Are Republican Candidates Racists?

After the debacle of missing the Republican debate hosted by Tavis Smiley at the HBC, Morgan State University by the four front-running Republican candidates it would be easy to dismiss their failure to participate as racism. Many pundits and bloggers have made that connection, with many saying that unlike their good friend Bill O’Reilly these candidates still believe that the “negroes will not be well-behaved” and there is a difference. I think to take this tack is to misunderstand the state of racial affairs in America. With the stakes as high as they are and with the spotlight beaming on race relations thanks to our friends in Jena, La, would any candidate be stupid enough to be so blatantly racist? Maybe, but I doubt it, so what is the answer to them being willing to ignore the black voters of America and not worry about backlash?

I am afraid the true answer is much more frightening than the easy answer. Many people believe falsely I think that the opposite of love is hate or racism, but I disagree. I think that the opposite of love is indifference. Indifference says that I don’t care if you live or die just don’t bother me. In the story of "The Good Samaritan" the other travelers didn't hate the victim; they just didn't care enough to get involved. Unfortunately, this is the attitude of many of the “core base” of the Republican Party and it was expressed by their candidates in their refusal to participate in the debate. It isn’t that they hate, they just really don’t care.

This attitude of indifference is most profoundly directed at Blacks and immigrants, but it is also directed toward anyone that doesn’t share their religious and moral beliefs as well. By their refusal to participate in the debate the candidates and the Party by proxy sent the message that the Black vote is irrelevant; you people don’t matter. Your concerns are not our concerns. We will ignore you and hope you go away. These are the people who want to keep us divided and easy conquered. They use subtle code words to express their displeasure with the way “liberals” have allowed the country to be commandeered by Blacks and other minorities. They would rather we return to some historical nirvana when the “white privilege” went unquestioned, when Blacks and minorities knew their places. When they were seen and not heard.

I am sure these candidates did not want to have to answer questions about Jena, voter suppression drives, and other issues that affect minorities. By not allowing themselves to be questioned on these issues the candidates sent a message to their base that these questions were unimportant and not worthy of their responses.

It is a common belief among Republican pundits and campaign staffers that Blacks will vote overwhelmingly Democratic and therefore to lobby them would be a wasted effort. They speak as if Blacks were some mindless group of voters who are not independent enough or intelligent enough to weigh the issues and vote accordingly. Many also believe that Blacks for the most part don’t vote anyway so the cost/benefit numbers don’t add up. The cost being possibly alienating their “base” and the benefit being gaining a few million votes, obviously these staffers have forgotten how close the last two elections have been. In a country divided as we are, every vote is going to count.

Finally, I think another important element in all of this is what the “base” of the Republican Party must be that their candidates can be this indifferent towards a large group of Americans and it does not bother them. If appealing to your base means ignoring blacks and minorities, then what are the priorities of your base? More and more of the Republican strategists believe that the black vote can be ignored in favor of cultivating the southern and rural white voters, these same voters who split with the Democrats over civil rights and abortion. Obviously, they believe that there are enough of these voters to overcome any impact black voters may have for the Democrats. Besides, these guys are trying to win primaries and let’s face it there won’t be many blacks voting in Republican primaries. I think it would be hilarious if all the mindless black voters switched parties for the primaries and voted in the Republican primaries, wouldn’t that be fun?

It is unfortunate when politicians are pandering to the baser nature of humanity instead of seeking to educate and promote unity among all Americans. The reason racism is still alive and well in America is because no one really wants to end it. Right now it serves too many purposes for too many people, both black and white. Maybe someday the truth of who and what we are will finally penetrate our hard heads, but until then. I can’t wait to see how whoever the Republican nominee will be try to spin this come general election time and what self-respecting black would allow themselves to be used to sell the spin. Our politicians should be demonstrating to all Americans how to embrace the diversity of the country, not how to run from it, because guess what we ain’t going nowhere.

Read more!

No, Mr. O’Reilly There Is A Difference

I recently read the comments of Bill O’Reilly and I must say I am disgusted at the inference of his comments. This once again proves that to understand race in America is to understand it in all its subtlest forms. In America, very few things are as they appear, this country is rampant with false images and hidden innuendos. My belief is that it is a characteristic of the dominant culture to be disingenuous in most matters. I say this based on my experience living and working among whites for much of my life. Whites, in an effort to avoid conflict have tended to be less than genuine in many situations. Because of this characteristic many people who are not familiar with the subtleties would say that racism is no longer an issue in America, those people would be wrong.

According to published reports, Mr. O’Reilly was slummin it in Harlem with one of his closest friends, the Rev. Al Sharpton. (Some of his closest friends are black.)They were having dinner at Sylvia’s, a famous soul food restaurant and Mr. O’Reilly couldn’t help but notice how well-behaved the Black folks were. They were so well-behaved that according to Mr. O’Reilly that it was like eating at any other restaurant in New York. And just to show you how liberal he is, Mr. O’Reilly attended an Anita Baker concert and much to his amazement the band members were well-dressed and not wearing the “sag”.

You know, I was up in Harlem a few weeks ago, and I actually had dinner with Al Sharpton, who is a very, very interesting guy. And he comes on The Factor a lot, and then I treated him to dinner, because he's made himself available to us, and I felt that I wanted to take him up there. And we went to Sylvia's, a very famous restaurant in Harlem. I had a great time, and all the people up there are tremendously respectful. They all watch The Factor. You know, when Sharpton and I walked in, it was like a big commotion and everything, but everybody was very nice.[1]

I think the thing that bothers me the most about his comments is not what he is saying, but what he means by saying it and why he feels he has to say it. It’s as if he is visiting someone’s house with unruly kids and to his shock and amazement the kids weren’t tearing down the house or writing graffiti on the walls. Why in 2007, does this need to be said? Why must some white man have to tell other white people how black people behave? The sad part about it is that he doesn’t even think he has done anything wrong. He actually believes that he was giving a compliment to black folks.

In order to understand the context of his comments, one has to understand who Bill O’Reilly and many of his ilk are. First and foremost they are entertainers, they masquerade as journalists, but they are there to entertain. Mr. O’Reilly is just a more subtle version of Don Imus; he uses more colloquialisms and therefore is more palatable for many whites. The problem with Mr. O’Reilly and those like him is there influence is based on false assumptions. Because they perpetrate as “newspeople”, many believe that they are getting factual news when in fact they are getting opinion, opinions that have been developed to appeal to their target audience. The purpose of the media is to sell something, advertisement. The ads aren’t there because of the shows; the shows are there because of the ads.

The writers write shows to appeal to a certain segment of the public, their “target audience” usually young whites between the ages of 14-25. The reason being is that research has shown that they have the most expendable income; they buy the most crap and usually the expensive crap. So many of the shows on television are targeting this market, hence Friends, Earl, and American Idol to name a few. But there are other markets that are targeted as well, with the growth of talk radio and the wingnuts they are now being targeted. They are targeted with the likes of O’Reilly, Hannity, Limbaugh, and those clowns. There job is to say and do things controversial that will appeal to their target audience. These people are actors and some of them are pretty good.

Now are some of them racists, I’m sure they are. But many of them are playing for ratings and guess what controversy sells. So, the problem is not these clowns, but the audience they play to. That we still have white people in America that have to be told that Blacks have restaurants where there are no shootings, cursing, and fighting is a sad commentary on the state of race in America. What that says is that we are so isolated and fearful that we don’t even know how each other lives, that our impressions of each other is gained not from experience, but from sound bites and pseudo newspeople.

I wish I could say that it was only confined to the southern, rightwing, and rich, but it isn’t. These stereotypical beliefs effect liberals and progressives just as much. There is much to be done in America concerning race, the first thing is we have to overcome our isolation and fears. We should begin to interact with each other on a more personal level than speaking to the black person at the store or fast food restaurant.

The reason I am such a big proponent of school desegregation is that if we begin to interact with each other early and often we can begin to overcome these stereotypes and gain a better understanding of each other. If not, we will continue to drift ever further apart and instead of two Americas there will be many more.

No, Mr. O’Reilly there is a difference and the difference is not necessarily between black and white, but between those who create problems and those who solve problems. While your comments may increase your ratings with your “target audience”, it only helps to create a larger divide between the bigger audience which is all of America. Thanks

[1] http://mediamatters.org/items/200709210007?f=h_top

Read more!