Here's an example of the latter.
I served with men & women who were willing to give their lives for a country that they were not yet citizens of.
This is naturalization ceremony in Iraq in 2009.
Our country was not only built by immigrants, it has been protected by them also.
These are the finest Americans.
These are the finest Americans? Really?
Based on what?
We'd argue good teachers are the finest Americans and that they should be thanked for their service.
We support immigration rights. We support immigrants. But why are we turning them into cuddly creatures in a DISNEY film?
And on that topic, ESSENCE held a forum recently and we're glad that so many of the Democrats seeking the party's presidential nomination showed up. We did, however, grit our teeth over Julian Castro and other White candidates insisting that African-American women were the backbone of the party or the this or that of the party. It was pandering.
And while pandering is typical of any political event, it was especially grating here when the Democratic Party has done so little for African-American women. They turned back the advances of LBJ, they went further by criminalizing being Black -- that's what the 1994 crime bill did, they've done nothing to revitalize our urban areas or to bring good paying jobs to them . . .
We could go on and on. But the point is, if you're going to pander, do it with actions so at least some real life benefit.
In America, we are all equal. This constant need to set one group up as a super hero class is really undemocratic.
