Last night Norfolk, VA was graced with the presence of Billy Bragg, Britain's most prominent punk-rock, socialist folk singer of the last 26 years. If you don't know who he is, visit his website, listen and get hep. During the performance he announced, as he often does, that he was a socialist, claimed that Obama was hardly one, felt that McCain clearly didn't know what he was talking about in his claims of socialism (I just think McCain/Palin is red-baiting, but that's another diary), and that he was enthused to see young people avoiding cynicism (the poison of any political movement). But most importantly was his note about the importance of "voting for a black man for leader of the free world".
Bragg stated this a few times only to have an audience member yell, "Hey Billy! It's not about a "black man". It's about the "right man"." He was right, of course and the audience vocally agreed. Billy, of course, noted that this was true but that "America has had a shitty record of choosing the "right man" lately" and went forward with his thesis, which I will paraphrase below:
I get sick of defending Americans to reactionary Europeans and others all over the world who cannot distinguish this country's people from its government. I travel throughout this country and I see the many contradictions and beautiful endeavors and promises this country holds. And to put it simply if you want to shove a rocket up the ass of so many reactionaries who have a knee-jerk reaction to what America is, voting in an African-American as leader of the free world would go a long way to do just that.
And why? Bragg further explained:
Do you have any idea what the chances England has in voting a black person Prime Minister? Zero.
How about a black President of France? Zero.
What about a black Chancellor or Germany? Well, they don't even have black man on their national football team...
Truer words were never spoken by a punk-rock, socialist brit folk singer, IMHO.
I post this simply as a reminder. If you know anyone, and I mean anyone, who doesn't think race matters in this election, well let them know that as racist as this country may be (and it is indeed), we could lead again with and never forget that may lead the world in a way that really does matter. A way toward equal recognition of the races and that could truly be a step forward.
Update... if you want to see what he said last night, well this is from Oct. 23rd and it was basically the same...