JISHOU, HUNAN — It’s like I fell into a space-time warp and ended up in polite company in the US of the 1950s or ’60s. In the last two days, I have had two Chinese ask me if I thought Barack Obama was capable of being a good president, because, you know, he’s black.

Since the first question came from a middle-school teacher, I chalked it up to a generational prejudice. When the second question came from one of my students, I realized I had just encountered my first exposure to Chinese racism.

While most Chinese seem really pleased that Barack Obama has been elected president of the United States, there is an undercurrent of doubt that he can “do it,” since, you know, he’s black. It’s the kind of attitude I would have expected from adults when I was younger, but hearing it in 2008 from younger people is pretty disturbing.

It’s not entirely unexpected, however. I knew before I arrived that dark-skinned English-language teachers have a tougher time finding work in China than us lily-white teachers. There are three prejudices working side by side here.

First, Han Chinese, who constitute the vast majority of the population, are predisposed to look on any of their own minorities as being “inferior” to the Han, much as whites have looked down on practically every other ethnic group they have encountered. I suppose it’s a typical attitude of the “ruling class” to consider itself above everyone else.

November 11th, 2008 | Tags: African-Americans, Africans, Barack Obama, blacks, China, dark skin, racism | Category: China, Commentary, Teaching English | Comments (1)

The new First Family. Too cool for words.

November 5th, 2008 | Tags: Barack Obama, family, president | Category: General stuff | Comments (1)

JISHOU, HUNAN — James Dobson and his Focus on the Family have to be among the lowest creatures in God’s kingdom, right alongside that serpent that tempted Adam and Eve.

Dobson’s FOTF Political Action Group released a fictional letter today “from the future,” alleging that four years of an Obama administration will pack the Supreme Court with far-left liberals, restrict religious freedoms, raise taxes, collude with Communists, and practically invite terrorists to bomb the USA. The usual FOTF hot buttons are there, too: homosexuality, abortions and pornography. They will all reach epidemic proportions if Obama is elected, the letter says.

It closes with an accusation that the evangelicals who voted for Obama in 2008, abandoning John McCain, were basically backsliders. Yep, nothing like adding good old Christian guilt to a dishful of fear.

Many people thought he sounded so thoughtful, so reasonable. And during the campaign,
after he had won the Democratic nomination, he seemed to be moving to the center in his
speeches, moving away from his far-Left record. No one thought he would enact such a far-Left,
extreme liberal agenda.

But the record was all there for anyone to see. The agenda of the ACLU, the agenda of
liberal activist judges in their dissenting opinions, the agenda of the homosexual activists, the
agenda of the environmental activists, the agenda of the National Education Association, the
agenda of the global-warming activists, the agenda of the abortion-rights activists, the agenda of
the gun-control activists, the agenda of the euthanasia supporters, the agenda of the one-world
government pacifists, the agenda of far-Left groups in Canada and Europe – all of these agendas
were there in plain sight, and all of these groups provided huge support for Senator Obama. The
liberal agenda was all there. But too many people just didn’t want to see it.

Christians didn’t take time to find out who Barack Obama was when they voted for him.

October 25th, 2008 | Tags: 2012, Barack Obama, fearmongering, Focus on the Family, James Dobson | Category: Commentary, Random rants, religion | Leave a comment

JISHOU, HUNAN — In a fortuitous example of synchronicity, Colin Powell reminded the United States that, yes, Muslims are people, too, while Al Jazeera reminded the world’s Muslims that, yes, Muslims are actually happy in America.

The silver lining in the cloud of bigotry against Barack Hussein Obama may very well be the recognition that Muslims in the USA are also Americans, that white Protestant “hockey moms” and “Joe Six-Packs” are not the only “real Americans.” We all are. Being a Muslim does not automatically make you an enemy of the state.

The haters of Obama have tried to link him both to domestic terrorists and to Al Qaeda, largely by using the old “guilt by association” gambit.

Colin Powell, a Republican with a long, unhappy history with the current administration, came out Oct. 19 on Meet the Press to endorse Obama as president. In the midst of his endorsement, he said this:

I’m also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but what members of the party say. And it is permitted to be said such things as, “Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.” Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he’s a Christian. He’s always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer’s no, that’s not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, “He’s a Muslim and he might be associated with terrorists.” This is not the way we should be doing it in America.

October 24th, 2008 | Tags: Barack Obama, Colin Powell, Islam, Muslims, USA | Category: Civil liberties, Commentary, religion | Leave a comment

You could have hit me with a feather and knocked me over. The Chicago Tribune has endorsed Democrat Sen Barack Obama (D-Illinois), for the presidency, breaking a 161-year tradition.

Next, Christopher Buckley, author and commentator for the conservative National Review — the magazine his father founded, will be endorsing Obama.

Oh, wait, he did that already. Nevermind.

In both cases, paragons of conservative Republican values broke ranks and defected — if only temporarily — to the “other side.” The Trib’s editorial board and Buckley join the ranks of several other notable conservative voices who have abandoned the sinking ship of Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

The Trib, in its endorsement, praised Obama for his intellectual rigor, calm, measured demeanor, and ability to mend fences and build coalitions. It said he would make a fine president.

As for McCain, the paper pulled no punches in criticizing him and especially his campaign. Recalling the reasons why the Trib has always endorsed either the conservative candidate or the reformist candidate, it says,

October 17th, 2008 | Tags: Barack Obama, buckley, chicago, election, John McCain, presidential, tribune | Category: Commentary, Random rants | Leave a comment