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

[naeem.mohaiemen at gmail.com]

Well Nader probably feels deeply isolated and like a lonely cassandra.
When bush was still in power, there were many who would listen to him.
But large segments of the nader left voted for obama. So there are
probably electoral and political disappointments that give an extra
edge to nader's fury. And that edge has led him to make the simplistic
uncle tom statement. And davey d blogger is similarly losing it when
calling nader white. Both sides are engaged in tone deaf one liners.
Your use of quote marks gives an extra layer to the term. But the
blogger on the other hand was not as layered, IMO. On the other hand
nader is not only one to have been so careless.  Jesse Jackson said he
would "cut O's balls off."

On 11/9/08, Paul D. Miller <anansi1 at earthlink.net> wrote:
> 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.
>>> >_________________________________________
>>> >reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
>>> >Critiques & Collaborations
>>> >To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with
>>> subscribe in the subject header.
>>> >To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
>>> >List archive: &lt;https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>
>>_________________________________________
>>reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
>>Critiques & Collaborations
>>To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe
>> in the subject header.
>>To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
>>List archive: &lt;https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>