I have a very simple rule- Racism is unacceptable. There are apparently people out there who do not understand the concept of “unacceptable”. I do not think there are many member here who need the education, other than the occasional troll. But for me it is a bold and unbreakable line. If you tolerate a racist, you ARE one. Full Stop. Period.
Anytime you see a politician with an R next to their name, rest assured, they are racist. This week, a woman who want to a segregation academy and then sent her daughter to one, who joked about going to watch a public hanging in the very state that had the most lynchings, who co-sponsored a bill to Re-name a road after Jefferson Davis, and called his home, “Mississippi history at it’s best,” was elected by 8 points to continue as their Senator.
Two days later, the nomination of Thomas Farr to a Federal Court seat got pulled. The Republican’s token black Senator said he couldn’t vote to confirm Farr when he discovered that Farr was more involved in the late Senator Jesse Helms racist campaign actions than he represented he had been. It gives the impression that Senator Scott was more upset that Farr lied, than that he took part in it- remember that Farr co-wrote and defended in court a law written to disenfranchise African-Americans “with surgical precision.” Even Senator Scott was okay with that. In 2018, this man was NOT ONLY nominated, but made it to the floor for a vote!
A little disclosure here, I am white. I’m Jewish. I was born one year after two Jewish men and one black man, Andrew Goodman Michael Schwerner and James Chaney, were murdered together for helping Black people register to vote in MISSISSIPPI!
I saw the play American Son on Broadway this week. It is about an interracial couple trying to find out what happened to their son who was “involved in a police incident”. A few years ago, I took my sister to see the musical Memphis. Memphis is an interracial love story which uses the birth of Rock n Roll to drive the plot. The play historically accurately calls what would become known as Rock “Nigger Music”.
At intermission of Memphis, my sister, 6 years younger than I, told me about her son learning about Martin Luther King, Jr. She said she wasn’t ready for her 5 year old son to learn about our racist past. I told her it wasn’t the past- this was 2012 and there were still Americans who looked straight into a camera and said “I’m not voting for the Nigger!”
On the other hand, talking to my mother after seeing American Son, SPOILER ALERT-she said she was surprised that the son had been killed by police. I told her that’s what the whole Colin Kapernick (sp?) NFL players kneeling was all about.
When I saw the movie Remember the Titans, the story of the first integrated high school football team in the state of Virginia, I was reminded that it happened when I was 7! I grew up in White Jewish suburbia, Long Island, New York. I neither witnessed, nor experienced racism. My understanding of Judaism is that we do not believe in Heaven and Hell. I tell people that what I like about that is it means we do the right thing BECAUSE it’s the right thing.
RACISM IS WRONG! I can’t believe that in 2018, I feel a need to type that. Throughout the 2016 primaries, everytime Trump said something vile, the other candidates said nothing. On the rare occasion the press would ask, they would dodge, and I said they did that because they want the votes of the RACISTS who liked what Trump said.
I DON’T WANT THEIR VOTES! I wouldn’t get them if I tried anyway. I DON’T WANT TO UNDERSTAND HOW THEY FEEL! 3 million more people voted for team BLUE (AKA Secretary Clinton) in 2016- this year the number was over 8 million. Every day the odds are that more racists die, and more reasonable tolerant human beings achieve voting age. I’m not betting on demographics here. I’m betting on fewer white racists.
Now, racists don’t like being called on their racism. It hurts their feelings. Well, to paraphrase Chief Justice of SCOTUS John Roberts, “The way to stop being called a racist is to stop being racist.” Rant over, we now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.
Thanks for listening.
