Adios Amigos

Tim Wise on Race and the Healthcare Protests

*tip of the fitted to Racialicious

The Reggaetón Factor in the U.S. Elections

*Originially published at NACLA (North American Congress on Latin America)

Who would have thought when Daddy Yankee released "Gasolina" in 2004 that four short years later the song would become the butt of jokes about John McCain and offshore drilling? If there were still sectors of U.S. society that didn’t know about reggaetón, this year’s presidential race certainly changed that.

Daddy Yankee (Raymond Ayala) endorses McCain before a shrieking crowd of high school girls in Arizona.

Daddy Yankee caused a stir in August when he publicly endorsed Republican presidential candidate John McCain. The reggaetonero recently made headlines again when he agreed to help moderate a debate on October 9 among candidates for governor of Puerto Rico as part of the "Vota o Quédate Callao" (Vote or Shut Up) initiative to get young voters to the polls in November.

Not to be outdone, Barack Obama has also had a number of reggaetón artists come out in support of his campaign, most notably Julio Voltio and Don Omar who appeared in the video "Podemos con Obama," directed by Yerba Buena's Andres Levin. Calle 13 is even rocking the vote over at MTV. The duo can be seen in ads on MTV and MTV Tr3s urging young people to listen to their new album on the way to the polls.

Does this signal the emergence of a "reggaetón vote"? Pundits have wondered about the weight of the "hip-hop vote" in this year’s election, particularly regarding Barack Obama’s potential appeal to young African American and Latino/a voters. But in 2012 will political pundits be asking candidates what they’re doing to win the "reggaetón vote"?

Maybe. But much like the "hip-hop vote," the idea of a "reggaetón vote" is more complicated than it seems, and it defies simplistic categorization. Politicians’ use of reggaetón in speaking to the so-called "Latino Vote" revealed stark cleavages within the Latino/a community along lines of nationality, race, class, gender, legal status, and age. Indeed, the strategy backfired in many ways and exposed the messy complexities and divisions within the Latino/a community that often gets lumped together with monolithic labels like "Latino/a" and "Hispanic."

Although some analysts continue to question reggaetón’s political potential, this election season confirms the genre’s growing politicization. What that means, exactly, depends on who is doing the politicking.

Daddy Yankee, "El Cartel: The Big Boss," 2007, Interscope Records.

When McCain appeared with Daddy Yankee in an attempt to woo Latino/a voters, controversy erupted over whether Daddy Yankee—and by extension reggaetón—could or should represent the Latino/a community politically. In public responses to the endorsement some felt that reggaetón was something too Puerto Rican or too Caribbean to fully represent the entire Latino/a community.¹ Others felt that reggaetón was too "low-class," saying they did not want to be associated with references to drugs, violence, and aggressive sexuality.

Others felt that as a U.S. citizen Daddy Yankee was not immediately affected by immigration policy and, therefore, had no right to endorse McCain because of his stance on immigration. Still others wondered why Daddy Yankee’s endorsement even garnered so much attention since as a Puerto Rican resident he is barred from even casting a ballot for president on Election Day.

Likewise, recent events in Puerto Rico have sparked further debate over reggaetón’s political potential. Many youths are resisting the cooptation of reggaetón by the political mainstream and using the music to channel concerns and challenge the status quo.

A group of young artists staged a protest outside of the Puerto Rican Convention Center against the gubernatorial debate being held inside on October 9. They organized not in protest to reggaetón’s cooptation or even Daddy Yankee—though they did burn his albums—but in protest to the hypocrisy expressed by Puerto Rico’s four major political parties.

Listen to Sietenueve's "Quédate Callao":

The protestors denounced how reggaetoneros, like Daddy Yankee, are being used in an effort to attract youth to a political system that systematically ignores their concerns. Sietenueve, a hip-hop artist based in the barrio of Villa Palmeras in Santurce, composed a biting critique of Daddy Yankee entitled "Quedate Callao" accusing him of greed and political ignorance. While Yankee implores youth to "Vote or Shut Up," Sietenueve's song title suggests his colleague do the latter. At the end of the song, he raps, "How can you endorse a guy that wants to bring us more war, more blood, more death. It's real sad. Brother, if you don't know your history, educate yourself. Or just shut up."

Although urban music such as hip hop and reggaetón is seen by many as little more than apolitical party music, artists like Sietenueve, other musicians, and their fans in Puerto Rico are increasingly using it as a platform for social justice and anti-establishment political engagement. This point is made poignantly visible with "Ninguno, el candidato de los hip-hoppers" (Nobody, the hip-hoppers candidate).

The "Ninguno pa’ Gobernador" (Nobody, for Governor) campaign is an intervention by political theater group Papel Machete. Much like the "None of the Above" vote that Puerto Ricans made famous during the 1998 plebiscite to determine Puerto Rico’s status, Ninguno’s supporters are urging voters to once again turn to "la quinta" (the fifth)—in protest to the four main parties—and write-in "Ninguno" on the November 4 gubernatorial ballot.

Sietenueve and other high-profile ningunistas joined the Friends of Ninguno Committee in the protest outside the convention center during the gubernatorial debate to highlight the lack of representation all four candidates offered voters.

As one protester told Primera Hora, "In our country, political parties work within an imposed limited structure, making electoral participation an act of selection between candidates, who, once elected, automatically become puppets of the rich."

While all the candidates claim that they know the struggles of the young, the working-class, and the marginalized of Puerto Rican society, their platforms are largely indistinguishable from the status quo and desires of elites. Protestors provocatively asked, "Which candidate for governor comes from the barrios? Which one of them works in the factories? Is there a true representative of the worker, the woman, or the poor?" The answer is of course Ninguno. As Ninguno himself states, "Todos prometen, Ninguno Cumple" (Everyone promises, Nobody delivers).

While U.S.-based Latino/a youth and Puerto Rican youth are using music as a vehicle for political expression and action, they are also actively resisting superficial attempts made by politicians to win their votes through token musical shout-outs, while casting them aside in terms of actual policy.

Indeed, Daddy Yankee’s endorsement of McCain as well as his participation in the gubernatorial debate caused outrage among many young people because it threatened to turn reggaetón into a hollow signifier, separating it from its radical and subversive potential.

This election season shows politicians will not win the reggaetón vote through cultural pandering. To win over this growing group they will actually have to address the issues affecting U.S.-based Latino/a and island-based Puerto Rican youth with concrete policies. Dancing perreo on stage for votes isn’t going to cut it—and, in fact, it never did.

Notes:
1. These "responses" are based on coverage of the endorsement by mainstream media such as Primera Hora, The Washington Post, Newsday, and New York Times, and their readers’ comments as well as Latino/a themed blogs and forums such as Latin Americanist and Vivir Latino.

Latin American Studies Association (LASA) Letter to Obama

Latin American Studies Association (LASA), the largest association of scholars working in the field of Latin American Studies, sent a letter to Barack Obama with suggestions about policy toward region. Spot on. [Tip of the fitted to Vivir Latino]

Check out the letter...

October 12, 2008

Dear Senator Obama:

We write to offer our congratulations on your campaign and to express our hope that as the next president of the United States you will take advantage of an historic opportunity to improve relations with Latin America. As scholars of the region, we also wish to convey our analysis regarding the process of change now underway in Latin America.

Just as the people of the United States have begun to debate basic questions regarding the sort of society they want-- thanks in part to your own candidacy but also owing to the magnitude of the current financial crisis-- so too have the people of Latin America. In fact, a recent round of intense debate about a just and fair society has been going on in Latin America for more than a decade, and the majority are opting, like you and so many of us in the United States, for hope and change. As academics personally and professionally committed to development and democracy in Latin America, we are hopeful that during your presidency the United States can become a partner rather than an adversary to the positive changes already under way in the hemisphere.

The current impetus for change in Latin America is a rejection of the model of economic growth that has been imposed in most countries since the early 1980s, a model that has concentrated wealth, relied unsuccessfully on unrestricted market forces to solve deep social problems and undermined human welfare. The current rejection of this model is broad-based and democratic. In fact, contemporary movements for change in Latin America reveal significantly increased participation by workers and peasants, women, Afro-descendants and indigenous peoples-- in a word, the grassroots. Such movements are coming to power in country after country. They are neither puppets, nor blinded by fanaticism and ideology, as caricatured by some mainstream
pundits. To the contrary, these movements deserve our respect, friendship and support.

Latin Americans have often viewed the United States not as a friend but as an oppressor, the guarantor of an international economic system that works against them, rather than for them-- the very antithesis of hope and change. The Bush Administration has made matters much worse, and U.S. prestige in the region is now at a historic low. Washington's tendency to fight against hope and change has been especially prominent in recent U.S. responses to the democratically elected governments of Venezuela and Bolivia. While anti-American feelings run deep, history demonstrates that these feelings can change. In the 1930s, after two decades of conflict with the region, the United States swore off intervention and adopted a Good Neighbor Policy. Not coincidentally, it was the most harmonious time in the history of U.S.-Latin American relations. In the 1940s, every country in the region became our ally in World War Two. It can happen again.

There are many other challenges, too. Colombia, the main focus of the Bush Administration's policy, is currently the scene of the second largest humanitarian crisis in the world, with four million internally displaced people. Its government, which criminalizes even peaceful protest, seeks an extension of the free trade policies that much of the hemisphere is already reacting against. Cuba has begun a process of transition that should be supported in positive ways, such as through the dialogue you advocate. Mexicans and Central Americans migrate by the tens of thousands to seek work in the United States, where their labor power is much needed but their presence is denigrated by a public that has, since the development of opinion polling in the 1930s, always opposed immigration from anywhere. The way to manage immigration is not by building a giant wall, but rather, the United States should support more equitable economic development in Mexico and Central America and, indeed, throughout the region. In addition, the U.S. must reconsider drug control policies that have simply not worked and have been part of the problem of political violence, especially in Mexico, Colombia and Peru. And the U.S. must renew its active support for human rights throughout the region. Unfortunately, in the eyes of many Latin Americans, the United States has come to stand for the support of inequitable regimes.

Finally, we implore you to commit your administration to the firm support of constitutional rights, including academic and intellectual freedom. Most of us are members of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA), the largest professional association of experts on the region, and we have experienced first-hand how the Bush administration's attempt to restrict academic exchange with Cuba is counter-productive and self-defeating. We hope for an early opportunity to discuss this and other issues regarding Latin America with your administration.

Our hope is that you will embrace the opportunity to inaugurate a new period of hemispheric understanding and collaboration for the common welfare. We ask for change and not only in the United States.

Sincerely,

SIGNED:

Eric Hershberg, LASA President 2007-09, Professor of Politics and
Director of Latin American Studies, Simon Fraser University

Sonia E. Alvarez, LASA Past President (2004-2006), Leonard J. Horwitz
Professor of Politics, University of Massachusetts-Amherst

Charles R. Hale, LASA Past President (2003-2004), Professor of
Anthropology, University of Texas at Austin

Marysa Navarro-Aranguren, LASA Past President (2003-2004), Charles
Collis Professor of History, Dartmouth College

Arturo Arias, LASA Past President, (2001-2003), Professor of Spanish
and Portuguese University of Texas, Austin.

Susan Eckstein, LASA Past President (1997-98), Professor of Sociology &
International Relations, Boston University

Cynthia McClintock, LASA
Past President (1994-95), Professor of Political Science and
International Affairs, George Washington University

Carmen Diana Deere, LASA Past President (1992-94), Professor of Food
and Resource Economics and Director, Center for Latin American Studies,
University of Florida

Lars Schoultz, LASA Past President (1991-92), William Rand Kenan, Jr.,
Professor of Political Science, UNC, Chapel Hill

Jean Franco, LASA Past President (1990-91), Emeritus Professor,
Columbia University

Helen I. Safa, LASA Past President (1983-85), Emeritus Professor of
Anthropology and Latin American Studies, University of Florida.

Paul L. Doughty, LASA Past President (1974-75), Distinguished Service
Professor, Emeritus of Anthropology and Latin American Studies,
University of Florida

Cristina Rojas, School of International Affairs, Carleton University, Ottawa

Marisol de la Cadena, Associate Professor of Anthropology, UC Davis

John C. Chasteen, Distinguished Professor of History, UNC Chapel Hill

Mario Blaser, Assistant Professor of International Development, York
University, Toronto.

Arturo Escobar, Kenan Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, UNC,
Chapel Hill.

I Knew It!!

ObamaisSuperman
Uploaded by guanabee

Who would have known dude is actually really funny. I have such a crush!

Islamophobia and the McCain-Palin Campaign

As we enter into the last few weeks of the election McCain and Palin supporters have increased their racist attacks on Obama. McCain and Palin have said that Obama "pals around with domestic terrorists" and their supporters have felt free to shout "terrorist" and "kill him" at rallies. His opponents have been trying to present him to the American public as a Muslim candidate (which he isn't) in order to play on the current climate of violent anti-Islamic sentiment. Frighteningly enough people buy it, check out this clips of McCain-Palin rallies in Ohio and Pennsylvania...

Its interesting because by trying to link Obama to domestic terrorism the McCain-Palin camp actually encouraged the media to explore her and her husbands ties to an Alaskan extremist group. Keith Olbermann of course does a great job of breaking down the racism and Islamophobia in the McCain-Palin camp, check out this clip (its a little long but worth every minute)...

*Tip of the fitted to Playahata.com and VivirLatino.com

Move Over Daddy Yankee, Make Way for the Obamistas

Podemos con Obama, is a will.i.am inspired musical video directed by Yerba Buena's Andres Levin urging Latinos from all walks of life to vote for Obama this coming November.

The video features reggaetoneros Don Omar and Julio Voltio along side a cast of Latino/a heavy hitters including: Alejandro Sanz, Paulina Rubio, John Leguizamo, Jessica Alba, Kate del Castillo, Cucu Diamantes (Yerba Buena), Pedro Martinez (Yerba Buena), Andres Levin (Yerba Buena), George Lopez, Luis Guzman, Lila Downs, Lin Manuel Miranda, Frankie Needles, Huey Dunbar, Nydia Caro, Ivonne Caro Caro, Brazilian Girls, Carlos Marín and family, Carola Gonzalez, Viva Nativa, Jose Alberti.

Lets see McCain pull that off...

*tip of the fitted to Lossip

Party Like a BaRock Star

Check out Mims new video featuring Jr. Reid "BaRock Star." Hip hop is heavy hitting for Obama, hopeful folks will actually go out and vote.

Tim Wise's "This is Your Nation on White Privilege"

Critical whiteness scholar Tim Wise recently wrote the brilliant "This is Your Nation on White Privilege" which is currently making its way around the internet. Wise does a great job exploring the blatant racism that is permeating every aspect of the 2008 Presidential Elections. As a person of color in Higher Ed, I really appreciated this point...

White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.

Read "This is Your Nation on White Privilege" here

“Quedate Callao!”

Reggaetonero SieteNueve has released a tiraera pa Daddy Yankee due to his endorsement of John McCain. The song called "Quedate Callao" asks how much money Daddy Yankee got to sell his people out and lead them into war over "gasolina." The chorus say "Mejor quedate callao si vas a hablar por los otros" (roughly:"it's better that you stay quiet if you're going to speak for us").

The hook uses a line from a voting campaign that Daddy Yankee was part of in January 2008 called "Voto o Quedate Callao" which translates to vote or shut up, or vote or be quiet.

Raquel Rivera, has written about the campaign and what it says to try and get the youth vote, so I urge people to look at her take over at Reggaetonica.

I think that SieteNueve's track is great and points to alot of the political reasons why people are bugging outover Daddy Yankee's endorsement of McCain. What I think is interesting is the use of the slogan "Voto o Quedate Callao" that Daddy helped popularize now being used to silence his (non) vote. The whole voto or quedate callao campaign basically said if you're not going to vote, or in this case you can't vote because of neocolonial law, then you have no right to voice your opinion. I think it is interesting and telling that SieteNueve's video ends with him saying "I endorse Don Pedro Albizu Campos," alluding to the fact the Daddy Yankee has no business voting for Obama or McCain, because the issue is still Puerto Rican independence and neither candidate is going to provide that.

*tip of the fitted cap to Angry Brown Butch and Vivir Latino

Speaking of Political Air Force Ones...

Fat Joe has his own pair of "Si Se Puede" Obama A1s.

If you all have seen political A1s as art or as accessory please send along some flicks.

Los Republicanos: part tres (please make it stop!)

Somebody needs to stop him. Not only has it come out that Obama turned Daddy Yankee's sorry ass down and that's why he endorsed McCain (read the story from Politico here), but now he's continuing with the farce and performing at the Republican National Convention! Que Pendejo!

El Cangri is going to perform at the Fiesta Americana Concert as part of the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota on September 1st.

According to a press release from the Hispanic Leadership Fund:

Approximately 3000 convention delegates and special guests are expected to attend, including members of Minnesota’s rapidly growing Hispanic community.

This event will showcase the Hispanic community and demonstrate a clear message of support for key issues such as tough, but fair immigration reform, free trade in the Americas and prosperity through ownership. This event will also allow for an opportunity to highlight sharp policy differences between Senators John McCain and Barack Obama regarding these issues, and will kick off Convention week in great style.

Headline artist Daddy Yankee, chosen by TIME magazine as one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World,” is a rising star in Reggaeton – a music genre he helped create. In 2008, he won Billboard Latin Music Awards for Album of the Year and Reggaeton Album of the Year.

Throughout his career, Daddy Yankee has been involved in philanthropic activities and shown support for key issues affecting the Hispanic population. At a recent event with Senator McCain in Arizona, Daddy Yankee said: “I am here endorsing Senator McCain because I believe in his ideals and his proposals to lead this nation. And like I said before, he has been a fighter for the Hispanic community, and I know that for me personally, I chose him as the best candidate because he has been a fighter for the immigration issue.” (Click Here for full release)

And now Fat Joe is weighing in on the matter and saying that DY is a SELL OUT!

"I opened the newspaper and got sick to my stomach," Joe continued. "I felt like I wanted to vomit when I seen that. The reason why I called him a sellout is because I feel he did that for a [publicity] look, rather than the issues that are affecting his people that look up to him. How could you want John McCain in office when George Bush and the Republicans already have half a million people losing their homes in foreclosure? We're fighting an unjust war. It's the Latinos and black kids up in the frontlines, fighting that war. ... We over here trying to take the troops out of Iraq and bring peace. This guy immediately wants war. If not with Iraq or Afghanistan, he'll start a new one with Iran. I feel real disgusted that Daddy Yankee would do that. Either he did that for a look, or he's just not educated on politics."

Say hello to the next boricua millionaire reggaeton/hip-hop beef. Check out the full story at MTV News

Damn, these are tough times mi gente. To many this only reinforces two things: 1) Latin@s are racist so they won't vote for Obama, and 2) the myth that all Latin@s are republican (and that is definitely a myth if you look at the Pew Institute's recent report)

Don't believe the hype like Raquel Rivera says: "Not all Latinos support Abuelo Yankee"


*Tip of the fitted cap to Blabbeando for breaking this telenovela worthy story!

Up in the Sky, its Super Barack!

Comic book legend Alex Ross (creator of the classic Kingdom Come) has created this t-shirt which depicts Obama as a superhero.

Cop it here: Stylin online

Why Puerto Ricans Need to Support Obama

I am pro Puerto Rican independence. A number of family members still live on the island, including my father and my brother and sister, and as a Nuyorican I am keenly aware of the way that policy here affect the lives of those on the island. All Puerto Ricans on the island and in the diaspora are living under the effects of a neo-colonial system, and we need to deploy a variety of strategies to ensure that boricuas are able to fight for self-determination (however differently we might define that term). While we will always need los independistas and los macheteros, we also need to support Barack Obama as contradictory as that sounds.

While I have no illusions that a vote for Barack Obama is a vote for Puerto Rican independence, I feel that it is important for Puerto Ricans to vote for Obama to ensure that we are able to move forward and not backwards. Recently, the Puerto Rican community has suffered under the Bush administration’s “terrorist” witch-hunts. Anyone who speaks up against the inhumane conditions in Puerto Rico or in the Puerto Rican community in the states is branded a terrorist. The Bush Administration is trying to breed fear in our community and prevent us from mobilizing. The grand jury hearings this past year were reminiscent of the 1950s on the island, a time when even speaking about Puerto Rican independence would land you in jail, a time when the very notion of Puerto Rican pride was treasonous.

We need a change. We need Puerto Ricans to stop dying in Iraq (actually we need everyone to stop dying in Iraq). We need better conditions in barrios in the U.S. and on the island. We need the surveillance and COUNTERINTELPRO shit to stop. While Obama is no political savior (and I think we all need to recognize that he has steadily become more centrist in his rhetoric) he can provide the Puerto Rican community and People of Color more broadly with the political climate necessary to organize and mobilize our communities. McCain represents more of the same: war, repression, cronyism, and a disregard for queer communities and communities of color.

I recently came across this YouTube clip of Miguel Luciano endorsing Barack Obama in the primaries and I think he does a excellent job talking about the political contractions that U.S.-based Puerto Ricans face in this election.



We can’t afford to throw away this election. Please register to vote at Voto Latino

Paris Hilton for President?

Paris Hilton has fired back at John McCain with her own “political” ad. Okay, so the video totally appeals to the lowest common denominator…but I got to say it’s actually pretty funny. Not only, is it funny, but Paris’ plan to address the energy crisis sounds way more thought out and articulate than the ones that the candidates have proposed so far.



All I know is that I can’t wait to see Britney’s reaction to McCain’s ad. All we can hope for is that Britney attack McCain with an umbrella like he's a car full of paparazzi.

Ludacris' "Politics"

Obama has come out against Ludacris’ new song “Politics” calling the song "outrageously offensive". The Obama is trying to distance himself from song which calls Hillary Clinton an irrelevant bitch, says the only chair McCain belongs in is a wheelchair, and calls Bush mentally handicapped.

"Ludacris is a talented individual but he should be ashamed of these lyrics," said Mr Obama's spokesman Bill Burton. Burton added: "As Barack Obama has said many, many times in the past, rap lyrics today too often perpetuate misogyny, materialism, and degrading images that he doesn't want his daughters or any children exposed to."

While I understand Obama is trying to steer clear from attacks on other candidates, I think he’s really coming down hard on the man he told Rolling Stone was one of hip-hop’s "great talents and great businessmen". Before announcing his presidential bid, Obama meet with Ludacris in 2006 to discuss youth issues. While I might not always agree with his lyrics, Ludacris does a lot of community outreach and has been mobilizing people to vote for Obama since he first announced his candidacy.

The hip hop generation promises to be one of the most powerful voting blocs this November so I hope this doesn’t alienate these really important young voters.

Source: BBC News

Obama the new Britney Spears?

John McCain's new attack ad is really reaching. The new ad called "Celeb" compares Obama to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. It is really a low blow and reeks of jealousy. The funny thing is that Paris Hilton's grandfather is a McCain supporter and donor, I wonder how he feels about the way McCain's ad lampoons his granddaughter?

“Both Ways Barack” Tries to Put Candidate in Compromising Position

As you have probably already heard MTV has aired its first political ad ever, and surprisingly it was an anti-Obama ad. The new ad says Barack Obama “wants to have them all, both ways. He’s ‘Both Ways Barack.’ Worse than a flip-flopper.”

Is it just me or does anyone else seem troubled by conservative group Let Freedom Ring’s choice of terminology in the new “Both Ways Barack” political attack ads? To me the ad is both incredibly weak and incredibly affective and powerful in attacking Obama. While the flip-flopping argument is a pretty weak and easily dismissible accusation, by subconsciously associating Obama and his politics with the phrase “both ways” the Right is attempting to subtly discredit Obama’s masculinity and sexuality in the minds of American voters.

Similar to the criticisms that bi-sexual individuals regularly receive from both gay and straight people, the ad charges that Obama can’t be trusted to stick to a position (no pun intended) and is therefore deceptive and/or inexperienced. I also find it interesting that they apply the “both ways” label to Obama considering the media frenzy around brothers on the DL. Black men who go “both ways,” have been villainized and scrutinized in the mainstream media and part of me wonders whether the ad was trying to subconsciously tap into that dominant fear, resentment, and distrust, of Black men by using words associated with DL discourse.

Maybe I’m just being paranoid, but with that word choice I sincerely doubt that it’s just coincidence. Check out the ad for yourself...

Obama and Vogue

“America ... is ready for a black president, so why are we not ready for a black model?”
-Italian Vogue editor Franca Sozzani

The July issue of Italian Vogue, dubbed the “Black Issue,” flew off the shelves and is now in reprints. This is the first magazine in Condé Nast’s history to be reprinted to satisfy demand; it’s also the first issue of Vogue to go into reprint. According to Young, Black, and Fabulous Vogue gave word to US distributors to “keep this All Black Issue on the stands until AFTER the November elections.” Apparently, Vogue feels that this will throw foreign support behind the Obama campaign here in America.

While Obama would definitely be our most fashionable President, I'm having a bit of a hard time seeing what one has to do with the other. I think Vogue, like a plethora of other media outlets (CNN’s “Black in America” anyone?), is capitalizing on the current fetishization and commodification of all things Black. While I think the July issue of Italian Vogue is a landmark moment in fashion history, I wonder what the long-term impact of the issue will be on the fashion industry. For instance, many advertisers still used white models for the ads in the July issue because they felt that Black models wouldn’t sell, even in an all Black issue. I hope that rather than mere pandering, industries like fashion, television, film and music will actually make some changes and actively challenge systems of white hegemony in the media.

Here's a YouTube clip with images from the July Vogue...