Bobby Jindal, Birth Certificates and the Politics of Race<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"According\u00a0to this Reuter's article, this week Bobby "What me, a vice\u00a0presidential\u00a0candidate?" Jindal,\u00a0governor\u00a0of Louisiana, released a copy of his birth\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/breyeschow\/2011\/05\/08\/bobby-jindal-birther\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bobby Jindal, Birth Certificates and the Politics of Race\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"According\u00a0to this Reuter's article, this week Bobby "What me, a vice\u00a0presidential\u00a0candidate?" Jindal,\u00a0governor\u00a0of Louisiana, released a copy of his birth\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/breyeschow\/2011\/05\/08\/bobby-jindal-birther\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Bruce Reyes-Chow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-05-08T17:50:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-05-08T17:54:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nick Nowalk\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nick Nowalk\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" 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{"id":199,"date":"2011-05-08T10:50:37","date_gmt":"2011-05-08T17:50:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/breyeschow\/?p=199"},"modified":"2011-05-08T10:54:01","modified_gmt":"2011-05-08T17:54:01","slug":"bobby-jindal-birther","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/breyeschow\/2011\/05\/08\/bobby-jindal-birther\/","title":{"rendered":"Bobby Jindal, Birth Certificates and the Politics of Race"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

According\u00a0to this Reuter\u2019s article<\/a>, this week Bobby \u201cWhat me, a vice\u00a0presidential\u00a0candidate?\u201d Jindal,\u00a0governor\u00a0of Louisiana, released a copy of his birth certificate. This was done as a response\u00a0to an editorial that was in response to his support of Birther<\/a> inspired legislation that would require all candidates for federal office on\u00a0Louisiana\u00a0ballots to show their birth certificates.<\/p>\n

Good grief.<\/p>\n

And again I say, \u201cGood. Grief.\u201d<\/p>\n

First . . . for those who can muster up their best, \u201cWhat? What\u2019s wrong with asking if people are born here?\u201d and can do so with a straight face, get thee an agent and move to Hollywood. \u00a0Seriously. To think that the Birther<\/a> movement is a rational, innocent and pure search for the truth denies the reality that the question and furor around it is fundamentally built upon about how American society still perceives\u00a0brown folks . . . as not <\/strong>American until proven otherwise. \u00a0Add on the \u201cI am just asking a question, you shouldn\u2019t get so mad\u201d posture and we either\u00a0believe\u00a0that we live in a vacuum void of generations of historic challenges to the \u201cAmericanness\u201d of groups of people, or we really do\u00a0believe\u00a0that one\u00a0cannot TRULY assumed to be \u201cAmerican\u201d unless you are White. \u00a0Neither\u00a0option is\u00a0particularly\u00a0attractive to say the least. Yes, the nature of race in the United States is complex and has changed greatly over the generations, but we must not buy into the notion that we are in a post-racial society, because, not only is this not true, doing so leaves room for racism\u2019s ugly butt to shamelessly moon the world at will.<\/p>\n

As the President said during the release of his own full birth certificate<\/a>, \u201cWe do not have time for this kind of silliness. We\u2019ve got better stuff to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

And then there is Bobby Jindal making\u00a0waves\u00a0with this recent political stunt. *deep sigh*<\/p>\n

I am going to assume that Governor Jindal is a bright guy, so he has got to know full-well what he is choosing to do. \u00a0In this release of his birth certificate in a weak-sauce attempt to respond to a editorial\u00a0mistake about his name, he is choosing to perpetuate the ongoing assumptions of Americanness in exchange for\u00a0political\u00a0advancement. While this may be savvy and strategic for his own political future, it calls into question his cultural\u00a0integrity\u00a0and\u00a0commitment\u00a0to the struggles of people of color. \u00a0Choosing to feed his political ambition at the expense of furthering a just world no matter what that may do to his political aspirations makes me sad, frustrated and more than a little pissed off. \u00a0With this move Gov.\u00a0Jindal is\u00a0maneuvering\u00a0himself further into the presidential conversations and will no doubt be used by the Republican party as a poster child for a conservative post-racial America.\u00a0This should be no shock to anyone, but it should give us great cause for concern about the future of our political discourse.<\/p>\n

For those who do not\u00a0believe\u00a0that the\u00a0political\u00a0and cultural landscape should be formed by this tone and tactic, we must not pay undue attention to fringe groups or political novelty acts. But . . . when legitimate political figures start buying into these postures, we must be diligent in making sure that these marginalizing perspectives do not become further rooted culturally or legislatively into the life of the United States. \u00a0 I hope that these kind of side-show antics will give way\u00a0to more meaningful conversations about our racial and political future, but if it is going to happen, we certainly need folks like Governor Jindal to stop feeding the\u00a0frenzy.<\/p>\n

A boy can dream . . .<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"