The Color of the Republic.....

I began this post on February 7, 2012.  I got derailed and did not finish it at the time.  Since then, I have lost my Mother and my other dog and grief drowned out the call for a clarion moment within me.  But I am better now and have much to share as I look at the things that are happening in my lifetime.  I have been away a long time from this blog.  So much has happened, so much has gone on, and sooooooooo much has been said, and even more has been unsaid.  I say unsaid because there have been repeated dog whistles and code words for inciting responses while attempting to appear not to be inciting the masses.  You see, for all of it, the last three years have ripped the scab off of the ulcerating race relations in this country.  I say ulcerating because there is a language being used that is reminiscent of the days of the KKK.  Yes, I said it, the KKK.  It is the language used to incite fear, hate, and racial animosity.

 It is the language of the ignorant and disenfranchised who believe that their lack is a result of someone else's actions, interfering with their birthrights.  It is the language that most of the frontrunners in the GOP used and it warrants exposing. For the last several months many so called "conservatives" have been rallying behind this language.  It is the language designed to inflame the poor and middle class Anglo Saxon protestant who believes that the progress of African Americans and other racial minorities is at his or her expense.  It is the language that is designed to stir the insecurities of that population and stimulate and feed into the distrust of citizens who do not look like them.  It is the language to evoke hostility, based upon racial stereotypes, misconceptions and misinformation, toward those who have been prejudged as not being capable of achieving what they have achieved on their own and unworthy of the gains that they have made.  It is the unbridled and fostered renewal of racial tension for the purposes of dividing the populous for political gain.  You know the language and it makes you often times angry and uncomfortable, but many of us do not challenge it, we do not attempt to discuss it to eradicate it.  We simply try to ignore it, partly in hopes that it will go away, but more often than not, because we are unprepared to possibly give up our personal advantages we have gained by not addressing it.  

 This code language has always been a part of the private conversations of individuals who harbor racial hatred for African Americans and other minorities as we make strides and progress, which these individuals are not making.  It is the insistence that an African American or other minority is not good enough to have accomplished what he or she accomplished on his or her merit, it had to be affirmative action that made it possible.  Let me for a moment share this reality, which is true for many individuals who have benefited from affirmative action.  Affirmative action may level the playing field so that the social, psychological, economic, financial and factors that create disadvantages for many African Americans and minorities do not prevent them from advances in education and career paths.  Affirmative action may help you to get to the door, may even open the door for you.  But, affirmative action will not keep you there.  In other words, affirmative action creates opportunity, but only merit, hard work, and strident effort will make it possible for that individual to succeed.  The success of that individual is not because of affirmative action, it is because of the tenacity and achievement of the individual. Notwithstanding that, many conservatives are convinced that affirmative action is how Barack Obama became President.  Not!

But back to the code language which became part of the mantra of the conservative movement that started during the 2008 presidential campaign with Sarah Palin and John McCain.  It should have been stopped then, but it wasn't. Language such as un-American, unpatriotic, socialist, communist, and Marxist.  All of that language was to say that the President was not one of them.  When the President first started campaigning, many were quick to try to make him choose between his Anglo Saxon ancestry and his African ancestry or were quick to note that he was half white.  The underlying intimation being that if he was half white he was in part, one of their own.  The historical problem of that conundrum was the fact that the constitution made it clear, if he was even remotely African in ancestry he was not one of their own, but one of our own.  He was one of us. And soon, the rabid language of torch bearers, night riders and cross burners was being bellowed from the podiums along the campaign trail.  Our President elect, gentle spirit that he was and is, saw it as a teachable moment, or so he thought.  But it really wasn't a teachable moment, because the opposition was not receptive to a person of color, who had risen to the ultimate pinnacle of success in this country, telling them what was abhorrent in their behavior, conduct and language.  So, it was a cancer, growing and ulcerating in the psyche of the ignorant and blind followers and proponents of that sort of language.

 

For us, those of us who are minorities, it was a teachable moment for us, but, we missed it. We missed it because we have become comfortable with our lifestyles, our achievements, our accomplishments and our stations in life. And we missed it because we did not want to believe that 40 years later, after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., that we were still at the same place in race relations that we thought left behind in 1968.  But the evidence is in.  Many in this country are still in the same place in our psyche. And here we are on the eve of election again, and the language has been resurrected with even greater fervor.  In part, because it never died down after the 2008 election, but also because the same conservative forces that stoked the fires in 2008, are again stoking the fire.  But, you see, they have failed to notice that the color of the republic has changed.  And while they are cranking up racial hostility, they have not noticed that more and more African Americans and other minorities are succeeding in spite of the hostility and in spite of the code language.  And because the color of the republic has changed, who knew that in my lifetime, we would return to the days of requiring certain minorities to have their “papers” on them at all times.  But then again, had Henry Louis Gates had his “papers” on him, the President may not have had to have a beer with that police officer.