Obama is black. Pelosi is female.
There they go again.
Chinese opinion makers have once more displayed their penchant for offending U.S. leaders while simultaneously revealing a deep ignorance of American society and politics.
Last fall they reminded President Barack Obama that he is black and should think accordingly. Now they’ve told Nancy Pelosi she’s a woman and should behave accordingly.
Recall that right before Obama visited China in November 2009, a Foreign Ministry spokesman stated that Barack Obama should be sympathetic to Beijing’s opposition to the Dalai Lama and Tibetan autonomy because “He is a black president, and he understands the slavery abolition movement and Lincoln’s major significance for that movement.” (The implication is that Tibetan serfs were akin to black slaves.) Read my blog about it.
In a March 19 editorial, the official People’s Daily newspaper retorted to Speaker Pelosi’s statement of support for Tibet and the Dalai Lama by saying that “we fully understand that Pelosi, as the first female House speaker, has to undertake much pressure and that she must make painstaking efforts to obtain political gain. However, she needs to learn that railing against China is absolutely not conducive to improving the image and status of American women.”
President Obama and Speaker Pelosi are seasoned politicians and easily brush off offense. But I don’t think they are the Chinese elites’ main target.
As with most of the propaganda spewing from official mouthpieces, the intended audience is domestic. And that’s even more troubling. What do these comments about Obama the black President and Pelosi the female Speaker say about how the elites want to shape the perceptions of the Chinese people? How do they want race and gender within American politics, and society, to be viewed? Looking in the mirror, what does this say about the images of Africans and women promoted in Chinese society?
No woman or non-Han has ever held a top-level position in the central government of the PRC. Looking at America, China’s elites see its two most powerful politicians are now not males of the majority ethnic group. One can only wonder what they perceive.
PHOTO: Speaker Nancy Pelosi
One Response to “Obama is black. Pelosi is female.”
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It is a matter of laugh to read these silly remarks made by the Chinese officials. Mr. Hu talks of Harmonious society in China and the people in power makes this racist and gender differences and prejudices. In such a way, bloody regime in China is now showing their true colours inside! wow!