I’d like to weigh in a little on this (Roland Burris issue). I think we’ve all been around long enough to not be naive about how and what makes the politics of this country go round. I do think, however, sometimes we get lost in what our positions should be when certain circumstances occur such as the one being discussed.
Since this is a political question, it seems to me that opinions should be within the political context. The reason why Roland Burris is being denied (whether we like him, the governor, etc.) is because of personal bias of political officials acting in their political capacities.
This is wrong but it is human.
They refuse to act on the obvious interpretation of their law because they don’t personally like a particular individual who is the governor and because of their thirst for more political power. This is not an unprecedented situation as has been pointed out by political historians repeatedly.
Burris is a politician who is black and has committed his political life to attempting to break barriers in the white male supremacist’s world, (a world) which is fundamentally political in nature. It seems to me that it is only fitting that if anyone should be in this revealing position, it should be (Burris). It is revealing because the world gets another opportunity to witness how mentally deficient these whites are and as result, it is reflective in their government and every thing else they have created, stolen or emulated.
Unfortunately, due to our many decades of suffering from the yoke of oppression, sometimes we can’t discern when we are invoking our own internalization of that experience into our opinions which clouds our judgment in a big way. There is a time to implore that experience and a time when we should not. However, I think because of our political status as a result of white supremacy, we look at those who look like us and who do hold political positions as having failed to live up to the expectations we have of them (Bobby Rush). So, when they do something that is politically correct, we continue to hold on to the disappointment we have of them from past occurrences that may not be germane to the issue at hand. In other words, they can’t do nothing right ever again because they have not addressed what we think or feel they transgressed on in the past. Whatever the case, if we are going to ever perpetuate the good we represent as a people, we have got to find common unity (community).
Patricia Hill
