George Will is a silky scorpion, a velvet stiletto. His column which ran in my local paper yesterday is disturbing for its coded racism.
The point he seems to be trying to make is that there is hope for peace in the Russia-Georgia conflict. Yet 90% of the three columns describes 1908 racial violence in Springfield, Illinois in considerable detail. The final paragraph specifically links the "siege, rioting, lynching and mutilating" to Barack Obama’s announcement of his candidacy. My newspaper, in whose readership racists are well represented, ran it with the headline "Can we elect a president who doesn’t look like us?" with subtitle "Obama’s rise illustrates history’s promise, not serenity but possibility: Things have not always been as they are." The connection between Will’s graphic content and his ostensible point is thin enough on the face of it; the headline – presumably written locally – brings it home.
Like David Gergen and other Southerners, I know code when I hear it, and I hear it here. It is based primarily on generating fear. No doubt Will and his fans claim that this is written in support of Obama’s campaign of hope. But that pretext goes entirely against the grain of Will’s philosophy and career, which is more truly aimed at fending off a post-racial America. His recent appearance on the Colbert Report was excellent entertainment, but it was also chilling. His is a tiny, airless world which, however delightful to himself and his imitators, is hermetically sealed against variety.
Maybe no one can call Will out on this sort of thing – if Colbert didn’t nail him on the generalities, who can? – but be on guard, people. Watch for this snaky formula to be repeated in the days to come: identify it, label it, stomp on it.