Racism: Alive & Well & Living Everywhere....

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Tuesday August 12, 2008 · 5:41 AM PDT

2008/08/12 · 05:41

I thought I would share a slice of American life in 2008 with you. My partner and I live in a fairly affluent upscale suburb of New York in northern New Jersey. We're about 22 miles from midtown Manhattan as the crow flies. The population of our town is predominantly white, average age around 45, have beautiful homes complete with maids and landscapers, own two or three cars, are generally professional types, have 2.4 kids, and in general are highly educated people. In other words, very white and very wealthy. They claim to be Republicans but they mean the Rockefeller branch of the GOP, i.e., not very conservative and generally with a strong libertarian streak.

Anyway, when we returned from vacation at the beginning of July, I picked up the mail at the post office. There was a package also waiting for me. It was the two Obama '08 lawns signs I had ordered (you can guess where this is going). Our house sits on a corner lot, the front side on a quiet street, the other on the main drag running through the town. About two weeks ago, I came out to find the sign on the busy street side had been stomped on. Well, I was pissed but managed to get it back into a semblance of readability. I guess I didn't get the message. When I went out yesterday, it had been taken.

I'm pretty sure that both incidents which occurred over weekends were the work of some local teenager on the way home from wherever they held their illegal beer party. (The local Youth Officer has told me that drinking by under age youths is the single biggest problem in our community). But that's not the point is it? The point is that at some time in his or her young life, they had been exposed to the racism virus either at home or among their friends. And I am also sure that deep down inside, that kid isn't really a racist. Just a kid showing off. But the fact remains that the racial virus is endemic in our society. Most are immune to it, some develop the full blown disease. Either way don't kid yourself that racism is either geographical or income-based.

This racial virus is, I think, another reason that we continue to see the closeness in the polls between Obama and McCain. And quite honestly, I'm not sure that this time it won't prove fatal to Obama's chances.

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