Why is it always Racism?

The Civil War was fought in the 1860s.  After the war, the former slaves were given the right to vote, to hold office, and to own property.  Many did all these things and more.  As the 1900s arrived, so did the era of Jim Crow.  Though the freed slaves and their children had been given rights, Jim Crow effectively removed those rights for which they had prayed and fought so hard.  During the 1960s, America moved into the Civil Rights movement, and with people like Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks leading the way, they ended the time of Jim Crow and America entered into a new era, the modern era, during which Americans of all races live side-by-side, with the same rights extending from the Constitution to all Americans.

Unfortunately, racism was not eradicated with the Civil Rights movement, but with each generation, the prejudice and distrust seems to diminish more and more.  Or does it?  And is that prejudice and mistrust only coming from white Americans or does it also perpetuated by those minority people who are quick to assume racism motivates the smallest of  slights, no matter the real intent of the person they feel slighted by?  Is it possible that one group of people are being taught they must be tolerant, that to be accused of being racist is the worst thing they could be called, while another group is taught that no matter what someone says or does, if they don’t treat everyone exactly the same, they are to be suspected of being racist and called out on it?  With the election of Barack Obama, the first American of African descent, many people believed that the time of accusations of racism would be over – didn’t we just elect someone to the highest office from a group who had never held that position previously?  Wasn’t he the epitome of the American Dream?  Couldn’t we finally move past the division made by race and move on to a more united America?  Before he had announced his Presidential campaign, Obama said:

Our goal is to have a country that’s not divided by race. And my impression, as I travel around the country, is that that’s the kind of country that most people want, as well, and that we all have prejudice, we all have certain suspicions or stereotypes about people who are different from us, whether it’s religious or racial or ethnic, but what I think I found in the American people, I think there’s a core decency there, where if they take the time, if they get the time to know individuals, then they want to judge those individuals by their character. ~BARACK OBAMA, Larry King Live, Oct. 19, 2006

During his campaign for President, Barack Obama made many speeches where he said he would reach across the divide and end partisanship by uniting people of all backgrounds under a common goal:  the good of America.  Even those who didn’t vote for him hoped that he would, at least, fulfill that one promise.  After years of partisanship in Congress and the underlying social tensions simmering between race, gender and sexual orientation issues, having a President who embodied the hope of ending these divisions and uniting the United States was enough to give even the biggest skeptic a glimmer of faith in our political system.  In his election Acceptance speech President Obama stated:

It’s the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled – Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America.  It’s the answer that led those who have been told for so long by so many to be cynical, and fearful, and doubtful of what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.

Unfortunately, that glimmer disappeared with the final note of the the pomp and circumstance of the Inauguration.  It was just a week into his Presidency when the push began for the “Stimulus Bill” and less than a month before Congress rushed it through unread (with less than 24 hours for public discussion), and two days later President Obama signed it into law.  It has been all downhill from there, with the chasm started by disagreement over President Bush’s policies being turned into a Grand Canyon divide between the Obama-ites and the Tea Partyers, both groups equally passionate with their support for or against the President and his policies.  This could be viewed as American politics as usual; Americans have always enjoyed their First Amendment Right of Freedom of  Speech, especially in the realm of politics.  Unfortunately, with this passion and Freedom of Speech combined with the first President of African heritage, things have gotten more heated than usual, with allegations of racism flying in the faces of people who dare criticize the President.

What began as whispers became full-page photos featuring thousands of people holding signs protesting the Administration, but only one sign depicting President Obama as Hitler in focus or up-close, doing as it was meant to do: inciting anger of both groups.  Speaker Pelosi called the Tea Party Participants “Nazis”, Hollywood elites and MSNBC talking heads called them “Tea Baggers” and all assumed that the protests weren’t about mis-guided policies and a fear of the current path to socialism the administration seemed to be taking America down, but about the fact that President Obama is black.

The ultimate accusation of racism came from none other than the most tolerant former President of them all:  Jimmy Carter.  When asked about the criticism Obama had been facing in regard to his push for nationalized health care, Carter said, 

“I think people who are guilty of that kind of personal attack against Obama have been influenced to a major degree by a belief that he should not be president because he happens to be African American.

“It’s a racist attitude, and my hope is and my expectation is that in the future both Democratic leaders and Republican leaders will take the initiative in condemning that kind of unprecedented attack on the president of the United States,” (Emory University Speech, Sept. 16, 2009)

Carter may have been referring only to Congressman Joe Wilson’s outburst during Obama’s speech, but by doing so, he opened the door to all Obama supporters to shut down any criticism of the President with accusations of racism.  This “throwing out the race card” tactic is not a new one, but under the auspices of a campaign that swore to bring together the American people regardless of race or wealth, one would believe that the race card would no longer apply.  This phenomenon is not limited to public discourse in the media or via leaders’ speeches, but also transcends to the more casual venues of Facebook, Twitter and water-cooler discussions.

Recently, Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.  The social networking venues were abuzz with discussion regarding Obama’s accomplishments meriting such a prize.  Within each discussion thread there were people who questioned the Nobel Committee’s choice in Obama and critiqued the past nine months of Obama’s Presidency as well as people who supported the Committee’s decision.  The unfortunate part about these posts was the people who decided to shut down any criticism of Obama by either directly calling the people criticizing the President “racists” or implying that their criticism was driven by racist beliefs.

Instead of gathering the groups and uniting them by shutting down the race-card talk, President Obama chooses to “stay above the fray” and not tell his supporters to stop with the racist-talk.  He claims to not agree with it, but he has done nothing to shut it down.  By not addressing it, he is implicitly agreeing with it.  America needs little encouragement for groups who have already been simmering to come to the boiling point.  This week’s smearing of Rush Limbaugh is just the beginning of what could end up being an all-out war of words between the race-baiters and Obama’s critics.

We need to get past race as Obama claimed he would do for the country.  People need to realize that although there are racists in America, not everyone criticizing the President is doing so because of his race.  If that was the case, would the people who are also criticizing Pelosi be labeled as “sexist”? Or those critiquing Reid be accused of “ageism”?  And those black leaders who dismissed Condalisa Rice or Clarance Thomas as “selling out”, were they also “racist”?

America, would you rather have someone vote for a President based upon his values and ideas, regardless of his race, than vote because it would be “really cool” to have a black President or a woman President or a Native American President?  Too often it seems that the supporters defending Obama throw out the race card because they CAN’T defend the President based upon his merit and experience to be President.  They can’t name why they support him, they can’t defend him because all they know is that when they hear him speak they get the warm fuzzies.  Many of these supporters, though honest in their joy of seeing a black man finally become President of the U.S., don’t clearly understand the vision of that man for America or they’ve bought fully into the idea that Obama can and will make all their dreams come true by bringing down corporate America and giving all the insurance companies’ profits to the little guy who just needs a break.

Wake up America!  Stop accusing every person who dares to be critical of the President of racism.  Every time the word is thrown into a discussion, that discussion either ends abruptly or becomes more heated than it was before the term was tossed into the mix.  Continually falling back on the accusation of racism only weakens the argument that Obama became President based upon his own merit and makes the accuser look like a fool because that is his/her only defense of a man he/she professes to be qualified to lead the greatest nation on earth.  Not only does it do all those things, but it also only serves to further divide a country that is closing in on a time when the divide will become so enormous that it will never be mended.  Is that what we want, America?  Do we want to continue to accuse one another of hate – on both sides?  What good does that do for our country?  Are we walking toward the day where neighbor accuses neighbor until the neighbor disappears or civil war breaks out – not along lines of race but of ideology?  Is that where we want to go, America?

Enough with the accusations of “Racism”.  It does not dishonor the President to criticize his policies.  It is our right and our duty to question our government.  It is the right and the duty for people to question the people criticizing the government in order to come to an understanding and hopefully a solution to the problems facing the Nation.  If we choose to continue to hide behind terms like “Racist” instead of listening to one another and “getting to know each other as individuals”, we will surely watch our country crumble and fail.