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Newsflash: racism in America still flourishes

he speaks what's left of his mind
he speaks what's left of his mind
Getty Images

Racism still exists in America, and that is not really breaking news.It always rears its ugly head, and it doesn't take much for that to happen. This weekend, it came in the form of an alleged remark by the owner of the LA Clippers basketball team, Donald Sterling. It seems Sterling apparently made remarks (over the phone) to a girlfriend of his about not wanting her mingling with blacks and at one point asking her NOT to bring any blacks to his team's games. Sterling seems to be mixed-up in some legal entanglements with this girl, and since this is her tape of the 'alleged" phone call, one has to question it's legitimacy. One thing against Sterling is that, in the past, as an owner of apartment buildings in and around Los Angeles, he was forced to pay millions in a settlement which involved keeping people of color out of his units. This cost him over $2 million. It's puzzling, based on that housing discrimination issue alone, that the Los Angeles chapter of the NAACP is scheduled to give Sterling a lifetime achievement award in May! This guy gets busted over housing discrimination and the nation's leading blackorganization gives him an award? Maybe it's due to the fact that he's made millionaires of many black Americans who just happened to be good at playing basketball. It will now be interesting to watch how the NAACP reacts to this latest, potential issue, with Donald Sterling and his innermost feelings about minorities.

Meanwhile, in the state of Nevada, a new folk hero for the extreme right is named Cliven Bundy. His story involves his refusal to pay the federal government for grazing rights since his herd of cattle uses that land which is leased. Among other statements made by Bundy is that he doesn't recognize the United States as any sort of legal entity. That mentality seems to work for a guy who has decided he doesn't want to pay his bills. What happened when the feds decided to go out to this area and take control of Bundy's cattle, is that a group of right-wing militia types gravitated to this place to meet the feds, with loaded guns, and a zest for bloodshed, if necessary. For some reason, although other ranchers pay the federal government similar grazing rights, Bundy has decided he should be exempt. Is he just some deadbeat who doesn't pay his bills? Of course the inner workings of this deadbeat hillbilly's warped sense of right and wrong, surfaced again when he went on to tell the world that, in essence, "the negro" was better off under slavery and picking cotton. It was simply a more family oriented design for "the negro" in the warped mind of Cliven Bundy. It seems within one week, two disparate Americans found a united philosophy: Donald Sterling and Cliven Bundy are like-minded souls. It was only natural then for Fox News, and most, if not all, of right-wing media saluted what they seem to think is a "great American". This is because right-wingers appear to gravitate towards racism, or at the very least, utilize race-baiting as part of their attraction for an audience which doesn't seem to like people of color.

Check out another hero to the right-winger: Ted Nugent. this simple-minded hack couldn't write or sing a decent song if his miserable life depended on it.That doesn't matter to the knuckle-dragging neanderthals who listen and even attend his dreadful concerts this hick puts on. Ted Nugent found a way to extend a career that was on life support years ago, by appealing to the hillbilly gun freaks who tend not to be part of "the rainbow coalition". Nugent shows up at gun shows, and sells himself off as a great hunter and survivalist. The Tea Party crowd loves this slop, but then again, it takes nothing to entertain this crowd who actually would have voted for Sarah Palin to be within a breath of the oval office. What can you say about such absolute ignorance? As I've always said, the trouble with these types is that they breed more, so we'll always be stuck with them, but hopefully our new generation of Americans, more open- minded, can overwhelm the extreme right. Oh, I almost forgot to remind you of what Nugent said about a month or so ago which makes him so appealing to the right-wing crowd: he called President Obama, a "chimpanzee" and a "subhuman mongrel". I'm not sure what two lowlifes got together to breed such a pathetic excuse for human life, but Nugent is a perfect example of why we can never outlaw abortion.

Listen to right-wing radio and you can hear racism come through in many inferences and in other cases, just flat out obvious remarks to downgrade people of color. This crowd always tries to infer and suggest that they are somehow patriots, but they are quite the opposite. Just because you clad yourself in red, white, and blue doesn't make you a patriot. Just because these types lathered on "support our troops" stickers all over their trucks after 9/11 didn't make them patriots then, and stock-piling guns doesn't make them patriots now. Patriots pay attention to our laws, try and change them via the ballot--not with bullets. Check out phony patriots like Glenn Beck, who always talks about "the founders" as if he is some scholar on the subject. This slob wouldn't even be on radio or TV if America didn't have a surplus of low educated morons who simply can't think through complex issues. They enjoy and allow the likes of Beck, Hannity, and Limbaugh to do the thinking for them, and it always comes out wrong. America's government is now more polarized than ever, and it's because the Republican Party let itself get hijacked by the extreme right. If you think the House of Representatives has America's best interest at heart, check out their poll numbers, which are now at about 6% approval. A recent remark about illegal immigrant's reason's for crossing the border is prompted from "love"; this from potential 2016 Republican candidate, Jeb Bush, will potentially destroy his chances with the extreme right-which still controls his party.

No, we will never see the end of racism. It comes up daily in America, and even the Supreme Court chimed in about race when it recently upheld a Michigan ban on affirmative action in higher education within the state. I supported affirmative action because after state and government sanctioned slavery and segregation for so long in America, we had to do something legally which would balance the playing field It wasn't the best approach, but how can you right such an ingrained and enduring wrong?.As a white person, if you don't think what harm government sanctioned slavery/segregation did to a race of people for generations, then you're simply not dealing with reality. I do support an end to it, but am not quite sure when that day should come. Defeating racism is something to strive for, but decreasing it should be a daily chore. The battle continues in a nation where the supporters of racism, and race baiting forge ahead because there's money in it. Fox News may, at times, honestly reflect a different point of view, but in their attempts, they and their radio brothers and sisters of the extreme right, consistently promote racist ideas. Whatever effect that has on society is secondary to this crowd, mainly because it pays huge dividends.