Karita Hummer's Silver Pen Award
Reposted from John Edwards blog
http://blog.johnedwards.com/story/2007/9/12/91827/6904
Kumbaya and the Politics of Race
user icon grannyhelen in Diaries Feed of grannyhelen's Diary
9/12/2007 at 9:18 AM EST
There comes a time when regardless of how much that inner voice tells you restraint is the higher form of virtue, you just have to trudge forward and get your hands in the dirt.
This is one of those times.
My personal breaking point came yesterday when reading that somehow certain folks think that John Edwards was using a racial slur when referring to Barack Obama as a "kumbaya" candidate.
I read these comments in yesterday's Huffington Post, under an article with the title "Edwards Smacks Obama As "Kumbaya" Candidate" (link is here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/the-news/c omments/2007/09/11/63942). This is actually an excerpting of a larger article in the New Yorker (link here: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/ 09/17/070917fa_fact_lizza?printable=true ).
Just for the record, here is the exact quote from the article:
"...Edwards dismisses Obama's argument that more consensus is needed in Washington. The difference between them, Edwards told me, is the difference between "Kumbaya" and "saying, `This is a battle. It's a fight.'..."
Nowhere in this article does the author mention that Edwards' intention was a racial slur. Nowhere does the author even think to ask whether a racial slur was intended.
Nowhere does the thought that this could be a racial slur ever even appear to pop into the author's head.
Why is that? Well...because "kumbaya" is not a racial slur.
First, some background on the song. The song appears to have originated among the Gullah people of the South Carolina coast:
"...According to ethnomusicologist Thomas Miller, the song we know began as a Gullah (an African-American people living on the Sea Islands and adjacent coastal regions of South Carolina and Georgia, see also here) spiritual. Some recordings of it were made in the 1920s, but no doubt it goes back earlier. Published versions began appearing in the 1930s..." (http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_col umnists_ezorn/2006/08/someones_dissin.ht ml)
The first claim of ownership of the song comes from a Rev. Marvin Frey in the 1930's. The most reknowned use of the song is Joan Baez's recording of it in 1962, where it became associated with the civil rights movement.
As far as the derisive references to the song, in pop culture it is meant to personify someone who is helplessly encased in rose colored glasses, who naively assumes that just by sitting down and talking all of the world's problems can be immediately solved.
For instance, Arianna Huffington uses it in this September 2006 article, "Bill Clinton and Laura Bush: Homogenizing the '06 Election":
"...By making nice with Laura and promoting a kumbaya, "we're all in this together" atmosphere Clinton is blurring the very real distinctions between Democrats and Republicans and homogenizing the '06 race. And homogeneity is death in elections..." (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-hu ffington/bill-clinton-and-laura-bu_b_298 68.html)
Or this reference by then-President Clinton's spokesperson:
"...Smooth sailing," Mr. Clinton said as he led the leaders single-file off the passenger ferry Tyee and into the lodge. "I don't now if they are going to be holding hands and singing 'Kumbaya,' but this is just what the President had in mind," said Lorraine Voles, a White House spokeswoman. "This all about getting to know each other..." (http://en.allexperts.com/q/Etymology-Mea ning-Words-1474/Idiomatic-use-kumbaya.ht m)
Or this recent use by David Sirota (thanks to blogger mkj for the research on this one):
"...I've written a lot about Obama, including a major piece for The Nation magazine last year. In my time studying his career, it became obvious that this is a person who wants to do the right thing and has genuinely strong convictions. But he also seems to believe that the reason our country has such challenges is because all sides of every issue have not come together in unity (I've gone back and forth wondering whether this is a sincere belief or merely a justification for overly cautious behavior, but I'm not a psychoanalyst, so I have no idea).
The problem with this outlook is that it fundamentally misunderstands why we are at this moment in history. Forty-five million Americans are uninsured, and millions more underinsured not because low-income health advocates and the insurance industry haven't sat down together and sung Kumbaya..." (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-siro ta/i-want-to-believe_b_40901.html)
But I think one of my favorite uses of this word to illustrate this point comes in this over-the-top video game:
Nowhere have I ever heard "Kumbaya" used as a racial slur. Not even the notorious white-power group Stormfront uses this as a racial slur (and trust me - they use all of them).
So why do some Obama supporters suddenly think Edwards is using this as a racial slur when he refers to him at the "kumbaya candidate"? I wish I knew.
Racism is an ugly thing, and the charge of racism is one that as a society we do not take seriously enough. It is not a blunt instrument to be used on people simply because you don't agree with them. Tossing it around lightly and without merit removes power from the word itself, equating it to just so much political correctness.
Let's talk about the issues, let's debate the positions. But please, let's not invent racism where none exists.
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