I've decided to spend my copious spare time in July reading the memoirs, ideas, and hopes of our next president, or rather, listening to the author reading it to me while I try to keep my car riding along an appropriate path.
Believe you me, there is a little extra 'oomph' in hearing the Senator from Illinois read these passages aloud for himself, especially in Dreams from My Father, where the author/narrator's emotive inflection really helps you get a richer sense of the original intent behind the text.
I'll post up favorite quotes and puzzling snippets in the comments throughout the next few weeks.
4 comments:
"To avoid being mistaken for a [racial] sellout, I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist professors and structural feminists and punk-rock performance poets. We smoked cigarettes and wore leather jackets. At night, in the dorms, we discussed neocolonialism, Franz Fanon, Eurocentrism, and patriarchy."
I chose my friends less carefully in college. Though there were Cadets named Torres, Sanchez, Morales, Herrera, and Pacheco all within our hallway, the Latino kids did not generally bond over racial or cultural ties. Possibly this is partially an artifact of the admissions screening process. Perhaps post-racial personal identity hits certain ethnicities and people harder than others, because of how they are perceived by the mainstream culture. Ricky and Lucy made the Hispanic guy / Anglo girl thing acceptably mainstream long before my parents gave it a go.
Oooo (with intrigue), let me know how you like them.
Im so lame. I lived in Houston with my bro during the 2004 election season. I watched the DNC on his humongous big screen, and I just cried during Obamas speech.
*sigh*
I just want a revolution so badly...
You say you want a revolution, we-eh-ll, ya know...
Obama is more of an evolution. A positive and necessary step, but certainly not a fundamental change in the way of things. That would require a massive grassroots movement to change the way we vote and legislate, at the very least.
Post a Comment