It's out there. It's floating around on the net. It's ugly. It's just rumor or smear; depending on your view, it could be both or neither. It is without reliable evidence or even legitimately attributable witnesses. It is frothy and divisive. But before election day it or something akin to it will boil over with recriminations on both sides. I'm talking about the alleged Sarah Palin response to Obama's win over Clinton in the primaries.According to a waitress named "Lucille", a woman who would not give her last name for fear, it's said, of recriminations, Sarah Palin while dining with some associates the morning following Obama's victory said loudly, "So Sambo beat the bitch." There are no other witnesses who have come forward. There is no other evidence. The waitress remains unknown. It is at this point, without more support, nothing more than what Palin's defenders claim: a patent smear.
But it doesn't seem impossible.
I used to live in a small provincial town in the mid-south. It's where I met Curry. Branson, Missouri supported itself with tourists that flocked there for the entertainment provided by its many theaters. The town, and the performers, were advertised as promoters and a bastion of "wholesome, all-american, small town, values." Red, White and Blue was its literal and figurative color scheme, though white was primarily what one saw. It was a poster for the America that elected the Bush administration: God, country, family, though not always in that order. It was also an enormous sham.
It was the only place I have ever lived where I saw not once, but twice, someone walking down the street wearing a Ku Klux Klan t-shirt without so much as a curious glance from passers-by. It was a place where just twenty miles south, at the border with Arkansas, a portion of the highway had been adopted by the local chapter of the Klan - doing their little bit for all of us. At that same border the Klan would have their after-Christmas sale. With a table set up on the side of the road that noble service organization would sell its discounted t-shirts and sweatshirts featuring phrases like, "Have yourself a "WHITE" Christmas." It would have been comical if it weren't real.
The town's administration betrayed its claimed wholesomeness. When foreign money began to buy up land for theater investments it became known that much of the cash was coming from the middle east. It became an issue - this hallmark of Amercan values owned by Arabs? The town's director of communications held a press conference to address the controversy. With members of the larger press assembled he was asked how the town father's felt about it. He calmed the members of the Fourth Estate by telling them that money was money and the town had no problem with its source, even if those sources were "camel-jockeys". An audible gasp arose from the press, "What?" was the collective response. He clarified. The money would not affect the values of the town regardless of whether or not it came from "towel-heads". Those were the words he used; used them comfortably and as if they were accepted terms in our society. That director of communications was not fired. He was reprimanded and sent to a sensitivity class. Life went on. Small town values.
Alaska is a distinct place. It is remarkably homogeneous - white - while featuring a minority of native Alaskans. It is filled with people or the descendants of people who faced harsh climates and harsh economics while scratching out a living away from interference from government and society. They are an independent lot by and large; libertarian in their views if not their party affiliations. They are provinicial in many respects with all the positive and negative aspects inherent in the term. They are not unlike Branson without the theaters.
Ms. Palin hails from a small town in that sparsely populated state. It features many of those same hard-scrabble, off-the-land living folks that made Alaska what it is. She grew up there and got her political start there. She has said that the area's resident's are often referred to as "valley trash"; an Alaskan equivalent of the South's white trash. The redneck motif may not include the confederate flag up north but it is still a proud moniker of residents as evidenced by the myspace page of Levi Johnston, the father of Ms. Palin's future grandchild. Even the confederate seccessionist themes run rampant in Ms. Palin's hometown and family with Todd Palin's membership in the AIP. It's hardly a leap to imagine a homegeneous population of lower socio-economic class, seperated by geography and culture from the lower forty-eight's idea of racial equality, using racial epithets regularly. If it can exist in Branson, it can certainly exit in Wasilla.
Whether or not she referred to Obama as Sambo, it is not out of line to seriously question her regarding race. It would not be playing the race card to ask her how she sees people of color, or of other faiths. It is not a smear to seek her views on blacks, hispanics, asians, or native americans. It is a legitimate and serious question considering where her roots lie.
We may not like it but this election will be about race and the sooner we realize that the sooner we can can begin the real work of talking.
Links
http://www.treatycouncil.org/section_211417117.htm
http://www.dsrstudio.com/dsrblog/archives/2008/09/sean_went_to_wa.html
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