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Rhetorical: Labels which Divide Us?
I'm reluctant to make reference to what the candidate may have considered a private moment, but because it's been reported elsewhere and I haven't seen any posts in this space on the subject...
CNN's Political Ticker reported that on a five-hour flight from DC to Oregon, Senator Obama joined one of the regular games of "Taboo", which they say is often played among his traveling staff and the press.
It is from that blog entry, the following paragraph was taken;
An interesting moment came when an Obama staffer was looking at the word "gap." His clue: a place where gay people shop. Before the word was accurately guessed, other reporters said they heard one staffer shout the store "H&M" and heard Obama say "Abercrombie & Fitch."
Now, I realize that the candidate didn't give the clue and it was just a friendly game (and it'll probably never happen again), but how is defining people by where they shop not applying a label which divides us?
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Comments (14)
But you have it all wrong, my wild and wooly Clinton supporter! No one was defining gay people by where they shop. They were defining a shop by its most conspicuous clientele.
May 10, 2008 4:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
I've never identified whom I voted for in the primaries, except to say that I voted for the race to continue and that I'll be supporting the nominee.
My point was that when you start getting into the intent behind words, then it's a slippery slope. And for the record, most of the gay people that I know shop in the same stores as everyone else.
May 10, 2008 4:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
If you only had a video clip of Sen. Obama wearing Somali tribal clothing and Bruno Magli sandals going into a Cracker Barrel with the Rev. Wright screaming "God Damn Bob Evans", you could really throw that support of yours behind our nominee.
The proposition of you being "reluctant to make reference" is so very reticent.
How do you know where most of the gay people you know shop? Intent behind words indeed!
May 10, 2008 6:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
The Human Rights Campaign waged a ten year battle against Cracker Barrel until they relented and quit firing people for failing "to demonstrate normal heterosexual values", so I've never been inside one of their restaurants and if any candidate were to be photographed supporting them, then I might have a hard time getting behind them.
May 10, 2008 6:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
Ergo the reference.
May 10, 2008 7:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
So, if I had a video of Obama going into a restaurant which I boycott with the Rev. Wright preaching against another chain, then you'd think that I'd support Obama more than I do, today? Okay.
May 10, 2008 7:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
No. I don't. Not a bit.
May 10, 2008 7:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm sorry, but I really don't understand your point. Other than, I think you're saying that because I used an anecdote about Obama, then I must be against him.
May 10, 2008 7:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
You point is well taken. Yes, we all have stereotypes of how we believe other people behave and the Obama campaign complaining about it is a tad on the hypocritical side when they have their own beliefs in stereotypical behavior.
May 10, 2008 10:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
There was once a ball.
It was round.
And it fell on the ground.
And it got covered in dirt and water.
Which made mud.
The End.
May 10, 2008 4:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
"defining people by where they shop"
It's called "marketing" and it's real, it's used in both commerce and politics, it's been around for a real long time, get used to it, it's not going away.
Is it prejudiced to call someone a "Deadhead"? Or to describe a British woman as a "Sloane Ranger"? Or to say "the party I went to last night looked like a Benetton ad??
To try to deny sub-cultures that are the unforced choices of people and which everyone can see with their own eyes is what gives a bad reputation to political correctness.
I'm sorry, it's simply a fact that the Haitian culture prefers bright colors, and there is no way I am going to be persuaded that it doesn't, I've looked at too much Haitian art.
That the sub-culture definitions that the game players were using as clues on Obama's plane were very poor and inaccurate just shows them as very poor observers of the store brands. In the end, if this anecdote does anything, perhaps it gives new insight into Obama's statements about guns and religion and Pennsylvania voters in San Francisco; he probably shouldn't switch careers to marketing.
May 10, 2008 9:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
Asians prefer rice to wheat, Jews like bagels, French like croissants, Hawaiians like poi. There, I said it! Am I bad?
Fans of Judy Garland include a lot of gays. Should that be something people are not allowed to say?
In the 16th century, when the Chinese porcelain makers started putting decorations on dishes for export that would not appeal to their own market, but to Europeans, were they being "divisive"?
When a movie director sets up a scene of a low-down honky tonk bar, is he trying to tell you something about the characters? Is he pushing evil stereotypes by doing that? Should there be rules that only movies can be made which depict us as all as exactly the same with the same tastes and thoughts?
May 10, 2008 11:48 AM | Reply | Permalink
I really don't know who you know, but I really don't know too many people who wear "gay clothes"; I've never thought "this place is for homosexuals" when I've been shopping in a mall and I'm pretty sure that the stockholders of the Gap's parent aren't aware that their store is part of a stereotype.
Maybe I just know boring gay people, but other than occasional bold choice for a Saturday night in the city, I'd say that the overwhelming majority of people whom I've known (all over the country) wear Arrows, Polos, Dockers and jeans.
In fact, after posting my last comment to this thread, I stepped out onto the porch to smoke a cigarette and just by happenstance, a gay acquaintance walked by the house. Instead of coming back in the house, I walked with my friend for the remainder of his constitutional and just so you know, he was wearing a long-sleeve tee, a pair of jeans and a baseball cap.
May 10, 2008 1:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Pointless posting.
May 10, 2008 10:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
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