With all the questions surrounding whether or not
The New Yorker's "
The Obamas as Terrorist Fist-Jabbers" cover is good satire or detrimental to his campaign and public image, we didn't give much thought to how the cover could actually benefit the Presidential hopeful.
For all the recent
failed attempts at getting through to Latino voters, the controversial cover could do more for Obama's image among Hispanics than the efforts of his campaign managers:
The caricature is not really about race, but patriotism. The subtext is that the Obamas are a couple of flag pins short of being real, full-blooded, God-fearing Americans.
Now, where have we heard that before? You got it. In the throes of the immigration debate, it is U.S.-born Latinos who are often hit with the accusation that they are "Americans in name only." Mexican-Americans, in particular, are routinely accused of having divided loyalties and having left their hearts south of the border. And that's strange given that many of them were born in the United States and so were their parents.
We can't but feel, however, that this questioning of the Obamas' patriotism arises
directly because of their race (Look at Michelle Obama's hair on the cover, for example, compare to her day-to-day hairstyle and tell us her 'fro is not "racial.") as well as because many misinformed Americans still hold onto the idea that Barack Obama is Muslim - a religion that has been extremely racialized in the United States. This also parallels Latinos in the United States, who have been targets of racism only because the label of "Latino" or "Hispanic" continues to be racialized in this country. It makes it easier to point to someone as an outsider if they happen to look the part - nevermind that the idea of "looking" white or brown or Anglo or Latino is ridiculous. The idea, however ludicrous it is, still holds. In this way, we feel both Obama and Latinos share the common experience of being persecuted because of some socially constructed and societally upheld notion of race, racialized religion and racialized caricatures.
Which, of course, makes the comment that Obama's sister is an asset to his campaign because she
"looks Latina" all the more infuriating.
Magazine cover may help Obama with Latino voters [Mercury News]
