On Racism

Is the United States a racist country? No, it most certainly is not. I challenge anyone to name a country that is home to more various nationalities and races than our great country. I challenge anyone to name a country that has done more to help the disadvantaged of any race than this great country.

Is there racism out there? There most certainly is. All one has to do is read some of the comments that are made to on-line news articles. Some of them would have been found appropriate in Nazi Germany in the bad old days or at a KKK meeting in the 50s. But, thankfully, the people whose minds trend that way are a small and ever diminishing minority. 

Contrary to what the, somewhat senile, Senator from Nevada says, all conservatives are not racist. In fact it is the conservatives in government in past years that pushed through most of the civil rights and voter rights legislation that protects minorities today.

But I have found one place in our society where racism runs rampant. That is in the liberal world of show business. While flipping through the TV channels the other night I came across a "reality" show that was purportedly taking place in a pawn shop in Detroit. It seems that a large part of the entertainment in this program was offered by African Americans behaving crazy, or violently, or profanely, or just plain boorishly.

I'm not sure where this started, but I think back to the show "Sanford and Son", starring an old time comedian, Redd Foxx. This show goes back to 1972. But, as I remember it, it came off making Foxx look sneaky and his son, Lamont, looking dumb. A number of situation comedies followed that did nothing to improve public perception. Then there came a whole series of black exploitation movies. For all of the high sounding words mouthed by the Hollywood elite, they are users and exploiters. They call it their art so that they can claim artistic license. They just insist on a free pass to do as they please without criticism. Trust me people, we should all be a little bit more critical and vote against these shows by withholding good old American dollars from the box office and from sponsors.

The other area where racism runs rampant is Washington D.C. One is not allowed to disagree with the present administration on principle. Such disagreement must stem from racism. That is the shield and the buckler of the liberal defense. Every whackadoo policy they come up with is magnificent and will probably save the world in their eyes. Those that recognize this insanity when they see it are naught but racists. The real racists here are those that constantly use race as a hammer against the opposition.

So here I sit, an old white guy, writing about racism. White guys that write about racism are generally referred to as racists themselves. I have known racists. I grew up in a time where casual racism was accepted. I have been to the south in the 50s and seen real racism first hand. The greater population of the people today have, thankfully, left racism behind. Today most of the racism I see is among those that cry racism the loudest.