Last November's election of Barack Obama as U.S. President was hailed by many as the culmination of America's transformation into a "post-racial" society. However, as recent events have illustrated, we're simply not there yet.
For some people, the formula is uncomplicated, yet powerfully certain. When criticizing an African-American -- whether that person sweeps floors or serves as President of the United States -- all that's needed to avoid being tagged with the "R-word" is to just avoid using the "N-word."
This formula dictates that a specific charge of racism can be avoided by skating around the qualifiers present in an accusation of race bias. To wit, the controversy involving former President Jimmy Carter, who recently proclaimed racism to be the "overwhelming" factor driving SOME of the anti-Obama sentiment that has ratcheted up this summer. According to their formula, in this case, simply ignoring the qualifier "some," permits Carter's charge to be easily brushed off since it then becomes an accusation of unrepentant racism among ALL people who oppose Obama for ANY reason.
Finally, if specific evidence is introduced strongly suggesting that racial intolerance is a factor in behavior that is quite clearly discriminatory, the response set by this formula is to trot out the trite accusation that the "race-card is again being played.
Ultimately, if successful in applying those and perhaps a few other adroit maneuvers, a truly prejudiced human being can effectively avoid being labeled racist and simultaneously redirect that label toward someone who actually holds no racial animosity at all.
With talk of Obama's election marking the glorious completion of America's emergence as a post-racial society, one might easily assume that encountering these types of "race-skaters" would become less frequent by now. Events of late however, seems to indicate quite the opposite. As the Town Hall experience of this summer and a September "tea-bagger" rally in Washington D.C. have revealed, there are a whole slew of folks out there who make no bones about overtly showing that they just ain't quite ready for it. Through crass displays of racially-tinged pseudo-populism, they've made it clear that change of the type President Obama spoke of and endorsed by voters on November 4th will never be allowed to occur.
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