Racism is Alive and Well

Prompted by conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer in a television interview, Cain answered yes to the question of whether "race [and] being a strong black conservative has anything to do with the fact you've been so charged."

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-ed-cain-20111103,0,1476336.story

 Mr. Cain immediate reaction shows what we all really know quite well: we are all very, very familiar with the racism of the USA - most of us living with it since our births - and so much in our lives revolves around racism.

Herman Cain certainly thinks so. He knows so. Mr. Cain is not used to the hypocrisy of democracy and the need to hide what one really believes, so he let it slip that racism is alive and well: in the charge maybe, in the discussion certainly, in the putative conspiracy, and certainly in our emotions and reactions... we all know racism is alive!
Like Frankenstein, we see another bolt of lightning and the monster moves its hand. "It' s alive! Alive!" we yell once more.

This always reminds me of Republican opposition to President Obama, which was expressed by many of them at his Inauguration, well before he had passed any laws that were anathema to them. Mr. Limbaugh, for example, fervently prayed for four years of national failure, just so his own political beliefs could somehow be vindicated in a general destruction.

I've been here for a long time. I know we're racists. I know racism when I see it. We all do. We have learned, however, the lessons of hypocrisy too well.

To quote Condolezza Rice from her book describing her decision to return early from vacation during the hurricane Katrina aftermath:

“’Mr. President, I’m coming back. I don’t know how much I can do, but we clearly have a race problem,’” she recalls saying.

--