What qualifies as racist? by Steve Hansen
With Newsweek putting a cover story out last week claiming we’re all born as racists, I’ve really got to wonder what officially classifies as racist.
Let’s discuss some events that have happened in the past week and think about what you would call racist:
- A white Congressman claims that a black President is lying about something (and, upon further inspection, it turns out that the President was, in fact, lying)
- ACORN employees are caught on camera showing people how to break multiple federal laws
- A 17 year-old white student is beaten mercilessly by a group a black students on a school bus while other black students stand around and cheer
Let’s look at these one at a time:
Is Joe Wilson a racist?
As we all know, last week, U.S. Representative Joe Wilson blurted out during President Obama’s speech to a joint session of Congress, “You lie” when the President claimed that his health care plan wouldn’t cover illegal aliens. It has been widely discussed that the bill currently in Congress does not allow for verification of citizenship, or even proof of legal status. Additionally, every time an amendment has been proposed to require verification, it has been voted down, mostly on party lines.
So, it would appear that Representive Wilson was correct when he stated that the President was lying. Did President Obama know he was lying? Of course, there’s no way of knowing. Does it matter? It should. After all, he’s claiming the plan as his own. Of course, it was proven during the Bush years that a President doesn’t need to know he’s stating something that’s incorrect to be defamed and called a liar.
Was Representative Wilson’s comment appropriate at the particular time it was offered? Probably not, although, again, none of that seemed to matter when President Bush addressed Joint Sessions of Congress and regularly received a chorus of boos. Rep. Wilson has apologized (and his apology was accepted by the White House). So why are we still hearing about potential repercussions?
Why did former President Jimmy Carter make a public statement that Joe Wilson’s comments were “based on racism”? Would this be a racist situation if it was a black Representative addressing a white President? Of course not.
Proving that someone is breaking the law is racist?
What about the ACORN video tapes? So far, four ACORN tapes have surfaced showing ACORN employees instructing two undercover journalists how to operate a business running a house of prostitution employing underage illegals. So what was the initial response from ACORN? Well, of course, the two journalists were obviously conducting a racially motivated investigation.
And what about obvious hate crimes?
On Monday morning, a white student was beaten by a group of black students while other black students looked on and cheered. The entire incident was caught on video. The white victim was looking for a place to sit and couldn’t find a seat. Somebody shouted “beat his ass.” He eventually found a seat, and he was then pushed onto the floor, grabbed by the neck and repeatedly punched in the face by a group of black attackers. While he was being pummeled the mob yelled “boom, boom, boom.”
So, obviously, the police ruled that the attack was not racist or a hate crime. It’s hard to imagine how it could be anything but… it wouldn’t be politically correct to call it that way, would it?
Why is it that you can’t be classified as racist, unless you are a white person attacking a black person?
Oh, and the Newsweek story? A study was conducted that showed that 6 month-old children stared for longer at pictures of people that were a different skin color than they were. And 3 year-olds were more likely to pick pictures of kids that were the same skin color as kids they’d like to be friends with.
So kids identifying with, and choosing to associate with, other kids that are familiar to them means that they’re racist?
If everyone is born racist, doesn’t that mean we’re supposed to be tolerant of that? After all, it’s not a choice, it’s natural, right? But that’s another topic altogether. (And, no, I’m not actually condoning racism, but based on the logic used by some in the Left in defense of other social arguments, this could conceivably be considered a valid defense of it.)
It’s unfortunate for the ACTUAL victims of racism that so many people have forgotten the lesson of crying wolf. The constant allegations of racism, particularly when unsubstantiated, does nothing but promote racial disharmony and violet outbursts in our society. Very well argued, Steve. Kudos.