Racism in Politics-Putting Skin in the Game

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Those of us beyond a certain age, and many of us much younger, do not have to consult history to recall how gay people were looked upon: more specifically, how we looked upon them. They were the very definition of lowlife. The main reason we did not consider that we were the ones on the side of evil is that we did not think of the issue at all.

gay-flag

This is the Racist Child Molester Serial Killer theory of America. Racists — should they even exist — are not people we know, but people who existed either in some distant history or in a far off cave somewhere.

– Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Atlantic Magazine, August 29, 2011

Click here for the audio version of this article.

Anita Bryant, in her Florida campaign against homosexuality, changed some of that. We were forced to examine the unexamined. Sometimes icy darkness melts a little in the harsh glare of the noonday sun. Even then, it can take time.

Some of us inwardly apologize for our own unthinking acquiescence in the demeaning of gay people. We might find it easier to acknowledge at least the possibility of other unexamined biases. Not everyone has that advantage. Not everyone chooses to see it as an opportunity.

Some racism is like that. It is unexamined except superficially. We skim along the surface of a single assumption. Racists are unspeakably evil. We, and those we include in our circles of friends, are not evil. What could be more clear? They, and we, are not touched by racism, except in our rejection of it.

Most bigotry is not binary, turned off and on as you would a light switch. A line drawn between racism and good will can be fuzzy. Sometimes it is so blurred it is not a line at all. It can be more like a rheostat. The light shines and dims in degrees as the dial is slowly turned.

Few of those who hate the president because he simply does not belong in his position would consider their motivations to be racist. Racism is the province of monsters, on a level with child molesters. In the polite company of Fox News viewers, even those who wear tricornered hats at public gatherings, motives are pure.

The president failed to faithfully execute his own laws, including ObamaCare, postponing requirements that some employers provide coverage. He did this without Congressional authorization.

Did President Bush delay enforcement of Medicare Part D in 2006? Well, we don’t like President Bush, either. In retrospect. So it was wrong back then as well, even though conservatives and liberals and Republicans and Democrats never thought anything about it at the time. We just know a delay of enforcement is wrong because Obama also did it.

President Obama is attacking religious freedom, requiring employers to provide insurance coverage for contraceptives. Some of that has been struck down by the Supreme Court, but a lot of the oppression remains.

Similar requirements long been a part of state law in Arizona, Montana, North Carolina, Colorado, Missouri, Illinois, Arkansas

That’s a lot of states.

Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Washington state, Oregon, Wisconsin, West Virginia, New Jersey, California, Maine, Delaware,

That’s a lot of states with no religious freedom.

Maryland, Connecticut, New York, Vermont, Rhode Island, Michigan, and Massachusetts?

That’s a lot of states with no religious freedom where nobody objected, ever.

Well just because everyone else does it, does that mean Obama has to do it as well? Besides, the issue is states rights. And …uh… religious rights. Conservatives didn’t protest back then because violations of religious freedom were, not exactly okay when done by states, but brought to our conscience because it was Obama.

Immigration! Obama has gone too far on immigration. Sure, deportations are higher than ever, and illegal immigration is lower than in many years. But that doesn’t make everything legal.

Does Obama really have the authority to prioritize deportations? Deporting known criminals before innocent school kids who were brought here are babies? Oh. He does?

How about on the influx of South American children? He’s following procedures on refugees escaping violence passed during the Bush administration? Signed into law by who? President Bush?

Some of the issues on which conservatives hate President Obama may seem like a sudden double standard. We may try to look below the surface for some deeper explanation, some more basic motive. But we won’t find racism there.

After all, bigotry belongs to the scum of the earth, not good folks with good hearts.

Just ask those of us who deeply regret that we once despised gay people.

About Post Author

Burr Deming

Burr is a husband, father, and computer programmer, who writes and records from St. Louis. On Sundays, he sings in a praise band at the local Methodist Church. On Saturdays, weather permitting, he mows the lawn under the supervision of his wife. He can be found at FairAndUNbalanced.com
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9 years ago

[…] friend, liberal Michael J. Scott, is a former police officer. He makes a brief point: “… we don’t yet have the facts so I’m going to reserve judgement. […]

9 years ago

[…] Racism in Politics-Putting Skin in the Game, Burr Deming, Mad Mike’s America, August 12, 2014 […]

Gretchen West
9 years ago

1st: Thanks for the comments, Anonymous, a lot of good points made & still we’re seeing NO coverage of the Ferguson police atrocities on MadMikesAmerica. But, hey, we can read about Cuppy the Cat & a Giant Horse Penis!

BTW, I don’t hate the police in my community. They are more than capable of doing their jobs without gunning down unarmed teenagers. And when 1 of their number steps over the line, he or she is dealt with accordingly. No cover ups. And, yes, I’ve noticed how some cops stick together. Especially when it’s 9 cops against 1 unarmed man. Wow. What courage that takes. And what exactly does “law enforcement executive” mean, anyway? Judge? Chief of Police? Sr. ADA? Doesn’t matter. An executive is an executive. They all stick together as well. Like out-of-control cops.

Let’s see: You’re a “law enforcement executive”, by your own admission you have a lot of money & choose to reward Walmart for its abuse of its employees by patronizing their stores & you publish a website with articles by a few cherry-picked writers who avoid any subjects that make you uncomfortable (like police brutality). Yep, you’re a real friend of the people.

Reply to  Gretchen West
9 years ago

We don’t do that type of news at MMA Gretchen. Never have. We let the big guys handle that. Anyway Michael Brown was a felon and he was fleeing. He had just robbed a convenience store, and then assaulted an officer. He then presented a clear and present danger to the community and the officer was well within his rights to shoot him. I would have shot him. My job is to protect the good people from the bad people. That being said, I don’t like you. Not at all. Were you talking to me this way on FaceBook I would have blocked you, but you’re good for entertainment value in this forum. If, however, you stray from the subject talking nonsense about WalMart you will be in violation of our comment policy, which, if you intend to hang around, you should read. Secondly, you don’t have a clue as to what you’re talking about. None at all. Leave the criminal justice analysis to the experts.

Anonymous
9 years ago

i have never had a negative interaction with a police officer. i have only had enough traffic tickets in my life to account for the digits on one hand, and that leaving the one important finger free to express what i REALLY think of that ticket as the officer walks off….while he’s with me i’m as passive and cooperative as i can be.

i don’t engage in crime…as in hurting others, but i have done more than enough “criminal acts” to put me away for life…had i been caught and charged with even most of them. i can’t drive uptown without speeding, i’ve more than a few times been over the legal limit for alcohol consumption and there was the ubiquitous marijuana use of my youth.

i’ve also had the privilege of spending most of my life being perceived as a rather vanilla, unoffending white guy. white privilege/male privilege…i’ve suffered them both.

i’ve never been stopped on the street, when i doing nothing more than just walking along, and forced to identify myself in writing. i’m not exactly sure of how i might feel should that happen, but it wouldn’t be good. the one time i’ve been stopped in a drunk check, i was sober, but without my purse…a transsexual without i.d., but the indiana state trooper was understanding when i told him my purse had been snatched, he ran my name and sent me on my way….that could have been worse.

i am shocked, though, by what seems to be an epidemic of unarmed young black men being shot and killed by police though…it gives the appearance of something wrong, even if it isn’t really.

the big red flag for me is hearing of the different police jurisdictions around the country lobbying their legislatures to make video taping an officer on the street doing his duty illegal. that rubs me real wrong. a public servant doing his public duty in public should welcome public scrutiny, not want to see it criminalized.

there was an incident last night in furgeson where an al-jazeera film crew had a tear gas grenade launched at them. the crew fled, the police rushed up, pointed their lights to the ground, as well as the camera. they said the lights were interfering with their ability to do their job. a better way might have been to ask the crew to do away with the lights….maybe they did, i don’t know…but, anyway….i can fully understand that…those lights are bright and it makes perfect sense that the police wouldn’t want them shining in their eyes. what doesn’t make sense….is why they went on to point the camera to the ground as well. rather it’s true or not, that sure makes it look like they are doing something they don’t want the public to see, they don’t want held up to the light of day. that’s the kind of stuff that makes me real uneasy.

just thinking.

Gretchen West
9 years ago

Except, of course, for their reluctance to arrest the murderer Zimmerman. And why were there a pack of cops bearing down on 1 black man in NY? Aren’t these people trained to defend themselves (see Rodney King)? When someone says they can’t breathe, shouldn’t they receive CPR? It’s OK, though. Just hypothetical questions. All “law enforcement” (executives included) have a tendency to stick together. I have noticed a lack of coverage of questionable police behavior on your website. For instance, I don’t expect to see the abuses of that murdering pig, Arpaio (AZ sheriff)on “MadMikesAmerica.

Reply to  Gretchen West
9 years ago

You won’t see any “abuses” that aren’t documented and I’m no fan of Arpaio. Do you think I’m going to publish something that is pure rumor and not supported by documented facts? Not going to happen. Secondly, I can tell by your words that you’re a cop hater. I learned after 40 years in law enforcement that trying to explain police procedure to a cop hater is like arguing with a drunk. Both are exercises in futility. As to sticking together that’s true, and we have to, because of people like you.

Gretchen West
9 years ago

Bigotry is unacceptable regardless of the source. But I find it especially alarming when it is practiced by law enforcement. Recently a black man in New York City was strangled to death by a cop while other cops held him down. Now there is rioting in St. Louis because a cop shot an innocent black kid. Additionally appalling is the fact that riot police & tear gas are being used in Missouri, but both federal & local law enforcement in Nevada are hamstrung when it comes to dealing with a white rancher who doesn’t want to pay his bills & has threatened law enforcement if they try to collect. Don’t even get me started on the Trayvon Martin murder & the Florida law enforcement’s pathetic handling of the “prosecution”. Furthermore, I question whether the murders (by police) in NY & Missouri, not to mention Trayvon Martin’s murder, would even have been news if it weren’t for – you guessed it – Al Sharpton. No wonder people in law enforcement don’t like him. Thieves do tend to hate watchdogs.

Reply to  Gretchen West
9 years ago

Al Sharpton is a race baiting scum bag. Secondly, the giant guy in NY wasn’t choked to death. He had a heart attack and the police did nothing wrong. The guy was told he was under arrest, and he failed to comply with the officer’s orders. As to the Ferguson kid we don’t yet have the facts so I’m going to reserve judgement. Law enforcement had nothing to do with Trayvon Martin.

Racer_X
9 years ago

If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

Stacey Gray
9 years ago

Perhaps the surroundings I was raised in were an anomaly. My father a Canadian Catholic, Mother the daughter of Welsh evangelical Christian missionaries and, eventually, the US head of a well known conservative Christian organization, my parents both socialites of Manhattan, professionals.

Perhaps it was a different time, Post WWII, when men wore Fedoras and women dressed smartly, when everyone smoked, drank socially but were never drunk, and nobody in polite society talked about sex, religion or politics. And maybe it was that we were well north of the Mason-Dixon line.

Everybody knew about the “gay boys” who lived on the floor above Aunt Florie and often borrowed her clothes for the drag shows. Everybody knew about the 2 old maids who had lived together in the cute little cottage on the corner for years, the guy who had the flower shop and about the divorcee and her new boyfriend raising her sons from a previous marriage on the next road over. If you wanted good nightlife you went to the black jazz clubs in Pittsburgh’s Hill district, and when you rode the train a black porter, Mr. Johnson or Mr. Brown, would make sure your trip was comfortable. And Mr. Guyton delivered the eggs and Mr. Childers brought the milk. Churches had minstrel shows to raise a little cash (Not bingo, that was gambling!) and everyone knew about the priests who drank too much, the Jews who went to church on Saturday, and the home for unwed mothers run by the Nuns. And though one might disagree with a President, he was always “Mr. President” and treated with the respect due the office.

And statesmen debated the issues, they were not politician, they were statesmen, they didn’t deal in black ops and mud slinging, personal attacks, and personal lives were off limits. It just was not done.

What I don’t remember from those days was hatred and bigotry. I remember people minding their own business, being kind and courteous to one another. Minding their own freaking business. There were more important things to talk about than other people’s business.

So what happened?

Where did the racism, hate and bigotry come from? When did people stop respecting each other, their property, privacy, dignity? When/how did it become socially acceptable to meddle in other’s affairs? How did it become an imperative to impose your beliefs/theology/politics/myopia upon the others, to condemn them as less? When did every man for himself and worship of the almighty dollar supersede the societal necessity to care for one another?

When did we as an enlightened society regress?

I remember the summer of Love, and the hope it brought to the generation that things really could, would, be better.

Appaently at my age I am still naïve, an old hippie with worn out dreams of peace and love. But this racism and hatred you speak of really is all so foreign to me. I first saw it in College, when my roommate was branded “Mike the kyke”, and the 2 black students at my little branch campus were just (the n word. Gee whiz, it was already 100 years since slavery at that point, why the continues animus? It wasn’t until about the time of Stonewall that I recall hearing the anti gay epithets, and about this same time that the proselytizers began knocking on our door imploring us be “born again”, and drugs became a mainstream thing.

I miss those earlier days of the great society. I feel sorry for those of you who, by location, socio-economic reasons or just date of birth missed it.

Pennyjane Hanson
9 years ago

“deeply regret”.

“you have to BE the change you wish to see in the world.” mahatma gandhi

until we are privileged to see in ourselves that which needs to be changed we have no hope in change. change is HARD! many times change comes to us by way of epiphany but it takes constant attention to keep the change and to keep on changing.

know that you have been changed: you can say, “deeply regret”.

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