Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Blind Bleeding the Blind: Bigots Rule!

I love politics. It's like a second religion for me. Like my other "religions" I know too little about them, but I still enjoy looking for and finding patterns and contradictions. Take for example the current presidential race between Barak Obama and John McCain. Thanks to the candidates' ethnicities, the racists are making themselves known quite distinctly--they're coming out of the woodwork! The problem is, they're invisible. They're cloaked in the invisibility of socially acceptable behavior.

You see, it's perfectly acceptable to denigrate and insult one race and not another. Racial slurs are acceptable, humorous and--best of all--deserved! The promotion of one race above another is lauded and loved in the government, in social circles and in communities. One can create an entire stand-up routine based solely on race. I've seen them. They're hilarous. I must have been in the right crowd because not one person got up and screamed in defiance and outrage that the jokes were inappropriate and racist. The comedians weren't humiliated nor were they virtually burned at the stake in the media following the show. In fact, they're now quite rich and famous.

That's all well and good until politics enters into it. I heard on the radio this morning that it was going to be impossible for one candidate to swing the votes of an entire group of people because the other candidate was of a particular race. I read in the news that a particular group of people that hold political views diametrically opposed to a particular candidate are having a difficult time deciding on who to vote for because of the race of that candidate. Race. Not policy. Race. Policy be damned.

Now, consider for a moment that I have not once brought up who is of what race and who is making what jokes, and who is making what decision based on race. And yet...we all know and are uncomfortable in commenting on it. The act of voicing such observations has been repressed. And while everyone notices, everyone turns a blind eye.

Racism has truly blinded us all. We truly are color blind.

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