DN Community Mental Health Services

American Identity Dialogue: A Third Opponent in the Democratic 2008 Primary

Posted by Robert Page on 4 May 2008 | 2 Comments

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There are two insightful articles found in the NY Times today that shed light on ethnic and racial identity conflict in contemporary America. I would also urge your reading of Barack Obama's written comments in reply to Reverend Wright's "alleged" sermon (YouTube Video). I am taken by Frank Rich and Maureen Dowd for NOT acquiescing to simplistic, antagonistic, if not overly primitive notions of something as complex and wonderful as human identity. In response to Dowd's article This Bud's for You, I replied:

Maureen,

I appreciate your Obama insights. They invite and stimulate a much needed American identity dialogue. Obama's a quintessential personification of race matters in contemporary America, topped with other complex statuses such as gender, poverty and wealth, sexual orientation and religious affiliation. One of my colleagues, an African American psychiatrist who has made a study of ethnic identity in dominant white culture settings like Yale University, puts the Obama identity dilemma in perspective: "It's like tap dancing on water." If Obama can, as you say, "Figure out how to unwind with a Bud, and rewind his life," he will personify "tap dancing on the murky waters of racial, ethnic and religious conflict" in America. There is indeed a Third Opponent in the bid for the Democratic presidential hopeful. We are a better country, better communities and better citizens with the recognition that human dignity is synonymous with human identity. Your reflections and those of Frank Rich move us closer to an open and meaningful dialogue regarding difference as celebrated, not the simple target of political and personal castigation.