Zahra Gordon

the race for the US presidency is moving forward as per usual and though i haven’t been following, a dvd i was watching the other day got me thinking about it. i just happened to be watching Unbought & Unbossed: Chisholm ’72 a documentary about Shirley Chisholm 1972 US presidency campaign. Shirley Chisholm was the first black woman in congress and the first black person and first woman to run for president. 

the documentary included a clip of george wallace, who was also running that year, giving his famous “segregation now. segregation tomorrow. segregation forever.” speech. while listening to him it occurred to me i don’t  americans probably don’t associate wallace with the democratic party seeing as the democrats are thought to be the more liberal folk in the US two party system. but george wallace was a democrat (yes i know. that is an oxymoron) and he was about as “racist” as they come. when obama was running for president and the democratic primaries came about, i remember talking to a black american friend of mine. i told her that i had registered independent so i couldn’t vote in the primaries. she was confused as to why i did that and told me that she registered democrats by saying something to the effect that the democrats were “down” with black folk. 

this is the same ideology that labelled bill clinton the “first black president” (mind you before obama there were five US presidents who were reputed to have african ancestry and we’re not even talking about the one who fathered “illegitimate” black children) of course, this here we are talking only about skin color and not rhetoric or policy or justice. because if we’re talking about that then obama won’t count as the first black president either. but before getting into obama’s blackness, i just need to share that Chisholm questioned american democracy. she pointed out that the way america practices democracy is NOT democracy in the true sense of the word. and if the american system is undemocratic, where does that put the american president? glen ford of the black agenda report probably says it best: The Republicans are ugly, nasty and evil. President Obama is the most attractive and articulate servant of Wall Street and war – and, therefore, an even more effective evil.

the thing about obama being a more effective evil is the selfishness of it all. in one clip chisholm spoke about her campaign not being about her. it wasn’t about her winning. it was for those black politicians after her, the younger and future ones. did obama ever thank her? that is what i immediately wanted to know. did he ever just stop somewhere along the campaign trail and say a public thank you to shirley  chisholm? (please tell me if  he did and if you can send a link to a video or article please share!)