[Reader-list] Ralph Nader, "White" Boy?

[Paul D. Miller]

Hi Naeem - I'm transferring at yet another airport (Vienna, on my way to Washington DC). I feel like Nader's 'Uncle Tom' comment, like Berlusconi's weird comment saying Obama has a brown suntan (it's all over the news here in Europe) is simply that these people are responding to an absurdly reductionist model of identity - exactly what Obama's mixed race heritage implodes. Why is it that such kind of comments come from major political figures in this day and age? I'm curious to see how this all unfolds. Even the Iraqi jihadi are celebrating the Obama victory
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/08/world/middleeast/08jihadi.html?_r=1&em&oref=slogin

Complexity is something Nader should be very aware of. I'm really disappointed to see him act like such an idiot 'whiteboy' (it's a hiphop term, no disrespect - uh, like Fox saying Obama giving someone a 'pound' is a 'terrorist fist jab' - it's just dumb.

Paul

Naeem Mohaiemen <naeem.mohaiemen at gmail.com> wrote:

>Not sure if you were being tongue-in-cheek regarding Elvis, but Ralph Nader
>is definitely Arab-American. During his first run, the press even made
>something of the fact that he was the first Arab-American Presidential
>candidate (thus making him another minority candidate after Jesse Jackson).
>Of course Nader's identity is as a consumer advocate, not as Arab American,
>and he himself rarely talks about it, so this never gets much play (nor does
>it have to, a man's free to identify as he likes).
>
>I agree that Nader calling Obama "Uncle Tom" is off the mark, and people are
>understandably riled by the comments, but Davey D's guest blogger calling
>Nader a "white boy" is also an incomplete reading.
>
>
>On Sun, Nov 9, 2008 at 1:40 PM, Paul D. Miller <anansi1 at earthlink.net>wrote:
>
>> Uh, yeah. So was Elvis...
>>
>> Naeem Mohaiemen <naeem.mohaiemen at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> >Uhh, Ralph Nader is Lebanese-American.
>> >
>> >>An Open Letter to Ralph Nader About His Dis to Obama
>> >>By Davey D Davey/D's Hip Hop Corner
>> >November 7, 2008
>> >http://hiphopnews.yuku.com/topic/917
>> >
>> >>
>> >> And like the white boy at the house party, you were sorely mistaken.
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