Jack & Jill Politics

Paging Kanye. I’ve seen this on Electronic Village and over at Pam’s House Blend. Yet somehow I’m not shocked though since John McCain has opposed the King holiday, had a surrogate Rudy Giuliani on Meet the Press today basically come just a hair short of calling Obama a communist AND has repeatedly hired or stumped for white supremacists Richard Quinn and George Wallace Jr. For more info on McCain’s deeply entrenched history and practice of racism, I recommend to you Irwin Tang’s book Gook: John McCain’s Racism and Why It Matters. Back to Palin, here’s Pam with more deets on Miss Sarah’s concept of diversity. Seriously, is this the future that 46% of Americans are contemplating as their leadership? For those of you who aren’t clear on Juneteenth, it’s a traditional celebration of full emancipation for slaves in the United States and it’s an official state holiday or observance in 29 states, including Alaska.

While there aren’t a lot of black people living in Alaska (4.46%), it would be interesting to know what Governor Sarah Palin thinks of her taxpaying black citizens and her approach to inclusion. Wait no longer. The President of the African American Historical Society of Alaska, Gwendolyn Alexander, who is also one of the Juneteenth Directors in Alaska, released a statement that reveals quite a bit about the veep nominee. (via Electronic Village):

“As for Governor Sarah Palin’s involvement in the African American community, the Governor’s office hasn’t participated in any of our Alaska Juneteenth Events. All previous Alaskan Governor’s have traditionally attended and participated in our annual Juneteenth Celebration. Gov. Palin was the first governor not to send out a congratulatory letter or assist us in any way with our Juneteenth activities.I didn’t have the courtesy of receiving a reply when I asked for a representative from the Governor’s office to come and speak at our Juneteenth Celebration if Governor Palin was unable to attend. I never even heard of Gov. Palin until she was elected Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, in Mat-Su Valley.

Governor Palin is a very energetic and spontaneous woman. With some of the things being said and going around this state right now, I’m surprised none of the national media have bothered to come here and get the words directly from the mouths of the people who have lived with her all of these years instead of ‘surfing the net!’

My other opinion is why would an individual who, to my knowledge, has not hired any African Americans on her gubernatorial staff, insist so passionately on being on a television show owned and operated by an African American, Oprah Winfrey?

While meeting with Black leaders concerning the absence of any African Americans on her staff, Gov. Palin responded that she doesn’t have to hire any Blacks and was not intending to hire any. What kind of attitude is this toward African American for who may be the first Vice-President of the United States?

Apparently she appointed as her communications director/press secretary Bill McAllister who is of mixed heritage about a month ago. He’s an old college friend which meshes with her standard M.O. of cronyism, a pattern the NY Times dissected in detail today. McAllister was one of the state’s more prominent tv reporters for KTUU, though he’s on record as being out of the loop on both Palin’s initial acceptance of the VP nomination and of Bristol Palin’s pregnancy.

Oh but there’s more. Amy Jones, an Alaskan has this to say:

From time to time over the last year and a half, I had heard some disgruntled comments from Anchorage’s African-American community at their inability to communicate with Governor Sarah Palin about an issue of concern to them. When Palin entered office she let go of numerous appointees on boards and commission, and it was felt that when replacing them, she had failed to continue a tradition of seeking minority representation, African-American and otherwise, among her appointees. I heard about this some time before she was on any list, short or long, for consideration as a vice presidential nominee. Though I found this disconcerting, after McCain’s announcement choosing her as his running mate, this omission seemed considerably more significant. A recent meeting with the Rev. Alonzo B. Patterson of the Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church in Anchorage confirmed his part of the story. He stated that he had requested a meeting between the governor and members of the African-American community as soon as she took office. According to Patterson, Governor Palin said she would ‘consider’ the request. But after months of waiting and several follow-up letters repeating the invitation; four from Pastor Patterson and at least one from the Rev. Dr. William Greene, an officer of the local NAACP, the community heard nothing in response.

And naturally it’s not just black folks who are getting Sarah’s backhand (note that Alaska’s population is almost 20% Native American):

Much has been made of Todd Palin’s Alaska Native heritage since his wife’s addition to the McCain ticket. But relations between Governor Palin and the Alaska Native community have been rocky. In February of this year, there were news stories about a controversy centering on her choice of appointees to the Alaska Board of Game. The Anchorage Daily news reported, “If those appointees had been confirmed, the Game Board would have had no Native member for the first time since it was formed in 1976.” (emphasis added) Due to an outcry from the Native community, one of the appointees turned down the seat and another appointee was chosen who was more acceptable. The appointee who withdrew was an advocate for eliminating rural preference for subsistence hunting. Simply put, she was a former president of an outdoor sportsman organization that doesn’t want Native people in the remote Alaskan villages who live off the road system to have priority access to game over hunters from towns and cities. In rural off-road Alaska everything that comes in or out, supplies and people, come by plane, sometimes boat, snowmobile of even dogsled. Hunting is how you go to the grocery store, and is almost always an economic necessity, not a holiday. An important piece in this story was a comment by Democratic state Senator Albert Kookesh who is also a co-chair of the Alaska Federation of Natives. Kookesh stated that none of the three candidates suggested by the Native federation were interviewed by Palin for the vacancies on the board.

As Pam says on Pam’s House Blend:

It’s an attitude that doesn’t surprise me at all. It’s right in alignment with a Values Voter Summit attended by many GOP luminaries that promotes the display and sale of Obama Waffles. It’s in alignment with a party and campaign that is already working to cage voters through unclear ballots and contest voters from foreclosed homes.

It’s deeper than that though. According to Gook, John McCain’s great-grandfather William Alexander McCain  fought for the Confederacy. His family owned a plantation complete with slaves. Black slaves. 52 of them. McCain’s defense of flying the Confederate flag in SC over the state house, his failure to vote for the Civil Rights Act in 1990, his pride at being a “Goldwater conservative”, his repeated references to Asians as “gooks” for which he had to apologize in 2000 — these are all clear-as-a-bell signals for whose side he’s on. And it’s not the side of diversity or equal opportunity. So, yeah, I guess it’s no surprise that he’d pick a running mate who, despite being almost 30 years younger, holds the same tired and backward views.