Less than a week after Obama’s win, the unreconstructed were already out to play in this new, racism-free world of which that victory is undeniable proof. Don’t believe me? Well, believe George (there he goes again) Will: “…the election of Barack Obama is an American majority’s self-emancipation: We are free at last from the inexpressible tedium of the preoccupation with skin pigmentation.”
Tedium?
This from those who were so preoccupied with race as to take the time to “scientifically” coin and enforce categories like mulatto, quadroon, and octaroon? To individually mark a huge nation’s water fountains, doorways and, like, entire parts of town ‘Colored’ and ‘Whites Only.’ To sail for months to a specific continent for specifically pigmented people to pick their cotton, whip, and rape. Oh well. I guess ‘preoccupation’ is in the squinted eye of the beholder. Mr. Will: I know it’s a waste of both your time and mine to say this, but we’re only preoccupied with race because our lives revolve around your preoccupation with it. Being white and decrying non-whites ‘preoccupation with pigment’ is like thieves decrying non-thieves preoccupation with locking their doors.
Wearily predictable and annoying as this is, the nerd in me finds it best to spend her time wondering about the following minutiae.
What’s up with Mr. Old School ‘Larnin’s choice of words: “an” American majority? There can only be one, right? What did Mr. Erudition Used Only For Evil mean by that formulation? His point is so stupid, it’s a better use of time just to make fun of his grammar and the Freudian slip that it is. In his heart, he meant ‘white people’, but the part of him that needs to cover its equally pigmented ass knew to cloud his true intent. So, ‘an’ allows him the plausible deniability to argue that he meant not whites, but “all those who are sick of talking about race,” i.e. Sarah Palin’s “real” Americans who, by definition, judge people by the content of their character and not the color of their skin.
I promised myself, I preach, that true racial progressives shouldn’t bother with Neanderthals and unworthy ‘arguments’ like this one. So, ok, I’ll stop now.
But not without one last example of the only port in the storm of Obama’s win for bigots, racists, and true elitists. From my favorite conservative, Heather MacDonald, this lovely piece of…let’s just call it denial (sneering itals mine):
It is to Barack Obama’s credit—and that of the country—that his race was so muted an aspect of this election, something that as little as 50 years ago would have been unthinkable. … Though the vast majority of Americans have nothing to apologize about when it comes to race relations—in fact, the country has spent enormous sums and institutional capital over the last four decades trying to bring as many blacks as possible into professional life—the idea that racism remains a powerful force in American society continues to dominate liberal thought and practice and to be embraced by a significant number of blacks themselves.
To debate this would be as dignified, and as useful, as debating whether the earth were round or flat. If you don’t find this ridiculous and hateful, nothing I can say will affect you.
OK. I’m better now.
But there’s this: An upsurge in gun sales since Obama’s election. “They” tell reporters it’s because Obama, and the liberal-dominated Congress, will try to disarm them. But I think it’s whites’ subconscious fear that we’ll treat them the way they treated us. You decide.
