not going to be considered a racist act of some sort?
that's what i don't understand. but i agree that it is a good conversation to have.
oh, and for the record, i'm undecided on which dem presidential candidate i'm going to support in the primary, but right now the choice for me is between obama and edwards.
Sep 14, '07
If people are interested in facts and not uninformed commentary, you can examine the boundaries of Barack Obama's legislative district here:
http://www.elections.il.gov/VotingInformation/MeetsBounds.aspx
His district is primarily comprised of Hyde Park and Kenwood. It's laughable to describe anyone who came out of that district as a product of the "Democratic Machine."
Sep 14, '07
Joseph Santos-Lyons:
I imagine that there are far more racially prejudiced haters than there are racially guilty White persons that Obama will have to contend with
Bob T:
I note that your key word is "imagined".
Bob Tiernan
Sep 14, '07
Ross Williams:
The reality is that to racist white America who determine race by skin color, Obama is black.
Bob T:
You mean the left doesn't notice when someone is black?
Give me a break, Ross.
Did you applaud the last major USSC decision keeping Affirmative Action (the Michigan case)?
Of course you did. But why?
Ross Williams:
....part of Obama's appeal is that he is a person of color.
Bob T:
Then you must have thought the same regarding Condi Rice. Or is she an Oreo Cookie to you?
It's the progressives who think a person's political views are linked to their genes.
Ross WIlliams:
I think electing him President would be a good thing for the country and good for America's position in the world. That isn't enough reason to make me vote for him, but it is certainly one good reason.
Bob T:
Well, there's something to be said about that but that's another issue. One way to get over something or a hangup is to just have it happen. Doing again is then no big deal.
Bob Tiernan
12:11 p.m.
Sep 14, '07
Oreo Cookie - there's an oldie but a goodie. Let's see, zebra, banana (for my Asian friends), race traitor, Uncle Tom...should I go on?
Class is a large issue that is over looked but Jim Webb made reference to in a Rolling Stone article (that I can't find). And, it is so intertwined with race - as the result of Reconstruction - that its hard to see which way is up.
Foo, the beauty of children is that they have not had time to be tainted the way the rest of us were. Luckily for your kid, things are slightly more progressive than 20 years ago. I sincerely hope it stays that way.
12:38 p.m.
Sep 14, '07
I believe that Steven Maurer and Trishka are both hitting on the key to this dynamic up-thread. That this is predominantly about class and socioeconomic identification which are almost inextricably intertwined with race.
12:46 p.m.
Sep 14, '07
Not speaking for Ross, but Condi doesn't appeal to me at all because she is a warmongering hack who has enabled some of the worst actions in foreign policy (and many domestic) in our nations history.
Nonsense. The fact that I wouldn't piss on Rice if she were on fire, but considering voting for Obama (still going back and forth between him and Edwards) kinda blows a mile wide crater in your blather about progressives seeing political views being linked to their genes.
OT, people, if you are going to post a link, learn to close your tags (looks sternly at Matthew Sutton).
Sep 14, '07
the thing i'm left with after all this is a sense of puzzlement as to what i, a white voter, am supposed to do when a person of color is on the ballot.
This is a great point, Trishka. Because that's the question that's left in people's minds after reading the WW article, especially the Bowman quote. I think the answer, of course, is, do whatever you want to.
I for one am supporting Obama, but only because he's so hot. And as an attractive man, I don't like all these unattractive people rushing to support him, only because he's so hot. Attractive people are really the only ones who get to like such a hottie.
Sep 14, '07
What the hell is it with Willy Week lately? They seem to be veering more and more to the right.
Sep 14, '07
I'd guess that rather than race or class the disconnect seems to be a cultural one. The complaint that Obama can't relate would seem to be more related to apprehensions regarding gang-banger rappers from the 'hood. I am a white male, I do not see a white male when I look at Obama. When he speaks, I hear a culture I am intimately familiar with. The black doctor's daughter at my high school spoke from a culture I was intimately familiar with. These people are representatives of a culture that is succeeding, and one would expect a candidate with any chance to be representative of a successful culture.
I find the racial profiles offensive, the idea that Obama hailing a cab isn't perceived as Black by cabbies is ludicrous, none of which means he should in some way reflect the culture that cabbies are afraid of. I suppose it takes a black candidate to bring forward such nonsense. Do these same people hear a "mill worker" when John Edwards speaks? I prefer the Blues to other forms of music, should I affect an accent?
I don't like Hillary Clinton at all, does this make me misogynistic? Considering her corporate inspired triangulation might have more to do with it...
2:16 p.m.
Sep 14, '07
Two points. Minor humor element in calling Pitkin a maroon: a maroon is an escaped slave.
More seriously -- does the ability of many white supporters (apparently from comments here) to "forget that Obama is black" reflect a pattern where Obama is not trying to appeal to black voters by speaking about issues that many of them care about, in terms they see as acknowledging them, in order to make whites more comfortable? Seems to me Joanne Bowman's main point was along those lines.
Contrast to Harold Washington, e.g. If Obama spoke more about racism and the structural (partly class) legacies of Jim Crow as problems that still need redress in our society, he would make some whites uncomfortable who are not. His apparent willingness to put the comfort of such whites ahead of speaking up for specific needs of black people (and others from historically racially oppressed groups) seems like a quite logical reason for many black people to have doubts about him.
2:17 p.m.
Sep 14, '07
Chuck, that sub-culture (i.e. the "urban" or "street" culture in America) you are referring to is precisely what Thrishka and Steven and I are talking about. The surface-level affectations and identifiers of the "hood" sub-culture are the almost cliched manifestations born out of the class and socioeconomic stratification we are talking about.
It is hardly truly representative of the "black" culture in America, or even the underclass as a whole (which has a fairly large white face as well) but rather the pop-cultural identifiers of the "black" and "urban" underclass which the larger culture reacts too (positively and negatively). How real is that surface-level or pop-cultural perception to the reality of "being black" or being "urban" or being "underclass"...?
Not a whole lot I would argue, but then how deep does American self-awareness really go?
I posit not a whole lot on broad populace, where what the pop-culture shovels is accepted and sublimated by the superficial consumer culture we have in this day and age. I would point out the embrace of hip-hop culture in American suburban white-youth which dives wholesale into the fetish of "urban street" hip-hop culture without a clue one about what the underclass or black experience is or the systemic issues which have produced the underclass, and still retard race relations in our society.
Conversely, I think it does have some minor positive effect in that it breaks down (on the superficial level) skin color as a key litmus test for cross-cultural interaction, but it is mainly on a rather surface level, and in some ways spawns and re-enforces stereotyping of race and urban "street" culture.
Sep 14, '07
Bob T:
It's the progressives who think a person's political views are linked to their genes.
lestatdelc:
Nonsense. The fact that I wouldn't piss on Rice if she were on fire, but considering voting for Obama (still going back and forth between him and Edwards) kinda blows a mile wide crater in your blather about progressives seeing political views being linked to their genes.
Bob T:
A "mile wide crater"? Heck, I don't even see a pinhole.
I don't think I have tp rephrase anything, but maybe you just didn't understand what I said. You see, the Left in America thinks blacks should be lefties because of their race, and when one isn't they are considered to be off the plantation, traitors to their race, and all that other crap I hear.
Interesting that in the latest list of most influential black people in America, Thomas Sowell wasn't included while many much lesser people are. I don't know about you, but people like Shelby Steele can take this country away from its group rights and blame-everything-on-racism mentality than can the idiots like Jesse Jackson.
Interesting that Jackson has taken King's motto of judging a person not by the color of his skin but by his character, and turned into one about judging a person not by his character but by the color of his skin. Somehow this scam artist is considered by many to be King's replacement. How sad.
Bob Tiernan
2:29 p.m.
Sep 14, '07
The real issue for me is what this attack on Senator Obama reveals about the state of progressives and progressivism in America.
It seems to me that Dr. King's famous formulation that in his American dream, people "shall not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character", has been turned upside down. We now judge people's skin color by how they act, except when the evidence of their color is so extreme as to be irrefutable.
I'd like to say that I'm not part of this, but after much consideration, I feel that's a cop out. I'm American. I'm progressive. So damn it, progressive black Americans are my people. I don't like to see them suffer from either external racism, or these invisible bonds of counterproductive alienation and self hate. Bill Cosby is right. We have to recognize this.
So I'm calling B.S. on this whole "Obama isn't black" business. Of course he is. Racists don't see him as anything else.
But further, he is among the best of men. You can tell by his actions. The editor of the Harvard Law Review has a lot of career choices after school, all of which makes a ton of money. What did the Senator do instead? He went to the inner city to organize, to help, to heal - all for a pittance.
And that, to me, places him as exactly the kind of man Dr. King would be most proud of.
Sep 14, '07
Wait a minute, Obama was the black guy?
Just kidding. In reality, race needs to be talked about a whole lot more. And if someone has a prejudice, let it out of your mouth! I , for one, am dying to hear what you have to say. I am Latino, and when you meet me you can see that. It is part of me, and a characteristic that you notice when you see me on the street. Now if you meet me, why would you pretend it isn't there ? The color of Barack's skin has affected how he has been treated, to where he has access and who he gets to meet. If he hasn't been followed around a Target by plain clothes security, feel confident that his kids have. Here is the trick, Mr. Obama has a darker shade of skin. Get comfortable with that, he is. Now listen to what he has to say. Now decide what YOU think about what he has to say. Ms Bowman says a lot of controversial things, but we can't argue about it and come to a consensus if we keep it all to ourselves. She is an activist and her job is to make provocative statements. So what? Prove her wrong.
2:42 p.m.
Sep 14, '07
It's also what Bugs Bunny would call Elmer Fudd and "El Torro" the Bull in a Looney Toon or two as well.
Just sayin'
Interesting you bring up Harold Washington, who only became Mayor of Chicago with enough white north shore Chicagoians voting for him, while southern white wards wouldn't. By his second term, much of the obstructionism by southern white wards fell away as ward leadership was re-shuffled and pushed around.
2:47 p.m.
Sep 14, '07
Once again Steven up-thread hits it dead-center. Bob T, what Steven is laying out is where I, and I would posit MOST progressives are coming from.
Sep 14, '07
BT:
Don't call Jesse Jackson an idiot without telling us why you think he's an idiot. In fact, don't call him an idiot at all. Something like "I respectfully disagree with the Reverend Jesse Jackson" would work fine.
You seem to be missing out on a lot of the conversation here that has dealt with the intertwining issues of race, culture and class.
Class and culture, as has been intelligently discussed above, are likely more influential than race, but they are so intertwined that they often are mistakenly considered synonymous.
Therein lies the reason a majority of black voters side with the left. Not because "the left thinks they should," but because many of them are simply voting according to their interests -- economic, cultural, and otherwise. A wealthy, black, fundamentalist Christian oil tycoon would be kind of stupid to vote for Obama, because by doing so he would be diminishing his profit margin and supporting things like gay rights. The majority of black people aren't fundamentalist Christian oil tycoons, though, so they tend not to vote republican.
It would be great, I think we'd all agree, if we did live in a society in which voting patterns could be equally distributed across racial barriers. BT, it sounds like you think we "should" be at that point right now. Or it could be you think we would be at that point, if not for all these racist left-wingers telling black people who they should vote for.
In either case, the fact is we're not there yet. We've got a long way to go. A long way.
Sep 14, '07
I should also point out, in case it wasn't clear above, that I think what critics are really talking about is class, not race, despite the arguments about lineage. Thus, my Barack Huxtable question.
3:07 p.m.
Sep 14, '07
Steven,
Of course Obama is black in historical U.S. cultural terms, which unlike the Hispanic and Lusophone worlds, tended not to recognize intermediate categories between black and white (partly due to nature of slavery here & banning of manumission, partly due to Native Americans not being turned into a peasant population in the U.S.). Take a look at a photo collection in the Library of Congress (click the preview all images link) largely compiled by W. E. B. Du Bois, which includes very pale, blonde, blue-eyed little Negro girls (per legal definition) in 1899. This has been changing recently, as more people with complicated "racial ancestry" want to claim or acknowledge all of their ancestors.
And Senator Obama seems to be both an extremely able person and a decent one, as you say.
But as the invocation by Bob Tiernan illustrates, that line from MLK, Jr.'s August 1963 speech is often separated from the whole corpus of his thought. Dr. King was an advocate of affirmative action to the end, and never was an advocate of pretending racial discrimination and inequality didn't exist. Toward the end of his life he turned increasingly to focus on class dimensions of racial oppression and to look toward mobilizing poor and working class people across racial lines. But that work couldn't happen by pretending the lines didn't exist.
I more or less agree with Lestatdelc and Trishka as long as it's clear that separating race & class in the U.S. is purely abstract and heuristic -- our system of inequality is a racialized class system. The racial dimension is changing in serious ways right now.
Trishka, my advice as another white person concerned about racial and class inequality and oppression is, try to figure out what vote promotes equality best, and do that.
And when people talk about so-called white guilt as if it's purely and simply a bad thing, ask yourself if they are engaging in white shamelessness. ;->
3:27 p.m.
Sep 14, '07
If anything, between this and the other story BO highlighted from WW, it shows how bad their coverage has gotten.
Certainly (as a Caucasian) I don't support Obama to feel better about myself, I support him because I think he is a great person and would be an awesome president. My feeling is that he is honest to God the real thing in terms of what our nation needs. I wouldn't say that unless I thought it was true.
3:37 p.m.
Sep 14, '07
Raul, what you say makes a lot of sense to me. As nearly as I can figure out, from my own white experience, what white people of good will often mean when they speak of "not seeing abc person as xyz" culturally defined ethno-racial category is something along the lines of not feeling racially self-conscious themselves in the presence of abc person with darker skin.
lestatdelc, actually I've been watching a lot of Bugs Bunny recently as my 8 year old discovers him & friends via DVD & was thinking of him when I wrote what I wrote.
Maroon also relates to "marooned" as in "stranded on a desert isle, e.g. by pirates" -- strand itself being a slightly old fashioned word for beach in English, & the word for it in Dutch or Afrikaans. So maroon means outcast, socially isolated and civilizationally isolated person. Calling slaves who seized their own freedom and in some cases, e.g. in Jamaica or N.E. South America "marrons" or "maroons" may have been partly a way of saying they were "wild", "savage", outside the order of civilized slave society, although possibly the etymology runs the other direction -- that stranding someone put him on the margins of civilized humanity, like an escaped slave. I've never been sure.
Anyway, it's not a far jump from there to the semantic realm of rube, hick etc., the where Bugs' maroon lives, I think.
Bugs himself of course is pretty clearly a descendant or cousin of that trickster of slave folklore, Br'er Rabbit, by way of Queens -- Br'er Rabbit in turn having kinsfolk in various parts of Africa, such as Cakijana in southern Africa, as well as brothers & sisters in spirit like Anansi/Aunt Nancy. Whether Bugs is "passing" or just mocking the "one-drop-rule" along with everything else I'm not sure -- doubtless he'd think it a good joke for me to spend this time on it.
3:40 p.m.
Sep 14, '07
Meant to write that maroons "in some cases formed persisting politically independent communities" in the Caribbean & S. America.
3:58 p.m.
Sep 14, '07
I hope the racial dimension is changing, but my hesitation to say that it is when using the pop-culture tropes of hip-hop, gang-banger, etc. as a short-hand to argue the inroads made to stirring or blending the cultural pot. I question the depth or fruits of embracing the pop-cultural fetish or glorification of ostensibly negative manifestations of the historical racial/socioeconomic underclass of black America. In other words, I question how real the affectations of hip-hop culture in white suburban youth is?
This I think is what Cosby was getting at in recent years.
When the affectations and pop-cultural "bling" of hip-hop or "gangsta" is embraced by white middle to upper middle class suburban youth, when it becomes a market commodity I question how real it all really is.
When a the voting population becomes enraged at the prospect of a several hundred dollar a year tax increase to get serious funding for education for example is enough to swing elections and enable truly backward ballot initiative driven revenue policy, yet those same families while rush out to spend more of that on intentionally marketed "urban bling" in multi-hundred dollar "hood-rat" clothing in corporate mall outlets... that is where my skepticism rears its head.
4:06 p.m.
Sep 14, '07
Interesting notion about Bugs being (whether intended or not) a 20th century pop-cultureal subliminal repacking of the trickster archetype. Not to drive it too far of the track, but the 50s and 60s era cartoons have some (in retrospect) "curious" characters indeed. Snagglepuss for instance, a pink "cosmopolitan" mountain lion with a lisp wearing collars and cusps... hmm.. what could that Hayes Code era character subtext be representing? (wry grin)
4:08 p.m.
Sep 14, '07
Ugh.
Should read:
5:01 p.m.
Sep 14, '07
lestatdelc, absolutely. I'd forgotten about Snagglepuss. Things could under the radar in cartoons that otherwise would have been impossible. Rocky & Bullwinkle's incisive satire of Cold War idiocies is another example.
In some earlier cartoons you can see continuations and transitions from vaudeville's complex ethnic stereotype humor.
Regarding changes in race, I was talking past you I think. What I meant was changes in both how people think about racial categories -- desire and willingness to think about "multiracial" identities, reflected among other things in changes in the census category options, and rising importance of Hispanic or Latino/a as a "racial" category nationally tending to supplant a previously dominant white-black opposition as the central reference point for constructing race (always a problem in the West of course, where Asian groups and Native Americans as well as Mexicans were always relevant).
I agree with you about the shallowness you describe. Also I agree with what you wrote before about whites in the "underclass" -- except that I think the term underclass is problematic because it relies on images of social isolation that are exaggerated.
Romanticization of gang culture is problematic in a number of ways -- not only the consumerist aspects you identify but also exaggeration of it by some left intellectuals as politically meaningful "resistance." But demonization also perpetuates the exaggerations, e.g. Bill Clinton's gratuitous hyping of Sister Souljah for his own political ends.
5:20 p.m.
Sep 14, '07
Agreed. That demonization and exaggeration comes from the far-left and the right in general as well (not to mention the political opportunism of DLC triangulates which you cite). The Hannity's and O'Riley-Rushbots eat up the "gansta" boogeyman tropes with relish. It slips easily into the right's pantheon of welfare queens, undeserving "others" and screaming "reverse racism". That in turn goes hand-in-hand with their railing against activist judiciary and exploiting age-old white-flight enabling hot-buttons.
This is why I think Cosby's "wake-up call" begining with his "pound-cake speech" is important.
6:26 p.m.
Sep 14, '07
i had no idea we'd get into Bugs Bunny et al, but now and then, the comments thread has a genius of its own (and speaking of genius, don't forget the voice of Bugs Bunny and the rest of the Warner Bros cast was Portland's own Mel Blanc).
class ultimately matters much more than race. race is a stupid term; it's skin color, and cultural differences, and all that constitutes otherness -- and we abbreviate it "race". race (sic) matters because we make it matter. when we stop caring about skin color, nation of origin, religion, etc -- then race (sic) won't matter. please do not hold your breath. Obama is Obama because of his African father, his Kansan mother, and all the rest of the mixed bag of heritage from which he came. Obama's race (sic) matters because it is part of what makes him who he is. so it matters to me that i support a man with African physical characteristics; it matters because i know what that represents. but of course, what matters more is his message, and that transcends every difference we can find to harm one another. just as only Dr King, an African American, could deliver the "I have a dream" speech, only Barack Obama, a man born of two nations, can bring a message of uniting a divided nation -- and have it resonate so powerfully.
Sep 15, '07
Willy Week is definitely becoming less relevant to any serious discussion, not just in the political coverage but in a lot of their coverage of musical and artistic events not favored by the hip and trendy.
I agree that class is the secret issue under a lot of racist elements today--instead of looking at African-Americans, it's telling and useful to look to the Latino populations and discern between the Latinos employed in lower-class jobs as opposed to upper-class jobs. Which group wins the most acceptance? Isn't hard to guess.
Right now I'm teetering between Obama and Edwards for my primary vote, and it depends on what week it is when you ask me who I'll vote for. My ideal ticket for the general would have both of them on it--doesn't really matter to me who's on top. Unfortunately, Hillary will probably barge in there somewhere. She's a distant third as far as I'm concerned, just because she's too dang conservative and too close to the DLC. On the other hand, I think she'd make a good Cabinet member, and I'd like to see her in that role instead of President or Vice President.
Sep 15, '07
Steven Maurer wrote: "So I'm calling B.S. on this whole "Obama isn't black" business. Of course he is. Racists don't see him as anything else."
Is that why you "progressives" are constantly harping about how black Obama is? Y'all talk a lot more about his melanin content than you do his politics. Guess that makes you all racist, huh?
"But further, he is among the best of men. You can tell by his actions. The editor of the Harvard Law Review has a lot of career choices after school, all of which makes a ton of money. What did the Senator do instead? He went to the inner city to organize, to help, to heal - all for a pittance."
Uh, no, he become a very well paid professor at an elite private university where black students only make up ~4% of the student body despite the location of the university in a predominantly black part of town. The disconnect between the university and the surrounding neighborhoods is striking. Obama taught in a program that charges $13,066 PER QUARTER just in tuition. Whatever "inner city" activism he did was strictly secondary to his careerism.
6:54 p.m.
Sep 15, '07
This is such a patently absurd "controversy".
If white progressives can't/don't know what it's like to be a black woman such as Ms. Bowman, then by the very same token she can't/doesn't know what it's like to be a white progressive. Thus, her opinion on what motivates white progressives to support Obama or anyone else isn't worth any more than the breath it took her to utter it.
The same goes for women wondering whether guilt motivates men to support Hillary.
It's crap like this that really makes me dispair for our collective future. Self-described progressives are no more immune from arrogant bigotry than self-described conservatives are. Pretending that we are isn't constructive.
Sep 15, '07
I love this country. Even with all it's problems it's one of the greatest countries on the planet. America is at a pivot moment in her history and I have no doubt that she will not let herself down. This may be nieve but that's just what I think. I too am glad we're having this discussion. And finally there will be no doubt about where America really stands on this issue of race. Whether Obama wins or loses we will know as a nation where we stand on the race issue. My guess is that we will pass this test of our decency. Win or lose for Mr. Obama.
1:12 a.m.
Sep 16, '07
Why the hierarchy of oppression folks? Class over race? "Race isn't real, and doesn't matter". White privilege and the basic denial of humanity are hard at work in liberal Portland. Yes race is a social construct, and we may well nurture an anti-racist multicultural society (because we've always been essentially a racist multicultural one), however pretending race doesn't exist or adopting a color blind stance is highly counter productive.
I appreciate that Obama is sensitive to the dynamics of prejudice and institutional oppression. I don't see him as one reader posted as "basically a White man". Honestly that is really offensive. Disclosure: I wasn't at the rally, and favor Obama over Clinton head to head.
8:52 a.m.
Sep 16, '07
Joseph, i agree with you: both count because people's beliefs and actions make them count. anyone who discounts Obama's ethnicity is simply trying to undermine his legitimacy within our culture, to say he does not represent blacks. that sort of thing is just another form of racist attack, whether it comes from a white or black American. sadly, it comes from both.
i also believe that dealing effectively with class issues -- which ultimately come down to eliminating poverty and overcoming institutionalized economic structures that keep entire classes of people in economic distress -- is the best way to overcome much of the problems that flow from racism. you can never legislate away what people carry in their hearts, but you can use government to help enable people to not live on the edges of survival. we have, as a nation, the moral obligation to do this, a message being made in two different ways by both Obama and Edwards. i hope their is a significant place for the latter in Obama's administration.
9:11 a.m.
Sep 16, '07
Joseph,
You're absolutely right that race being a social construction doesn't make it not real. Class is a social construction. Society is a social construction. We make our lives by the meanings we give things -- but are limited in how far we can do so by the meanings other people give to them.
About hierarchy of oppressions, there are two separate ways of looking at it going on in the previous discussion. Saying "it's class not race" & relate ideas make a hierarchy.
But there's another idea going on. American mass culture hides its class inequalities from itself. Denial of racism is frequent, but openly contested. Denial of class inequality is pervasive and rarely contested. We're all middle class. Except we're not.
One of the main ways that class gets buried in the U.S. is by conflating it with race. Class inequalities get labelled as racial ones, and people who don't fit the stereotype get ignored, while those who do fit get isolated from others who share similar class/economic interests.
In our society, race and class are socially constructed through one another. Working out effective egalitarian and social justice politics requires thinking about how they intertwine. Which, in current circumstances, requires additional focus on class, because it's the buried, hidden inequality.
But anyone who says such attention to class should mean ignoring race has it all wrong, or is being disingenuous like fatcat loving conservative hypocrites who cry crocodile tears for working class whites but try to prevent them from joining unions and conduct class war through tax policy & other means.
Sep 16, '07
I saw Obama in the Convention Center. To me his supporters appeared about as diverse as it gets in Pdx -- in age and race. His policies address economic disparity and would restore the US reputation globally.
Frankly I think Obama has the best credentials of any of the candidates. So he got a job teaching in an elite university -- I don't really think that downward mobility plays well to American voters. (you voting Dennis Kucinich ???) Obama can win undecided and Republican votes because he projects sincerity and integrity. Hillary can't. Former Gen. Peak, who introduced him, said he would be not a "good commander-in-chief" but "a great one." Please let go of the party machine groupthink. Don't let this one get away.
Sep 16, '07
I tried to satirize this, but it's quite hard.
Satire is always hard and best left to those few with the necessary skills and experience. Failure can create a terrible impression of the author.
4:24 p.m.
Sep 16, '07
I hear you TA and Chris. On another note, I find myself, as a mixed race person, excited at the prospect of a person of color vying for the US Presidency. It will bring out all kinds of "race card" conversations, and potential changes within people and society. For that, I am glad. Often I've experienced the race issue just being so hard to even talk about.
I wish to see a strong multiracial, intergenerational, and multiclass coalition. Probably something of a pipe dream, but sometimes there are moments in a generation when folks can "get it".
Sep 16, '07
Jack - did you read the article besides finding damning statistics? The University of Chicago (my alma mater, and where Obama taught at the law school and where his wife is a vice-president of the hospital system) is examining their problems in attracting and retaining African-American students.
The U of C's history has been fraught with both good (never officially segregated, first black female Ph.D. awarded, scholarships for black students since the 1920s) and bad (drove black residents out of the neighborhood in the 1950s and 1960s through gentrification, for a long time saw itself as an island campus) relations with the community.
I have been involved in recruiting students to the U of C, and they are well aware of the problems in attracting African-American students (even moreso considering they have a very good track record in attracting Latino students). There are many issues involved, including their lower profile compared to other elite universities. Everyone knows about Harvard and Yale, but not the U of C.
And Obama is a Maroon - a former faculty member of the U of C. (The university's sports teams were named after the color, not any of the other definitions.)
9:25 p.m.
Sep 16, '07
Personally, I think Barack's response to the question "Are you black enough?" is just about right.
It went something like this: "Well, when I try to catch a cab in Manhattan, I'm certainly black enough."
9:34 p.m.
Sep 16, '07
Kari, i kept thinking of that, too. i think he used it on 60 Minutes. and it really sums up the issue pretty neatly, i think.
Sep 17, '07
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Sep 17, '07
Now, there is also the fact that many people once did not consider Italians to be white, which indicates skin color wasn't everything.
"I am reminded of the contemporary diary from a logger in Northern Minnesota back in the 1800's who said "I am the only white many in my crew, the rest all being Swedes..." He goes on to discuss how strange it was not to have anyone who shared his "complexion".
Kari, i kept thinking of that, too. i think he used it on 60 Minutes. and it really sums up the issue pretty neatly, i think.
Does this "can I catch a cab in Manhattan" test work for a light skinned black? If they can catch a cab, they aren't really "black enough"? I think this may just be another strange disconnect in the discussion of race.
We now judge people's skin color by how they act, except when the evidence of their color is so extreme as to be irrefutable.
I don't think the debate on race has ever been about skin color. Skin color was just an easy identifying mark.
Sep 17, '07
If white progressives can't/don't know what it's like to be a black woman such as Ms. Bowman, then by the very same token she can't/doesn't know what it's like to be a white progressive.
That is absurd on its face. Joanne Bowman lives in a sub-culture of "white progressives". Its plain silly to say she has less ability to understand it than any of the other members of that sub-culture.
Sep 17, '07
lestatdelc:
Once again Steven up-thread hits it dead-center. Bob T, what Steven is laying out is where I, and I would posit MOST progressives are coming from.
Bob T:
I read it, but it's still not clear if these "most" progressives can see a black conservative (or rather, a black free enterpriser and dependency critic) as someone entitled to have those opinions without being a "traitor" to his race, an excapee from the Democratic Party plantation.
Bob Tiernan
Sep 17, '07
Wheels:
Bob T:
Sorry, he's an idiot because he's a scam artist and con man who depends on keeping racism alive to make more millions for himself. I mentioned Shelby Steele as an alternative. Jackson's a dinosaur in comparison. We need to get past him. All of us.
By the way, I found it highly amusing regarding your mini lecture about using the word "idiot". Now tell me, do progressives resist calling Bush an idiot or worse by politely saying or writing, "I respectfully disagree with President Bush" ? I didn't think so.
Wheels:
Bob T:
Well, I haven't missed it.
Bob Tiernan
1:13 a.m.
Sep 19, '07
Can not wait to vote for the Clinton/Obama ticket in 2008 and plan on voting for the Obama/Merkley ticket in 2016.
Fred
Sep 21, '07