The Race Card, the Race Pot, and the Race for the Presidency
Many millions of Americans assumed the race issue in this country was finally behind us after the election of the nation's first black president in 2008.
After all, Barack Hussein Obama suggested as much, voters had expiated their baseless white guilt over slavery by voting for a black man, and African-Americans were elated over their achievement in nominating and electing, as my Irish mother would say, €one of their own.€
It was widely hoped that America had entered a new era of racial harmony with Obama's inauguration.
Guess what? We didn't and, in fact, race relations are far worse now than they had been in many decades and for a very good reason: The Obamas themselves continue to stir the race pot in order to keep it boiling through November and beyond.
Stirring, stirring, stirring.
Instead of attempting to fulfill his pledge to minimize the differences between people, to emphasize that the content of one's character and not the color of one's skin is what matters most, the president accents our differences by playing the always-electorally-potent race card.
What matters most to Obama is getting re-elected at any cost.
As he said last week at a D.C. fundraiser, €The very core of what this country stands for is on the line€"the basic promise that no matter what you look like, no matter where you come from, this is a place where you could make it if you try.€
That idea of appearances over substance reiterated what Obama said to Latinos in October: €I believe America should be a place where you can always make it if you try; a place where every child, no matter what they look like, where they come from, should have a chance to succeed.€
No slouch when it comes to racial pot-stirring, the not €angry black woman€ Michelle Obama asked a rhetorical question at yet another fundraiser: €Will we give every child€"every child€"a chance to succeed, no matter where she's from, or what she looks like?€
Could the theme of what we €look like€ be code for race? Do bears defecate in the woods?
Regardless of where bears do their business, race agitator Rev. Al Sharpton now does his on MSNBC and never misses a chance to stir the pot, toss some incendiary racial ingredient into it, or make certain one of his talk show guests does.
South Carolina Democrat Party Chairman Dick Harpootlian served that function in a discussion on the election in which Harpootlian managed to link Monday's Republican debate in South Carolina with racism, states' rights, Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln, and the election of 1860€"all within less than two minutes.
Harpootlian demonstrated his short memory by forgetting his Democrats held a debate on MLK Day 2008 and the dearth of his historical expertise when he said Lincoln signed the Emancipation Declaration in 1860€"when the Civil War hadn't even begun. Sharpton and his fellow black commentator Melissa Harris-Perry took it from there and lambasted Republicans for virtually desecrating MLK Day by debating as evidence of their innate racism.
Now, granted, based on the fact he is the only American honored with a federal holiday in his name, King must be the greatest human being ever to live in America. However, to suggest it's racially-insensitive to stage a debate on a national holiday is tantamount to implying the birth of Jesus Christ has been commercialized and trivialized!
To my knowledge, oddly, the Reverend Sharpton has never taken umbrage over that possibility. He and Harris-Perry also took great offense at the sinister issue of states' rights which they perceive not as re-claiming constitutional rights under the Tenth Amendment but as aimed at depriving minorities of their entitlements.
I hope Harris-Perry's reference to Lincoln as €good friend€ to African-Americans was intended as a sly joke since the Great Emancipator never believed blacks and whites could co-exist together and planned to return blacks to Africa after the war.
Had Honest Abe lived and succeeded, we wouldn't have either a race pot to stir or a race card to play today.
Jokes aside, see Al and Company stirring the race pot in lieu of healing America's racial divide.
As if giving Sharpton an hour-long opportunity to vent his racist spleen weren't enough to prove the folks at MSNBC had lost their minds, the cable station also allows other blacks to do their bit in stirring.
MSNBC commentator Janell Ross and contributor Joy Ann Reid weighed in on Mitt Romney's alleged veiled white racism.
A unemployed black supporter had sought out Romney in hopes that the Republican candidate could help in paying her bills. Without hesitation, Romney pulled out whatever cash he had in his pocket and gave Ruth Williams about $50., something MSNBC show hostess Ross felt €was one of the more uncomfortable moments€ she'd seen in the campaign.
A spontaneous act of charity €uncomfortable€?
Sure! According to Ms. Ross, Romney's charity represented a racist, €patronizing stereotype of black people,€ the woman was a virtual Republican €mascot,€ and her mention of God somehow related to Romney's Mormon religion.
Joy Ann Reid was almost apoplectic: €I think it just reinforces€"the audience for this is not African-Americans. . . . The audience, this is conservative, white voters in South Carolina who are predisposed to say €dependent black person.' . . . It just makes me cringe as well.€
There's a whole lot of cringing and race-baiting and pot-stirring going on at MSNBC, the intended fruits of the Obamas' ceaseless efforts to insure Americans above all else know €what they look like€ and not how they conduct themselves.
Martin Luther King would also cringe. Maybe.
(See all sources at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=12148.)
After all, Barack Hussein Obama suggested as much, voters had expiated their baseless white guilt over slavery by voting for a black man, and African-Americans were elated over their achievement in nominating and electing, as my Irish mother would say, €one of their own.€
It was widely hoped that America had entered a new era of racial harmony with Obama's inauguration.
Guess what? We didn't and, in fact, race relations are far worse now than they had been in many decades and for a very good reason: The Obamas themselves continue to stir the race pot in order to keep it boiling through November and beyond.
Stirring, stirring, stirring.
Instead of attempting to fulfill his pledge to minimize the differences between people, to emphasize that the content of one's character and not the color of one's skin is what matters most, the president accents our differences by playing the always-electorally-potent race card.
What matters most to Obama is getting re-elected at any cost.
As he said last week at a D.C. fundraiser, €The very core of what this country stands for is on the line€"the basic promise that no matter what you look like, no matter where you come from, this is a place where you could make it if you try.€
That idea of appearances over substance reiterated what Obama said to Latinos in October: €I believe America should be a place where you can always make it if you try; a place where every child, no matter what they look like, where they come from, should have a chance to succeed.€
No slouch when it comes to racial pot-stirring, the not €angry black woman€ Michelle Obama asked a rhetorical question at yet another fundraiser: €Will we give every child€"every child€"a chance to succeed, no matter where she's from, or what she looks like?€
Could the theme of what we €look like€ be code for race? Do bears defecate in the woods?
Regardless of where bears do their business, race agitator Rev. Al Sharpton now does his on MSNBC and never misses a chance to stir the pot, toss some incendiary racial ingredient into it, or make certain one of his talk show guests does.
South Carolina Democrat Party Chairman Dick Harpootlian served that function in a discussion on the election in which Harpootlian managed to link Monday's Republican debate in South Carolina with racism, states' rights, Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln, and the election of 1860€"all within less than two minutes.
Harpootlian demonstrated his short memory by forgetting his Democrats held a debate on MLK Day 2008 and the dearth of his historical expertise when he said Lincoln signed the Emancipation Declaration in 1860€"when the Civil War hadn't even begun. Sharpton and his fellow black commentator Melissa Harris-Perry took it from there and lambasted Republicans for virtually desecrating MLK Day by debating as evidence of their innate racism.
Now, granted, based on the fact he is the only American honored with a federal holiday in his name, King must be the greatest human being ever to live in America. However, to suggest it's racially-insensitive to stage a debate on a national holiday is tantamount to implying the birth of Jesus Christ has been commercialized and trivialized!
To my knowledge, oddly, the Reverend Sharpton has never taken umbrage over that possibility. He and Harris-Perry also took great offense at the sinister issue of states' rights which they perceive not as re-claiming constitutional rights under the Tenth Amendment but as aimed at depriving minorities of their entitlements.
I hope Harris-Perry's reference to Lincoln as €good friend€ to African-Americans was intended as a sly joke since the Great Emancipator never believed blacks and whites could co-exist together and planned to return blacks to Africa after the war.
Had Honest Abe lived and succeeded, we wouldn't have either a race pot to stir or a race card to play today.
Jokes aside, see Al and Company stirring the race pot in lieu of healing America's racial divide.
As if giving Sharpton an hour-long opportunity to vent his racist spleen weren't enough to prove the folks at MSNBC had lost their minds, the cable station also allows other blacks to do their bit in stirring.
MSNBC commentator Janell Ross and contributor Joy Ann Reid weighed in on Mitt Romney's alleged veiled white racism.
A unemployed black supporter had sought out Romney in hopes that the Republican candidate could help in paying her bills. Without hesitation, Romney pulled out whatever cash he had in his pocket and gave Ruth Williams about $50., something MSNBC show hostess Ross felt €was one of the more uncomfortable moments€ she'd seen in the campaign.
A spontaneous act of charity €uncomfortable€?
Sure! According to Ms. Ross, Romney's charity represented a racist, €patronizing stereotype of black people,€ the woman was a virtual Republican €mascot,€ and her mention of God somehow related to Romney's Mormon religion.
Joy Ann Reid was almost apoplectic: €I think it just reinforces€"the audience for this is not African-Americans. . . . The audience, this is conservative, white voters in South Carolina who are predisposed to say €dependent black person.' . . . It just makes me cringe as well.€
There's a whole lot of cringing and race-baiting and pot-stirring going on at MSNBC, the intended fruits of the Obamas' ceaseless efforts to insure Americans above all else know €what they look like€ and not how they conduct themselves.
Martin Luther King would also cringe. Maybe.
(See all sources at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=12148.)
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