A few days ago I had an interesting conversation with my cousin about the state of race relations in the age of Obama. My cousin said,"Things are getting better, but the people who have a problem with black people are getting worse." To further illustrate his story, he told me about one of his friends, a white lady, whose daughter used to play regularly with a friend, who was also white. One day, one of the girls discovered that her friend stopped showing up for playdates. Her mother went to the other mom and asked why. The answer: "You voted for Obama.
This story is all the more poignant considering the recent wing-nut fest that was CPAC, which "Daily Show" host Jon Stewart described as the "Festival of Whites." Glenn Beck got on stage and put on the same nightly carnival show he does on FOX News. One thing he did say that was correct was suggesting that the GOP needs to admit it has a problem. Beck said the problem was spending, but the real problem is race.
Race is a frustrating problem in America, because it tends to attract polar opposite opinions. Black people are often aggrieved about their situation, while white people seem to be in deep denial that there is a problem. A common excuse is,"I didn't own any slaves." But that is a simplistic answer, slavery was outlawed about a 100 years ago, but there are several pressing problems affecting African Americans and other people of color.
You may not have owned slaves, but what did you do when the police were torturing and executing black men? What did you do when black men were being locked up for crimes they didn't commit? And what did you do when banks were steering people of color, with good credit, into high-interest loans?
As my cousin said there are many people who are deeply uncomfortable with the idea of a black president. They feel their old world, of white male privilege and a comfortable middle class lifestyle, is slipping away. To them Obama is the John the Baptist of the Apocalypse, the harbinger of the destruction of White America as they know it. The clearest evidence of this was seen when Obama decided to hold his impromptu Q and A session with House Republicans. Obama answered, deflected and parried their questions with aplomb, and all the while you got the impression, that this smart, articulate and knowledgeable black man, was driving them crazy.
Black people may have dominated in sports and entertainment, but in the fields of business and politics, white men still ruled the roost. Obama spells the end of that. I am sure a lot of older white men are worried that Corporate America is soon going to end up looking like the the NBA, with their grandchildren only allowed to play bit parts.
The extreme wing of the Republican party realizes this and that is why with the aid of their propaganda department, also known as FOX News, they are trying to whip white rage into a frenzy. Blue collar and middle-class Americans have a lot to be angry about, with chronic unemployment and the near collapse of the financial market. However FOX News is channeling that anger into rage at the Obama administration, when it was the Bush administration's tax cuts to the rich and unfunded foreign wars that largely caused the problem. Joe Stack, a frustrated computer programmer, was so angry that he flew a plane into an IRS building in Austin, killing one worker. And even after this apparent incident of domestic terrorism, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) still said, that he emphathized with Stack and urged listerners to "implode" more IRS buildings.
This deadly mix of rage and frustration is being stoked by the conservative triumvirate of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.
American Talkers recently named Limbaugh, Beck and Hannity, respectively, as the top three most influential talk show hosts in America. All three commentators are infamous for their barely-masked racial animosity. They won't come out and say they hate black people and don't think Obama should be president, but they'll use a series of code words and sleights to convey their message.
Limbaugh is fond of using words like "uppity," and "arrogant," which were used in Jim Crow times to describe black who didn't know their place. Hannity simply employs hired minstrels like Jesse Lee Patterson to say the things that any white host would be fired for mentioning.
These hate mongers understand the fears of their AM radio audience. Rush Limbaugh recently said the only reason why Obama made it through Harvard Law school is because his professors wrote his papers for him. This taps into the anger that many white Americans have about affirmative action. There is nothing worse you can call a black employee than an affirmative action hire. Limbaugh topped that by recently comparing Obama's health care legislation to reparations. (Funny how those "reparations" will benefit a lot of non-black people.) Limbaugh also said that Obama is a "primitive, indigenous guy." This is highly ironic because Obama is a graduate of Harvard Law school, while Limbaugh dropped out college in his freshman year. (Hannity and Beck are also college drop outs.)
I am not the only person concerned about the rage that is being nurtured by the right. Dr. Sherman Miller, a columnist and long-time Republican activist from Delaware, describes Beck, Limbaugh and Hannity as America's racist trinity of evilwho are "perpetuating a media lynching of President Barack Obama." Additionally, former GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said that right-wing bloggers urged him to physically attack First Lady Michelle Obama when she was a guest on his show. Huckabee said he was "disgusted by the anger and meanness."
Limbaugh and co. have said that they want Obama and his policies to fail, and they will use every weapon in their arsenal to stop him -- even if that means lies, smears and encouraging violence.
"They feel their old world, of white male privilege and a comfortable middle class lifestyle, is slipping away."
ReplyDeleteIt is slipping away, and about time. It is what scares them, that they will no longer be in control.