A group of white supremacists kill a 49 year old black man in Mississippi, only three days after black teens target white victims at the the Wisconsin State Fair. A group of about thirty black men beat a white man, openly calling it "Beat Whitey Night", at the Iowa State Fair last August. This was not supposed to happen in Obama's 'post-partisan' world. Yet, it is happening. These aren't confrontations between groups of individuals. These vicious acts are targeted towards those whose only mistake was being a white or black person in the wrong place at the wrong time. I am afraid that these types of incidents are only going to get more frequent as political rhetoric intensifies leading up to the election in 2012. The demonization of the Tea Party is already under way. We are told that we are older white people who are racists, bigots, homophobes, anti-Mexican, and are compared to terrorists. Most who hurl these accusations have never been to a Tea Party event. If they had been, they would see that there are blacks, Hispanics, whites, men, women, old, young, Democrats, and Republicans. As with any large gathering there are going to be those who bring signs which are in bad taste, or even racist. At the events I have been to, those individuals have been asked to leave and that we are not supportive of those views. Of course, those are the signs that are featured on the news to further the notions of racist Tea Partiers. Lucky for us we are also treated to the likes of Janeane Garafolo, who apparently has designated herself to speak for every black in the country, saying the disagreeing with President Obama is "racism, straight up". I disagreed with President Clinton too, and we were told that he was the first black President, so I guess I have been a "racist straight up" since the early 90's.
With Obama continuing to use his rhetoric to divide by race, income status, and other means, pitting American against American, I have serious concerns that these incidents are only going to become more common, and involve larger numbers of people and victims.
No comments:
Post a Comment