Post 211 - October 8, 2020

Day 211…

Quarantine - Day 11

At the end of last night’s Vice Presidential debate, when the time that each candidate actually spoke was added up, it turned out that their totals were within three seconds of each other. In essence, they ended up with the same time.

The difference, last night, was that the white man stole his extra time and the black woman had to fight for hers.

While this debate was far more civil than the Presidential one last week was, it was still hampered by a somewhat ineffectual moderator who was often unable to stop the white male Republican candidate from going past his time.

Going into this debate, the Democrats were polling well ahead of the Republicans. Senator Harris’s job was to project confidence and competence and not to give the Republicans any sound bites that could be used as ammunition against the campaign.

The Vice President’s job was to support the President and to create the sense that there is a rational force taking care of the country behind the erratic insanity of our leader. Far more than the Senator, he needed to use this opportunity to gather more votes.

In that light, Senator Harris was likely more successful in achieving success than her opponent was.

Last night’s debate was one between two skilled and able debaters. They did not, however, go into this debate as equals. By virtue of being a woman and by being black and Asian, Senator Harris was required to modulate her responses in a way that her white male opponent wasn’t.

It is still remarkable to me, that during his eight years in office, that President Obama and his family managed to ever avoid becoming embroiled in a scandal of any kind.

In 2014, he held a live press conference about increasing the United States’ military response to the Islamic Nation in Syria. At that appearance, he wore a tan suit.

His opponents went insane. Peter King, a Republican Congressional representative said at the time, “There’s no way, I don’t think, any of us can excuse what the president did yesterday. I mean, you have the world watching.”

There were references to it for the rest of his term in office. In a take-off from his bestselling book, the right started referring to it as “The Audacity of Taupe”.

That was it. Throughout his eight years in office, that was the scandal.

Even his kids avoided conflict. Compare the Obama children to the drunk and disorderly Bush girls who proceeded them.

The First Lady, Michelle Obama, who was above reproach, was often criticized by the right for appearing in sleeveless tops and gowns. She was hardly the first Presidential spouse to do so, but she was the first Presidential spouse of color to do so.

At 5’10” tall and toned and fit, Michelle Obama is an imposing person. She terrifies the right.

Ernestine Wade became famous playing a character named Sapphire Stevens on the Amos ‘n’ Andy show - first on the radio and then on the CBS television program in the early 1950’s.

I’m afraid that this has predictably now sent me down a bit of a historic rabbit hole aside. Here we go.

The original Amos ‘n’ Andy radio show was created and performed by two white men. Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll wrote and played the two lead black men as well as voicing many of the other incidental characters.

During the 1920’s the Chicago Tribune ran a comic strip called The Gumps. It was one of the first, if not the first, strips that rather than just having stand-alone bits, continued a story from day to day. The Tribune approached Gosden and Correll to create a radio show based on those characters whose story would also develope daily.

The two men did not think that they could voice female characters well, so, instead, they proposed a series called Sam ‘n’ Henry about two ‘colored men’ based on stock minstrel characters of the time.

The show began in 1926 and became so successful that eventually the two men pitched an idea that their live show should be recorded on phonograph records and distributed to other radio stations.

When the Tribune rejected this idea, they quit.

The Chicago Daily News then hired Gosden and Correll to create a show for them. The Tribune retained ownership of the Sam ‘n’ Henry show and its characters, so they were forced to come up with the Amos ‘n’ Andy show as an alternative.

The Chicago Daily News agreed to their plan to distribute the show via phonograph records. That was the beginning of what we now know as syndication.

Amos ‘n’ Andy ran on the radio from 1928 all the way up to 1960. For the first decade, Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll voiced all of the 170 characters. After that, performers of color were brought in to take over. Certainly, by the time the television program began in 1951, black performers were playing all of the roles.

Ernestine Wade began playing Sapphire Stevens in 1939. The Sapphire character was the wife of George ‘Kingfish’ Stevens and was described as ‘shrewish, demanding and manipulative’. That portrayal helped to create the stereotype of the emasculating ‘Angry Black Woman’ in the minds of white America.

When the Obamas moved into the White House, they seem to have known that that stereotype as well as the corresponding ‘Angry Black Man’ trope would immediately be wielded against them at the first occasion it could.

It never happened. The entire family, including Malia and Sasha, their two young daughters, maintained a calm and even demeanor for eight, what must have been at times excruciatingly long, years. “When they go low, we go high” was Mrs. Obama’s famous rallying cry and they all absolutely followed that to the letter.

Women, in general, regardless of their race, are themselves hampered by the stereotype of the angry emasculating woman. Female politicians have had to learn how to modulate their views to appeal to the electorate.

During the campaigning leading up to the 2016 election, when her opponent made a forceful remark, he was viewed as being strong. When Hilary Clinton made a similar kind of remark she was viewed as being an ‘angry bitch’.

Kamala Harris, when she was running for President, herself, earlier in the campaign, often went on the attack and was, indeed, accused of being and summarily dismissed as an angry black woman.

Last night, when her opponent went low, Senator Harris went high. Rather than overriding her opponent each time he tried to interrupt her, she, instead, turned to him, with a smile, and said, “I’m speaking”.

Tony Award-winner Anika Noni Rose, tweeted last night, “The smile that Senator Kamala Harris gave with “I’m speaking” is the public mom smile every Black child who has ever messed up recognizes as one step away from annihilation.”

Anne Richards, who Governed the state of Texas with a smile, herself, famously described what women had to contend with, “After all, Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards and in high heels.”

Senator Harris and the Vice President did not go into last night’s debate as equals.

The Vice President had the home advantage. He is white and he is male. Senator Harris, however, ended up having the real advantage.

As a successful woman of color, Senator Harris has spent her entire life learning how to navigate through a world run by smug white men. She has had to develop skills that her opponent has no idea that she possesses. She can dance backwards in high heels and keep a smile on her face and make it all look effortless.

Oh, for the day, when women and people of color are freed from having to do that.

Last night, Senator Harris proved to the American people that she is more than capable of leadership. She fought for her time and she got it. There were no flies on her.

Even without everything in our cultural history that she had to overcome, she turned in an impressive performance last night. If you include all of those stereotypical obstacles in her way, she was astounding.

That may have been the last debate. As of this morning, the President is refusing to debate any more.

The Commission on Presidential Debates have decided that the only way for the two candidates to safely meet given the President’s health status is for it to happen virtually. The President says that he won’t waste his time doing that.

Former Vice President Biden has announced that he’d like to move forward with a Town Hall event on his own instead.

The ailing President wants to resume his live in-person rallies. In opposition to almost every single health professional in the country, he thinks he’s over the virus and no longer contagious.

The White House, however, is not releasing any specifics about his actual condition. What they are releasing just ends up raising more questions. None of this confusion is helping him.

Senator Kamala Harris, last night, made Joe Biden look stronger.

The Vice President failed to do the same thing for the President, in large part because of the President, himself. Late night rants and tweets undermined any boost his running mate might have been able to give him.

It’s another beautiful day outside. Some of the leaves in the trees across the street are starting to turn yellow. The days are getting shorter and cooler.

The election is getting closer.

Time for lunch and another day in quarantine.

I do feel better after this debate than I did after the last one. For now, I am just going to enjoy the feeling and hang out with the cat.