SpinnerofTales
Posts: 1586
Joined: 5/30/2006
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I think think this is a difficult issue because it isn't, pardon the pun, black and white. There are a lot of shades of gray. There are a lot of things going on at once in this matter and they all need to be looked at.
1) There ARE some serious white racists in this country. They don't like a black man in the white house and never are going to like a black man in the white house. I like to believe that these aren't a major demographic in this matter, but they are a loud and attention getting splinter.
2) There are some serious black racists in this country. They are more than willing to point out how evil, rotten and worthless white people are at every opportunity. If they plan a picnic and it rains, they will scream out how it is a racist act on the part of white America. Again, I tend to believe there are about as many of them as there are white racists. They're also as loud and attention getting as the white racists. A good idea would be to take both groups, strand them on the same island and let them work it out.
3) There are those using this for their political advantage. If you call a person racist for attacking Obama's policies, you negate the need to defend these policies. If you claim that you are viewed as a racist you no longer have to defend your opposition and you are now the victim. There are a goodly number of both of groups milking this one on all four tits.
4) There are those who are afraid. I have seen this a lot over the last six months. It seems that a lot of people are afraid that because there is a black man in the white house, white people are going to have bad, racist things done to them. Whether it is a fear that their opposition will be viewed as racism, or that decisions and policies are going to be enacted that are punitive to non-blacks in some kind of rage inspired revenge for past suffering, there is a great sense of anxiety. There may well be an underlying current of "I know what the minority has had done to it in the past. Now I feel like I am in the minority. I am concerned that these things may be done to me."
To this last group, we must calmly speak some truths. Yes, there are black bigots out there as well as white. Obama, however, has not descended to that level. I have yet to see a single case where he or any official of his administration has labled any of his opponents racist for speaking their opposition. In fact, when Governer Patterson brought up this issue recently, claiming that he and Obama were victims of racisim by the press and other politicians, he recieved a very strong admonition from the administration that the president didn't want anything to do with that position. I have asked and still do for one single citation of the president claiming that any opposition, no matter how shrill and strident was the result of racisim. Still, at the very least hypervigilance on belalf of a lot of nervous white people remains.
So, while I think that Carter's comments were accurate about a very small percentage of the population, I would say it would be very wrong to call it the overwhelming racisim that is causing the anger. If anything, the race, racism and the idea of the "race card" being played is a result of the anger, not the anger the result of those things.
With all these different things in play, it is impossible to bring this down to a "racist/non racist" concept. It would be a mistake to even try.
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RE: Jimmy Carter Calls Bullshit on the Drama... - 
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