The New Racism

     The presidential election of 2008 was perhaps one of the most disturbing manifestations of a racism that is still deeply rooted and widespread in the United States of America. I say this not because more people did not vote for the African American candidate, but rather because so many did. Now before consigning me to forever burn with the likes of the Ku Klux Klan, I ask that you  put aside that initial emotional response and read what I have to say. I hope that you come to understand and at least respect my point of view... which of course is the true understanding of the situation at hand.

       During elections in the United States, American citizens with the opportunity to vote (notice I didn't say right or obligation), have the responsibility to be educated about the founding principles of our country and those principles' origin, the current issues, and the character and position of the candidates who are running for office. Then and only then, ought a citizen to approach the voting booth to cast his ballot for to do so otherwise may indeed be a grave neglect of duty and a puerile lack of responsibility. You see, when Americans elect a president, they are electing a Commander in Chief, a citizen to represent the people and to do the best he can to lead the country in accord with the principles upon which it was founded. 

       Let us remove ourselves from the touchy nature of this particular discussion for a minute and reflect upon this example. Let us pretend that you and I are investors in a new venture. Now our investments are not monetary but rather our whole livelihood, our freedom, our right to rule ourselves, our families, and yes our very lives. So, if we were the investors choosing the board of trustees I imagine that we would choose persons who have knowledge and the skill set to help make this venture a successful one. Further, I imagine that we would want persons who have experience on the scale of which or on a greater scale than this venture to ensure the greatest confidence in us. Besides the knowledge and skill set needed I would imagine that we would desire a person with longevity of experience, illustrating his success in previous similar ventures. I hope that we can stand on common ground thus far although depending upon your state of affection for certain ideals, I very much doubt you will consent to agree with me as we bring this analogy full circle.

       So to do just that, let us relate this example to my original point. "The election of 2008 was perhaps one of the most disturbing manifestations of a racism that is still deeply rooted and widespread in the United States of America. I say this not because more people did not vote for the African American candidate, but rather because so many did." If I were a presidential candidate running for office, that statement would be taken out of context and repeated across the airwaves, made viral on the internet, and broadcast constantly on television news channels and talk shows as well as ridiculed by late night 'comedians'. Yet none in the media except for a few more honest souls, would even care to consider the context of this statement. In fact, the disregard for context of statements is perhaps one of the greatest injustices of the media. Anything taken out of context appears to be abhorrent. But I digress, why do I maintain that because so many people voted for Barack Obama our nation is still in throes of a deep and distressing racism? 

       I propose that many if not the majority of persons who voted for Mr. Obama, even in the Primary and perhaps more importantly there, did vote for him based upon his knowledge, skill set, or experience. Barack Obama had not even served four years on the United States Senate when he began his campaign for president. Prior to his brief stint as a Senator in the U.S. Senate, he served in the Illinois state senate for seven years. He is a graduate of Harvard and worked as a civil rights lawyer and taught law. His career as a leader is anything but experienced. I care not if his experience is in politics, perhaps it is better not in politics, but to not have the necessary skill set or experience of practical application of the knowledge he most likely possesses makes him a farce of a candidate. He is so to speak, a boy in a man's world or a rookie attempting to lead his team to a championship. He is not experienced nor qualified for one of the most important and demanding jobs on the face of this planet.

       I think it reasonable that a huge number, if not the majority of those who supported Barack Obama in the Presidential election of 2008, supported him because the color of his skin, his ethnicity. It is of course true, that African Americans were treated with incredible cruelty and endured unspeakable crimes for decades and even centuries, but there were also many persons in America who fought tooth and nail and gave their lives for the cessation of this horrible and indescribable crime. In fact, our nation fought a war that was in part about this issue. I decry slavery and I decry racism which is what has led me to write this article. Think of the throwback if any person of any significance in the public eye stated that they supported John McCain or Hilary Clinton because he or she is white. There would be a media nuclear explosion, a figurative media riot or crucifixion if not actual riots and murders. Why then is it now permissible to support somebody who is black for that reason yet it is completely intolerable to support a candidate because he or she is white? I think a common response would be that the African Americans have suffered so much over the centuries at our hands they somehow deserve to be given things to make reparation for those sins.  Well excuse me, I am a Catholic and my ancestors in my faith were Jews and they were persecuted by the Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Canaanites, the Nazis, and even now in China, North Korea, Iran, Syria, Palestine, Europe, and the United States. Do I then deserve some sort of reparation for those sins committed against not only my ancestors but also me? Of course not, and I would never claim as much. I also do not propose to ever make a decision based upon the color of one man's skin. Each man is equal in his dignity and if I were President Obama I would be chagrined that people decided to vote for me based upon the color of my skin. 

        I am convinced that it was a great act of racism (coupled with ignorance and apathy concerning issues facing our country) on the part of the American people to elect Barack Obama president of the United States. I am offended that people both black and white would choose to vote for a candidate for president based on the color of his skin. Did we not fight a war in part over this? Have the deaths of those brave men and even boys been in vain? Many of us had ancestors who fought in that war, on both sides even, will we forget their sacrifice? Are we not proud of the men and women who sacrificed so much, sometimes their lives to bring about equal opportunity for all men? I will not tolerate such hypocritical stances from my fellow Americans. We cannot claim racism on the one hand and deny it on the other. The very fact that people were influenced to vote for a candidate for the presidency because of the color of his skin is a disregard and disrespect for all those who have fought for civil rights in America over the years. Such actions and ideologies of victimization might as well disrespect the hallowed ground where so many heroes are buried. 

I quote Dr. King Jr. in his timeless speech.

“Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon of light, of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity, but one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.”

Dr. King’s immortal words are appropriate I think today just as they were when they were first heard. Now we are almost one hundred and fifty years after the Civil War, the Negro is still nor free and this time he is held in the bondage of inequality byt the obtuse ignorance of both white and black men unable to see the foolishness of continuing to promote the black man as a victim of society who is entitled to his rights not because they are inalienable and from God, but because of sins committed against his race. If all men are truly created equal as is held to be true by the doctrine of Natural Law and notably laid out by our founders, King, and Lincoln, why is it permissible to put a man on a pedestal because of the color of his skin? Two wrongs my friends do not make up for a previous wrong committed. It’s simple mathematics, the addition of two negative numbers to another negative numbers results in a ‘greater’ negative number and a lesser existence.

       I would like to leave you with the text of the Gettysburg Address given by President Abraham Lincoln, who I think might be turning in his grave at the current State of the Union. So take yourself back to that hallowed fields of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania…

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

- Abraham Lincoln, Commander in Chief, United States of America (November 19, 1863)