The one in which John blows another cog about race.

Rev. Wright has sent me a bit to the Right on issues surrounding race. The culture of victimization must end, not because it hurts the majority - but because it destroys entire sub-cultures it purportedly defends. I see no reason to be anything but forthright about this. White liberals skitter around race. I am done doing it. I am calling out white liberals on this one. For most white liberals respecting racial diversity and working for civil rights long ago morphed into a slothful game of hide and seek with words used as cover.

Obama's campaign has been poisonous for race relations and he is at fault. Obama weaponized his skin. He took racial pain and used it. By doing this he has cheapened real racism and made it harder to combat. The only thing a sane individual can do is to repudiate and refuse to play the game. Ferraro got it right when she said Obama was where he was because of his race. The vicious attack on her was not about a racial remark she made - it was to CENSOR any discussion of BHO's qualifications and teeny resume. See, if there wasn't a faddishness about white liberals voting for OBama - then they were left having to discuss his qualifications. This had to be avoided by Camp Obama and white liberals. Obama could not withstand a true vetting and if white liberals had to THINK about the person they supported it would take EFFORT. White liberals voted for Obama for one reason: He is not white. Layer all the excuses you want on top of that - none of them hold up to scrutiny. He's accomplished nothing, he has no resume, and his past is so suspect it makes Nixon look like an altar boy.

Howard Dean did not give a s**t what BHO said or did either. The Dean equation was "not Clinton" plus "He's Black". That is all. The content of Obama's character was and is irrelevant. This is the opposite of civil rights.


Now this phenomenon has morphed into being force fed "issues". McCain and Obama are to be spread out before us as if they are equals. They are not. One has a long resume. The other does not. One has a tangible list of accomplishments. The other does not.

Its like saying since I watched all the swimming at the Olympics Micheal Phleps and I should debate stroke technique as equals. BHO put together a ruthless team and can make a speech Obama has no other qualifications. Don't get me wrong a ruthless team and a good speech matter. But that's ALL he brings to the table. I would be writing the exact same thing about his qualifications if he was as white as my butt. That, my friends, is "post-racial".

I have tried mightily to get white liberals to defend Obama. They can't with any depth. A few
are honest about it and support him anyway. I respect that. Disliking the other guy more is a reason, at least.
As an individual there is not much one can do to combat "victimization" as social policy except to speak out against it. I'll start by pissing a few people off right now: Whites say "African-American" instead of "Black" out of politeness and fear. Most think it is an annoyance and nonsense. African American is a stupid, foggy designation. I am done with it. It served whatever purpose it had a while ago. European -American is just as dumb.

I had 2 Nigerian students when I taught. They were black. They were here because their parents worked at the Nigerian consulate. They had no intention of ever becoming American. What "racial" box were they to check? Asian-American is just as retrograde. Are Siberians Asians? Are Iranians? YES. THEY. ARE.

"Black Americans" is just as respectful and is more on point than "African -American."

There was a time not so long ago when liberals thought the point of civil rights was integration. INTEGRATION WITH RESPECT FOR DIVERSITY. Not categorization to ensure a generations long bitch fight that enriches a few "leaders" and is used as a guilt tipped battering ram to win votes from the spineless.

The late Stephanie Tubb-Jones was about as American as one can get. No hyphen required. And her race is entirely relevant. Forceful, take no prisoners, American Black women, from Harriet Tubman to Shirley Chisholm are embedded in the American psyche. They are part of what makes us - us. They were Americans. And I thank God for it.

Tip O'Neil was a quintessential American as well. Taking away his Irishness would be taking him away. And a United States without Irish pols would be a greatly diminished United States. Ditto for James Carville and Tiger Woods and 99% of the population.

Native Americans may be the one exception. The simple cold facts are these: Europeans invaded from the East and the South, killed the people here, and took the land they lived on. Indian is no good. Tagging an entire people with a mistake a conqueror made centuries ago is insulting. Native American or AmerIndian is as good as English is going to get in this case.

Let me get to the final obnoxious hyphen: All - American. This means White. "An All-American guy" is code for strapping white male. An "All-American" girl is a pretty white girl. All-American dismisses pretty much all other Americans. Dr. King was All American. So is Tiger Woods and the late Ms. Tubb-Jones.

Categories diminish. We can't get to character unless we stop the foolish, lazy word games.

End of rant.