If caution is a characteristic of conservatism, then I must own up to that side of my personality. I sometimes yield to
chicken-shit tentativity when expressing observations on the racially polarised landscape we find ourselves living in. But
not today.
As one who is given to frequent rumination on such issues, from a perspective of cultural complexity, I'm understandably drawn to, and opinionated on, this discourse -
despite assuming a position high above the fray as a proud proselyte of an (admittedly) idealistic
tabula rasa (
Rasta?). The
One Love philosophy.
Racism is the polar opposite of this stance, being based in bias;
i.e. the principle of any race's intrinsic preferability over another. Bio-specific minutiae, such as variability in skin-tone and sundry genetic distinctions, are the props it's built on, but racism's broad purview
includes cultural corollary to this precept.
Acknowledging that there's a case to be made for
racism being a natural characteristic of the human species, there can nevertheless be no doubting that colonial expansion over the last five centuries, for all the wonderful countries founded, also
compounded the issue and extended hegemonies, via
empire.
In the
United States, and other post-colonial societies with historically race-based beginnings,
race is a
DNA factor that colors culture and political affiliations. Variants apply but
this view is through
black 'n' white specs.
Sensitivities surround the word
racist, even when used as mere explanation. It tends to trigger soul-denial, and render generalization and selective memory powerful psychological tools in the struggle for representative power.
This has fostered a proliferation of codified, and not so codified pejoratives. The establishment of an
African-American POTUS has laid bare nerves beneath a filmy epidermis of equanimity, as this remarkable democracy seeks to retain its ascendancy.
"
Communist," "
dictator," "
terrorist," "
thief," are nouns from only one comment-thread, in one disaffected right-wing
article parsing the
2012 re-election result, but I've seen several such. The same thread is decorated with adjectives like "
evil" and "
ruthless," with more than one bright spark styling
Barack Obama as "
Anti-Christ" ("
read your bible") and "
Son of Lucifer" ("
666 - The Beast").
I'll deliberately avoid rehashing
cretinous diatribes on magic negroes, bones in the nose, monkeys, makers/takers and nooses.
So help me
Jah, I couldn't make this stuff up. Wry smile. More.
One of the things I grapple with in this climate, is the reluctance of so many white American voters to draw the connection between a
Republican vote and a
racial slap-in-the-face. In light of palpable idiocy and ill-concealed hatred from right-wing ranks, I'm ecstatic at
G.O.P. misery at the polls. Even
if Mitt Romney was a financial magician, it would've been regrettable to empower the
social luddites and those who refuse to take them to task.
For sure, there is no
economic prosperity worth sacrificing
social propriety for, and none achievable without it.
The sting in the tail here is, if anyone points out how suspicious this
vitriol is, toward
Obama's frequently referenced heritage, the charge of
racism gets defensively leveled at
them.
Let's get one thing straight.
Racists tend to use the
unqualified term
"
reverse racism" with impunity. It deflects the onus of understanding by identifying
pushback as the primary impetus. This only serves to perpetuate ignorance and
impasse.
"
Liberal" and "
conservative" are not bad words, nor mutually exclusive from
racism, but it does seem difficult for the latter to transcend or decry bigotry. So much so that
Obama optimists get accused of being divisive and disingenuous when it's patently clear who really is. Witness voter allegiance.
It's sad, demoralizing, polarizing, undignifying,
yet still, somehow fascinating and instructive just how much adrenaline an
American election can inject into this dialectic. Nearly all of old Confederacy voted
Republican, and a vast majority of
non-whites ("
minority" is a misnomer now) voted
Democrat.
Americans, of the
United States, deserve less entrenchment.
