Subtle Racism

Some things must not be allowed to slip by without comment. Every time they do we lose sight of reality and slip deeper into a television induced coma. A classic and unfortunatley all to common incident occurred on Tim Russert's "Meet The Press". I am quite certain that Tim himself did not have any idea what was happening and will probably not gives today's show a second thought.

Despite the willfull or blissful ignorance of some liberal elitists, the fact is that racism no matter how subtle is still racism and we must not let it continue to influence our social and political dialogue without recognizing it for what it is and striking back at the powerful influence it can have. This morning's show provided a classic scenario in which the vilian's subtle but truly adept attack probably went unnoticed by all but a very few...I doubt even the vilian himself had any conscious thought when he continuously and consistently stooped to questions steeped in racism. How did this happen? 3 out of the 4 commentators on the show were white. They were all asked a series of pointed questions but all were general in nature and add sweeping implications. The 1 African-American commentator...a well known and respectable political and social thinker was asked extremely narrow and condescending questions about the black voter and how the black voter will react and who will win the black vote. Was this man somehow without qualification to speak on any other issue? Of course not. But he was never given the opportunity. What a bitter poison pill to swallow and yet we as a society swallow it over and over again without thinking twice. We lable and divide and then rather than engaging in honest debate. We assume that if someone does not fit a category they are not qualified to speak on it or worse yet...we assume by our questions and actions that a person is not qualified to speak on anything outside their own social, racial, or sexual category.

It is not my desire to sound negative or bitter and I do not for one minute believe that Tim Russert is a angry racist who is out to harm the African-American community...but he did it today and in a dangerous and subtle way by treating one black man as inferior and not giving him the same treatment as everyone else on the show or asking him broad questions.

While I fail to see eye to eye with many of the candidates running for President and do not see eye to eye with Obama...I hope that we as a nation can truly set aside color and vote for or against him based not on color but rather on the character of the candidate. After all equal and fair treatment, a level playing field and one day a color blind society are great and noble goals. Categorizing, dividing and ultimatley sidelining any person on the basis of color is not only stupid it is the most dangerous kind of racism. The subtle racism of limiting influence and opportunity based on color and racial stereotypes and allowing one's race rather than their actions and beliefs to identify and define a person.