Can we please stop being full of shit on race issues?

Am I the only one on God's green earth that thinks Reid's comments about candidate Obama are first and foremost - a reflection of the facts on the ground as many saw them?

Let me explain so as to avoid having the "racist" anvil dropped on my tender head.

Here's what Reid said:

...the country was ready for a "light-skinned" African-American president with "no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one."

What are people really twisted up about here? My guess - the truth.

A. He was right. The country did elect a black man. It was "ready". Whatever that means.

B. The wording is archaic. ("Negro" being unacceptable. It may be offensive - but, let's face it "African-American" is overwrought and annoying. Black and White are just fine. Imperfect - but they do the job without lilting over into a form of deceit.) The intent of his words was widely accepted among whites, though rarely spoken, in 2008.

C. Any white American over 40 who tells you that it's just as easy for them to stomach a dark skinned black man speaking with the thick rhythms of a southern preacher as it is a light skinned Harvard educated college lecturer speaking with a standard American accent is either

1. In a small minority.
2. Lying.

D. He's calling Obama a fraud who can turn the "black" on and off. That is an absolute truth.

For God's sake, I heard white voters in Iowa say nearly the same damn thing on C-span. Reid's word choice is retrograde to be sure. But millions - and I really mean millions - of white voters had the same thought about Obama in 2008. He's black in a way that I'm comfortable with. He's "articulate". He doesn't go off into Jesse Jackson type rhyming harangues. Sure, I can vote for him - and I'll feel liberal minded to boot. Are we are supposed to pretend that this calculation was not a fact of American life in 2008? It's absurd. Can we PLEASE , for once, stop being full of shit on race issues?

Here's what really going on; another round of the race denial dance. White person says something, often in an awkward manner, that many white people think,. Since the white person said it at all - forgetting to keep it locked in the secret white vault of things that we think but do not say - every group that wants to seizes the moment to extract a pound of flesh. The white person then apologizes, not for being a racist - they usually are not in any real sense- but for inadvertently pointing out the elephant in the room. The apology has nothing to do with the remarks. It's all about protecting the racial ecosystem's balance.

In that ecosystem whites pretend they never have a wayward, un-PC thought about race so other whites, who are also pretending, don't have to confront and own their real feelings on race - which, at this point, mostly add up to helpless annoyance with the whole thing. Because who wants to be the first prominent white person to say:

"Sure, I sometimes judge people based on race. Who doesn't? I get judged for being white by non -whites all the time. Yes, I judge black culture and sometimes is bothers me a great deal. Other times not at all. Still other times I'm grateful as hell for all of it. All in all it's not nearly as important in my mind as every thinks it should be. This may sound unfeeling but there it is.

What white leader would dare speak that truthfully - even though it would ring true for a huge number of people?

These periodic eruptions about race have become primarily about white people keeping their comfort zones in tact. Obama, as much or more than most white politicians, knows how important white comfort is in the ecosystem. Please note that the president accepted the "apology" by differentiating Reid's words from his "heart", skipping over completely the annoying fact that the words, however backward, actually pointed to a reality for many.

Black "leaders" exploit this dance too when it suits their needs- but in truth they are ancillary. Many white Americans act as if they are concerned with what black leaders are saying. Cold, hard fact: Most aren't. No one should think for a second that the white elite who funded Obama saw his race as anything other than a selling point that closed the deal. A white Barry Obama, even with all those soaring speeches, would been dismissed out of hand after New Hampshire as a one term nobody who got ahead of himself.

How do I know the black leadership is ancillary to these dramas? History. How many times have we been down this road? Does the black leadership's narrative ever change? Do the white "offender's" plot points ever have a twist? No. Comment, reaction, heartfelt apology, everyone goes back to their corners. If tangible consequences result it's only because they can - not because of any set standard. Reid won't resign anything. He can't be lost. Ferraro could. So she was.

Wouldn't it have been refreshing if Reid had come out and said: I said that. Shoulda used different words but hey, I'm old that's the way we spoke in my youth. Bad habit. What? You think most of the white Obama voters in the country didn't think the same thing? They did. I promise you. Get over it.

That would be the whole truth. We can't have that.






None of this should be taken as a defense of Harry Reid. He's a malignant wart on the body politic. When he gets shown the door in November I will shed no tears...