I grew up in the South, in the 1960s. It was a time of racial unrest. I remember seeing posters around Shreveport, advertising a concert planned by James Brown – the hardest working man in show business. What a lot of people don’t know about Brown is that he also helped to defuse the ticking time bomb of racial unrest, rather than work to exploit racial tensions, as so many self-styled ‘leaders’ do today.
Fast-forward to 2015. Two incidents in the news make me think that racism is still a huge problem in the USA, but not for the reasons – and the people – that you’d think. I’m afraid that this time around, it’s not Conservatives that have a problem with race. It’s Liberals. And there’s a litmus test that determines just how “black” or how “brown” you are, and it’s got nothing to do with a color swatch book. Let me explain…
Growing up, I was taught that you don’t judge a man (or a woman) by the color of their skin. If you’re going to make a value judgement (and let’s be honest…we all do) about someone, it should be based on what they DO…not the color of their skin. My dad valued people who are talented in music. Didn’t matter their sex, skin color, national origin, or politics. If they could play or sing better than someone else, they got the job. Hard to argue with a meritocratic attitude. Better is…better. Back when I was a kid, I heard a phrase that, to this day, rubs me the wrong way. The “good Negro.” What is “good” about anyone? According to the “logic” behind that odious phrase, it refers to someone who is black and behaves the way you expect them to behave in regards to politics. The phrase implies a plantation mentality, recalling an age where men enslaved other men, and expected them to sit down, shut up, and be satisfied with their (in)human condition.
Today, we have a different kind of slavery, and a different kind of master. Today, we have economic, racial, and gender slaves. And today’s new masters come not from the plantations of the South, but the liberal media outlets of the coasts, along with the denizens of Hollyweird.
I read this morning, where FoxNews favorite token Leftie Geraldo Rivera said something like “in many ways, Jeb Bush is more Latino than Marco Rubio.” Say what?… That’s right. You see, in the minds of Liberals, “Latino” isn’t simply a racial heritage designator. It comes, part and parcel, with intellectual, social, and behavior baggage, sort of like a “Latino Ken” doll. If you’re a Latino, Progressives expect you to behave in a certain way: support unlimited immigration, abolish laws to punish illegal aliens (sorry…”undocumented Democrats”) and support concepts like giving much of California, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona back to Mexico.
How is that not racist?
Then there’s the sad case of Rachel Dolezal, a white woman who felt it was necessary to lie about her race, in order to rise to the top of the NAACP. She “feels” black, so she affected an Afro hairstyle, a killer tan, and made herself look ‘black.’ When her parents told the truth to a reporter and outed her, many people asked (without a trace of irony) “if Bruce Jenner can become a woman because he thinks he’s a woman trapped in a man’s body, why can’t Dolezal be black because she self-identifies as African-American?” Why, indeed, right? I maintain that having your works cut out for you doesn’t make you a woman any more than having a pair of 200w lightbulbs grafted to your chest and move your bed into your garage makes you a Volkswagen. And in a similar vein, getting cornrows and rubbing walnut juice on my skin from head to toe doesn’t make me “black” any more than rolling around in a vat of blue paint makes me a Smurf.
You see, the Left has bought into the idea that there are “good” blacks and “phony” blacks – not dependent on their skin color, but on their politics. Some idiot on PMSNBC opined that “Rachel Dolezal is more ‘black’ than Clarence Thomas.” Um…right. Because the fake black woman agrees in lock-step with the political agenda of the Left, while Clarence Thomas, a Supreme Court Justice who came from poverty – not privilege – and who worked for and earned every achievement he’s won, is not an “authentic” black man, because of his politics.
Give me strength.
Isn’t “stereotyping” the very foundation of bigotry? I mean, it’s to the point today where a black man who puts on tap shoes almost has to apologize for offending the public. (God help him, if he’s seen eating watermelon in public. That would be an unpardonable sin.) And ditto for Latinos. If you’re not advocating pledging allegiance to Mexico in public schools, you’re ruled an apostate and kicked out of the cool kids club. Seriously? And they even have terms to describe those that don’t fit their racial stereotypes. Ever heard the term “Oreo”? It’s a “black who’s white in the middle.” Or a “Coconut?” Yep. “Brown on the outside, and white in the middle.” If you’re black or Latino and don’t toe the mark for Liberal theology, you’re branded an Oreo or a Coconut. Swell.
You see, to the Progressive mind, individuals aren’t…individual. They belong to a demographic group that has been quantified, qualified, and assigned a role in Liberal Political Thought. You’re not a woman who can think for herself…you’re a “Soccer Mom.” You’re not a middle-class black professional…you’re an angry, urban, African-American. You’re not a Latino who’s immigrated legally and is working hard to make a better life for your family…you’re a Hispanic who needs and depends upon government benefits to level the playing field and enable you to achieve modest goals (as long as you vote Democrat).
And woe be unto you, should you stray from the fold. “Apostate” doesn’t begin to describe it. Noted neurosurgeon and Presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson is routinely pilloried for not being “black enough.” (Really? Betcha he’s experienced the same kind of racism that any other black man of his age has had to survive.) Sen. Marco Rubio is not “a real Hispanic” because he doesn’t support Latino causes enough. (And don’t even get me started on Sen. Ted Cruz, who was grilled by a reporter who had the cojones to ask him to answer all the interview questions in Spanish.
How deeply-institutionalized is this hypocrisy? Sadly, it knows no bounds. Liberals think that it is their birthright, by executive fiat, to own the votes of anyone with brown or black skin, women, and the young. Essentially, if you’re not voting Democrat and you’re anybody other than an OFWG (Old, Fat White Guy) you’ve strayed off the reservation, and need to be spirited away to a reeducation camp, pronto.
So we live in an era where the more you cleave to Liberal thought, the higher you rank in the race game (according to Liberals, that is). So a black man who has risen to the absolute peak of his profession (Justice Thomas) ranks below a black woman who’s claim to fame is as a bush-league terrorist (Angela Davis) and even below a white woman who made herself up to look black (Rachel Dolezal) in the “How black are you” scale. Similarly, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio aren’t “brown enough,” whereas a man who’s as white as a loaf of Wonder Bread (Jeb Bush) is “more authentically Hispanic” than they, because he speaks Spanish and married a Latina. Riiiiight.
Can we all wake up from our long, national nightmare of Politically-Correct-Speak, and begin realizing that people come in all shapes, sizes, colors, and political persuasions? I dunno. Until we wrest control of the mainstream media away from the clutches of Progressive ideology, I have my doubts. But is sure makes for some entertaining TV in the meanwhile, watching these Liberal talking heads try and talk their way around their own hypocrisies.
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