Last night I had a conversation with a conservative that really put this election, and the challenges ahead of us, into perspective.
More below the fold...
So last night a friend cooked dinner for my neighbor and I. He's a nice guy, a contractor, 60'ish. I had lived in France for quite a time, so I listen to French radio a lot. There's a station that plays unusual non-stop great music with no commercials, so it's a favorite for parties and often becomes a topic for conversation.
Well, he asked about the music and I told him what it was, and that there were no commercials. He was shocked - how do they do that? I explained that it was state-owned, and that it existed solely for promoting music and culture, and how great it is to have your government not only supporting but funding the arts.
So, as you can imagine, we get into the whole "soo, you're a commie" bit. I explain the difference between communism and democratic socialism, and we're actually heading into a pretty cool conversation.
Until....
Well, our problem is all those lazy black people on welfare
...he said with disgust. So, whereas I would have preferred to have an interesting debate with an intelligent person on the right about socialism vs. capitalism, I now have to switch gears and explain to this guy all the levels of wrong that that statement is.
He said:
Well I've hired four black guys, and they're lazy. Two of them quit without notice, just didn't show up, and the other two I had to fire because they didn't work.
I should also mention that he doesn't hire white guys either, because they don't like hard work. He only hires Mexicans. So this guy is just drowning in stereotypes....where do I start??
Well, I asked him if he really believes that black people are somehow genetically inferior to white people...?
No. (followed by the boilerplate "bootstraps", "generations on welfare", "Italians and Irish and Asians have made it" comments)
Okay. So I asked him how his parents were doing in the 50's and 60's. Were they working? Did you guys have a nice house? "Yes". Alright, do you think a black man in the 50's and 60's could have had the same job your dad had?
Aha. Small flicker.
I went on to explain that as recently as one generation ago, discrimination was legal. I reminded him of his "lazy" comment earlier, saying that here we are in 2010, and you said you won't hire a black person. What do you think it was like 50 years ago? And I showed him how stereotypes become self-fulfilling prophecies. That if a family can't get ahead because of their race, those effects last a lot longer than a generation. While he was raised in a relatively stable, well-off middle-class household, the chances that a black person would have had that same life at that time are pretty nil.
And I also mentioned that the Italians, Irish and Asians were never enslaved...it really can bring your people down if other people owned you for hundreds of years.... {eye roll}
He was staying at the neighbor's, but later on he came by to apologize because he didn't want me to think he was a racist. I just reminded him that assholes come in all colors... he said he'd remember that.
But my other point of this diary was how frustrated I was that instead of having an interesting debate on the economic future of our country, I had to spend the time debunking his racism. I think that says a lot about where we're at, and how difficult this election is going to be.
We on the left are dying to move to the 21st century, and we are having to drag the GOP-osaurs out of the 19th century screaming and kicking.