A View From The Cheap Seats

I was going to quote Terry from his blog post today but that would not give the post as a whole justice. I know I have broken links over there and some of y'all just never made it to his blog from mine, so I give you his entire post for today and a link.

And a reminder.

Visit the Cheap Seats often.




The Cheap Seats
http://rydioflyertwo.blogspot.com

Elephants and Monkeys

As everyone knows by now a cartoonist drew a carton in New York newspaper. We all know what it looked like – we all know what it was.

But for me here’s the worst thing about it. The man who actually drew the cartoon didn’t have a racist intent. Race never crossed his mind. That’s even scarier too me than if he actually had done it on purpose. Do you know why? That means that he didn’t even recognize racism while he was doing it. He was totally out of touch. He had no sensitivity to it at all. That boys and girls is how far we have come. A professional cartoonist for a major newspaper creates a racist imagine, and doesn’t even know he did it. So I ask you, how ingrained is racism in white America if racism can happen, and someone not even see it?

Some might argue that he did know. I’ll be honest, I wish that he did. Then the problem might not be as bad as I thought. But I believe the he truly didn’t know what he was doing, and like I said, that makes the crime even worse.

The Attorney General of the United States, Eric Holder, took a beating yesterday for saying that the United States is a “Nation of Cowards” because we will not confront the issues of race. He went on to say that we have not come as far as we might think despite the election of Barak Obama. I’m paraphrasing, but he said that as long as we only deal with other races on strictly social terms, nothing will change. We are in fact divided and race is still a big issue in American. And we as a nation, after all of the years, still don’t want to deal with it.

Men in the media gave him a beaten about his statements. While the New York paper flowed from news stands, everyone else was saying how awful Mr. Holder’s comments were. That he should not have made such a remark and he was dishonoring every person who has ever defended this country.

Well let me say this about that.

He honored the people who have fought for this country. I think I can speak to that point because I have literally raised my hand, took on a weapon and stood my post. I have defended this country’s policies under the worst conditions imaginable. I will say, The Attorney General of the United States doesn’t just honor me - he speaks for me. If he stood by and let the rickety wagon of racism roll on by, that would be dishonoring. He speaks to what I have fought for…a country where all men truly are created equal.

The right wing mouth pieces are all over Eric Holder, and they defend the newspaper. They simply don’t get it. And that boys and girls is the real evil of racism in America today. They are so programmed that they actually don’t see it.

I am not the normal white American. It is an unfortunate statement but true. My parents taught me that African-Americans in America aren’t allowed to play on a level playing field; they told me that when I see racism I must point it out, or better yet, I should do something about it. But mine is not the story of most in white America. Their story is, don’t worry about the Black Man. There is no racism in America now because the chains have disappeared from sight. We’ve moved him from the fields to the factories. All is well.

Yeah...all is well.

So now, a man picks up a pen, draws the leader of the free world as a monkey, in a major news paper in America, and he never had a clue it was wrong. All is not well.

In America my friends, racism is still the big white elephant in the room, with the emphasis on white.

My view from the Cheap Seats.