Race Relations Be Damned
Listening to talk radio or watching even the network television news you find an avenue of opinions that run contrary to the current trend that favors Hillary Clinton because of the fact that Barack Obama just happens to be a black man. When I was trying to toss down a burger at the local Wendy’s I was shocked to hear the many controversial and frankly racist comments made about Senator Obama that were thrown at his campaign workers by so called residents of West Virginia.
When I woke up this morning it was 2008 and not 1968. Trust me, my five children let me know that fact is true every single day. In 1968 I was five years old and now I have my youngest that is five. In each of their eyes they do not see the color of a persons skin but the heart of the friends they choose. Race is not an issue in their eyes or heart and I thank God above that we as parents have been able to raise them without that ugly personality trait.
America was a very separatist society back before 1968 and in the progress that has been made in all that time since many African American’s have prospered and were finally free to be the potential person that they could become. My child has the potential that is the same as any African American and all they have to do is work for it and earn it. That is the American way. Then you hear the draw back on the polling numbers and reports of whites verse black voters and race lines in the vote and it all disgusts me to the bone. MSNBC, CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX did a non stop reporting of why white people would not vote for Obama in West Virginia and the undertone that I perceived as a viewer was that they were playing the race card simply because one of the candidates is a black man and the other is a white woman. Basically, they labeled everyone that didn’t vote for Obama as a racist.
When I woke up this morning it was 2008 and not 1968. Trust me, my five children let me know that fact is true every single day. In 1968 I was five years old and now I have my youngest that is five. In each of their eyes they do not see the color of a persons skin but the heart of the friends they choose. Race is not an issue in their eyes or heart and I thank God above that we as parents have been able to raise them without that ugly personality trait.
America was a very separatist society back before 1968 and in the progress that has been made in all that time since many African American’s have prospered and were finally free to be the potential person that they could become. My child has the potential that is the same as any African American and all they have to do is work for it and earn it. That is the American way. Then you hear the draw back on the polling numbers and reports of whites verse black voters and race lines in the vote and it all disgusts me to the bone. MSNBC, CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX did a non stop reporting of why white people would not vote for Obama in West Virginia and the undertone that I perceived as a viewer was that they were playing the race card simply because one of the candidates is a black man and the other is a white woman. Basically, they labeled everyone that didn’t vote for Obama as a racist.
Today I heard of all kinds of racist incidents that the Obama campaign is facing including a Curious George cartoon with an Obama 08 sign depicting Obama as the monkey. Even Rush Limbaugh is running from the mishap simply because he had no clue as to who Curious George was and why it was associated with Obama. Something I find hard to believe is that Rush was ignorant when he claims every single day that his brain is on loan from God in his broadcast. The character and authors of the Curious George character have been around for over 67 years! Margret and H.A. Rey, Curious George's creators worked on children’s books for decades! Rush apologized when he found out how racist the caller was. Then he banned the caller for life.
We don’t need hate in America for or against fellow American’s in any form, function, or broadcast. It serves no purpose other than to divide us as a people and prove out that ignorance of another human being is not only contagious but full of contempt. In the past decade we have seen separation of American’s based on wealth and this kind of thought on race bashing only serves that style of degradation of our people even further. It’s truly up to you as an individual to say enough is enough.
I’m just guessing but I think there are several different America’s and in parts of our nation there is still a racial problem. All of the MSM made West Virginia sound like the KKK headquarters and frankly that scares me. They single handedly manipulated the race for President into a racial bias and they sold it all across the airwaves and then the newspapers the next day.
My kids will grow up color blind and wear one pink sock and one blue sock to the school of life and if they are happy then so am I. No offense intended to the people of West Virginia that voted on the issues and not the color of a persons skin but the MSM made your state look like the racist capital of the United States.
Papamoka
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Labels: Barack Obama, Black, Clinton, Curious George, Democrats, election, Hillary Clinton, Obama, President 08, primary results, Race Relations, Racism, Racist, west Virginia, white
posted by Papamoka at
8:49 PM
3 Comments:
A beautifully written post, my friend! My heart is the heart of your children, and I agree that racism is a stain, a sickness.
Perhaps, you or one of your readers – and I mean this in all sincerity – could explain to me why if whites vote for Hillary Clinton it’s racism, yet when 90 percent of African-Americans vote for Barack Obama, it is not.
In this post, you granted absolution to the person of West Virginia who “voted on the issues and not the color of a person’s skin.”
Can you honesty say that all of the 90% of Afican-Americans voting for Obama are basing their votes on the issues?
Fair question.
I think BJ that my concern was of all the racist inuendo and then there was all the outright line drawn in the sand coverage. As to your questions I couldn't honestly tell you why people vote for Obama or Clinton other than the issues.
As for African American's voting in mass for Obama that is not overall true but there is one old story that my father told me when I first voted. I was just 18 and had no clue as to what party or whom to vote for and my father passed down the wisdom of his father before him. You votefor the Democrat and you vote for the Irish names only! In my fathers and his father before him I honestly think that is how they (Irish) went from a cursed people to the ones in charge.
Thank you for that very insightful question my friend!
Great story! I think I’m about 20 or 25 years older than you, and my Irish maternal grandfather, whose folks hailed from Dublin, hated the communists, or as he called them, “the reds.” When I was a kid, my parents gave me a red leather Bible with my name engraved in gold. I was so proud of it! We went to the country to visit my grandparents, and I ran up to my grandfather, who was sitting in the front porch swing, to show him my new Bible. “Humph,” he declared, “That’s a communist Bible! It’s red!” I have never forgotten how that made me feel.
Back to the subject. Thanks for taking the time to answer. I was talking with a couple of male friends today, and they basically said that African-Americans bear the onus of a slavery past and do not see through the same lenses as we do. That they see the election of Obama as a culmination of many years of struggle. I told them I don’t think it unfair that women view Hillary throught the same sort of lens.
I can honestly say when this primary race began I did not see Obama as a black man or Hillary as a white woman. I saw them as two very intelligent and capable leaders. I just saw Hillary as more experienced. So, my support of her has never been gender-based.
I assert there is a double-standard when people cry “racism” and ignore “sexism.”
Don’t you know by now that the media LOVE conflict (it sells!)? It is in corporate media’s vested interest to sensationalize black-white “conflict.” Which is exactly what has occurred, sadly. In fact, a great deal of this primary process has been the media “creating reality.”
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