Arab is the 'New' Nigger

Yesterday John McCain was confronted by a white woman at a rally in Minnesota who said: "I don't trust Obama. I have read about him and he's an Arab."

McCain was shaking his head in agreement when she said "I don't trust Obama" but he disagreed when she said "he's an Arab" and took the microphone saying:

"No ma'am, no ma'am. He's a decent family man...[a] citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues. That's what this campaign is all about."

So Obama is a "decent family man" a "citizen" but not an Arab?

The offensive implication is that Arabs are not "decent" or "citizen(s)" and yet you will not find one mainstream spokesperson in the US pointing this out.

Instead, McCain is being applauded (if even quietly in some quarters) for "defending" Obama and his American character.

Let's put this nonsense aside and speak directly to what McCain represents when he has to deal with the "rage" that his supporters are venting.

The republicans know that they cannot beat Obama unless they are able to manipulate words like terrorist, Arab, Muslim, and patriot, to induce racist fear(s) among their electorate.

In short, McCain can't win unless he is able to use the considerable racist sentiment among white supporters to vote against an Obama presidency.

A man in the audience at the Minnesota rally also told McCain that he was "scared of an Obama presidency." McCain did later say that the man should not fear Obama.

But 'fear' and being "scared" is routine fare among many white people who are forced to deal with Black folk and other people of color. In fact, 'fear' of the racialized Other is a mainstay operational myth of whiteness.

For this reason, you will find a considerable body of race relations literature that speak to confronting fear, overcoming fear, etc.

It is all tiresome for sure. I for one suffer from chronic white fatigue that is made worse every time I hear arguments that speak to conditioning white folks to overcome their racial fears.

Nontheless, my point here is that McCain is riding the wave of racist intolerance that his party is well known for, he is a product of that intolerance and mindset.

What McCain should have said was that Arabs are "decent" and "citizens" and some of them are Americans and patriots (and more in a global sense). But to do so McCain would have to contradict the very racist lifeblood that needs to see Obama as a nigger and an Arab who threatens whiteness and its American empire.

And so the outcome on November 4 will in large part be determined by those white voters who want to believe that the nigger Obama is an Arab who must be feared.

There is nothing "decent" in that mindset.

Onward!

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