NYU Black Renaissance Noire Winter/Spring 2012 | Page 6
My Take
By
QUINCY TROUPE
photograph by nathea Lee
o
Back row:
Hamiet Bluiett, Quincy Troupe
Front row (right):
Ornette Coleman
It is March 2012. Spring is just around the proverbial
corner and will arrive quicker than quick.
4
Tree leaves are turning green. Fields are
about to bloom dazzling colors of
flowers, and people in cold climates are
getting ready to switch their woolen
winter clothing for lighter spring and
summer wear. Winter is fast receding
into memory and that’s how time rolls
these days, seducing our minds and
hearts with visions of a thaw, though
we still have drenching rains and
storms accompanying the clashing of
weather systems to get through.
Then beautiful summer days lie ahead.
Spring and summer are mainly hopeful
seasons, historically the time of the
year that promises renewal, though
over the last decades they have been
seasons notably divisive in public and
political discourse. Unfortunately,
I see no change in that coming during
this presidential election year, when
the temperatures of American—and
world—political discourse have
reached a boiling point.
During the fall of last year on
November 21, 2011, the discourse in
Florida became particularly coarse,
hateful, and divisive, as First Lady
Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden,
the wife of vice president, Joe Biden,
were booed in their roles as grand
marshals of the nascar season finale
at the Homestead-Miami Speedway.
The incident happened when the First
Lady and Mrs. Biden’s names were
announced, right before they delivered
the famous words, “Drivers, start
your engines.” The women were there
to support military veterans and their
families as part of a charitable campaign.
They were standing beside retired
Army Sgt. Andrew Barry, who is white,
and his family. Sgt. Barry, a wounded
Iraq and Afghanistan War vet, received
loud applause, as he should have.
But the booing of the First Lady and
Dr. Biden was a chilling reminder
of just how uncivil the nation and its
citizenry have become.
To make matters even worse, there was
hardly a ripple of an outcry from the
general public and the media regarding
the ignominious incident. And to
add fuel to the fire, the always caustic,
viral, uncouth drug-addicted shock-jock
radio announcer, Russ Limbaugh
called the First Lady “uppity” (but not
Dr. Biden. Could it have been because
she is white?) for flying to the event
on the presidential jet! Calling Michelle
Obama “uppity” caused the almost
always supportive African-American
Republican spokesman, Michael Steele,
to lose his temper and called Limbaugh,
“Stupid.” This kind of talk has become
almost normal in the politically charged
discourse taking place these days between
political parties and civilians in these
yet to be United States of America.
Before he became President of the
United States, Barack Obama said in
his heralded keynote speech at the
2004 Democratic Convention (that
nominated John Kerry to be the
Democratic nominee for President),
“There is not a liberal America and
a conservative America — there is the
United States of America.” Sadly,
however, soon after he became President
and during his first months in office,
Mr. Obama found out that indeed
there is a bifurcated America and the
split represents a nation at war with
itself. Red conservative states are
extremely far right wing and very
angry that a black man occupies the
office of the presidency, no matter
Obama’s conciliatory outreach to that
segment of the population. In fact,
so-called elements of the right-wing
philosophy (racist at its core, although
they try to cover this up by wearing
business suits instead of white sheets
with coned hats and the letters kkk
emblazoned for all to see) have made
significant inroads into American
institutions of culture — music,
publishing, films, radio, and television.