The most moving part of Hillary’s JJ speech last night was the section where she talked about “invisible Americans”. I was really touched by that portion of the speech. But as I listened, I couldn’t help but feel that the concept was familiar; I had heard someone else speak about the same problem in the same way. I thought about it last night and I think I know why it seemed so familiar.
Bill Clinton spoke at my fiancée’s commencement at Knox College last year. Towards the end of the speech, which you can read in its entirety here, he said this:
I think all of you should think about that as you leave. I think nobody in this graduating class has a racist bone in their bodies. You don’t have an elitist bone in your body either. I could tell that the way you clapped for the grounds staff that put the chairs up. That meant a lot to me. But you have gifts. And it is very important that we make the most of our gifts without falling too much in love with them.
North of Mandela’s home, in the central highlands of Africa, where we also do our AIDS work, there’s a fascinating tradition of greeting. When people meet each other on a path, the first person will say, “Hello. How are you?” But the answer is not, “I’m fine.” The answer, translated into English is, “I see you.” Think of that. Think of all the people in this world today who will not be seen.
The reason I was so happy that you clapped for the grounds staff is that every place there’s a commencement exercise in America, we’ll all get up and leave, and somebody will have to come in and clean up after us. And they’ll have to fold up the chairs and clean off the litter. Some places the sod will be torn up and it will have to be resodded. And enormous numbers of the people who do that work feel like they are never seen.
He never uses the word invisible, but its the same concept. So is that where the “invisible Americans” bit comes from?
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Bill Clinton was either kissing ass..or is very naive to think not one person in that class was racist in some way… still a phony
I have heard the “invisible” comment made by many others. Down South, the line is that African-Americans are “invisible” to the white people they serve (remember that scene in Ghosts of Mississippi when the old man talks about Those People as an elderly balck waiter stands to take his order?).
It could also be a riff on Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man.
BTW, John — I think you missed the whole point of the post.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3xepwid_sY
This was from a few months ago.
As for the origins, I don’t know. I bet, though, that it started a long time before Bill..
If you feel very guilty, just put a little yellow “Start Seeing Uneducated People” sticker in your Prius’ back window next to the “It’s Patriotic to Think” sticker.
The entire statement is elitist. Does it occur to President Clinton that the folks who set up and take down may not consider themselves all that different than the people sitting in the chairs?
If this does not offend you, you are not a conservative.
The conservatives sitting in the chairs do in fact realize that there are staff there. They probably said hello on the way in without thinking it was out of the ordinary. Conservatives want the staff and their kids to have the opportunity to be sitting in the chairs themselves. The liberals want to congratulate each other for noticing that the chairs do not set themselves up or take themselves down. They want to keep the chairs for themselves-thank you very much.
Reagan always talked about his “heroes” These were shopkeepers, cabbies waiters and cooks-ordinary citizens. He talked to us rather than about how others should see us and be congratulated for it. In his 1964 speech “A Time For Choosing” he rebuked the liberals of that time for referring to his heroes as “the masses.” Not all that different from Clinton’s invisible people.
A quarter-century later, Reagan, in his 1989 farewell speech called Clinton’s invisible class “We The People.”
purpledogblog - you’re being ludicrous when you try to make this a liberal/conservative thing. I (a liberal) was incredibly offended by Alberto Gonzales’ remark dissing his dad by saying that his worst day as attorney general was better than his dad’s best day as a common worker. Gonzales is as conservative as they come so obviously not all conservatives fit your idealistic image of them. Some people treat others well and others don’t - it’s how you’re raised and has nothing to do with your political leaning. And you’re kidding when you say that liberals don’t want all kids to have the opportunity to go to college, right? That’s just a joke.
no I got his point….I made mine
With Clinton’s attitude it’s no wonder the Democrats lost the blue-collar “Reagan” Democrats for a generation. The
“invisible people”? Good grief. If that statement doesn’t reek of the elitism Clinton scorns.
I’ll bet the boys over at PowerLine would bust their buttons with pride if one of their kids took a blue-collar job.
Yes, it’s cool to say hello to the little people. Noblesse oblige, don’t you know. Too often, they are invisible to the powers that be. The number of Americans who are impacted by the estate tax is way out of proportion to the attention that has been paid to it. How about doing something for real to help working AMericans? How about making sure they have health care? How about making sure their jobs are safe, not just physically, but economically? How about helping their kids go to college instead of just “wanting” them to? Standing on the sidelines, hjoping and encouraging, isn’t doing anyting to help. Sure, conservatives don’t actively impede anyone from getting ahead. They aren’t doing much to make it possible, however.
Good for Reagan, for paying lip service to his “heroes.” Whom did he really help — the shopkeepers and cabbies, or the investment bankers and real estate moguls?
Max,
Yes I do mean it to be a conservative/liberal thing. liberals have (out of genuine empathy in some cases and malice in others) delivered policies that have kept poor people from participating in the American Dream. Intergenerational poverty can be solved, but not with more welfare. The color gap in Minnesota schools can be solved, but not with lower expectations and status quo plus inflation.
When this was covered a few years ago, I remember one expert claiming that the issue was really one of caucasion overperformance on standardized tests. Yeezz.
Conservatives also suffer elitists and liberals can count among you many good people who get it (Robert Kennedy would have never said anything so silly as Clinton). However I am proud that conservatism has as a core value the dignity of all honest work and the expectation that anybody can achieve their greatest potential. If you truly believe that then there should be no invisibles.
and how did Clinton help?? Randy?? all politicians pay lip service..all of them..bar none, how should government make sure jobs are “safe”?