On the whole, we like people to respect their own ancestral traditions, and dress colourfully.
[We, in this case, is a collective - the American group thingy. Not the editorial we, nor the majestic voice we.]
That is what many of our American regional festivals are all about.
Dutch Americans in clogs during one of Michigan's Tulip festivals, sari-clad ladies at an Indian fair in the South Bay, hairy men in plaid skirts, slender Vietnamese girls in gracefull aodai during Tet - these are all zesty and geshmak.
At Chinese New Year parades, seeing the local community looking all exotic..... Who doesn't like the little maidens from the Saint Mary's Girl School Drum and Bell Corps dressed in T'ang Dynasty costumes, briskly tripping forth playing the Marine hymn or When The Caissons Go Rolling Along? They're just so darn cuuuute!
Iggerunt Rednecks dressed as.... iggerunt rednecks? Oh, we're fine with that, bichol.
Irish-Americans got up like drunken leprechauns? Begorrah, we do the same every three-seventeen.
Can't hardly get more American than that.
Not all ethnic garb is equal, however.
As is made clear in this news items from the BBC:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7263783.stm
Barack Obama wearing African costume is, apparently, not something we like. No. Some of us find it offensive. Or problematic. Entirely. Probably because it suggests that Mr. Obama is not a nice middle-aged white male like the rest of us. I'm just guessing. Different. Maybe he's Irish.
It might even be evidence of a blot on his character. A black mark.
Ooh ick, and forsooth.
REASSURANCE
However, I have it on good authority that he IS a Protestant - that ought to still your worries somewhat.
I have not been told which country-club he belongs to, but I'm sure it is indeed a very fine one. And although he did go to Columbia University (which is just utterly awash with Jews!), he subsequently went to Harvard, where no doubt he absorbed many fine old-school waspish behaviours. So any suggestion that he might not be "one of us" has to be discarded as just pissy, and please desist.
---------------------------------------
In the interests of fair reporting, I admit that I voted for Barack Hussein Obama during the primary - and I'll be doing it again in the election.
[If you now wish to jump to the conclusion that I am a wealthy African-American man with a college education living in Georgia, please do so.]
I should also mention, apropos of nothing much, that I do not entirely approve of how Mr. Obama's turban is tied in that photo. It looks too common. It is not nearly as imposing as a Sardarji's dastaar (pagri), nor as dashing as an Afghani double twist. If he wants a lesson on how to tie it properly, he knows where to find me.
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3 comments:
When I got home from work yesterday and turned on the BBC it didn't surprise me to see Hil's bunch get this photo of Barack in the news! I too voted for Barack in the primary's and I have been toying with voting for her in the General Election-- not any more.
After she shook Barack's hand at the last debate and made nice-nice, I thought it was sweet, then the following day I hear her screaming "shame on you Barack Obama!" Whatever Hil!
I do have a strange sinking feeling in my stomach though, when I think of Mr. Obama as President: I can't help thinking of President Kennedy's fate, and my friend also read something about that in yesterday's New York Times.
Despite the fact that I have the fashion sense of a Lesbian (butch, not femme), I too will be voting Obama at every opportunity.
Japanese manga do not illustrate butch lesbians. Consequently I will have to assume that, as your fashion sense seems to match mine, butch lesbians dress very sensibly, but have a preference for loose clothing.
Geshmak!
Big time.
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