Who could not be moved at the sight of a major political party naming Barack Obama, an African American, as its presidential candidate? To me, there could not be a better sign that America has left behind its racist past. We are now approaching what may be termed "the end of racism." The End of Racism was the title of my 1995 bestseller, hugely controversial when it was published, but now it seems to have been a decade ahead of its time. If we appreciate the significance of our current moment, we are driven to an ironic but rational conclusion: perhaps the best way to recognize Obama's historic achievement is to vote for John McCain this November.
Consider this: for the past several years we have been hearing liberal Democrats emphasize how racism still defines America, how things haven't really changed all that much, how racism has gone underground and is now more covert and more dangerous than ever. It may seem strange that a racist country would adopt legal policies that discriminate against the majority and in favor of minorities. Even so, liberal activists and civil rights activists continue to browbeat white America in the schools, in the universities, in politics and in the media if there is the slightest dissent from civil rights orthodoxy.
Well, I don't know how many people have been drinking the liberal Kool-Aid, but these people must be utterly shocked at the success of Barack Obama. Here is a guy who could not possibly have made it as far as he has with only black votes. He has attracted not only white votes but the votes of some of the most affluent and successful segments of the white community. Obama, not Hillary, is the pillar of the white establishment. Moreover, Obama's own campaign is based on the premise that America is no longer racist. Far from making race-based appeals, to blacks on the basis of solidarity, and to whites on the basis of guilt, Obama campaigns on the expectation that whites share his economic values and foreign policy positions and view of America. In other words, Obama's public message is that race doesn't matter and that transracial alliances should be built on shared political and cultural values. It's a good message, and how it must dismay professional civil rights activists to hear it. I wouldn't be surprised if Jesse Jackson is telling family members, "If race relations keep improving like this, I may have to get a real job."
Clearly there are many in the liberal Democratic camp who are made profoundly uncomfortable by the recognition that racism is no more a defining feature of American life or even African American life. Don't get me wrong: I'm not saying that racism does not exist. This is a big country, and surely one can find several examples of it. But racism, which used to be systematic, is now only episodic. In fact, when I ask young blacks on the campus today whether America is racist, many say yes. But if I ask them to give me examples of how that racism affects their lives, they are hard pressed to give a single one. The best they can do is to mention "Rodney King" or provide some well-known, recycled horror story. Recently someone told me that McCain is still winning the white vote by a substantial majority and that shows "we have a long way to go" in overcoming white bigotry. By this logic, blacks are have even longer way to go in overcoming their bigotry since Obama is winning almost 98 percent of the black vote. When your logic leads to an absurd conclusion, go back and re-examine the premise.
Even though Obama's candidacy signals that America is overcoming its racial past, neither Obama nor his wife recognize that. Their personal statements, as seen for example in Obama's books, are suffused with race-consciousness, race-obsession and even racial resentment. The more privileges they have received on the basis of race, the more embittered they seem to become. The source of these pathologies is the very liberalism that the Obamas have embraced: a liberalism that declares them equal while treating them as inferiors who need preferential treatment. (Liberals hate to have this pointed out; hence the irrational invective of the early responses to this post.) The solutions are obvious. If you want to get rid of racial obsession, stop talking and thinking about race so much. If you want to remove race as the basis of decision-making in America, let's eliminate America's policies that make race the basis of decision-making. And if you want a party that stands for color-blindess and equal opportunity, you might consider voting for the Republicans.
Reader Comments ( Page 43 of 44)
631. Tim - riddle me this? Did this spending and bankrupting of the SSN just occur? Or has our career politicians been selling us down the drain for the past 4 to 5 decades?
Mac - I never did like JM and will only vote for him because I like BO even less.
Man_in_Wilderness at 11:42PM on Aug 31st 2008
632. "I pledge that tomorrow night, and if necessary throughout our convention, we will act as Americans, not as Republicans," McCain told reporters
That would surly be a change, something I can agree with Mc Cain on.
Jerry Brown at 11:45PM on Aug 31st 2008
633. I cannot help but wonder if the photo op trip to New Orelens was the main purpose for Mccain going there or if it was a way to avoid having G W Bush give a speech at the convention.
Jerry Brown at 12:00AM on Sep 1st 2008
634. Tom B - You are an ignorant man. Liberty and freedom is bought with a price. As our's was in days gone by. All you anti-American socialist can muster is the woes me.... try looking to the positive of the freedom of the people, the infrastucture is better now than it has ever been.
Man_in_Wilderness at 12:00AM on Sep 1st 2008
635. JB - actually JM was pretty gracious the other night when Obamanation had his cornation.
However most are worried about the hurricane and right so. The levies won't hold another cat 3, muchless a larger one.
Man_in_Wilderness at 12:03AM on Sep 1st 2008
636. hen I guess you are not interested in the fact that he systematically used examples in molecular biology to logically demonstrate that IDC's cornerstones of irreducible complexity (Behe) and information conservation (Dembski), for example, were baseless in fact.
xxx
Yes they are. Irreducible complexity is not science, it's preacherbabble. You're not going to get mainstream molecular geneticists saying anything like that, or they'd just fold up science and take up flower arranging.
The percentage that do are about the same as people in the general population with paranoid schizophrenia and way less than autism.
Get irreducible complexity out of your mind. If some scientists have to hang onto something like that personally to function, fine, but you find me a legitimate scientific journal that has published any proof of irreducible complexity.
Genomes are now known completely. We know exactly what is going on genetically, not just with our species but any species we can get complete DNA from.
We know the genes, where they are and what codons are variable between one species' trait and another.
Fifteen years ago the same people were saying THAT was irreducibly complex. It took only about 8 years to crack the human genome rather than the thirty to a hundred or other failed prophecies, and now we have entire libraries of genomes of organisms.
Throwing one's hands up in surrender is not an option open to science. It's just another god of the gaps. No, I don't give any credence of any kind to irreducible complexity. That's preacherbabble.
Clif Kuplen at 1:36AM on Sep 1st 2008
637. Clif Krupin has crawled out from under his rock.
Robert OKane at 3:14AM on Sep 1st 2008
638. Shanker post 637 - Palin does bring some leadership to the table. Being the govenor odf a state gives more executive experience than a senator. I hope and pray that JM will serve his full term, but if not I think SP will be a good president.
Man_in_Wilderness at 12:50PM on Sep 1st 2008
639. Palin does bring some leadership to the table. Being the govenor odf a state gives more executive experience than a senator.
xx
in a state with fewer people than Tulsa. She won the election by 114,000 votes. No graduate degree, no understanding of constitutional law or foreign policy or economics, never held a job and she lies about her personal life to make her look good to right wing extremists. Is her husband vetted? that was one reason why hilary wasn't selected, that Bill Clinton didn't want to be vetted.
And this is extremely important. She claims her brother in law tased his 11 year-old daughter and she failed to excercise a criminal remedy by charging him with aggravated assault against a minor.
Instead she fires his boss. It's being investigated by a bipartisan committee, probably because of the massive lapse of judgment if it's a true story. The guy should have been arrested the same day.
So if it happened, why didn't she file a criminal complaint?
I guarantee you anyone with a law degree, much less a person who has 12 years experience teaching constitutional law would have had that clown frogmarched before a judge the next day if it's a true story.
This needs to be aired. Doesn't she understand anything about Rule Of Law?
Clif Kuplen at 5:37PM on Sep 1st 2008
640. Clif were you there? I didn't think so. Do you have a tazer? Well these little devils do get the best of your curosity. There I was looking at this little taze, it take 1 AAA battery. It can't be that bad. I hit the trigger, cool little blue light. You know just flick the trigger a few times, pretty cool. And the cat looking at me like don't even think about it. So I flick the trigger again, man it can't be that bad... so I decide to test it on myself.... OMG... that sucker knocked me down. I am not curious anymore.
Man_in_Wilderness at 11:05PM on Sep 1st 2008
641. Ok... bad joke. But I do have one of those electric bug zappers.... and it bites a little more than sticking your tongue to a 9v battery.
Man_in_Wilderness at 11:07PM on Sep 1st 2008
642. Obama has always been an inclusive candidate and person. The way he has worked within the community, his time in office and the way he is running his campaign. Racism is not his issue but excluding people and holding yourself above others has always been a part of the Republican Party.
concerned at 9:53AM on Sep 2nd 2008
643. Before he was tapped to run for president, BHO was a nobody junior senator with no experience in anything. Ask yourselves this: Who urged him to run, who pulls his strings, who finances his campaign? The answer is the hidden puppet-masters want Obama to be president so they can control America from Riyahd and Mecca.
ME at 6:16PM on Sep 2nd 2008
644. FOR: Clif Kuplen
An experienced Republican Senator who is a war veteran/POW/Hero and the Governor of the largest State in the Union is by far a better choice than a no-experience anti-American Muslim raghead Democrat and a liberal idiot Democrapic Senator any day.
Marlinj Brown at 6:28PM on Sep 2nd 2008
645. WHEN AMERICANS WERE TOLD THE TRUTH BY THIS BLACK LEADER, WHO WENT ON TO BECOME A US PRESIDENT ???
LETS ALL HOPE OUR MEDIA FRIENDS CONTINUE TO ALSO SHOW AN INTEREST IN REPORTING ON THIS AMERICAN HORROR FACING THESE (TENS OF THOUSANDS) FORGOTTEN AND TRAPPED POORER AMERICANS, AND HOW THIS PRESIDENTIAL CONTENDER HANDLES THIS VERY SERIOUS ISSUE FACING AMERICA?S LATINO AND BLACK AMERICAN COMMUNITIES ????
WITH 80% OF THE BLACK AMERICAN VOTERS SAYING THEY SUPPORT SENATOR OBAMA IN THIS PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, IT IS ONLY FAIR FOR EVERYONE TO KNOW PRIOR BEING ELECTED OUR NEXT PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES HOW THIS DEMOCRATIC SENATOR TRULY FEELS ABOUT THIS AMERICAN JUDICIAL HORROR CONTINUING TO INFLICT GRAVE HARM ON THE BLACK AMERICAN FAMILIES AND THEIR COMMUNITIES NATIONWIDE ??????
*** WHEN GOD?S FACE BECAME VERY RED ***
THE US SUPREME COURT GAVE ENEMY COMBATANTS FEDERAL APPEAL HC RIGHTS LAWYERS AND PROPER ACCESS TO US FEDERAL COURTS,AND POORER AMERICANS (MANY EVEN ON DEATH ROW) ARE DENIED PROPER FEDERAL APPEAL LEGAL REPRESENTATION TO OUR US FEDERAL COURTS OF APPEAL, AND ROTTING IN AMERICAN PRISONS NATIONWIDE ?????????
***THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE $LOWLY FINDING OUT HOW EA$Y IT I$ FOR MIDDLE CLA$$ AND WORKING POOR AMERICAN$ TO FALL VICTIM TO OUR U$ MONETARY JUDICIAL $Y$TEM.
****WHEN THE US INNOCENT WERE ABANDONED BY THE GUILTY ****
The prison experts have reported that there are 100,000 innocent Americans currently being falsely imprisoned along with the 2,300,000 total US prison population nationwide.
Since our US Congress has never afforded poor prison inmates federal appeal legal counsel for their federal retrials,they have effectively closed the doors on these tens of thousands of innocent citizens ever being capable of possibly exonerating themselves to regain their freedom through being granted new retrials.
This same exact unjust situation was happening in our Southern States when poor and mostly uneducated Black Americans were being falsely imprisoned for endless decades without the needed educational skills to properly submit their own written federal trial appeals.
**INNOCENT AMERICANS ARE DENIED REAL HC RIGHTS WITH THEIR FEDERAL APPEALS !!
This devious and deceptive judicial process of making our poor and innocent prison inmates formulate and write their own federal appeal legal cases for possible retrials on their state criminal cases,is still in effect today even though everyone in our US judicial system knows that without proper legal representation, these tens of thousands of innocent prison inmates will be denied their rightful opportunities of ever being granted new trials from our federal appeal judges!!
Sadly, the true US *legal* Federal Appeal situation that occurs when any of our uneducated American prison inmates are forced to attempt to submit their own written Federal Appeals (from our prisons nationwide) without the assistance of proper legal counsel, is that they all are in reality being denied their legitimate rights for Habeas Corpus and will win any future Supreme Court Case concerning this injustice!
For our judicial system and our US Congressional Leaders Of The Free World to continue to pretend that this is a real and fair opportunity for our American Middle Class and Working Poor Citizens, only delays the very needed future change of Federal Financing of all these Federal appeals becoming a normal formula of Our American judicial system.
It was not so very long ago that Public Defenders became a Reality in this country.Prior that legal reality taking place, their were also some who thought giving anyone charged with a crime a free lawyer was a waste of taxpayers $$.
This FACADE and HORROR of our Federal Appeal proce$$ is not worthy of the Greatest Country In The World!
***GREAT SOCIETIES THAT DO NOT PROTECT EVEN THEIR INNOCENT, BECOME THE GUILTY!
A MUST READ ABOUT AMERICAN INJUSTICE:
1) YAHOO AND 2) GOOGLE
MANNY GONZALES THE KID THAT EVERYONE FORGOT IN THE CA PRISON SYSTEM. ** A JUDICIAL RIDE OF ONES LIFE !
lawyersforpooramericans@yahoo.com
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DOUGLAS FIELD at 8:39PM on Sep 3rd 2008