Dear Senator Obama:
I am not a Biblical scholar and I have no degree in divinity or theology. I do however remember a number of injunctions in the gospels on the subject of anger, co-opting the Lord's work of judging our fellows, seeking revenge and damning of whole portions of humanity based anything other than actual words and deeds.
I can’t quote chapter and verse, but it seems Christ made it quite plain He wanted us to short-circuit hateful speech by turning the other cheek and responding with a kind word. Where do these notions fit in with your pastor’s call for “God [to] damn America” ?
Parenthetically, it would be appropriate to ask, if the African-American experience in this nation is so crippled by racism that opportunity in the 21st century is at a premium of persons of color, how does one account for the experiences of my immigrant friends of color? I currently have a dozen or more from various foreign nations, and all are doing quite well, thank you.
These friends of mine come mostly from nations without the rule of law, the Ethiopians especially. Their families endured 19 years of a wasteful and foolish Leninist-Marxist dictatorship (the DERG) run by a half-bright former army captain, which drove the nation’s economy into the dust with huge purchases of weapons systems from the late U.S.S.R. in lieu of buying from the national exchequer such fripperies as schools, roads, hospitals, etc. Oh yeah, and he had The Lion of Judea strangled and buried under his throne, according to my African buddies, because he was afraid of the Menlik heir rising from the dead and leading a counter-revolution. Apparently sitting directly above the tomb of Haileselassie for a certain number of hours each day was his insurance against that eventuality.
Then, if we all recall the 1990s as we should, these Ethiopian families endured a rather virulent civil war in the middle of which there was a man-made famine of dramatic dimensions. A whole lot of pop stars got exercised about it and held a rather famous fundraiser to hustle some bucks to feed the hungry children.
Unhappily, much of the food they sent, along with food from other governmental and nongovernmental sources, was expropriated at dockside and used by warlords as a weapon, withholding it from areas outside their control and rewarding their own people with it.
So my guys and gals understand, from the standpoint of personal and family experience, the use and ill-use of military and governmental power rather better than any American could. And they certainly understand that one’s race has little to do with one’s essential decency.
So, once again, the question becomes, why do my immigrant friends do so well here when native-born persons of color (and for that matter, a considerable population of dirt-poor white folks) seem unable to get a leg up?
Could it have to do with inculcated values which establish, on one side, a culture based in notions of self-help, maximum exploitation of whatever educational availabilities present themselves, deferral of gratification and - heaven help us all - family values based in notions of monogamy and lifetime promise-keeping?
That would seem, on the face of it, to be an effective survival-based set of cultural norms, especially in comparison to those of the native-born American, who lives in a culture of blame and victimization where nothing is one’s own fault, all can be laid at the feet of some more powerful person or set of persons. So if one drops out of high school at the age of 16 and starts making babies like a bull jackrabbit or, on the distaff side, dropping babies like snowflakes without regard for income, family status or simple common sense, one is obliged, in the opinions of my immigrant buddies, to assume for oneself an increment of blame.
For the record, if one goes back into the family trees of native-born Americans, one will sooner or later find generations who shared those modern immigrant standards of behavior. Today’s foreign-born Americans are living their lives the way our own American grandparents, great-grandparents and great-great grandparents did, and they survived a Great Depression and won a world war.
Don’t argue with me. I’m white and native-born. Go argue with my friend Tilay, who currently works two jobs and has started up his own taxi-leasing concern. Oh yeah, and he goes to school two nights a week to improve his command of the English language. He just bought a new house for his wife and children, who will, no doubt, matriculate at Stanford and Vassar.
How about Sister Flora, who clerked at a valet car parking facility for $7.25 an hour while attaining her A.B. in medical records technology?
Or how to explain the lack of bitterness and sense of victimization of my friend Kalid, who owns and operates his own taxi? He was a civil engineer in the old country, but had to master a new language and apply for his U.S. engineering license via exam. For the first year I knew him, I had no idea he was working well below his level of competence and talent: He only mentioned his once-and-future career after he acquired his U.S. professional license to practice. Now he’s off to Ethiopia to gather up his wife and child, bring them here, and begin interviewing for the several job offers he’s entertaining.
If racism is the problem, why do my Ethiopian, Jamaican, Trinidadian, Togolese, Ghanaian, Tajik and Ugandan brothers and sisters find their skin color no impediment to their material success?
These issues must be addressed, and by you or your surrogate, ASAP. A number of votes here in Virginia are hanging on your reply. These ladies and gentlemen want to vote for you, but wonder why you would seek to justify Klan-quality rage and blame-game attitudes in a supposed minister of the Christian faith.
Thanks for your time, and thanks in advance for your public response to these questions.
Very truly yours,
Mark Dorroh
Richmond, VA
