I'm a white male in my 60's. I grew up during the clearly racist 1950s. I was a young man during the time of MLKing and the Watts riot of 1965. My very best friend growing up was an African-American kid. I never thought of myself as racist - but I was. As I get older, I think I am becoming less racist, but every so often I have to bang my head against a concrete wall for making some stupid remark or laughing at some clearly racist joke. I am still a bit of a racist. I DON'T WANT TO BE, But its been programmed into my damn DNA.
Racism is when you do anything to a person of color or other ethnicity that you wouldn't do to someone of your own color or ethnicity. That's it. Bottom line. Racism is when you ask more of a person of color, than you would of a white person. Racism is when you point out the faults of a person of one color, that you would ignore in someone of your color or race.
Instead of referring to Denzel Washington as a movie star, you refer to him as a "black/Negro/African-American movie actor." You're a racist.
Instead of referring to Fred "in the accounting department," you refer to him as "Fred, the African-American, in Accounting." You're a racist.
When Katrina devastated New Orleans, hundreds of people fled across a bridge to a small town for help and safety. Police, mostly white, turned them back at gun-point "because the town was overwhelmed with Big Easy residents already." Right. Those early arrivals, mostly white, who drove across in their cars earlier that day were given shelter. The poor blacks who tried to walk over were turned back. The police and townspeople were racists.
President Obama has been subjected to close scrutiny over his birth certificate, where he went to school, how he got into Harvard, and all of his associates - whether they were supporters or just acquaintances. He is still under fire daily over every little detail of his life. Now they are implying that because his father was turned away from Harvard in 1963, that something is fishy about Obama. That is racist pure and simple. Why?
Senator John McCain was born in Panama, in the US controlled canal zone. Did anyone question his citizenship? No. He was in a North Vietnamese prison for years, tortured and brainwashed. Has he been accused of being programmed as a Manchurian Candidate to take over our government? (Go back and watch the original movie with Frank Sinatra.) NO, of course not. McCain was a decent student, but he got his scholarship thanks to influences by his father, a decorated military officer. Does that make him a bad person. NO. He was involved in the savings and loan scandal in the late 1980s. Was that brought up during the campaign to imply that McCain was a criminal? NO.
Not asking McCain questions about his past three years after the 2008 election, but accusing Obama of being unqualified after being elected? Racist, pure and simple.
I guess I am enough of a racist myself to recognize when others are being racist.
Right now Republican Party, Tea Party, Fox News, and Rush Limbaugh AND Donald Trump - ARE CLEARLY RACISTS - especially when it concerns our President. The fact that the old Confederate States all hate Obama, no matter what he does for them, proves that Southern racism is alive and well - if not expanding.
There is not a single doubt of that in my mind.
JV
