These Words Matter

I know that I may be pigeonholing myself with all these political-race-related-blogs but I have to write this.

I think Obama’s speech on race may have been one of the most accurate and textured statements on the complexities of race relations in this country’s history...and there’s part of me that wishes he wasn’t the one to give it.

An Inconvenient Truth would have been received quite differently if Al Gore had released it while he was running for office. Those who didn’t want to vote for him, Bush and Nader fans alike, would have dismissed it as a politically motivated piece that didn’t have any real validity. The pundits would have torn it apart looking for inconsistencies between the film and Gore’s voting record and everybody would have missed the point.

Sometimes it’s okay to focus on the message and not the speaker. People always credit the American and French revolution as being the inspiration for the spread of democracy throughout the rest of Europe but the person who probably deserves the most credit is Napoleon. A fascist in the guise of a democratic figure, Napoleon sent his troops out to conquer the world all the while instructing them that they were to tell the conquered that the French aggression was in the name of liberté, equalité, and fraternité (that would be liberty, equality and fraternity to you and me). The peasants of Italy, Austria, Spain and the rest didn’t have access to newspapers that had detailed the people’s revolutions that had been the precursor to Napoleon’s reign. These words, these ideas, were completely new to them. Don’t get me wrong, they knew that Napoleon was a royal schmuck and his defeat was a victory for justice. But he didn’t just leave destruction in his wake. He left behind ideas as well and the people started asking themselves: What if all that stuff about equality wasn’t just used as empty rhetoric? What if we actually demanded liberty? What would happen if we insisted on being treated as equals?

The people who asked those questions were able to separate the words from the man who said them.

So whether you think Obama is following in the footsteps of Kennedy, Gore, Napoleon or the Easter Bunny, I urge you to separate yourself from the feelings you have about the man and read that speech and only focus on the words. We need those words. We need those ideas because if we discard them, if we treat them like the empty rhetoric of a politician we will lose an incredible opportunity to understand. Understand why the anger is so prevalent in certain portions of the Black community. Understand why working class Whites rail against affirmative action. Understand that the grievances on both sides are understandable and justified and most of all understand how we can heal.

Read the whole transcript of the speech but don’t visualize Obama’s face when you read it. Just read the words

Kyra Davis
Bestselling Author of:
SEX, MURDER AND A DOUBLE LATTE,
PASSION, BETRAYAL AND KILLER HIGHLIGHTS,
OBSESSION, DECEIT AND REALLY DARK CHOCOLATE
and
SO MUCH FOR MY HAPPY ENDING

What The Exit Polls Really Tell Us

There has been a lot of talk about race in relation to the presidential campaigns lately. I'm not going to get into the comments made by Ferraro or Rev. Wright. What I want to talk about is the media's interpretation of the exit polls coming out of the Mississippi primary. Obama won 91% of the Black vote and Clinton won 70% of the White vote. The pundits believe that this is indicative of a trend. According to them it shows that while Obama is gaining more Black support he is losing support among White voters. As I sit in front of the TV watching the pundits talk about this conclusion which they all seem to have universally come to I find that their voices are drowned out by three little words that keep running over and over again in my head. Three, non-politically correct, culturally biased little words:

But...it's Mississippi!

Let's face it, in a world that is filled with change and unpredictability there are only a few things left that we can depend on and some of those things are unjust or even flat out wrong and yet their consistency breeds not only acceptance but, at times, a certain degree of comfort. For instance we know that no matter how many articles and studies come out about the dangers of junk food and the benefits of healthy eating, McDonalds will continue to market their highly processed, horrifically caloric Happy Meals to our children. We know that no matter how much America is able to improve her image in the world community over the years to come the French will never treat our tourists like anything but inferior, fashion-backward imbéciles. But all of that is okay because every once in a while we enjoy indulging our children's yearning for really awful food and if the French stopped looking down on us...well whose laugh would we imitate while pretending to be snooty?

I have always felt that Mississippi is kind of like that because...let me think of a diplomatic way of saying this...Mississippi will never be one of America's most socially progressive states. We all know that, we get it. The fact that Mississippi's state flag actually incorporates the design of the confederate flag is a bit of a tell. The good news is that when we look at the racism in our own backyard we comfort ourselves by saying, "Well, at least it's not Mississippi!"

To those of you who are from the the grand ol' Magnolia State I do apologize for any offense that I may have caused. If it makes you feel any better, I live in LA, a city that (according to my son) should have the motto: "Vanity is more important than sanity." What can I say, we all have our issues.

But given that, would any journalist with half a brain come out to Rodeo Drive and then go on to report that women across the country love putting dogs in two thousand dollar handbags? No. What applies to Rodeo absolutely does not apply to the towns that line Route 66. So why are we looking at these exit polls in Mississippi with the idea that they are in any way indicative of a nation wide trend? As far as I'm concerned all the exit polls tell us is that Black people and White people in Mississippi disagree about a lot of stuff. I know, it's a shocker.

I'm not saying that racism doesn't exist outside of Mississippi’s borders. I'm just saying that the state doesn't make a very good test case. Unless of course we allow the press to convince us that Mississippi is a trendsetter and we all hop on that bandwagon. I think even Mississippians would agree that's not a great idea. And yet there seems to be some supporters of both Clinton and Obama who have done exactly that. To them I say:

KNOCK IT OFF!

If you want to debase yourself go to France and order a well-done cheeseburger at a bistro but leave the rest of us out of it. After all, if we want to see racial division we know which Southwest flight to book.

Kyra Davis
Bestselling Author of:
SEX, MURDER AND A DOUBLE LATTE,
PASSION, BETRAYAL AND KILLER HIGHLIGHTS,
OBSESSION, DECEIT AND REALLY DARK CHOCOLATE
and
SO MUCH FOR MY HAPPY ENDING

This That And Then Some

I just had the most AMAZING massage and facial. My little retreat into luxury was a gift from a very special someone and I am going to make sure that I show my appreciation in a way that he won't forget

Anyway, if any of you are ever in the LA area and want to treat yourself, head over to rA2 Organic Spa in Burbank and get the Thai Massage and/or a customized facial by Manu. I've had a few facials in my life but I swear my skin has never glowed like this.

On to other stuff: I've been reading a lot of newspaper articles and journalistic blog posts online lately. I've also been reading the comments. Who knew there were so many idiots out there? Well, okay, we all kind of knew but certain people seem to be particularly anxious to flaunt their stupidity once they get a user name. One of my favorite comments was after an article about Barack Obama. The comment read: "I can't believe people in this country don't realize how disastrous it would be to elect a mulatto to the presidency!"

What makes this comment extra special is that he prefaced his statement with the words "I'm not a racist but..."

So not only is he a bigot but he's a bigot who doesn't own a dictionary.

There was a comment on another site railing against the American media that is "controlled by Israel." Perhaps he felt more PC by pinning the media "conspiracy" on Israel rather than the more common and convenient scapegoats, the plain ol’ American Jews. The problem is that at least there's an argument (albeit, an incredibly faulty one) for saying the Jews control the media for while Rupert Murdock and Anderson Cooper are most definitely not Jewish there are a few newspaper editors who are so there's someone to point a finger at. But Israel? Are we really to believe that the Israeli government is calling up all the media outlets in the States every day to discuss their content? I’m fairly sure they have more urgent matters to attend to.

But it wasn't until I read the comments after an article about homeschooling in the San Francisco Chronicle that I felt the need to respond. Comment after comment accused homeschooling moms of being religious extremists or left wing fanatical nut jobs. As a homeschooling mom myself I felt the need to set the record straight so I used 250 of the 300 characters I was allocated and explained why, for some children, homeschooling provides a much needed lifeline. My hope was that a few people would read it and maybe one of them would think about what I said. Well a few people did read it including someone from the Chronicle and they contacted me and asked if they could publish my comment in their paper. I don't know if it's coming out Saturday or Sunday but if you have access to the Chronicle by all means check it out.

Wouldn't it be funny if they published the comment as an example of the idiotic things people post on the internet? That would show me

Kyra Davis
Bestselling Author of:
SEX, MURDER AND A DOUBLE LATTE,
PASSION, BETRAYAL AND KILLER HIGHLIGHTS,
OBSESSION, DECEIT AND REALLY DARK CHOCOLATE
and
SO MUCH FOR MY HAPPY ENDING