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Racism/Not Racism

I thought it was funny that George W. Bush referred to Barack Obama as “this cat” since that’s slang people haven’t used for decades. A whole bunch of wingnuts in comments decided that this was equivalent to me leveling false charges of racism against Bush. That’s nuts, absolutely nobody but them saw anything racial in the post.

Still, the hypersensitive to fictional allegations of racism highlights once again the basic outlook of the contemporary conservative movement on race. Actual racism against racial minorities is, according to conservatives, a trivial or non-existence problem. By contrast, anti-racism gone too far (often known as “political correctness”) is seen as a huge social problem against which one must always be on guard.

If you want to see an example of me calling someone a racist, I think this woman with a sign seems to me to fit the bill. Her sign says: “what’s the difference between the Cleveland Zoo and the White House / In the zoo you can find an African lion, but in the White House you can find a lyin’ African.”

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