Harry Reid: Racist or Window on America?

I Bet Spike Lee Thinks its Racist

There appears to be quite a flap over the comments that Harry Reid, Senate Majority Leader, made in reference to then Presidential Candidate Barack Obama. I understand the remarks and I am not yet convinced that they were meant to be taken in the way that many in America will take them. But I guess the real question for me is whether the remarks make him a racist, at least in the form that the word is used today, or whether the comments that Reid made really are nothing more than a brief look into the true heart of the average Congressional member, or for that matter, into the heart of the average American citizen. Because while I don’t necessarily believe that the average American is a “racist” in the sense of the word as it is normally meant, but that does not mean that the average American has yet gotten to the point where they do not see color at all.

Now, before I get into the conversation, I would like to say up front two things about the Harry Reid situation. First, I find it hypocritical for the Democrats in Congress to have no issue with what Reid said while many of those same people screamed for the head of Republican Trent Lott when he made what I think were fairly ambiguous comments at a dinner honoring Strom thurmond in 2002. Second, I expect people in positions like member of Congress to be a little bit smarter and more aware than the average person. After all, the 535 idiots continually do what they do in Congress against the will of the people under the premise that the “common folk” are not smart enough to make the call. If they really are that much smarter than the average American, I would expect that they would be smart enough to not make a “mistake” in the wording of something as controversial as race issues. I am no member of Congress, but I sure do try to think all the time about how something I want to say may be perceived. As a result a single sentence sometimes ends up with an entire paragraph explaining what I am trying to say.

Let’s first cover the hypocrisy. Trent Lott, at that fateful dinner for Thurmond, made the comment:

“When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We’re proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn’t have had all these problems over the years, either.”

I wonder if Reid will get a similar "Time" Cover?

No reference to race there. But if you know Thurmond’s platform when he ran for President, then you know he ran on the idea that segregation is a good thing, and he was not very up on the idea of civil liberty for all. So you can infer that Lott was espousing support for the idea of integration being the cause of “all these problems over the years.” But he did not say that. For the record, I do believe that he meant that. Lott’s own record on civil rights for blacks in America is sketchy enough on its own, so I understand the assumption made by the left on what Lott meant. They screamed for his head, and Lott was forced to resign because of the comment.

Now we have Reid talking about then Candidate Barack Obama and saying, according to a newly released book, that Obama had a good chance of winning the presidential election because he was “light-skinned” and didn’t have a Negro dialect except when he wants to. This comment, in my opinion, is directly related to race, as opposed to inferred in Lott’s statement. For the record, I do not believe that Reid’s statement, in and of itself, is racist. It is an observation of what he believes. I myself have made the statement that America would not elect a black man as President if he spoke like Snoop Dogg. You must be well spoken to get elected, no matter your skin color. That Reid pointed out that there were things in Obama’s favor in terms of electability does not necessarily translate into racism. Observation is not discrimination.

But that doesn’t mean that there isn’t hypocrisy. That the left is willing to give Reid an automatic benefit of the doubt while automatically assuming Lott’s guilt is a great example of party politics at play. Throw in Al Sharpton on that boat as well, as he has no issue with Reid’s statement, but was up in arms about Lott in 2002. Of course in Sharpton’s case, it is a matter of not biting the hand that feeds you. Democrats in Congress control funding and exposure for minorities in America. Even though the Democrats have ran on the same failed promises for 50 years, the assumption from most minorities is that the left is the side that fights for them.

More troubling for me is former President Clinton’s comment to Senator Ted Kennedy that “A few years ago, this guy would have been getting us coffee.” Again, this statement can be taken a couple of different ways. Does he mean that because he is black that he would be in a servant position? Or did he mean that as a junior Senator, he would have been treated like every other FNG and told to fetch coffee? Hard to say, but this comment at least feels more racist. Apparently Kennedy felt so as well, as it is reported that he was highly offended and subsequently threw his support behind Obama rather than Hillary during the Democratic primaries.

But what I think of all this rhetoric is that Reid is more of a window into the American soul. Are there racists in America? You bet. But I don’t think they are a large percentage of the population. But that DOES NOT mean that America is at a point where the majority “don’t even see color when looking at people.” Of course we see color. It is in our psychological makeup to automatically put all people into groups. And skin color is simply one of the groupings that Americans see.

Sadly, with grouping comes some level of stereotyping. This is natural and not necessarily a bad thing. Stereotyping exists for a reason. Patterns evolve from observation. But one must be careful with stereotyping, to ensure that it doesn’t become too general or that there are not actions that are unfair associated with the stereotype.  For example, We have a group: Blacks in America. To stereotype all blacks as fitting the disrespectful mode of a hip hop performer is insane. But it is not too far off to stereotype someone in that vein when they enter your space wearing pants at their knees, drop 5 f-bombs per sentence, and act in a disrespectful manner towards others. At that point, the stereotyping of future actions might actually be a fairly accurate endeavor (it could, of course, be wrong as well).

I think that this is the point where many Americans are. They are not racists. They were not opposed to a black man being President. But it could not have been just any black man. He had to be well spoken. He had to have the right message. He had to appear clean cut, intelligent, and within the norms of society. For the record, these same standards are applied to every WHITE candidate as well. Read them again: Well spoken, good message, intelligent, clean cut, and within norms. Requirements of ALL national candidates, no matter their race. Yet race was not one of the requirements.

That is America as we now know it. People, for the most part, don’t really care what color your skin is. They see it. They know it. But they simply do not care. They judge you on your appearance, intelligence, message, ability. And that is how it should be. Again, we have those rogue 10% who are racist one way or the other (and yes there are as many black racists as there are white racists). But the majority are not. And I believe that this is the reality of what is out there. And that is why 90% of Americans get really offended when they are called racist. It is certainly why I get offended. I don’t see the world that way, so when it is thrown at me, I see it as a blatant attempt to use a false front to undermine my otherwise flawless argument 🙂 .

So I don’t believe that Reid’s statement falls into the realm of racism. Is he a racist? Who knows… and for my part, who cares? I find it terrifically funny that now the very same liberals that threw racist calims at their opponents only a few short weeks ago now have been found to make statements that actually could be seen as racist (Let’s not forget Reid’s comment recently that opponents of the health care bill were like those who “dug in their heels and said, ‘Slow down, it’s too early. Let’s wait. Things aren’t bad enough about slavery.’). There is nothing better than when liberals, who use the race card so often it is beginning to lose its effect, get that same card played on them. Whether or not he is a racist is irrelevant. The point is that I don’t think you can assume so based simply on this statement from him, much as you couldn’t do so based on the statement alone from Lott.

That being said, I don’t think it matters if he is a racist or not. He is up for re-election this year. And all indications are that the most powerful Senator in Congress will be swept away by voters because of the corrupt way that his constituents view the actions of Congress. We can only hope that Pelosi suffers the same fate, and that whoever replaces her has some shred of sanity remaining.