With the presidential election coming up very soon, the topic of racism has been a hot point for many on both sides of the ticket. Comments have been made by politicians that, after the news cycle hits, retractions or clarifications are swift. Some call these 'gaffes', clumsy errors or faux pas; not meant to offend, just said without much thought. The most recent 'gaffe' that has stuck with me since I heard about it was the comment Mitt Romney made as he was being secretly taped during a fundraiser where he said that 47% of Americans are going to vote for Obama because they are dependent on government, they believe they are victims and that the government has the responsibility to care for them, who believe they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing. Personally, it was not surprising for me to hear him say this, due to the fact that Romney is very wealthy and a large number of the very wealthy feel pretty much the same way about those who are not as privileged as they are. These 47% of Americans are those who participate in entitlement programs such as welfare, Medicare, may live in government subsidized housing, may live at or below the poverty line even though they are working citizens and may only make minimum wage. A large percentage of those people, by the numbers, are minorities.
Some may say, 'What Romney said was not racist at all, he was stating facts'. I'm sure many of the people who attended that dinner felt that way. And if you take what he said for face value, it isn't a racist comment. But what the underlying tone of that statement represents is the basis for my thoughts here and a blueprint for, what I call, modern day racism. Years ago, during the Civil Rights Era, racism was blatant. Black people were lynched, attacked with dogs, had fire hoses turned on them, were refused service at white establishments and businesses, were not allowed to vote, could not attend the same schools as whites, were relegated to the backs of buses, etc. Racism clearly existed then. Today, by and large, these practices are socially unacceptable, due to the diligence of activists and others who followed and supported and participated in the Civil Rights movement. But the idea of white supremacy was never fully stamped out and it morphed into what we see today. During those dark times in our country's history, starting with slavery, the idea was to keep Black people uneducated so that they would never be socially acceptable to society. To keep them subservient and in a position to where they had to rely on their oppressors, Black people were conditioned to look a there white counterparts as superior, even after slavery was abolished. Not too many Black people during that time could read; those that could and wanted to further their education were not given access to the same schools as whites were. It was very difficult for Black people to achieve the same things that whites were able to achieve, like home ownership or owning their own business. So the socially elite status that some white people were able to enjoy, the opportunities to become very wealthy, was not something that was envisioned for Black people.
Thankfully, this was not an acceptable situation for many. Through the great lengths that Civil Rights heroes like Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Medgar Evers, Stokely Carmichael, Ida B. Wells, Al Sharpton, Ralph Abernathy and countless others went through to ensure that those who came after them would be able to pursue 'the American Dream', many Black people have been able to attain the socially elite status that was once reserved just for whites. But like I mentioned earlier, the idea of white supremacy hasn't been stamped out. The fact that this country actually elected a Black man into the office of President has made it very apparent that the racism many thought had faded into obscurity is still very real and a major issue today.
Some people may feel that bringing up the issue of race is just too easy, especially when Black people use it as a defense of Barack Obama. Many of us, myself included, attribute a lot of what Obama has gone through during his first term in office to the fact that he is Black and that there are still many people in this country that are not comfortable with the idea of a Black person trying to lead them. I often refer to this as 'some white people not wanting to have a Black man tell them what to do'. Obama's Republican counterparts often try to lean on the 'poor leadership' pulpit when explaining why the country is in the shape that it is in. And in many aspects, they are right. But not in the aspect of Obama's leadership. What they fail to realize is that they are in positions of leadership, too, and their failures to work with the President have been magnified by the majority of them having this good 'ol boy mentality. True, President Obama has not made all the right decisions during his 1st term. But when his political colleagues, from day one, make it known to the American public that they will not support any legislation that he tries to put in place, what is that based on? When politicians decide to waste 4 years and do nothing to help get the economy back on track, they lay the blame squarely on the shoulders of a man who has made progress, almost entirely with no bi-partisan support, what do you base that on? It's not based totally on race, but some of it, a large part of it is.
The terrible thing is, the election of this country's first Black president was suppose to signal to American citizens and to the world that the change that Barack Obama spoke of during his election campaign had finally come. It wasn't just about a change in the way politics was done in this country. It was about a change in the way we perceived each other, how we interacted with not just our neighbors here but the world over. Unfortunately, that change was a pipe dream; a dream that I really think Obama believed in. I'm pretty sure almost every person who voted for him felt like that change could actually happen. But no sooner than the day after Obama won, many Black people experienced what I did when they returned to work or when they visited the grocery store or when they did any of the number of things done during their daily routine. There were a lot of unhappy white people that next day. People that normally spoke did not speak. People that usually smiled did not smile. They didn't wave. People who usually asked how your day was going didn't even look your way. What was that based on? It was based on them not believing Obama could win. It was based in a superiority complex that these people always had. It was based on them not wanting things to change. It was based on the supremacy that had been passed down to them through the generations of their families. It was based on race.
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