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A telephone poll taken with 1,105 African American, Asian American and Hispanics has found something major: that we don’t like each other. They probably could have saved the money and followed the newspaper headlines to the next Hispanic/Black clash but they probably wanted to do it at a safe distance.

Not only do the minorities distrust each other but they trust whites more than another minority groups.

Other findings are:

• A majority of Hispanics and a significant percentage of Asians believe in the concept that every American has an equal opportunity to succeed. By contrast, the majority of Black respondents – 66 percent – disagreed with that notion.
  
• Blacks overwhelmingly believe the criminal justice system favors the rich and powerful; most Hispanics and an even larger majority of Asians disagree.
  
• A large majority of each group believes that they should put aside their differences and work together on issues affecting their communities; they also say the country would be better if more from all three groups were in positions of authority at universities, businesses, media and government.
  
• All three groups are optimistic about the future. Strong majorities of each group believe that racial tensions will ease over the next 10 years.
  

So maybe there is hope for us yet. To read about the findings click here.

15 years ago Bill Clinton assured the common man that he understood what he was going through when he uttered the empathic words, “I feel your pain.” During this political stomp Hillary came close to choking up, but nothing evoking the words and sentiment that her husband was able to convey those many years ago. But then does she really need to? Perhaps it’s because she’s a woman that we automatically assign to Hillary a maternal instinct that we think she’ll extend to the world. This is the true zeitgeist of the 2008 election. We are looking for a healer, a feeler, someone who can take our pain, convey it to the world and help bring us all together in a way that we are fully understood and we can still look strong. We need an Oprah, but since she won’t run give us the next best thing.

Some politicians think the trick to conveying humanity is by showing emotion. But breaking down like an emo boy band isn’t necessarily what we want to see in a world leader. How can you put into words understand when you don’t really have the words because you don’t really understand? Or you are saying the words but it doesn’t really get the message across? Or you want to manipulate? You cry. My daughter used to do that when she was younger. I told her to stop it and the tears dried up quick. Game recognizes game.

But everything that they are saying to us are just words and I have to sift through what they are saying to get to what they are really trying to say. I’m not really into having a personable president, I’m not looking for someone to drink a beer with or wax politically on the differences between the Arabs in Northern African and those in Arabia; I just want a person who can do the job. The problem is America always goes for the more charismatic personality for Pres which is why we got Reagan, Clinton and Bush II (Bush I slid in on Reagan’s coat tails). If I go for the personality that resonates to me then I have to go with Dennis Kucinich, a man who admits to seeing UFO’s, carries around kitsch in his pockets and has the city of Cleveland hating him (my husband nearly popped a vein when I told him I was supporting Kucinich and J loves anything Cleveland related) can get my vote.

See why you can’t go on what personality gets to you?

I still don’t know who to vote for; a few weeks ago I listened to the Democratic debate on NPR and sad to say it kicked Hillary out of the running for me. Without the timed responses and the ability to get in cute quips for memorable sound bites she fell flat for me. The men said more of the things I wanted to hear but sadly nothing that could get played on the 6:00 news. The voices sometimes got tangled up, but what I remember the most is that Edwards and Obama both made valid points on China and immigration.

So as H. Clinton inches out Obama and outdistances Edwards as she leaves New Hampshire I wonder what this means for the democratic nomination. She has been basically running on her husbands (and hers; lets not get it twisted) reputation as president and if a lot of Americans had their way he would have had a third term. The way she’s talking you’d think that she was the second Vice President, but the really she was co-pres. People remember that before B. Clinton became a lame duck president because of the Monica Lewinsky scandal he balanced the budget. But aside from throwing a couple of bombs Iraq’s way (and Republicans accused him of wagging the dog) I can’t think of anything else that B. Clinton accomplished. I know that when he got in he tried to out gays in the military and put H. Clinton in charge of trying to get universal healthcare. The results were the military instituted a “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” rule and Hillary became cemented as a relentless bitch because she couldn’t yield or compromise. What I really loved was how B. Clinton pushed for NAFTA (which Perot and Bush I really wanted, too) which helped to dismantle the blue collar working class and then Clinton put restrictions on Welfare (which some people are still able to manipulate the system).

So, yes, I am glad she has this record to run on. She makes a great Republican nominee.

The other two candidates are a bit more liberal. Senator Edwards is more of the old school democrat, talking about the poor and the homeless and things like jobs. Who needs jobs when we have Wal-Mart? I’m not sure why he isn’t resonating with more people. Maybe it’s because his wife has cancer. They find him compassionate but think if he was that feeling he’d be at home with her, although she wants him out on the campaign trail.

Obama completely confounds the black community. The O.A’s (original activists) who turned into politicians were never able to garner this much support among the white constituency. They wonder what does he have and whatever its then it must be inimical to the black community or white people wouldn’t want him, right? And then the black women who decide to go for H. Clinton over Obama. That one makes me laugh. Black women stick with black men through thick and thin and I don’t believe what anyone is saying about black women aren’t using race as a factor. They are using race. One they don’t believe whites will vote for Obama in mass and if they do it’s a set up to kill dude in office. I actually heard someone mention they know if he’s elected he will be killed. It’s not like the man can’t use bodyguards like most presidents have done in the past. Perhaps they think it will be a Caesar situation (et tu Julian Bond?). Whichever it is, they’d rather kill the man’s dream of becoming president than let him get killed in office.

Now that’s black love!

So South Carolina is next and I’m curious to see who wins. Hopefully Edwards can hold on for a couple more states not only to make things interesting but to make both parties pay attention to his agenda on poverty. And Obama may get his hat handed to him by the black community in the south by bringing him in a far distance second against Hillary, or maybe even a third place showing. And hopefully Hillary will be taking notes on what the others are saying, so when she gets choked up next time she can better explain what American ailments are actually causing her throat to seize up on her.

Too bad she couldn’t get that medical act passed; I bet there’s a pill for that.

On the cover of a weekly magazine a couple shyly smiles out to the world. Happy faces on a magazine cover aren’t unusual, except the racial combination is a reason to pause. A young Asian American male and an African American female cuddle up to illustrate the December 13 lead story for AsianWeek magazine.

The cover story is about a book called BlAsian Exchange, the debut novel from author Sam Cacas. A former AsianWeek writer, Cacas pens the story of a young Filipino man who is attracted to black women and African American culture.

Cacas may be in a small minority. According to the most recent statistical information, Black female/Asian male pairings make up less than 0.1% of interracial couplings.

Stereotypes and negative media portrayals of African American women and Asian men may be one of the barriers between them. In the past Asian men were mostly characterized in the movies and on television as desexualized brainiacs and black women have been caricatured as harpy Sapphires. The two groups have been put at the bottom of the interracial pyramid with black men and Asian women the most desired mates in the cross cultural dating game.

College student Jimmy Zhao admitted that TV and movie images may influence people’s perceptions of African Americans back home in China. He told the Harvard Crimson, “The only black people you’re going to see on TV are in rap videos or other negative images.”

African American women are also just as likely not to date Asian males. In a Racial Preference in Dating study that was published in spring of 2007, African American women were 65% less interested in Asian men than they were in Hispanic and white males.

Over the past 20 years relations has been strained between the black and Asian community. Nothing has equaled the violence between the two groups since the 1992 LA riots, but recent news stories of boycotts and arguments in places like Prince George have shown the underlying problems between the groups. In early 2007 Kenneth Eng published a column in AsianWeek magazine titled “Why I Hate Black People” which listed reasons why blacks were in his disfavor. Uproar ensued in both the Asian and African American which resulted in the firing of Eng and the publishers of the magazine writing an apology.