Obama is My Cool Art Teacher and Clinton is My Mean Science Teacher

Silicon Valley DeBug, Commentary, Hector Gonzalez, Posted: Mar 14, 2008

Editor's Note: One young man can't help but compare Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama to two of his teachers from school - one who inspired him to become a better person and one who represented the worst of institutional America. Hector Gonzalez is a contributor to Silicon Valley Debug.

The youth of today are voting in unprecedented rates and are becoming a voting block to be reckoned with. They call us the millennials. We’re the kids that grew up in the 90s who outsmarted our parents, dated interracially, and whose politics defy cultural and racial stereotypes.

Young people have the ability to see through our teachers, cops and counselors – only paying attention when they keep it real. The same standard applies to political leaders, especially now, when – for the first time in American history – a women or a black man could be president.

I can’t help but compare Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama to two personalities from my school days. There was Mrs. Austin, my 8th grade Science teacher, a white woman who had this nice pearly white smile, but wouldn’t hesitate to give you a referral, send you to the office or call your parents. Then there was Mr. Gonzalez, a.k.a. Mr. G. He was my 11th grade graphics teacher – a half-Mexican, half-Filipino man that would tell us stories about the old school days, make us laugh, and let students talk to him on a one-on-one level about their problems.

To me, Hillary Clinton is Mrs. Austin and Barack Obama is Mr. G.

Mrs. Austin gave me an institutional perspective of a character that I would run into again and again through out my life – from school teachers to counselors to principals to cops to probation officers to District Attorneys to public defenders to judges. When I think of these people, I get cold chills and a sense of frustration, because they are all a part of the establishment that made me walk home from school with referrals for my father to sign or had me suspended from school. They are same people that had me in a cold white room in county jail with people whose minds were slowly deteriorating. That same establishment is the one that bombs Iraq, establishes a poor health system, industrializes the military complex, and has exploited poor people through out the world for years.

Mr. Gonzalez, on the other hand, taught Graphics so all the graffiti kids took his elective class. There was a bond of camaraderie in the classroom. Mr. G would talk to us and everyone would listen, he had gained our respect. He kept it real and spoke from the heart. He constantly reminded us that his parents were migrant field workers from Stockton, CA., and if they could make it – there wass no excuse why we couldn’t be successful. It’s not that he wouldn’t give us referrals or call our parents, it’s that he set an environment that he didn’t have to.

Mrs. Austin follows the tradition of the good ole’ American way – the same one that I think Hillary will follow if she were to win the presidential campaign. It’s the one where as long as most things are going well – everything else gets swept underneath the rug. In the same sense that George Bush Sr. and George Bush Jr. have taken over the political framework of this country by having a family legacy of politicians, the Clintons will do the same. There is not much of a change in politics if the first woman president is the same woman who is married to the man who is responsible for creating NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreements), which eliminated all tariffs on products traded among Canada, USA and Mexico in 1994, creating a devastating situation for the Mexican agriculture workers. Mrs. Austin is part of the institution that we all knew had to change. As much as she tried to do what was right for her, it was not what we needed.

Mr. G created his own scholarship fund and I remember him receiving an inspirational award from a local non-profit organization. The main difference between him and Mrs. Austin is that, while Mrs. Austin may have had a genuine interest in teaching – Mr. G had a natural passion for young people, putting them in two separate categories. One might inspire people to be scientist, the other one will inspire people to be better human beings. Hillary Clinton might be the politician who knows how the game works, showing her appeal to the masses, but it's Obama who rose as a grassroots organizer in the streets of Chicago. He was born from immigrant parents and can truly speak about the “American dream” and true equality in this country.

Obama is not just a political thinker, he is behind what CNN analysts are calling a movement. He is someone who is not addressing a political idea, but is in a very realistic way, challenging us to be better people. That, hands down is what the American public has been missing.

Related Articles:

Bring Back the White Guys

What if the Millenials Lose?

Claiming a Public Space -- Undocumented Youth Come Out of the Closet



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