Racist Americans
October 8, 2008 / 2:17 pm • By Dr. Melissa ClouthierYou have read here before my supposition that if Obama loses, America will be proclaimed racist. It is not, of course, racist if a person votes for Obama only because he’s black.
Shrinkwrapped wrote an excellent post titled “Some Thoughts on Race, Racism, Capitalism, and Paradigm Shifts” and you MUST read it:
I do not think America is a racist country yet that is a subtext of Barack Obama’s candidacy. Every criticism of Obama is immediately attacked as racism and we have already been told that if Obama is repudiated it will be because Americans are racist. Only by electing Barack Obama can we prove to the world and to ourselves that America is no longer a racist country. Beyond the “boy who cried wolf” quality of the charge, I suspect a great many Americans resent being called racist for opposing a candidate who is not only as far to the left as any candidate in memory but also uses race to further his political interests.
It’s not skin color, it’s ideology. Beliefs matter. If Obama loses, it won’t be his skin color that decides it. It will be the fact that he’s a liberal who doesn’t seem to like America very much.
Cross-posted at RightWingNews
11 Responses to “Racist Americans”
October 8 2008 / 9:12 pm
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America is only going to stop being a racist country when the skin color of a candidate doesn’t matter. It’s never mattered to me. But only when all people are expected to abide by the same standards can we truly say we are not racist.
October 8 2008 / 10:25 pm
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Funny how it was Biden of all people to praise Obama for being “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.” What if Sarah Palin had said that?
Going back to your point, I agree that if Obama loses, America will automatically be labeled as racist. But what I fear is that people have so bought into the idea of Barack Apollo Obama the Savior coming to deliver us from ourselves that if he doesn’t win, people will riot. Rodney King all over again? I certainly hope not, but I fear it’s a possibility.
October 8 2008 / 11:24 pm
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Liz–
I live in the Chicago area, and I fear there may be a riot no matter who wins. Not because there are black people here, but because a lot of the people here, no matter what color they are, are pure lunatics. Some time ago, when the White Sox were threatening to win their division, a co-worker of mine actually said, “If they win, I’m going to be one of those people you see on the news turning over cars.”
Some people are simply divorced from reality.
October 9 2008 / 7:10 am
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The very fact that if Obama loses, America and Americans (well, white Americans) will be labeled racists is precisely why I’ve become somewhat “anti-American”. If it is the core, the bedrock belief of the modern American society that all whites are necessarily racist and “owe” others because of their racist priviledge then those of us who are “white” or European Americans as I prefer to call the group have no business supporting this government or this society. Unless and until such time as European Americans wake up to this problem and vocally and demonstrably reject this new brand of “Americanism”, European Americans shall be forever marginalized and pushed to the corner no longer able to control their own destinies. To put it another way, they are being “defined” out of the American picture, and thus out of the “society” as a whole. Once that happens, their rights will be trampled as has been their heritage.
October 9 2008 / 8:38 am
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What a pitiable and absurdly whining attempt to wrap the poor, poor white folks under a blanket of victimhood.
Surely, the real problem in America is that white people feel bad.
I am flabbergasted by how silly this is.
October 9 2008 / 12:13 pm
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Glynn’s comment is a perfect example of what we’re up against.
October 9 2008 / 12:25 pm
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Well, we don’t have to be “up against” anything. We can withdraw, carefully and quietly, but we don’t have to be sitting ducks and wait for it to happen.
October 10 2008 / 10:39 am
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When someone explains to me why Obama spent 20 years as a member of a racist church…a church that taught and practiced the racist Black Liberation Theology doctrine, then they can call me a racist if they so wish.
A visit to and through the “Afrosphere” will expose lots of hatred and/or racism towards whites and “White AmeriKKKa”. Apparently the ‘color-blind’ blogosphere was too “White” for many AFRICAN-Americans…?!?!
October 10 2008 / 4:03 pm
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The funny thing, of course, is that when many people say “racist” they mean “anti-black”. That’s why Glynn assumed that the people who don’t like the racecard being thrown around are white.
Guess what?
Ask other people of color – Hispanics, Asian-Americans, Arab-Americans, people of First Nations – and you’ll find that they’re disgusted by the casual way in which the race card (and the sex card)is played, too. I believe that the good news is that as more biracial Americans hit voting age, it will become less effective tool to use against one’s opponents.
Riots are unAmerican. “If our candidate doesn’t win, we’ll riot” is a tactic out of Spain during the rise of Franco and revolutionary Cuba.
And riots are self-defeating. Where will they happen? In the neighborhoods and business districts that make up our daily life. You know what I mean – no one is going to take a bus to the suburbs or go to a small town full of men who hunt. Like the riots of the ’60s and ’90s, the businesses that close in the aftermath will be minority-owned and serving neighborhoods with predominantly minority populations.
I suppose people expect that if they loot and burn, it will force the government to help them rebuild. But that’s a pipedream. I can’t help but thinking about houses on Brush Street, which burned 40 years ago in the Detroit riots and still looked like charred memorials when I rode past in the ’90s.
October 13 2008 / 10:43 pm
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ummmm, before this gets even more silly – here’s a question. Aren’t more people likely to vote for McCain because of his race than Obama?
Black people are about 13 percent of the population. They represent about seven percent of the voting population.
So if you want to look at racial attitudes determining the election – it’s odd that you would single out people voting for Obama simply because he’s Black. Actually, it’s more than odd – it’s absurd – especially when in the battleground states of Ohio and Pennsylvania a full quarter of white poll respondents (the majority population) indicate they would NEVER vote for a black person.
If Obama still manages to win in spite of this tremendous handicap, it’s amazing, because he will have done so with one arm (race) tied behind his back.
If this Bush were not so spectacuarally incompetent, so woefully inadequate, so visibly bewildered – this never would have happened. So I must thank all you Bushies for potentially electing the first Black President of the United States.
Thank you. Please keep writing silly things – it’s all very helpful.
October 6 2009 / 10:40 am
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I dont know why blacks and whites cant just get along and live in peace and harmony. PLease just let it go people. Barack Obama is a good man whos not there to make the rich richer. hes there to try and help as the worlds leader. To help the Billions of starving people in the world that no one seems to care about. Yes they are our problem because we take theyre resources from them and get fat living high on the hog and need gym memberships just to burn off the calories. So Kudos Barack obama go forth and make the world a better place you have my vote.