Is it Racism?

With the election of Barack Hussein Obama as the first African American President of the United States, political pundits and journalists alike talked on and on about the 'post-racial' society of America. Obama's election was proof positive, they said, that race could no longer be used as an excuse for underachieving. "America has completed its evolution into a racial meritocracy," said Phillip Morris of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. And Laura Hollis of TownHall.com simply said "racism is dead."

As the summer progressed and the contentious debate over health care ensued we were appalled when town hall meetings took on a nasty anti-Obama tone. To be clear, people have strong genuine feelings about health care and other issues, and passionate, partisan discourse is healthy. Free speech is at the heart of democracy. But it was as if Obama's blackness was permissibility enough for people to defy him and be nasty and threatening in their behavior toward him, and it was ubiquitous. Even in the hallowed halls of Congress, a Republican Congressman dared to call the President a 'liar'. That had never, ever happened before. That's the kind of behavior that can incite violence. No, this was definitely something more than disagreements over health care.

Jimmy Carter felt strongly that this behavior was racism and said so in no uncertain terms at Emory University. "When a radical fringe element of demonstrators and others begin to attack the President of the United States as an animal or as a reincarnation of Adolf Hitler or when they wave signs in the air that said we should have buried Obama with Kennedy, those kinds of things are beyond the bounds. 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.” And the debate rages on.

David Brooks, writing for the NY Times, said, "No, it's not about race." He came to that conclusion while watching the social interaction between the 'Tea Party' protesters mingling with the mostly Black Family Reunion celebrants whose event just happened to coincide with the 'Tea Party' protest. Brooks had been jogging and stopped to observe the behavior of the different groups interacting. "These two groups were from opposite ends of the political and cultural spectrum. The tea party people were buying lunch from the family reunion food stands. Yet I couldn't discern any tension between them." Could well have been smart entrepreneurship on behalf of vendors who were trying to do business. Maybe the tea party crowd was simply getting nourishment so they could continue their protest.

Appearances aren't always what they seem. During slavery, plantation owners insisted that their slaves were happy 'Negroes' because they were always singing in the fields. The plantation owners didn't realize that songs like 'let us break bread together on our knees' were actually messages to meet down at the river-bed to plot strategy for their escape.

Racism is deep-seeded and instilled in the fabric of our society. It is dangerous because it is often an unconscious, rote response to long years of legal and defacto segregation. It is a part of our culture and affects all of us - black, white, it doesn't matter. I would venture to say that much, if not most, of the venom coming from the protesters has to do with the fact that Obama is a Black man. The repressed anger coming from those who never wanted to see him become President in the first place has 'festered over like a sore, and run,' as Langston Hughes long ago wrote. We must find a way to get along with one another. And we should have as many 'teaching and learning moments' as we can, and move on. There is no room for hate. Bring on the Echo boomers.