The Browning of America
A gray morning looking north from my office windows over Manhattan.
Listening to Miles Davis (the Kind of Blue album, er, excuse me … the
Kind of Blue compact disc) with John Coltrane blowing glissando on my
favorite composition, the smarty pants "So What," written by Miles. A genius
was Mr. Davis, adding depth and beauty even to less-than-stellar music by Cindy
Lauper or Michael Jackson ( I write to jazz, always have; it smoothes the
flow). Miles Davis, as you may recall, maddened critics by playing with his
back to the audience. Never pandered. He said, instead, accept what I am-or I
will give you nothing
Yes, the FALN guys (and gals?) have accepted the clemency. Is Hillary caught
now? Well maybe yes, maybe no. Remember, Tamar, New York has a lot of
cops. Now she can reasonably say to the police unions: That was my husband;
I did not do this . Last night's Inside City Hall on New York 1 (the
cable channel) had a police union guy pretty much swallowing Hillary's line
that it was Bill not her who pardoned these people. Meanwhile, the
representative from the Puerto Rican detective's group was saying: "My
community'' will make her pay dearly for this, we will make her walk the
line-which is a laugh, really-because they have nowhere to go. Think a moment,
Tamar: She has foxed them. She can now look clean to the cops and upstate
conservatives. The Latino legislators get to rant a while-and look good to
their more radical constituents. But in the end, as I said yesterday, Hillary
is telling them through that razor smile that they have no choice except to
vote for her.
Speaking of clouds. I was waltzing around Seattle earlier this summer when
the political candidates swept through The Unity Conference-the big confab of
black, Latino, and Asian journalists. George Bush, as you may recall, said no
at first-then rushed over to pass through and shake a hand or two. (Wasn't
someone fired from his campaign for issuing that initial "no"?) Bush was right
to come; in a segmented market like this one, you need every vote you can get.
It was healthy for his party, too; which is too white by far. Don't be so hard
on the pols for making the rounds in the colored neighborhoods. It's good for
business.
Look at the Bush brother Jeb, with that Latina wife and the kids that Daddy
Bush called "the little brown ones"; quite an asset on the hustings. How do you
think he won Florida? You've got to face it, Tamar, we are a browning nation. A
room without some brown folks in it looks awful funny to most people-probably
even to you. No?
