We all have seen the controversial remark that Sen. Harry Reid made about then Sen. Barack Obama;
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid apologized Saturday following reports he had privately described then-candidate Barack Obama during the presidential campaign as a black candidate who could be successful thanks in part to his "light-skinned" appearance and speaking patterns "with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.".
The Media and others have decided to place emphasis on his use of the word Negro as if that's where the offense lies. It is not. As an African American, I have already accepted the fact that older Americans of all races creeds and colors are going to still use that word till the day they die. I will use the term African American or Black till the day I die even of society accepts a new word.-like chocolate or something-. What I am identified as in this nation reflects more on the person identifying me than it does me. I wasn't offended at that.
But what I found objectionable and what I HOPE Reid was apologizing for was this notion that Blacks are only successful if we are light skinned and don't speak in a dialect attributed to Blacks. That is what I found offensive and that is what is so sadly being omitted from the conversation. Already we have seen a handful of Blacks come out to reassure the masses that Harry Reid is not a racist and that they are not offended at the word Negro. They need not do that. It just makes them feel better, but does not address the real issue.
As I just explained, I don't care about that stuff either. I am a professional African American woman who once wrote a Daily Kos diary about being mistaken for a White woman over the phone by a racist who wanted to me to refund his nonrefundable vacation package because he had emergency situation; the emergency being that his White daughter allowed her Black boyfriend into his house and he had to rush home to get that ___ out of his house. I am one of those Negros that Harry Reid was talking about.
Harry Reids comment spits directly into my face because in essence, it tells me that he believes that I , and other Obama-like Blacks who don't speak in what American society has stereotyped as Black/Negro dialect which is nothing more than a deliberately urbanized Southern drawl did not become successful in my career as a result of me being more experienced than my peers. His comment tells me that I did not succeed because I have a strong work ethic and because I deserve to be successful.But rather, because I have a certain completion and because I use a certain dialect when speaking. I object to that stereotype.
And for the record, I speak the same way around everyone regardless of who they are. There is no dialect "switch" for me. My mother was born and raised in Arkansas and has a deep Southern accent and very light skin. My late father was born and raised in Illinois and spoke like a Midwesterner with a deep complexion. I was born and raised in California and I have a "Valley Girl" accent and used to have a deeper skin tone although coworkers have noted that after five years of living in the Frozen Tundra, I have started picking up some Wisconsin dialect and my skin is on the pale side. Here's the point; my mother is not more authentically Black than my father and myself. And we are not more successful in life than my mother just because of the way we talk.
If Reid was apologizing for making THOSE comments and those assertions, then yes, I will accept his apology and I will urge Reid and others who have these opinions of African Americans and what it takes for us to be successful in this country to rethink their perceptions because while it may not stem from Racism or Prejudice, it stems from a stereotype and that is just as offensive and wrong. You will all note that I did not refer to the way my father spoke and the way that I speak as speaking in a White dialect, but rather in GEOGRAPHIC terms. Because that's how I see it. I don't see White people as speaking White. I see people speaking an American dialect unique to their geographic location.
The President has just issued a statement expressing that he accepted the appology and as far as he was concerned the book was closed. I'm not quite sure that it is. Apology aside, I'm not sure if Harry Reid sees people the way I do.
(UPDATE) Those of you are are suggesting that Reid was talking about how it is in America, please tell me how it is, that Cynthia Mc Kinney and several others who speak and look like her SUCEEDED in getting elected to public office? And using the same logic, why was Harold Ford Jr.UNSUCCESSFUL in his recent election bid? Hmmm ?