I was born at a time when lynchings were common. When I was a child we drove to my mother's home in New Orleans, and at a stop at a gas station in Mississippi, my Cocker Spaniel jumped out of the car and ran into a little shanty of a cafe and bar. I blythly ran after her, and straight through the bar. Being a properly raised young lady, I grabbed the dog, looked at the 6 or 7 men standing, stunned by my appearance, and said, "I'm so sorry to disturb you, but my dog got away." No word was spoken until I left through the front door, dog in tow. Then I heard a deep voice say, "Don' ya worry, none. She ain't from 'round here. Won't be no trouble."
I stopped in my tracks, and started to go back to ask what I had done that so upset them.
Just then, my father called me and I returned to the car. I discribed what had happened to my parents, and asked what I had done wrong.
My father said, "Having a white girl run into their bar frightened them." Then he explained why. I have never forgotten that encounter.
My mother was the worst kind of racist. One of those, "Well, there are some good Nig--rs, but they are not our kind of people." Raised as she was, in the Deep South, at the turn of the 20th century, she can be forgiven some of the inculcated racism that she was immursed in, and to her benefit, she did come to a more enlighted attittude in later life. But "they were never our kind of people", in her mind.
I was an early Civil Rights marcher, and worked for equality during the late 50's and all through the 1960's. I have always imagined myself as being born with a justice gene, that could not, and would not, tolerate all of the mindless, vicious, intolerance with which I found my self surrounded.
As an outgrowth of this combination of early exposure to racism, and an active career in fighting it, and although I can never claim the sensitivity to the subtle rejections experienced by African-Americans everyday, I do claim a high degree of sensitivity. And I call out the media and the Hillary Clinton campaign for using racial divisions that still exist to try and tain the campaign of Barack Obama.
It's bloody clever. Aside from Bill Clinton and Mark Penn's heavy handed blunders, the new racist attacks are bloody clever.
Listen to the commentary from both the campaign and the MSM:
"Hillary has her base among the less educated, white, hard working, lower middle class."
This is the last bastion of mindless racism in the US. Everyone knows it, although it is highly impolite to say so. And for anyone who can identify with this demographic, it just became OK to vote that racism.
To strong, you say? Try this...
Barack, on the other hand, has his appeal among, "highly educated, latte drinking, wealthy Americans."
This is the prime Republican talking point for the past 30 years. All of those coastal, Volvo driving, Lib'ruls, that want to integrate your schools, open up your clubs, and let "those people" into the main stream of American life. This the tactic that created all of those Reagan Democrats, and kept them voting in lock step with movement conservatives, in spite of the harm our country has suffered. Racism, in all of its guises is the heart of the Republican take over of America.
Well, this is the call out.
We have four Americans competing for the nomination of their respective parties. Constant references to the demographic data that created the Republican Revolution is just WRONG. Stop it. It helps no person, it helps no group, to continue to divide Americans by race, gender, and income level.
No purpose is served by incessent talking about voter demographics, except to reinforce stereotypes, give tacit permission to align with various groups without considering the implications, and continue the divisive tactics developed by Richard Nixon, perfected by Lee Atwater, and polished by Karl Rove. Do not continue to let these devisive voices determine the course of our elections, continue to promote racism, and manipulate the worst instincts of the "uninformed voter".