So you think you’re smart? Try this game out. Guess which racist said the following quotes:
Quote#1 – “[He] is a self-aggrandizing, gaffe-prone incompetent who would have been fired a long time ago were he not black.”
Quote#2 – “He wouldn’t have been voted president if he weren’t black.”
A) Michael Steele, RNC Chairman
B) Rush Limbaugh, Radio Host
C) Keith Olbermann, MSNBC
D) Cynthia Tucker, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
And the correct answer is……
Quote#1 – D Quote#2– B
Were you smart enough to guess the right answer? Did the answer surprise you? We need to fix this racial problem in the American public forum. There is too much disinformation, too many wild-accusations and too many unfounded insults that pass as legitimate news and debate. Let’s take back control of the debate from the race-baiters, the instigators and the mis-informed.
Here’s the problem: The “racist” accusation has been thrown around way too much in recent memory. If you say something even mildly offensive towards blacks, hispanics, Hawaii-folk or cavemen, the offended group’s Affiliated Association will publicly rebuke you, maybe in a speech or at least online. Then one media outlet will pick up the story with a bad picture of you and the caption “offensive remarks spoken” followed by other media outlets running the same story in a different way. By the end of the week, Jay Leno and David Letterman have made jokes about you and your mother and everyone agrees that you are, in fact, an insensitive racist.
Which is why the above quotes are going to be helpful today. You see, Cynthia Tucker was voicing her opinion about Michael Steele, a Republican, who everyone knows is probably racist and hates black people since he’s Republican. Except that Michael Steel is black. But he’s a Republican, too. So a lot of people are confused. And they aren’t offended by Cynthia’s comments because they fit people’s preconceived notions about Republicans.
Now Rush Limbaugh picked up the Cynthia Tucker story earlier this week and extended her point to Barack Obama saying that the only reason he’s President is because he is black. This is the same opinion that many Democrats voiced in the 2008 primaries. But this sent the media into a tizzy with CNN, MSNBC, Huffingtonpost and others all doing stories on Limbaugh’s racist comment. No one second guessed the headlines because everyone knows that Republicans and ESPECIALLY Rush Limbaugh are racists and hate blacks. (1)
But read the offensive quotes above again. What is the difference in the quotes? There IS no difference! The only difference is WHO said it and WHO they were talking about. The quotes fed in to the common misconception that Republicans are racist and Democrats are not. Isn’t this a problem?
It should be a problem to you for two more reasons:
1) Crying Wolf – The accusation of racism should carry weight behind it. We are more than 50 years removed from the Civil Rights Act and generations removed from the remnants of segregation. Americans today are more inclusive, more diverse and more understanding of all types of people. The younger generations going to school with all colors, playing sports with all colors and graduating with all colors. Most young adults in their twenties have no idea how racism could have been such a huge part of our society for such a long time. There has been change and growth and reconciliation in our society which is good. The problem is that with so many accusations of “racist” flying around in the public forum, no one can really define what “racist” means. It is used so often, that it has lost meaning: How can David Duke be called a racist and at the same time a schoolteacher is called a racist by her students for asking them to be quiet? The term has been watered down so much that no one can really define “racist” anymore, but people still use it and react to the insult as the negative term it is.
2) Dialogue Killer – The quickest way to end a dialogue is to accuse someone of being a racist. There is no retort. The accused can only attempt to defend his honor and give examples of why he is not a racist and the discussion descends into a he-said / she-said food fight. True dialogue and discourse on tough issues is going to be difficult, and it is imperative that the Racist term be removed from the public forum except for factually accurate reporting. Too many discussions and debates are run off the rails by flippant accusations that derail the entire process. The term should not be thrown at decent people whose only offense is to disagree with you.
We need to reform this term and keep the media and politicians who misuse it accountable. Real racism still exists but it’s hard to filter out the noise of baseless insults and useless mud-throwing.
This goes back to what we talked about earlier regarding reading and digesting the news.
Don’t just read a headline and think, “Huh, I guess Rush Limbaugh is a racist pig” without actually looking at context, reading the real quotes and finding the real story.
Don’t watch the news and hear, “Senator XYZ is a racist towards Indians” and think, well Senator XYZ hates Indians. Find out the truth! It might surprise you to find out that a quote was taken out of context and Senator XYZ is actually quite fond of Indians.
Don’t casually throw around terms that should carry real weight and therefore delegitimize them.
Don’t be lazy and just read headlines.
Stand up for truth and common sense. Have respectful political arguments and debates with friends. Discuss tough issues about race in today’s America. Talk about ways to improve our culture and our society by continuing the racial reconciliation of the past half-century. Be a thinker and a leader, not a follower.
commonsense85
Truth and Common Sense 
That’s a great post. I wish fewer people would lean so heavily on emotionally high-octane rhetoric and more would turn to sound reason and discuss things to a specific end. As it is, I’m afraid most people just want to have the most riveting and riotous stance for no particular reason.