Fear Of A Barack Planet

Frank Rich has a great take on the Gates controversy by way of the invasion of the birthers with a dash of Sotomayor. In a nutshell, he says we're not post-racial, hardly, and in fact we're at the very beginning of a 30-year racial obsession since that is  about how long it will take for the U.S. to become a minority-white nation. Tying the birthers to racism is nothing new, but it needs to be repeated, and he also point out that all of President Obama's biggest hits from the right have involved painting him as an other, as an un-American, and that these scandals boil down to racial hatred.

(My own note: Isn't it interesting that the Gates thing probably blew up 10 times bigger because it wasn't just about race but about class? The black guys involved were the elite, upper-crust types and the white guy was the blue-collar one this time—that has to have fueled some of the rage. Then, keeping it pure, the beer party at the White House had to be balanced by another white guy, hence Vice President Biden's surprise appearance. Interestingly, he's also a blue-collar type white guy.)

Why can't right-wingers hate Obama based on his policies like we lefties hated Bush for his? Because they're mostly white and more likely to engage in that team mentality, whether they want to admit that or not.

Comments

[Andy]

I think a hell of a lot of white people voted for Obama and the "birthers" are not the majority of white people.

Also - you have a hell of a lot of angry and ultra-sensitive black people ready to attack at what they think may be a racial slight. Case in point, the Duke LaCrosse players. People were marching down in North Carolina before they even knew all the facts. When it was all said and done, Jesse Jackson wanted to set up a "scholarship" for the fabricator and not one apology for the men whose lives were destroyed.

I can guarentee you if a white woman came forward with a story that she was assualted by black males, white people from all over the country would not converge on the town and start marching a few days later.

Now it looks like the mysterious "knoose" found on the door of a Columbia professor may have in fact been put there by the professor herself.

This does not get nearly equal attention in the press. Either does male Chinese immigrant students in Queens getting the shit kicked out of them by black and Latino students. (One measley story in the NY Times) I guarentee you if it happened the other way around, Al Sharpton would be on that faster than a bear on honey.

I do not think it helps that liberal media outlets like CNN and HUffPost seize racial controversy stories and blow them up big time, and rotate them again and again, stirring up emotions. I think they get off on it and it is akin to being in Salem in the 1600s. Lets expose the latest "racist" and drag them through the mud - like Lucia Whalen and Crowley. It sickens me.

If anything - people are going to be afraid to get involved in anything for fear of being labeled a racist. Will it get to the point where we can not describe a suspect if the suspect happens to be black?

Racial sensitivity in this country has become a joke. But I am sorry - it is not just with the "birthers."

It comes from both sides.

Also - how about EVERYBODY stop using the N word so it doe snot become confusing as to when it is slang and when it is not? One less complication that society has to deal with.

[Matthew Rettenmund]

Well, obviously it's not as if black people don't commit crimes or behave in racist ways, but I think to react strongly to what may be an anti-black situation does not make the black community wrong. They're reacting based on the history there. And let's face it, Andy, most of the cases are racism, it's the ones that aren't that are so noteworthy because they're exceptional, no?

As for Lucia Whalen and Crowley, Crowley did deserve to be questioned for what happened—Whalen didn't describe the men as black (but wouldn't have been a "racial profiler" if she had since she was pointing out a possible break-in and noted it might not have been), and yet Crowley wrote in his report that she had described them as black men. Also, once Crowley laid eyes on Gates, that would be when he did or did not react in a racial way. Would he have arrested a highly offended white professor who threw a fit over this kind of intrusion? We'll never know. But what I would argue is that Professor Gates, based on the history black people have with a largey white police force in our country—not talking about black criminals, but about black people wrongly accused—reacted in the same way a white man would have reacted if white people had the same kind of history with a largely black police force.

I think Professor Gates was haughty and offended, I can understand why, and I still question if Crowley's racial pride didn't lead to the actual arrest.

The reason Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson became so important was because black people had no voice in government and in positions of authority! I can't blame Al Sharpton for doing what he should be doing, calling attention to stories that might never otherwise be given attention. In this day and age he seems old-fashioned, but he had his purpose. (And, of course, as with all good things, had many flaws. Tawana Brawley, anyone?)

If that Chinese case HAD been the other way around, Al Sharpton SHOULD be on it like a bear on honey! That's not the tragedy, the tragedy—and I think we can agree here—is that there was no Chinese Al Sharpton to help make that story a bigger deal.

Race IS a touchy subject, and that's not going to end in our lifetimes. White people can not say to blacks, "Just get over it!" with slavery a blink of an eye away in the grand scheme of things and with their history in this country so ridiculous, so recent, still having such an impact on their present and future.

I think being sensitive is a good thing—on both sides.

And yes, if black people didn't use the N word so freely that would be a good thing, but getting them not to would be like getting gays to never call each other the F word! :0)

[casey]

i'm white, but i'd love to live in a black/brown/gray/yellow/purple whatever world. i'm sick of the way so many white people treat everyone else in this world. i'm 52, bipolar, suicidal, paranoid and reclusive, so i won't last another 30 years, lol, but the idea of a majority 'minority' america sounds just fantastic to me. i'd join the Black Panthers right now if they'd have me. well, if they were still around.

[kenneth]

Actually I DID hate Bush for being a silver-spooned New England-er ... because he was playing it off in Texas hick "clothing." Which is precisely what made his pro-WASP, anti-hick policies so infuriating.