The new racism

I have been reading the news stories and some of the blogs on the Internet.  I have been listening to news programs on televisions and one thing is clear.  Racism has reared its ugly head in a big way in America.  However, it isn’t white against black.  It is just the reverse and I’ll explain why I feel this way.

I grew up in a multicultural city and attended the same school district for my entire 12 years of education.  There was a mix of blacks, Hispanics and white, some Asians and we all got along.  We were best friends and didn’t even look at skin color as an issue.  In fact, the first time I became aware of those things was in the late 60s, the era of free love, do your own thing, and burn your bra and the marches of Martin Luther King.  My mother told me we had some prejudiced relatives, but not to pay any mind to what they said, they were wrong.  That was the first time I became aware there were sections of the country where racism was a disease and people were deeply hurt by it.

But as I grew older, it seemed to me that racism had lessoned.  My life has been full of relationships with many cultures and nationalities and racism was never a thought.  I worked with people of different colors ands often when we became friends I took them home and my mom became their mom.  We were family.

I realize I probably lived in a very forward thinking home and maybe even led a charmed life in that respect.  But even when I married and became an adult nothing changed my opinion.  The people I associated with were considerate of all and I continued to have a United Nations of friends.

Recently, however, during this presidential campaign, the words racist and racism began to come up more often just because one of the candidates is a man of color.  In everything I have heard or read, the subject has not come up from the other candidate’s camp.  There has been no mention of skin color or saying he couldn’t be president because of it.  But from the other camp, there has been a barrage of anti-black sentiment, accusing people of uttering racial slurs, racist code words, threatening violence if their candidate doesn’t win, and accusing the white opponent of wanting to bring back slavery.  It has originated with the candidate himself, making sure he pointed out the other party would mention his blackness but the truth is the only one who mentions it is him.  It is a constant moaning from that camp when in truth it should be a celebration and would be if people weren’t feeling threatened.

Unfortunately, this campaign is taking the same path as the one taken by Obama’s friend (or cousin), Raila Odinga, who ran for president of Kenya in 2007.  Advised by Obama’s personal aid, Odinga ran on a platform of Agent for Change.  Sound familiar?  He pitted Muslim against Christian.  He told the people he was going to help the poor and redistribute the wealth while he himself is very wealthy.  Before the vote, he was already claiming voter fraud when he was behind in the polls.  Then after he lost the election he encouraged riots, displaced over 300,000 people, killed over 1000 and burned Christians in their churches.  All these claims can be seen in videos on U-tube and the articles reporting them are all over the Internet. 

So far we are on track with that election.  Racism is the cry and voter fraud is run rampant.  Do we have riots, death and destruction to look forward to if he should lose?  That is already being threatened so should we base our vote in fear?  Our mainstream media is already predicting riots whether he wins or loses.  This new racism is not the old racism.  It is more vile, more threatening and more insidious than anything we have encountered in many years.  I believe during a time when we should be excited, we have actually taken a major step backwards and during a time when a man’s character and ability is being questioned it is called racism.   The very man of change himself is leading us there.  How sad.