State of Protest

In the debate on health care, and among other issues, Americans visiting town hall meetings made many vague, potentially inane, comments in response to discussing issues in these public forms. Are these comments racist?

“I want my America back,” that singular phrase repeatedly quoted by so many, but expressed by so few, has become a rallying cry for those who want … well, we’re not sure exactly what they want. Whatever it is that they want, apparently they don’t have it now. The big question is, “What changed and when?” About the only thing that has changed this year is that we have a black man in the Oval Office. Certainly, Congress has passed legislation to, hopefully, secure the foundations of many financial institutions, as well as provide an economic stimulus package to avoid an economic depression. But, where did these people lose their America, or how did they lose what they thought was their America?

Racism exists in America; it actually exists everywhere. Racism is a mental state. When one is racist, one thinks that a particular race of people are superior to another race of people. Historically in America, racism involves “white” people believing that “black” people are permanently inferior to the superior abilities of “whites”. Through some painful events in our history, a majority of “white” Americans no longer believe themselves to be superior to “blacks”, but what was once rampant racism among whites has devolved into varying levels of prejudice towards blacks.

Did the woman he famously cried, “I want my America back”, do so because she is racist? Prejudiced? Did she cry out because she didn’t like Congress passing legislation in which the government spent money it hadn’t collected? Did she think that atheist heathens have taken over her country? Let’s examine the facts. Using the most advantageous of polling statistics, at most, 15% of Americans publicly identify as atheist, which is an increase of 5% over prior prior polls. That just doesn’t qualify as a takeover of American society. President Obama has repeatedly referenced his Christian faith, and Vice President Biden is a life-long Catholic. So, no atheists there. If we look at the spending habits of Congress, we can see that the budget surplusses of the late 1990s were turned into increasingly ugly budget deficits from the year 2001 to the present, so Congressional spending certainly hasn’t changed recently. So, what’s left? The mocha coloration of Obama’s skin. When she cried out about wanting her America back, what else is there? I have to conclude that she wants a “white” President in the Oval Office. It’s likely that she was Republican, so maybe she was upset about the chairman of the Republican National Committee — Michael Steele — a black man. Ooops! They just keep sneaking in the door, don’t they? If McCain had won, the woman probably would have gone to her weekly bingo game that night instead of a town hall meeting.

While I can never be sure of the woman’s intentions in crying out for her lost America, one thing we know is that racism is here. Racism will never go away. Racism will likely continue to diminish over time, but it’s here and we need to deal with it. One of the wonderful factors of diminishing racism is that we have a mocha-colored president, so 53.7% of American voters decided that they weren’t racist and cast their vote for a black man. Even the Republicans chose their sole black member as the head of the RNC, though that has proven to be a publicity stunt in reaction to the first black prez.

Recently, former President Jimmy Carter threw in his two cents to state that he believed that many of these incidents are evidence of racism. He’s probably right, but since Obama won the election and he is still popular, Carter’s comments only serve to acknowledge what Obama cannot. It’s certainly an acknowledgement the views of a limited number of Americans that still dwell on life in 1964.

The recent town hall meetings, the 9/12 demonstration, and the vague expressions knowledge thinly masking the insincerity of the talking heads, are all examples of fires fed by one fuel: racism. Even if some among them aren’t racist, a black man in the Oval Office is a convenient tool to leverage your political views, activate your political base or to just pad your wallet with other peoples’ money. Obama may save the economy just by existing. Those who want their America back might just get it.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 20th, 2009 at 11:05 am and is filed under Government, Morality. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.