Monday, October 12, 2009
Stop calling everyone a racist
From the RoundTable blog
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Chuck White
White, of Roanoke, is a self-employed general contractor.
Let me get this straight: If I'm white and I disagree with the politics of a black elected official, such as President Obama, then I'm a racist, ("There is something to fear," Oct. 4 commentary). What? When did that happen? Well, let's carry it further: If I'm a white male and I also disagree with the politics of Nancy Pelosi, do I really have a deep-seated hatred of women, to go along with my racism? What about Harry Reid? Dang, I can't figure out where that one lands. I can't fear him because he's black. I can't hate him because he's a woman. How does Lucy Koons explain my disagreement with his politics?
Look, it's OK to disagree with someone's politics. Really, it is. It makes for healthy and lively debate. It's what makes us Americans. You are not a racist because of it. Honestly. Stop playing the race card for every disagreement any two people may have. Is there racism in America today? Yes. Is there racism in Japan, France, Bora-Bora or Zimbabwe? Yes. Some people, of any given race, will fear or hate those of a different race. Is that acceptable? Of course not, but to play the race card at every hand is to diminish the reality of racism and to water down the chance of reducing racism.
When Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina shouted "you lie!" during the president's speech, he was immediately jumped on as a racist. He did not use any racial slur, and he quickly apologized for his breach of decorum. So, being passionate about your politics makes you a racist?
And now let me get this straight, too. The health insurance companies are really just an extension of the Southern white plantation owners, placing a foot on the neck of people of color and their misguided poor white brethren? Where did that come from?
I have a pretty broad base of acquaintances, crossing many races, religions, political parties and ages. I don't know of a single person whom I have talked to in the last eight months who has not agreed that we need some form of health care reform. Not one. Nobody. It's an across the board thing.
The only difference I have found, is that some people want it pushed through quickly, some people want it to happen after weighing all of the options and some people just want to yell, because that's all that they know how to do. They will always be the ones on the TV and front pages because they are, by their nature, loud and in your face. They are the minority, but they still deserve to be heard. Yes, reform health care, but for God's sake do it once and do it right. It's too important not to.
Let's get this straight about those people who were brandishing firearms at town hall meetings. First point, anyone in this country, excluding a few with criminal histories, etc., has the right to bear arms in public. It's our second constitutional amendment. Our Founding Fathers deemed it so important that they listed it directly after our right to have this public discussion. Free speech, then the right to bear arms. Not fourth, not 10th, but second only to the right to free speech. Carrying a firearm in public is not brandishing. Waving a firearm in someone's face is brandishing, and that is a crime.
Second point, the gentleman on the news at the Obama town hall meeting in Arizona, the one with the assault rifle, and the "fear of an erudite and well-educated black man" is an erudite and articulate black man. Is he racist because he disagrees with another black man's politics, or has he been easily manipulated by the ruling class? To me, that gentleman looked and sounded like a well-educated American citizen, expressing both his First and Second Amendment rights. He neither harmed nor threatened anyone.
As for there being "something to fear," what we really need to fear are those individuals who work to undermine the Constitution, quash the free will of the populace and remove the initiative and work ethic that America needs in order to be better than mediocre. If you truly need to fear something, fear the person who fears your constitutional rights as an American citizen and who also paints you unjustly with the broad brush of racism at every opportunity.
As a Southern white man who believes in and respects every man and woman's rights under our Constitution, regardless of race, color, creed, sex or age, I'll stand with the Arizona "erudite and well-educated black man" any day.
