You Never Know Where Racism And Bigotry Will Come From
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Jan 11, 2010
What's going on in America these days? A few days ago, a book excerpt came out which reported that the Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, commented during the 2008 presidential campaign when Barack Obama was still trying to become the Democratic candidate for president, stated that Obama could easily be a good candidate for president as a minority because of his "light skin" and the ability to change from "Negro speak". What the heck is that? As soon as he knew the story was coming out he immediately called the Presidents office and apologized, and President Obama accepted apology and said let's move on.
Then today, a new story comes out stating that former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich had come out with a quote saying that he was blacker than Obama was, did he backtracked and apologized... kind of.
Just last week, on my other blog, I wrote a story titled Subtle Tech Racism, which was based on a blog post I read where someone was trying to send a message to her friend, who happened to be black, and a program called Google Reader interpreted the phrase "hey girlfriend" as "hey Negro". I also mentioned some other technology that brought up negative racial images when people did certain things.
What's going on anyway? When did racism and bigotry, subtle or not, become such a game? the strange thing about Reid is that he was trying to be complementary, but instead showed himself as a product of his generation. Strange as it seems to people who know me, this is one time where I almost have to agree with the Republicans were calling on Reid to step down as being the Senate majority leader. After all, when Trent Lott made a statement many years ago about how much better the country would have been if it had elected a known long-term racist who also happen to be a long time senator from South Carolina, the outcry was so great that he knew he had to step down so that the business of the Senate could get back to what it was supposed to be doing.
I know some people are going to say that the word "negro" is still a word that is in the dictionary, it is a word that was prevalent even into the early 70s, but that's just not going to get it done. It's also not going to get it done to have someone who's not of the particular race going around determining in public who is a light skinned black and who is not. Was he trying to say that the issues that surrounded the Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton when they ran for president was based more on skin color, rather the right skin color, then anything else? Actually that might not be a fair comparison, because everybody knows the Jesse Jackson did not have a chance to win the presidential nomination because he was black, and Al Sharpton didn't have a chance to win the presidential nomination because he was controversial.
I've said this before, but I guess I have to say it again. People in this country can't keep doing and saying things that are negative against others because of the color of their skin or any other perceived differences and then turn around and say I'm sorry and think that all is going to be right with the world. It seems that the consequences for these actions is never strong enough to get people to stop being stupid. And that you can't legislate stupidity, but if children can be punished for doing something because they don't know better, there has to be a way for adults to be punished in some fashion when they're supposed to know better.
Until then, I guess we just have to keep dealing with these racial incidences that are going to keep coming up over and over again.
I’m a middle aged middle class white guy Mitch. My lack of understanding and ignorance left me wondering what the big fuss was about with Reid’s statement. I felt the word ‘Negro’ was very inappropriate but didn’t think that made it a raciest statement.
My best friend happens to be black and we love to get into these type of discussions. So much so we’ve talked about putting an online radio show together. Anyway, he helped me understand the real issue behind the statement. It was so simple I feel very hard-headed to not have seen it myself. It wasn’t just the word, it’s the whole suggestion that then candidate Barack Obama could actually speak intelligently – like it’s surprising or unusual! Imagine that, a black man can actually speak like white folk… That’s very insulting. I’m not saying he meant it like that, I don’t know, but with the help of my friend I can see how it can easily be taken like that.
My suggestion: Anytime we’re going to make a statement that includes words as offensive as ‘Negro’ we just need to shut up. It’s a sure sign we are out of touch on the subject and we’re going to stick our foot into our mouths. That goes for all colors of the human race. That’s Right, I Said It!
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It’s good to have a friend who could explain it to you like that, Brian. It’s like about 5 years ago when I met up with a group of people I used to work with and was pretty close to, and near the end of the day one of them comes out with the statement of how she loved working with me because she’d never really known a “colored” person before. Man, that just stops all conversations, even though she meant it in a complimentary way.