For the first time ever, the Democratic Party seems poised to choose an
African-American presidential nominee. As Barack Obama is discovering,
politics at the national level entails intense scrutiny and criticism.
Predictably, however, some Obama sup****ters have been accusing his
detractors
of racism--especially when they criticize his "spiritual mentor," a
practitioner of "black liberation theology."
In a Los Angeles Times op-ed piece, one David K. ****pler goes further. He
explains how racism supposedly works in post-civil-rights America:
In a country so changed that a biracial man who is
considered black has a shot at the presidency, the
subterranean biases are much less discernible now than
when the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.
They are subtle, unacknowledged and unacceptable in
polite company. But they lurk below, lending resonance
to the criticisms of Obama. Black professionals know
the double standard. They are often labeled negatively
for traits deemed positive in whites: A white is assertive,
a black is aggressive; a white is resolute, a black is
pushy; a white is candid, a black is abrasive; a white
is independent, a black is not a team player. Prejudice
is a shape ****fter, adapting to acceptable forms.
But it also turns out that adjectives are the equivalent of their most
offensive synonyms. Thus calling Obama elitist is actually a racial slur:
"Elitist" is another word for "arrogant," which is another
word for "uppity," that old calumny applied to blacks who
stood up for themselves.
You can see how the ****pler method works. Did you say Obama was
inexperienced?
"Inexperienced" is another word for "young," and a young male is a boy.
You
just called Obama "boy," you racist! Here's another example:
Casting Obama as "out of touch" plays harmoniously with
the traditional notion of blacks as "others" at the edge
of the mainstream, separate from the whole. Despite his
ability to articulate the frustration and yearning of broad
segments of Americans, his "otherness" has been highlighted
effectively by right-wingers who harp on his Kenyan father
and spread false rumors that he's a clandestine Muslim.
Wait a minute! Did ****pler just say "articulate"? Granted, he's using it
as a
verb and not an adjective, but surely he knows that it is invidious to
describe a black person as "articulate" because it implies that blacks are
usually inarticulate.
The Obama campaign has set in motion a fascinating dynamic. On the one
hand,
some of his fellow Democrats, especially Bill Clinton, have been willing
to
attack him in expressly racial terms. On the other hand, we have someone
making the case in a semi-major newspaper that adjectives are the white
man's
tool of oppression and that anyone who modifies Obama is a racist.
The Obama campaign may mark a turning point in the history of race
relations
in America: the point at which calling someone a "racist" comes to carry
no
more sting than calling him a "fascist."
--
It is simply breathtaking to watch the glee and abandon with which
the liberal media and the Angry Left have been attempting to turn
our military victory in Iraq into a second Vietnam quagmire. Too bad
for them, it's failing.
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