Every time an elected official says something astonishingly stupid, one of my favorite games begins. It’s called, “Not as bad as...” Take Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s comments about President Obama in the recent book “Game Change.” Reid said Obama stood a chance to be elected because he is “light skinned” and had “no Negro dialect.”
Democrats quickly began damage control by saying that Reid’s comments were not as bad as what former Republican Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott said about the late South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond. In case anyone forgot, Lott said, during Thurmond’s 100th birthday party, “When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We’re proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over the years, either.”
Thurmond ran on the Dixiecrat ticket in 1948, when, in turn, he said, “I wanna tell you, ladies and gentlemen, that there's not enough troops in the army to force the Southern people to break down segregation and admit the nigger race into our theaters, into our swimming pools, into our homes and into our churches.”
Thurmond, who, in a delicious instance of irony, actually fathered a daughter with a black maid, also is famous for holding the longest filibuster in U.S. Senate history against the Civil Rights Act of 1957.
In another instance, there’s RNC Chairman, and political ‘dead man walking,’ Michael Steele. On Fox News he recently underscored a point by saying “Honest Injun.” Injun, is, of course offensive to Native Americans. In another example of irony in action, Steele called for Reid’s resignation over the dialect comments.
So, are Reid’s comments “as bad” as that chain of stupidity? Yeah, of course they are. Do they have anything to do with Lott’s comments, and, by extension, Thurmond’s - or Steele’s bad imitation of Tonto? Nope, not really. It just proves that racism by any other name is still the same.
What does “Negro dialect” mean? I suppose another way to say what Reid said was, “At least Obama doesn’t go shuckin’ and jivin’ across the country, so he might have a chance.” “Light skinned” is just another way to say, “Not really black, or, at least not black enough to scare the wits out of whitey.”
One has to ask just how Reid, or any of the others, can walk their statements back. Plus, it’s not like any of the parties are really all that interested in improving racial relationships either. It’s easy to wring one’s hands in front of the cameras and express contrition, but what are they really contrite over - the fact that they said it, or the fact they got caught?
All of this underscores that no matter how much we say otherwise, we aren’t really living in a post-racist world. Would it really matter if Obama had this supposed “Negro dialect” or if he looked like an extra from Zulu Dawn? Ideally, no. It’s the strength of ideas and beliefs that is an appropriate measure of electability and character. If we consciously factor in superficial notions of race, then, guess what, we’re racist. Sorry folks. It’s all “as bad”, and there can be no gradation.
I was born and raised in the South, and I’ll admit that I’ve laughed at inappropriate, blatantly racist jokes, or made assumptions about the same. Maybe I’ve even told a few. I never stood up in front of my friends and said they were inappropriate, but, they were. That isn’t a mea culpa, though I’m not proud of it. That didn’t stop the chuckles at the time though. Why? Because we’re all a product of our environment. We all do it, black, white or whatever. Whether they’re jokes or assumptions about men, women, ethnicity, gays or foreigners, there will probably always be an “other” to malign and mock.
However, there are always the better angels of our nature, that let us know that no matter how funny the joke might have been, or how accurate the stereotype might be, it’s still wrong to go there. It’s still the antithesis of what a civilized, enlightened society should be. I’d like to think Reid, Lott and Steele knew that, and maybe could of used a little sincere contrition to spark a direct, frank discussion about why we say these things, and if our respective environments could use a little cleaning up.
However, since they’re all so busy playing, “Not as bad as...”, we’ll have to put that badly needed discussion off for another day. Majorities need to be maintained, bills need to be passed and symbolic gains can be just as good as real ones, depending on how one chooses to see it.
McPherson, Kan. —
