Another great piece written by Mr. Lu. Here it is in its entirety. The original can be seen HERE.
Capturing the Dominican Vote: Pt III: The ?Race? to the White House
May 26, 2008
Today?s guest blogger is Mr. Lu, a Dominican-American born in the Greatest City on the Planet, Lawrence, Massachusetts. Educated at some fancy school in Massachusetts and an even fancier school in CT, Mr. Lu currently writes for dr1.com, while pursuing other interests like girls, books, basketball and rock and roll.
In previous posts the Dominican vote and what potential candidates have to do in order to get that vote has been the topic de jour. While writing those previous posts I wondered how the Dominican community would vote come this November. Like most bloggers who have an idea and a blog I thought I had the Dominican community all figured out. Using what I know about Dominicans and what I know about politics I was sure I had the November elections pegged. I thought to myself that come November older Dominicans who lived through the eight years of Bill Clinton and who prospered under his guidance would vote for that other Clinton, as a comfort vote. My justification for this was that she was already known amongst Dominicans. She had a last name we could all trust and if you got Hillary, you also got Bill. Add to this the fact that Mrs. Clinton was a Senator in NY, which is home to more Dominicans than the city of Santiago (the 2nd largest city in the Dominican Republic), and that she has visited the DR on various occasions, mixing it up with Dominican elites like Oscar de la Renta, the idea would be that Clinton was the candidate of Dominicans.
Barack Obama or Omama?
I continued to argue with myself that Barack Omama (as my mother pronounces it) was a little known candidate, who has made little inroads with Dominicans and had one thing against him that no rhetoric could dispel. He was Black! Oops, I let the cat out of the bag. But in all honesty I thought Obama?s color would have been a detriment to his presidential aspirations, at least with the community at hand. Now my assertion here isn?t that Dominicans are racist and wouldn?t vote for a black man. Completely the opposite since in 1994 Dominicans voted Jose Francisco Pena Gomez to the first office in the land and if it weren?t for the political toolings of Joaquin Balaguer, a declared anti-Haitionist, Gomez would have been the face of the DR. Now granted, Gomez was dark as night and a contradiction to that racial ideology that many Dominicans have come to define and identify themselves through, but like Obama, he spoke to a mass of people who saw in him the struggles they were living at that moment. (More on this in a second).
As I pondered the political spectrum I logged into my MSN messenger and started to chat it up with my mother, who recently left for an extended vacation in Boston. After clearing up the particulars that included ?Have you taken out the trash?? and ?Are you eating well?? I reminded my mother that she had to register to vote. Now I am not a hardcore boot camp political machinist who thinks we should ?Vote or Die,? but at least in my household voting is a right we have all exercised.
As our chat continued I asked my mom who she?d vote for. She shouted out proudly in her broken Spanglish ?Omama?s my man! Omama?s my man!? As my sister corrected her and explained to her his name was Obama she then restated ?Obama?s my man!!? I wasn?t particularly shocked by her choice. My mom is no Obama girl, but for all I knew, she just had a crush on the dude. I mean the ears are kind of big, but I can see how a mom would like a date with Omama. But what was the shocker was what she said next. ?He?s our man, we need a Black guy in the White House, we need Clinton out of there, those Gringos have spent too much time in power. If Obama wins we?ll have one of our own in power and then he can open the door for us Latinos to have another one of ours in power. Who knows, maybe a Dominican!?
Can Obama Heal the Black/Brown Divide?
Wait, what? My mother the political messiah, giving me insight that Tim Russert and the rest of the political pundits have overlooked? As I recovered from my shock I studied her comments carefully and wondered did she have a point? Will Dominicans vote for Obama because he is as close to ?one of us? as Dominicans will ever have? Will Obama?s election help heal the Black/Brown divide? Could Obama?s skin color, a product of ?luck,? help him capture a vote he has seemed not to campaign for? Could the election of a Black president do just as much for Latino rights in the US as the civil rights movement did for Latinos during the 1960?s?
I decided to do my own survey and called a few friends and emailed some family members for their opinions. First on the phone was my cousin ?D-Rock*.? And the conversation went something like this:
Me: Rock who are you voting for in November?
Rock: Voting? I don?t watch American Idol Nigga, that?s for girls and white people!
M: No, man, for the presidential elections? Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton?
R: I want your momma? What? ? Oh!! I guess that dude Obama, if I wake up that day.
M: Why?
R: Cause he?s a brother, plus Ludacris is voting for him, so you know.
M: Damn, and why not Hillary?
R: Too many white people on TV anyways!
M: Ok, just go back to bed.
Not the best source for political awareness, so I continued on my search and found my results inconclusive. I asked friends, family members and random people I used to chat with and found that for those who were voting for Obama were doing so because they felt he was ?one of us,? in the same way Gomez connected with Dominicans in 1994. My pseudo political poll has many holes in it, but what we can glean from my survey is that the ?race? for the White House may have started years before ?Omama? knew where the White House was and many in this community might be hoping that he knows where the finish line is.
Nice job, Lu.
RHM
Capturing the Dominican Vote: Pt III: The ?Race? to the White House
May 26, 2008
Today?s guest blogger is Mr. Lu, a Dominican-American born in the Greatest City on the Planet, Lawrence, Massachusetts. Educated at some fancy school in Massachusetts and an even fancier school in CT, Mr. Lu currently writes for dr1.com, while pursuing other interests like girls, books, basketball and rock and roll.
In previous posts the Dominican vote and what potential candidates have to do in order to get that vote has been the topic de jour. While writing those previous posts I wondered how the Dominican community would vote come this November. Like most bloggers who have an idea and a blog I thought I had the Dominican community all figured out. Using what I know about Dominicans and what I know about politics I was sure I had the November elections pegged. I thought to myself that come November older Dominicans who lived through the eight years of Bill Clinton and who prospered under his guidance would vote for that other Clinton, as a comfort vote. My justification for this was that she was already known amongst Dominicans. She had a last name we could all trust and if you got Hillary, you also got Bill. Add to this the fact that Mrs. Clinton was a Senator in NY, which is home to more Dominicans than the city of Santiago (the 2nd largest city in the Dominican Republic), and that she has visited the DR on various occasions, mixing it up with Dominican elites like Oscar de la Renta, the idea would be that Clinton was the candidate of Dominicans.
Barack Obama or Omama?
I continued to argue with myself that Barack Omama (as my mother pronounces it) was a little known candidate, who has made little inroads with Dominicans and had one thing against him that no rhetoric could dispel. He was Black! Oops, I let the cat out of the bag. But in all honesty I thought Obama?s color would have been a detriment to his presidential aspirations, at least with the community at hand. Now my assertion here isn?t that Dominicans are racist and wouldn?t vote for a black man. Completely the opposite since in 1994 Dominicans voted Jose Francisco Pena Gomez to the first office in the land and if it weren?t for the political toolings of Joaquin Balaguer, a declared anti-Haitionist, Gomez would have been the face of the DR. Now granted, Gomez was dark as night and a contradiction to that racial ideology that many Dominicans have come to define and identify themselves through, but like Obama, he spoke to a mass of people who saw in him the struggles they were living at that moment. (More on this in a second).
As I pondered the political spectrum I logged into my MSN messenger and started to chat it up with my mother, who recently left for an extended vacation in Boston. After clearing up the particulars that included ?Have you taken out the trash?? and ?Are you eating well?? I reminded my mother that she had to register to vote. Now I am not a hardcore boot camp political machinist who thinks we should ?Vote or Die,? but at least in my household voting is a right we have all exercised.
As our chat continued I asked my mom who she?d vote for. She shouted out proudly in her broken Spanglish ?Omama?s my man! Omama?s my man!? As my sister corrected her and explained to her his name was Obama she then restated ?Obama?s my man!!? I wasn?t particularly shocked by her choice. My mom is no Obama girl, but for all I knew, she just had a crush on the dude. I mean the ears are kind of big, but I can see how a mom would like a date with Omama. But what was the shocker was what she said next. ?He?s our man, we need a Black guy in the White House, we need Clinton out of there, those Gringos have spent too much time in power. If Obama wins we?ll have one of our own in power and then he can open the door for us Latinos to have another one of ours in power. Who knows, maybe a Dominican!?
Can Obama Heal the Black/Brown Divide?
Wait, what? My mother the political messiah, giving me insight that Tim Russert and the rest of the political pundits have overlooked? As I recovered from my shock I studied her comments carefully and wondered did she have a point? Will Dominicans vote for Obama because he is as close to ?one of us? as Dominicans will ever have? Will Obama?s election help heal the Black/Brown divide? Could Obama?s skin color, a product of ?luck,? help him capture a vote he has seemed not to campaign for? Could the election of a Black president do just as much for Latino rights in the US as the civil rights movement did for Latinos during the 1960?s?
I decided to do my own survey and called a few friends and emailed some family members for their opinions. First on the phone was my cousin ?D-Rock*.? And the conversation went something like this:
Me: Rock who are you voting for in November?
Rock: Voting? I don?t watch American Idol Nigga, that?s for girls and white people!
M: No, man, for the presidential elections? Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton?
R: I want your momma? What? ? Oh!! I guess that dude Obama, if I wake up that day.
M: Why?
R: Cause he?s a brother, plus Ludacris is voting for him, so you know.
M: Damn, and why not Hillary?
R: Too many white people on TV anyways!
M: Ok, just go back to bed.
Not the best source for political awareness, so I continued on my search and found my results inconclusive. I asked friends, family members and random people I used to chat with and found that for those who were voting for Obama were doing so because they felt he was ?one of us,? in the same way Gomez connected with Dominicans in 1994. My pseudo political poll has many holes in it, but what we can glean from my survey is that the ?race? for the White House may have started years before ?Omama? knew where the White House was and many in this community might be hoping that he knows where the finish line is.
Nice job, Lu.
RHM