Posted by
Brian Kennedy on Monday, June 25, 2007 11:55:31 AM
The World through Race-Colored Glasses
“Barack - the Magic Negro – lives in D.C. The L.A. Times, they called him that, cause he’s not authentic like me.” This is the beginning of a parody by Paul Shanklin that Rush Limbaugh aired on his show in March. It has only received attention because CBS 13 in Sacramento decided to do what dinosaur liberal networks are wont to do: pin conservatives with charges of racism. The song is performed in Paul Shanklin’s Al Sharpton impersonation; it addresses the lunacy of “authentic” blackness litmus tests by race lords like Sharpton and Jackson.
You see, Barack’s mother is white and his father is Kenyan. He’s part African, he’s definitely American, but he’s not “African-American.” Therefore, because he hasn’t grown up “in da hood” and does not owe any dues to Sharpton/Jackson Race War Unlimited, Inc. the authenticity of his blackness is considered questionable. What do I see when I look at Obama? An authentic left-wing socialist. Identity politics nauseate me and have no place in a presidential election, although I do prefer having the race/class/gender war confined to the Democratic primary instead of the general election. Not even the greatest spinsters can make a claim in the general that a vote against Obama is a vote for racism, especially after both Hillary and Edwards have slugged it out with him for various identity blocs.
The cause of all this brouhaha is seeing the world through the prism of race. For some people - mostly liberals and grievance mongers – anything that anyone does is colored (no pun intended) by their racial outlook and identity. Police pull you over? It’s cause you’re black. Hurricane levels your city? It’s cause Bush hates black people. Even a cashier taking an emergency call while you’re at the counter can be blamed on your perception of their perception of race. The lowest common denominator here is blame-shifting. Every man, woman, and child knows and abhors the evils of racism. Most people are consciously aware of their actions and try to treat everyone equally. The problem arises when a customer or employee, displeased by what could simply be absent-mindedness or generic rudeness, calls you a racist for not living up to the demands of a black person and by extension the black community.
One dynamic I have never understood is bowing before race lords Sharpton and Jackson and issuing an apology to “the black community.” Sharpton is among the biggest race-baiters and grievance-mongers to ever walk the earth. While he puts up a respectable front, when he’s speaking at closed engagements he talks about white interlopers and uses certain racial epithets that I refuse to repeat. You need only look at his actions regarding the Duke Lacrosse “Rape” Case. Mike Nifong (white guy) got all of Durham riled up in a race/class/gender war in order to get himself re-elected and all the left-wing dupes in Durham bought it, including 88 Duke Professors that have nothing but my disdain. But Sharpton and Co. say “Look Away! Look at the Larger Problem! Seek the Larger Truth!” as three hardly saintly but certainly innocent college students were nearly railroaded into jail. My surprise comes only from the fact Sharpton and Co. haven’t gone after Nifong for making the black population of Durham look like fools. I suppose since Nifong and Sharpton do the same thing in promoting “racial justice” regardless of cost, Nifong can be excused for his outright lies and gross miscarriage of actual justice.
Nifong has since been disbarred and hopefully more punishment awaits him from personal lawsuits. (H/T: Michelle Malkin) Jesse Jackson has fallen so low he was arrested outside a gun shop for protesting the death of a black youth, probably by a black gang. Jackson of course, assumes the gang kids bought their guns legitimately at the shop. The Race pimps are slowly being shunted into irrelevance, apparently there haven’t been enough stupid statements for them to continue the race gravy train, so they are resorting to low-level protests.
Ultimately, viewing everything through race-colored glasses is detrimental to society. It breeds hatred, it breeds conspiracy theory, it breeds distrust. It is difficult to fulfill Martin Luther King’s dream of judging a man by the content of his character instead of the color of his skin when race is all some people, black and white, can ever see. There is a new order of segregationists: Those who would deny justice in the name of an agenda. Those who live and breathe off the generation of racial tension and hatred. Those who would question the authenticity of those with too few loyalties to “the cause” and too much neutrality to “the enemy.” Sharpton and Jackson are just two outspoken examples of this new order, but others exist and pervade society. Duke has 2,518 professors, including adjunct and others. 3.5% of them were willing to condemn their own students publicly. How many more were silent, thinking the same way but not acting on it? I do not know and cannot read into the hearts of men, but this new order of segregationists must be exposed and defeated if true racial equality and harmony is to be achieved.