Box of Soap

There is racism. There is sexism. There are different points of view.

I know I argued yesterday that this should no longer be news, but it can't be helped. Joe Wilson yelling "You Lie!" at the presidential address to the joint session of Congress was many things to many people. But racist? Come on. Why, Jimmy Carter, why? President Obama just wants to do his job... you are making it hard, you are his Jeremiah Wright of the moment... remember how helpful all that was? Racism is a nasty reality. There are idiots out there who don't like the fact that Barack Obama is the president, simply based on his skin color and some of those same idiots may attend the occasional tea party. But, most racists I know aren't clever enough to co-opt the taxation issue as a vehicle to promote their racist agenda. Every racist may be a tea partier, but not every tea partier is a racist. To say that the reason the whole Tea Partier crew yaps on and on about taxes and socialism and telling the government to stay out of medicare is driven primarily because they don't like having a black president is delusional (too strong, but misguided isn't strong enough) and dismissive. This amped up rhetoric doesn't serve the cause, it creates an increasingly toxic environment. You're ratcheting everything up. You are making it an us and them, and inflating the scope and breadth of the them. Were criticisms of Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice racist? I don't remember it coming up. I'm going to go out on a theoretical limb here: A white person criticizing a black person is not automatically a racist. Now, with the Birthers... you may be getting warm, but the rest of it, I'm not buying it. For all I know, Joe Wilson is an idiot and I know he likes the confederate flag (remember the South Carolina factor!) but I certainly wouldn't be able to draw the conclusion that his motives and actions are racist based on an ill-timed two-word outburst about a coverage provision in a yet to be completed health care proposal. Maybe I'm too dense to see it.

I admit, I'm sensitive to it, I was labeled a racist briefly in college at Miami. Why? I drew self-portraits of myself in my notes during a Classics 101 lecture and each had a speech bubble with me saying "Booyah." Apparently my picture was overshaded so I looked black. The guy behind me (who was African-American) must have thought these drawings were inflammatory and decided I was a racist, because he told a friend of a friend that I was. I draw a few crappy self-portraits and suddenly I'm a racist. I feel bad that my drawings upset him, but wow. A year earlier, at college in NC I had a black roommate and pretty much the only people I liked (and liked me) were black. It's a wicked word and a wicked label. Nazi is a laughable label (unless it's about a Nazi) but racist is a different brand. Words are powerful, and powerful words are more so. Use them smartly.

By the way... Judge Sotomayor... not a racist, maybe some unfortunate statements along the way, but please.

I'm going to go out on a second theoretical limb here: A man saying something stupid about a woman is not necessarily sexist. George Bush, when it was thought that Hillary would be the next president, reportedly saying "Wait until Hillary Clinton's fat ass is sitting at this desk" is stupid and offensive and without class. Dee Dee Myers, who I find normally to be a pretty reasonable person, seemed convinced that it was a sexist statement. Where? How? The former press secretary to Bill Clinton (you remember Bill Clinton, the shining example of respect toward women) is way off. Stupid, yes. Disgraceful, yes. Regrettable, yes. Everything bad, yes... except sexist. I don't see it. There is sexism, but this ain't it.

If we go down this road too far... we don't want to go down this road.

Prediction: 40% chance of a Beer Summit with Taylor Swift, Kanye West and the President within two weeks (Taylor Swift gets root beer at this one)... all because of something that happened on MTV. Oh, society, you're letting us all down.

Reflection: I propose the idea that, as a practical joke, a bunch of Republicans got together and told Joe Wilson that when the topic of covering illegal aliens came up they would all make a big stink at the address. He, of course, was the only one who spoke up. Oops! Those crazy lawmakers and their pranks.