Many thought that Barack Obama's election to the presidency would signal that racism was now largely left to America's past. The Shirley Sherrod case makes palpably evident, however, a profound shift that has materialized in the politics of race in America since the 1980s.
Conservatives, overwhelmingly white, have seized on any racial reference by political figures to charge that the latter are perpetuating racism. Institutional racism is deemed anomaly rather than any structural condition. As a result, conservative insistence on a literal colorblindness has undercut any attempts to invoke racial considerations to redress the lingering debilitating effects of past discrimination.
Conservatives have figured out a partially effective politics of race that speaks to their principles, places liberals on the defensive, and not only gets conservatives off the racial hook for being soft on racism, but enables them to set the terms of the racial debate. They can project themselves as crusaders for a colorblind America in the face of color conscious liberals.
The differences regarding race and racism have been exacerbated since Obama's election.
Conservative white commentators have latched on to any use of racial expression by liberal or progressive politicians to charge racism. When President Obama chided Cambridge, Mass. police for acting too quickly in the Henry Louis Gates arrest he was accused of favoring a black man because he is black and he himself was accused of racism. When NAACP President Benjamin Jealous recently appealed to the Tea Party leaders to disown racist individuals in the movement, he was denounced as racist for even raising the possibility. And when Andrew Breitbart released part of a videotape showing State of Georgia Department of Agriculture official, Shirley Sherrod, recounting that she had once looked to discriminate against white farmers in providing assistance to save their land, she was condemned by almost everyone.
The conservative strategy has sought to undercut any advantage liberals might acquire from redressing ongoing evidence of racial discrimination. After all, if a black man has ascended to the highest political office in the country, what further racial barriers can there be?
Race has always had a political register in America, and today is different only in the ring that register now assumes.
Shifting the point of racial emphasis -- putting the racial boot on the other foot, so to speak -- makes liberals much less likely to support or defend race specific remedies to intractable social issues. The quickness with which Shirley Sherrod was forced to step down from her government job reveals just how effective the tactic has been. But even more disturbing, the shift has also licensed the possibility for conservative whites pretty much to say anything they want regarding race.
All of this begins to explain the proliferation of racist expression we have been witnessing since President Obama was elected.
Examples abound: the pernicious images of the President that have pervaded protests and the Internet (literally thousands and thousands of images, most of them with insinuating racist implication); the easy and steady invocation of the "n" word in public life (Mel Gibson and Laura Schlessinger not even the most recent, as evidenced by the resigning Mayor of Cobleskill, New York, who referred to Martin Luther King Day as "N . . . . . . Day" and as Obama's CHANGE campaign as "Come Help and Get a N . . . . . . Get Elected Campaign," and so on.
The Sherrod case is unusual among these recent examples in that the apologies she received from conservatives after it was revealed that the initial video release of her remarks had been edited to take the remarks completely out of context. Far from making a case for aiding black farmers while ignoring white farmers, she was showing how she had overcome these prejudices held twenty years ago and saw the need today to help all farmers in need, no matter their racial identity. Bill O'Reilly was only the most prominent conservative to admit his too quick rush to judgment, joined as he was by President Obama and the offer of reinstatement to a promoted government job, which Sherrod turned down on Tuesday.
Far from being a thing of the past, racism has re-emerged as a key instrument of American politics, only now to new purpose. It requires critical attention, political commitment, and, above all, principled leadership on all sides to face down.
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John W. Whitehead: Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Dream: Are We Killing It?
I live in Cobleskill, Goldberg has got events, parties & people mixed up. The Republican mayor who resigned after some weeks, but hasn't apologized, was the one who referred to "change." (& it is "Come Help Get a N..... Elected.") It's the Democrat Town Supervisor who has yet to resign or apologize who referred to "That N..... holiday, Martin Luther Day." (sic) There's an audio recording of both of these men saying what they said. There are people in town defending both men, saying they are not racist. Saying that people who want them to step down are the ones in the wrong. But the Democratic party is apparently telling the Town Supervisor not to resign, as this is a very Republican area, and they don't want to lose his seat. Our senators and congresssional representative have not been helpful, or taken a leadership role. Attorney General Cuomo came to town, made a very forceful speech about racism and there's been no movement since. Also, Governor Paterson has refused to involve himself and remove these men from office.
Committees have been formed, meetings are being gone to. It's a slow process, so far.
One of your most popular ideological leaders (Beck) said that our biracial President is a racist who appears to have a deep-seated hatred for white people -- presumably starting with his deceased white mother who raised him, as well as the white half of his entire family tree.
Hundreds of thousands of overwhelmingly WHITE people came out to honor the man who said this unapologetically - and repeatedly - to a national audience.
Sorry to my conservative brothers and sisters, but there is no walking back this statement, and no missing or mistaken context.
Muslims are inclusive and peaceful.
Tea Party members are racists and violent.
Don't bother with evidence, their "logic" isn't based on reality but on ideology. That's why they can use "racists" as a tactic to end conversation and still feel morally superior.
If someone leveled a criticism at candidate Obama, the script of media outlets such as MSNBC was to say, "The Right is mounting a new attack. Now here is someone who speaks on behalf of the African American community to tell us how it is just hidden racism."
It was the left seeing racism EVERYWHERE which caused us on the right to pay closer attention to the left's own hypocrisies. For example, how if a black man doesn't follow the liberal party line he is fair game for name calling. We weren't thinking about color. Some of us were even excited by the historical possibilities of the election. Until accusations about our racial intolerance were thrown at us no matter how we framed our substance-related objections to candidate Obama.
The over-reaction of calling all dissent racist was even noticed by Geraldine Ferraro, who of course was called racist for it.
If the left doesn't stop claiming that we all have closets full of sheets, the left will entirely lose its moral authority on the subject of racism.
IMHO.
I needed to add, "or not most of the time, and not in a bad way". I actually liked Obama in 2004. It was only later when I learned more about him which made me not want him in office. I learned about his positions. I learned about some of his political tactics.
His color didn't change. I just learned more about him.
If you persist in calling objection to Obama racism, you miss the reality of the political dynamic and you rub salt in a racial wound which this year is largely of your making.
Tell me were the pictures of GWB as Hitler racist? Political caricatur, and commentary are not instantly racist because the POTUS is black.
The Left confuses political criticism as race related. It is time the Left start actually listening to what is actually said.
I am sick of being labeled a racist because of my political views. I don't care what color a person is I care about honor, integrity, honesty, and the strength of character, along with political point of view.
Same thing is happening in the US I fear.
Your fear of Muslims speaking together shows your bigotry.
as they called us in the french revolution the "citizens" we have more power than we realize. we are the ones that make everything possible, we are the engine that makes the wheels go round, that doesn't mean we are the most important,,, every one needs the other one but there is a balance that need to be maintained that is missing today more later...the old viking
You also note "conservatives... project themselves as crusaders for a colorblind America." The term colorblind is biased. It would perhaps be better to conduct the conversation with "acceptance of diversity" in which everyone takes their rightful place at the table. With minority community healing, this has to do with necessary separation and differentiation (an overall process that the greater collective has been supporting since the 1960's), and an ongoing individuation, in which minority community members take their rightful place without having to always pull the "race card."
Finally, you state "the differences regarding race and racism have been exacerbated since Obama's election." Well, yes and no. American elected a black man President. That says volumes. It also shines light on very real failures in the black community (in contrast to the black female community) to work within the system, using preferences to get an education as means to join the collective.
With a minority group forever separating, it is only natural that the greater collective will grow restive when that minority group forever takes, when it is growing near time that they also begin to give back.
The Republicans are about enabling people to take care of themselves, not the government taking care of the people. It provides equal opportunity for all to become richer, and to learn from mistakes made. There is nothing wrong with being accountable for a poor choice and facing the consequences, just as there is nothing wrong with making money and owning property.
I am also struck by the silliness to which our culture is stooping, when dealing with race, to wit:
Scientists now claim to have discovered where racism is located in your brain. According to NYU Psychology Professor David Amodio, racism is found in the subcortex. That is where “the basic machinery... to make snap judgments on race is located...Our brains are wired” that way. Also, “the neocortex is... the part of the brain which tries to override prejudice, and which makes you feel guilty....” (Washington Post, August 22).
This is good news for Laura Schlessinger. According to the article, her neocortex will now make her feel guilty about what she did, and she will never again use the N-word and be racially insensitive.
The degeneration of psychology into total reductionism is tragic. It is part of a desperate search for a chemical/genetic holy grail that will explain all human attitudes, behavior.
Today, we are told by experts that “we are born racist.”
Is one also born with Republican or Democratic attitudes? I used to be a Republican. Now I am a Democrat. Did my brain chemistry change? Being from Europe, maybe I have socialist genes?
I am not denying that genetic factors and neural processes have much to do with emotions and behavior. Duh. But how has it come to the point where nature is becoming the overwhelming winner in the old nature-nurture debate?
http://european-americanblog.blogspot.com
Interestingly, "race" as a category of biological analysis has become completely meaningless from what I understand. People from West Africa are genetically more similar to certain Asian peoples than to people from East Africa. But of course that's not what racism in this article is about. It's about social power and using the snap judgment of people to control them.
We cannot have leaders anymore than don't represent everyone. The Repubs are inclusive of white people only and that's not who the USA is and they incite violence against our president and other Americans.
Republicans will use anything as a weapon and now we know exactly how ruthless they are in their war on Obama and the American people!
Republicans cannot relate to our population and they only want freedom and liberty for the ones they pick and choose.
I hope the Democrats pick up your language: "their war on the American people"
And fanned back.