Let Them Have Their Great White Hope
So there’s a minor tempest in a teapot at the moment because the Republicans’ racism slip is showing again. Shiny new Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins uttered a very Freudian slip at one of her public addresses, suggesting that “Republicans are struggling right now to find the great white hope.” Brava, Congresswoman! Way to step in it right out of the box. Predictably, the media’s given a collective gasp to show that it is shocked, shocked I tell you, that there is any whiff of open racism in the party’s agenda. Keith Olbermann has called for the congresswoman to face “some sort of sanction”, and the rest of the left is practically salivating for its pound of flesh. And of course, the congresswoman is hastening to fauxpologize and clarify that she didn’t mean to invoke deadly race riots and racist history, no, never, ‘course not.
Y’know what? I’m tired of this.
I want the Republicans to just stop dancing around the issue. Drop all the dogwhistles and “I know you are but what am I” crap; ditch the dramatic irony of using racists to cry racism. I want them to just come out and say that this is what they want:
From sea to bright, white, shining sea.
Because if that’s what they want, fine. There’s nowhere near enough white men in this country to win them another election. Once they’ve alienated all the PoC, all the women, all the GLBTQIs, everybody who doesn’t look and act like them, they’ll have relegated themselves to political obscurity. Then they won’t regain power and screw up our economy again, get us into another dumbass war, threaten to turn us into a theocracy, or make the rest of us feel ashamed of being American.
So I hope they find their Great White Hope. I hope they embrace their racism, and their neo-Southern Strategy, until it kills them. Then we can relegate them to the bin of history, and maybe a sane conservative party will take its place — or better still, several sane new parties. And maybe then we can actually start trying to become, y’know, post-racial. (Whatever the hell that is.)
neo-racism. it’s all the rage.
I don’t affiliate myself with a political party. I didn’t vote during last year’s election because I just don’t do politics at all. Some people believe that it is a symptom of apathy or not caring about my country. This is not true. I have my own personal reasons for not wanting to be involved in the whole process.
But I rooted for Obama ALL THE WAY. Can we do it? Yes, we can! And we did!
I knew he could do it. I’m so overjoyed to see him and Michelle with their beautiful girls, writing a new chapter in history.
My husband is white and comes from a family of Southern Republicans. He hasn’t voted in years, but this is because he has little faith in the system. He doesn’t feel that his vote would count. He did express that he felt McCain would have been a better candidate, which I vehemently disagreed with. He feels that Obama is “inexperienced”. But one has to start somewhere. Some people are disgruntled by the way Obama handles issues like war and healthcare, but they will have to deal with the fact that he is in office.
To be fair, John McCain accepted his defeat last November in a very gracious way despite the booing from the Republican crowd. I believe that he knew Obama would be a better candidate.
My in-laws were not thrilled at Obama’s win, especially my MIL. She doesn’t like to see him on TV. She was angry when he said that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in the arrest of Skip Gates. My husband believes that Obama won’t handle terrorists effectively (like Bush did such a wonderful job) and that we need to be prepared for another attack like 9/11. I’ve told him that too many Americans lost their lives under the Bush administration. Obama is not perfect, but then who is? We need to give him a fair chance. Some people are uncomfortable with having a person of color in the White House and they try to justify their racism in ways that sound PC.
I don’t believe that all Republicans are racist (there are Republicans of color), but most of the animosity directed at Obama comes from Republicans and it is because of his race. After all, he broke tradition. He is neither white nor conservative and his name is African.
This society will NEVER be “post-racial”. We don’t live in an ideal world. Racism and hate will always be around.
I totally agree with Ms. Bishop’s last line. “Racism and hate will always be around.”
Why? Because it is a TAUGHT behavior. And many don’t realize that their actions speak louder than words. You can shut them up, but you can’t stop their actions.
What nojojojo said. White men are the real “minority.” Maybe someday they will stop having disproportionate influence. I hope we’re heading that way.
You said it best: “Let them have their great white hope.” Whites in the Republican Party are experiencing a case of future shock. It was predicted twenty years ago that by 2020 the majority of Americans would be brown and black. The once proud majority did not believe this would happen or if it did, it would topple them from the top of the totem pole and thus did not plan by developing meaningful relationships with others. But not to worry, minorities in this country have always been humanist in their out look on life. We are willing to share power for the common good and conservative Republicans must learn that the common good does not include the all rightness of things conservative.
Harold Michael Harvey, Author
Paper Puzzle
http://www.theharveyjounal.blogspot.com
Thanks for this. I’m just hoping that the millions of people that felt moved by Barack Obama’s campaign, especially those folks who never voted before, especially people of color who had felt that their vote didn’t count in the stolen elections of previous years, continue to be engaged and making their voices heard. Because a once-supreme majority that is dwindling in numbers and feeling attacked (notice I said ‘feeling’) can behave like a trapped animal backed into a corner–violent, vicious, and willing to do anything to get out. White people in general are the minority on the globe, but they are still the shot-callers on many levels because they see the benefit of staying engaged and not tuning out.