Friday, March 16, 2012

The race is over.



 





After this picture was posted on Facebook, I became involved in a discussion the other night with a guy about the racial implications of this year’s election. My viewpoint is that since President Obama’s election in 2008 it has all been about race. The week after he was elected a good friend of our family was on the phone with me ranting about the “n” in the White House. I couldn’t believe it.  Okay, I said, this guy’s side lost the election and he is pissed off.  I’ll give him a few months to cool down.  But he didn’t. He is still riled up about a black man being our leader.

There have been racial slurs at both the President and the First Lady. There have been distasteful bumper stickers.  There have been snide comments about the “boy” in the White House. There have been comments from Hannity, Linbaugh and others.  But then came the comment that floored me.

A good friend of mine was watching TV the other night and a news teaser for the ten o’clock news came on and it showed the first family boarding their helicopter on the way to Camp David or somewhere.  This friend of mine spouts off, “We’ll have to sell Camp David at a discount now that the Darkies have slept there.”

I was dumbfounded. This was a college-educated, bright, successful businessman whom I have known for decades. To hear this type of comment coming from him, I realized the hateful and insulting things that must be coming out of less-educated and not-as-bright-folk in the hinter land. But we’re not finished.  His wife says, “And that first lady. She’s not fit to be seen in public.”

This was the third such attack I had heard or read from folks I personally knew about the First Lady. Now, you may not like the President’s politics, but the First Lady has held herself up as a good example of a fine mother and devoted wife, as well as caring public figure who is concerned and doing something about the health and nutrition of our children.

But I forgot. SHE IS BLACK. 

That was the underlying message all of these people were saying.  A black woman didn’t belong in the in the White House. Nor did her husband belong in the Oval Office. All based on race.

I shook my head and wondered how we had gone so far backward in this country.  So, for grins I listened to Rush Linbaugh the other day, just to see what was spewing forth from the Mouth. No wonder America is in need of new moral direction. The man reeks of the dark ages. Let us return to the 1950’s and segregation and put women back in their place where they belong. Only God-fearing White men should be in control…and on and on and on.

Don’t agree with my politics, and don’t take a stand with me on social issues and don’t back my no-war policy just because you read me and like me.  I want you to make up your own minds on those issues. There’s plenty of room for everyone to stand on solid debatable ground out there.  Make up your own mind. But there is one thing I wish you would all do.

Forget about race.
Forget that the President is black. Forget that the First lady is black.

In fact forget about what race any of us are and instead, let’s concentrate on the fact that we are one. Afro-Americans, Caucasian -Americans, Baptist-Americans, Jewish-Americans Muslim -Americans, Atheist-Americans…we all have the same last name…Americans.


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