“I thought Michael Jordon using his Basketball Hall Of Fame induction speech to settle some old scores was embarrassing and demeaning, both to him and to the game of basketball.
Does that make me a racist?
I thought Serena Williams recent on-court outburst at the U.S. Open tennis match was shameful and humiliating.
Does that make me a racist?
I thought Kanye West’s unscripted drunken antics on stage at the MTV awards was repugnant and offensive.
Does that make me a racist?
I thought Van Jones history and recent inflammatory comments were an embarrassment to the Obama Administration.
Does that make me a racist?
I thought California State Assemblyman Mike Duvall’s recently recorded comments concerning the sordid details of his sexual affairs was pure filth, the speech of a hypocrite.
Does that make me – Oh, wait…Duvall is white. That’s different…or is it?
An ever increasing number of United States citizens are discovering they disagree with President Obama over several very significant issues: federal spending, cap and trade, and government-sponsored health care to name a few. Are all of these citizens racists? According to a recent chorus of mainstream media and administration voices the answer is, “yes. In some yet-to-be-explained fashion we have revealed our ugly racist nature because we dare to speak in opposition to this President and his policies. Have we arrived at a place where the mere appearance of disagreement will trigger the dreaded “racism” accusation? Do those who hurl such accusations really believe we are witnessing a racism renaissance because Obama is president, or has it simply become an expedient and admittedly effective way of shutting up the opposition. After all, no one wants to be labeled as racist, and there are many who will simply refrain from speaking rather that have to defend themselves in a public forum.
So what are we to say or do? Are certain races exempt from criticism ? Are there those among us who are above reproach by merit of their skin color? This country has made perhaps it’s most significant statement about how far we have moved away from racism by electing a black President. But then must we march in lockstep daily with everything Obama has proposed for fear of “backsliding” into our racist past?
And if every word and deed is racist, then nothing is racist and the term itself has no meaning. If everything is an expression of racism then there is no possible contrast with that which is not racist. Just like the Aesop fable about the boy who cried “wolf”, with each repetition of the accusation, the issue becomes increasingly diluted and we all sink back into a sort of racial ennui. In the story, when the real wolf came no one paid any attention to the warning cry, they had heard it so many times before. In our world the ability to recognize and deal with real racism will be equally hobbled because we have heard the accusation hurled so many times it will have ceased to hold any meaning.
