Racism in America

The good sheriff of Pima County assured us that one of the primary reasons that the crazed gunman attempted to assassinate Rep Giffords was that we are a bigoted nation. He linked it to our attempts to secure the border. Similarly, some voices are saying that the problem is that we have a black president. If Americans weren't such racists, they wouldn't be so mad about having a black president.

I find the whole suggestion disturbing. Sure, I know that there are still racist Americans. Check out the lunatic fringe "white supremacy" types, for instance. And, in all honesty, visit the deep South and talk to the lifelong residents there. Most have "moved on" from their racism ... but many haven't really. But the fringe types are few in number and those who still hold racist perceptions are quieter now, so I wonder, if America elected a black president, why is “black” still such an issue?

In my considerations over who would get my presidential vote, it never occurred to me to take Obama's race into account. I don't know. Maybe I'm the fringe type, the anomaly, the rarity. When he was elected, I was confused by the "racism is dead in America because we've elected a black president" kind of talk because if racism was dead, we wouldn't have noticed that he was black.

But ... racism is not dead in America (or, I suspect in all likelihood, anywhere else). Here, a white person uses the phrase "boy" (regardless of how it is meant) and it is unforgivably racist, but it is acceptable for "minority races" to shout overtly racial epithets against white people because that isn't racism. When a state attempts to enforce federal law, it's racism, but when those most affected by such an attempt urge the overthrow of the government and the seizing of that state for a particular racial group, that's not racism. It's like sexism. For men to belittle women is sexism, but for women to belittle men isn't sexism. So even though racism in America is in serious decline, the fact that one race is allowed, even encouraged to hate another means that such a condition cannot go away. As long as we continue the random accusations of "race-baiting" and continue to "play the race card" (even if it is only a suggestion, not a reality), racism in America is not going away.

I admire Dr. Martin Luther King's dream of judging people by their character rather than their color. Still, as long as the problem is "them", not "us", I don't see his dream coming to fruition. And, may I suggest, rewriting Huck Finn and censoring Blazing Saddles in favor of "politically correct speech" is not going to solve the problem -- any more than saying that our "harsh political climate" is what made a lunatic killer start shooting in a Tucson shopping center. (I'd say that we should "target racism", but I suppose that would be construed as being too militaristic and, since I am Caucasian, likely a racist remark of some sort.)

Dream on, Dr. King. I'm with you. I'm just not very optimistic.