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Jeff Kreisler

Jeff Kreisler

Posted: May 15, 2008 11:21 AM

World Shocked By Reality

So, there's racism. And this is "news"... why? Have you been outside lately? Or are we all still under the blissfully terrifying myst of ignorant complacency which makes Stephen King creations look like Care Bears?

Yup, there's racism. Has been for a while. Let's deal with it.

(I've got little standing to speak on race. I'm pretty "white": Went to Exeter, Princeton, and Virginia Law. If I wasn't Jewish, I'd be required to wed a Caitlin and carry a loaded cardigan. Nonetheless, I'll stand on a limb and offer my two pennies).

At least down South, horrifying racism is out in the open, spread loud and proud, and - while it's light years from "okay" - it's certainly not shocking. It's almost endearing. When a web-footed yokel yells a slur through his remaining teeth from the back of a General Lee, it's like a living Norman Rockwell painting. Awwwwww. Isn't that cute. Look at you, you little bigot.

Tornadoes: Attack!!!

Most Southerners I know tell the same story: It wasn't until they came up North that they experienced real racism. Up here, in the Enlightened States of America, racism's a little less obvious, but somehow a lot more creepy. Hiring discrimination, "good natured" epithets, Cuba Gooding Jr. Shudder.

So there's racism. I'm not saying it's the end of the world, I'm just saying it is the world.

My wussy Democratic friends are falling into HRC's too-little, too-late trap, worrying that all this newly-revealed racism might prevent a Democrat from taking office. Sigh. It's just fear. If we embrace the fear, it will make us stronger.

If anything, the racism this campaign brings to light will be a good thing. Maybe there'll be such a backlash that we get a write-in victory for the Sharpton-Tyson ticket. Nah...

It hasn't that been long since the Civil Rights movement, since U.S. citizens were forced into inferior schools, hosed down, and told Jerry Lee Lewis invented Rock n' Roll... just because of the color of their skin. Despite Supreme Court pronouncements to the contrary, we haven't eliminated the vestiges of past discrimination. Yeah, a thousand years of slavery and discrimination gone in a jiffy! That's why so many African American men are living the dream, right?

Let's shake things up. The last thing our country needs is more of the mind-numbing status quo. What's the worst that happens? Racism - or, like "voter fraud," the over-reported threat thereof - lets the forces of evil install Mr. Cindy McCain into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? Fine. Bring on the chaos. Let's have a rollicking, Earth-shaking revolution. France has a revolution every 20 minutes, why can't we? Heck, we practically invented revolutions. (Ok, technically, it was Al Gore).

If the last 7 years haven't been able to shake America out of it's coma, I have dwindling faith that anything can. But maybe it'll take the discomforting awkwardness of a little race war to force us to challenge each other, "What do you stand for?" Then we can point the finger at ourselves and ask, "Where have you been?"

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