I am obsessed with race.
I mean that I am obsessed with the impact that race has on everything in America. Most of it isn’t good. Whether you talk about the economy, marriage, defense, education, or crime, race is a key issue: unfortunately, not for the reason that most people think. Race is not the cause of problems. Culture and politics are our problem. Race just makes it more difficult to reach the solutions we need.
Attorney General Eric Holder
Back in 2009, Eric Holder said that it was time to finally have an honest conversation about race. If he really believed that were true, many of the issues today might actually have solutions. However, over the last four years, our ability to have an “honest” conversation” about race has practically disappeared. In fact, it has deteriorated to the point where we are living a bad Jeff Foxworthy joke. viz.
If you believe that parents should have ability to move their children from failing schools to ones where they have a chance to succeed — you might be a racist.
If you believe that someone should be required to prove that they are a citizen who is registered to vote — you might be a racist.
If you believe that the President and the Attorney General have a sworn duty to uphold the laws of the land — you might be a racist.
If you believe that it is right to oppose a huge unprecedented bureaucracy designed to take over 1/6th of our economy — you might be a racist.
If you believe that it is wrong to withhold or alter news prior to an election because it might reflect poorly on the President — you might be a racist.
If you believe the federal government should abide by the rules laid down in the US Constitution — you might be a racist.
Ken Burns
I could go on and on. The most recent incident was that of the famous documentarian, Ken Burns, who claimed that the Tea Party and those who have signed petitions for state secession are motivated by their hatred of an African-American President.
This was proclaimed on NBC’s “Meet the Press” during a discussion of the movie “Lincoln.” Predictably, nobody thought this was at all risible. Nobody said, “Ken, what evidence do you have?”
And that is precisely the problem.
Over the last 50 years, the Democrats and their supporters have claimed with ever increasing regularity, and with ever decreasing evidence, that their opponents are racists. Republicans and conservatives are kept on the defensive and try to create ways to prove that they are not. This always fails just as the old “some of my best friends are black” always failed. You are trying to whitewash (yeah, I went there) a slander which you cannot remove. No matter how well you argue to prove the negative, people will remember the lie.
The only way we can get past this slander is to force those who use it to justify their claim.
Simply, when one of us is called a racist, roll out these two short words:
PROVE IT.
Then sit back, cross your arms, and silently wait. No you won’t convince them of your better angels. But you will have the satisfaction of showing them for the shallow name-calling posers that they are.
