I suppose that I have become the jerk that I wanted to see. Several months ago, while there was more than one kind of doubt about Obama, I suggested that there might come a new standard if he were elected. It still hasn't seemed to catch on to the loud minority of Obamacrats that he was against Gay Marriage. So perhaps his own family values have become some sort of 'oh that's just for poor black people' kind of condescension. But at the time I said:
The problems with any such suggestion as an 'Obama Era' is that week after week he amply demonstrates to everyone that there is very little upon which he can be depended to represent in principle. He is pragmatic to his beige bones. He talks about 2/3rds the game of Bill Clinton and is about twice as teflon-coated. So I've decided to do my projections and say that it is now the No Excuses Era. There's a black president, so what's your excuse? I have to say it that way because proving Obama inconsistent is trivial.
Well there are two points of confusion that you would think might be resolved. The first is whether or not anyone has any business expecting that claims of racial superiority shouldn't be beat down in the American media. But it's clear that what multiculturalism has done, like acid rain on our institutions of higher learning and mass communications, is weakened all of the structures and eroded their clarity over the years. Once upon a time white male bashing was an ironic sport, it has now mutated to an article of multicultural faith at no less a level than Supreme Court nominees. The multicultural mantra has gone beyond simple cultural relativism into pledges of allegiance to un-America. Puerto Rico and now Cuba are elevated because Hispanics are so important. What's so important about Hispanics? Nothing at all if E Pluribus Unum means anything. I leave research into that question as an exercise.
The second point of confusion manifests itself among the head witch doctors of my original tribe over the proper context of assessment for Princess Tiana. Among some of the critics are folks over at Essence magazine, and we already know about them. In case you weren't listening, Essence recently recommended that black women should find mates by frequenting strip clubs. Then there's the redoubtable NAACP, and of course Oprah. Why anyone would take advice about boys & girls from Winfrey is one of those areas where you actually have to shrug and cave to muslim critics of American decline. But the deeper point is that Disney must consult with such entities before peddling their 'soon to be classic' material to a bourgie audience in thrall to Disney's concept of wholesome family life. Aside from the fact that Disney's difficulty with princesses is more than a little twisted, it shouldn't bear so much scrutiny in the first place. After all, it's just a cartoon with merchandising tie-ins. Pixar doesn't have such difficulties. Then again, people are somehow smart enough to dismiss Pixar characters whereas Disney characters are soo.....
OK now I'm done talking about race.
They're overfreighted with significance, that's all. That being part and parcel of the fact that once upon a time young people read books about the adventures of men and women. Now they just watch videos about men and women shaking it. All the literature for teenagers is about teenagers being teenagers - an end in and of itself. And some poor fraction of America must suffer through this cultural minefield dripping with salacious vapidity like raindrops off the dancers in Step Up 2. Except if it ain't sexy it's gotta be Disney. Mark Twain and Rudyard Kipling be damned.
Sad. Just pathetically sad. Americans have such an identity crisis.
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