Day: July 20, 2013
Get over it
As I’ve read some off the wall interpretations and reactions to the President’s remarks yesterday about the Trayvon Martin case, I thought I would put up the video. Nothing like the original to make folks identify precisely what they found offensive or ill-founded:
In my way of thinking, the President here is showing himself not only thoughtful but also appropriately sensitive to a wide range of reactions to the case. I can’t imagine why some think he is speaking only for black people, even if he is definitely speaking from his experience as a black man in American. I’m what this society calls “white” and I can assure you he speaks for me: better training for the police, making sure our laws don’t encourage violence, targeted efforts to help young black men, soul-searching for our own biases, and recognition that we’ve come a long way sound like pretty good ideas to me.
Some of the criticism is about gun rights: there are people in our society who not only want the right to defend themselves, which has long been guaranteed, but impunity from prosecution if they don’t try to avoid a confrontation and instead “stand their ground,” which means responding to perceived threat with deadly violence even if there is an alternative. I suppose if I wanted to own a gun I would want to maximize my impunity as well. Imagining what would have happened had Trayvon Martin been armed–as the president suggests–is precisely the right way to convince yourself that this is a road we should not want to go down.
A lot of the criticism is coming from people who claim to be color blind (that’s why they think we don’t need that Voting Rights Act, isn’t it?) and resent the president’s explicit discussion of the racial dimensions of this case. I can’t help but wonder how many of these allegedly color blind people actually voted for a black president. And how many of them didn’t like that Cheerios commercial with the mixed couple. I’ve had more than one acquaintance who voted against Obama congratulate themselves and America on his election. These folks seem convinced that it happened because America didn’t notice he was black. So when he addresses racial issues as a black person they are deeply offended.
But his election did not happen because America was color blind. It happened because people preferred what he offered, because they trusted him more, because his opponents were weak, because young people, blacks and latinos turned out, because he is a thoughtful and well-educated person, and because racial prejudice is less absolute than once it was.
My grandmother would never have voted for a black person for anything. My parents would be delighted he was elected. But none of them was color blind. Nor am I. The president is black. Get over it.
Share this, I'll really appreciate it:
Washington stretched
It is difficult to see Secretary Kerry’s announcement that Israel and Palestine have agreed tentatively to meet at an unspecified date to talk about talks as worthy of the news coverage it has gotten. The headlines really signify how far the two sides have drifted apart after a three-year negotiating hiatus in their more than six decades of conflict.
Nevertheless, hiding in the New York Times account is a hint of what the deal behind the modest news may be. Kerry it says
…apparently won concessions on the new framework, which American, Israeli and Palestinian officials said would allow Washington to declare the 1967 prewar borders as the basis for the talks — along with the recognition of Israel as a Jewish state — but allow Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Abbas to distance themselves from those terms.
This is clever, if ironic. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu last year excoriated President Obama for talking about the 1967 prewar borders. Now he is agreeing to American allegiance to that idea as the basis for the talks, along with American recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, one of his favorite hobby horses. Not a bad deal from Netanyahu’s perspective.
Not too bad from Palestinian President Abbas’ either. He wants the 1967 prewar borders to be the basis, so as to ensure that any divergence from them gives the Palestinians at least quantitatively equivalent swaps. He also gets release of some Palestinian prisoners, though it is unclear yet how many and who they will be. The hard pill for him to swallow is recognition of Israel as an explicitly Jewish state, but even that has a silver lining: Israel needs to ensure its Jewishness by enabling the creation of a Palestinian state. Otherwise the demographic expansion of Palestinians is a serious long-term threat.
There is of course still a long way to go before an overall settlement is reached: specific land swaps, Jerusalem, security, the right of return for Palestinians. But we’ll get a pretty good idea of whether this initiative is going anywhere if Israel begins to limit Jewish settlement activity. That is difficult for Netanyahu, as he has within his governing coalition people who want to retain the entire West Bank. It is also his “best alternative to a negotiated agreement” (BATNA), as he can pursue it unilaterally (even if ultimately it would create an Israel that is neither Jewish nor democratic).
The Palestinian BATNA was pursuing membership in international organizations as a non-UN member state. Palestine succeeded at the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), where the Americans are refusing to pay dues as a result. This may lead to suspension of US voting rights this fall, something my cultured and well-educated friends think is a really bad idea. However that works out, it appears the Palestinians have already decided to go slow in applying for other memberships, under a lot of pressure from the Americans and presumably the Europeans as well. US suspension from the World Health Organization would have many more practical and detrimental ramifications than suspension from UNESCO, which will also hamper many good programs.
More power to John Kerry if he has managed to put together a negotiation on the basis of 1967 prewar borders and Israel as a Jewish state. But even getting this far seems to have made Washington ignore what is going on in Syria and Egypt, both of which need more American care and attention. Our civilian capacities to conduct foreign policy are seriously stretched.
RSS - Posts
