Monday, August 11, 2008

Media Stop Using "Exotic" as a code word for "Not American Enough"

posted @ Daily Kos

I blasted Cokie Roberts in yesterday's weekly, "This Week With Barack Obama" because she deserved it.

She put that red-herring, smoking gun word usage out that Obama is vacationing in some "exotic" place, called Hawaii and that he needs to go to Myrtle Beach, which implies "more American".

I have held my tongue on the media using this word exotic, coding for "Obama is not American" enough, but not anymore.

::

I am not going to go on and on about ABC or Cokie Roberts but I am going to examine what is American?

The Olympic Games opened Friday to one of the greatest extravagances we have seen in a very long time. Hats off to the Chinese, they put elegance back into the opening games and take notice if the next summer games are in the United States, "copy the Chinese".

But what caught my eye was the flag bearer, Lopez Lomong, a Sudanese refugee who is a United States citizen. It was not only his story, but that he is now one of us. An American.

So, as I watched these athletes, I started to ask myself, are they too exotic, not American enough, don't fit the bill? Are they?

Their names are exotic, it is not Smith, Jones, Brown or McCain, instead their names are:

Khatuna Lorig; Khan "Bob" Malaythong; Mesinee "May" Mangkalakiri; Raju Rai; Geno Espineli; Mike Koplove; Diana Taurasi; Luis Yanez; Sadam Ali; Javier Molina; Rami Zur; Levi Leipheimer; Christian Vande Velde; Hayley Ishimatsu; Mariel Zagunis; Gerek Meinhardt; Katelyn Falgowski; Amy Tran; Raj Bhavsar; Sayaka Matsumoto; Margaux Isaksen; Ken Jurkowski; Bryan Volpenhein; Natasha Kai....etc.

Again, these are Olympians, with names that are not Smith, Jones, Brown or McCain. Are they less American because they are representing the United States of America? Is Barack Obama less American because his name is not Smith, Jones, Brown or McCain?

See the main stream media is full of it. Some of their names are: Gibson, Roberts, Scarborough, Brzezinski, Mitchell, Stephanopoulos and Couric. Are their names less American? Are they? Don't they feel just as American or have as much pride for this country as the Olympians with those funny names or as Barack Obama does?

The media needs to stop now. This is called bias. It is. Because someone don't look like you or don't have the same name as you, does not equate this person does not feel a deep devotion for this country, AS YOU.

Look at those Olympians and their names. They are a melting pot. Some were born here and some became citizens, but they all bring out what is the BEST of this country, as Barack Obama.

So, media the next time you want to throw out that "exotic" word, why don't you look at yourself and where YOU came from, especially your name? Because I don't think any of you equate at all to the magnificent Olympians we have representing the melting pot called the United States of America, or even understand or know the depth of what Barack Obama feels and loves about this country.

Barack Obama is all of what the Olympians are, because America helped produced him. He is a prime example of one of the "better things" she has truly produced.

Home Page