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Throughout the course of this Presidential campaign, comments about Barack Obama's heritage and hue have been a constant refrain from the left. Bill Clinton was the first to "play the race card" in South Carolina; from that day to this, there has been a never-ending tirade from the Obama camp that the Republicans are planning to win by appealing to racist voters.
This din has been so resounding that any would-be racist Republicans have hardly had a chance to get a word in edgewise. Thus far, neither John McCain nor any of his spokesmen have come out with anything that could possibly be interpreted as racist in the slightest degree, despite being accused of committing overt racism every day.
Tell a lie often enough, and it becomes received truth. The media has reported the expected Republican racist attacks so many times that, combined with their own extreme liberal bias, many prominent journalists have come to the conclusion that the only possible way Barack Obama could lose this election is because of naked racism.
The media loves this explanation because it absolves them and their clumsy attempts to influence the election of blame for Mr. Obama's defeat, should that come to pass. All that's needed to make this stick is some scientific-sounding evidence.
This week, sure enough, comes the "proof" they've been waiting for. The Associated Press reports this shocking news:
Deep-seated racial misgivings could cost Barack Obama the White House if the election is close, according to an AP-Yahoo News poll that found one-third of white Democrats harbor negative views toward blacks-many calling them "lazy," "violent" or responsible for their own troubles...More than a third of all white Democrats and independents - voters Obama can't win the White House without - agreed with at least one negative adjective about blacks, according to the survey, and they are significantly less likely to vote for Obama than those who don't have such views. [emphasis added]
Wow. Considering that Obama is the Democratic nominee, this poll's claim that more than a third of Democratic white voters are racists is astounding. If that many Democrats and independents are in fact racist, of course those notoriously racist Republicans must be far worse, since the poll shows 40% of all whites to have negative views of blacks.
On this evidence, the amazing thing is that Obama has come this far, considering the racist opposition on both sides; it would be a miracle if he won, and perfectly understandable if/when he loses. Case closed!
The MSM's biases were not to blame, his antiquated liberalism had nothing to do with it, his inexperience was irrelevant - he lost because of racism! It wasn't the fault of the liberal elites, either in government or in media, it was those scumball rednecks!
But let's look a little closer at this poll. There's no doubt that there are true-blue, hard-core racists in this country, as there are in every country.
The numbers the media claim seem awfully high, though. Is it credible that one out of every three white Democrats is a racist? It is a simple fact that there are many black Democratic officeholders; isn't it a bit strange that such a huge number of racist Democrats have been unable to limit black power in their own party?
When a poll's results don't make logical sense, it's wise to take a look at the methodology and find out how the poll was made. Nothing says "Science!" like statistics - and using statistics to lie is a time-honored political tradition.
The poll asked people to associate various adjectives and descriptions, positive and negative, with blacks and with whites. The poll takers labeled anyone "racist" if they tended to describe blacks poorly.
Given a choice of several positive and negative adjectives that might describe blacks, 20 percent of all whites said the word "violent" strongly applied. Among other words, 22 percent agreed with "boastful," 29 percent "complaining," 13 percent "lazy" and 11 percent "irresponsible." When asked about positive adjectives, whites were more likely to stay on the fence than give a strongly positive assessment.
Among white Democrats, one-third cited a negative adjective and, of those, 58 percent said they planned to back Obama.
Now the results make even less sense. Of the one-third "racist" Democrats, near two-thirds of them plan to vote for Obama anyway? Racists wouldn't vote for a black; these people must not be racists after all!
The answer to this conundrum is found here:
Other techniques used in the poll included recording people's responses to black or white faces flashed on a computer screen, asking participants to rate how well certain adjectives apply to blacks, measuring whether people believe blacks' troubles are their own fault, and simply asking people how much they like or dislike blacks. [emphasis added]
Think about that statement for a moment. One of the ways in which the poll attempted to determine the racism of white people was by asking them "whether blacks' troubles are their own fault." In other words, if you believe that blacks bring most of their own troubles upon themselves by their own actions... you're a racist!
This makes the entire poll useless, because its definition of racism is precisely backwards. Their definition is the exact opposite of the truth.
It is not those who feel that blacks, like any other person of any color, are independent actors who make their own decisions in life and bear the consequences of them, who are racists. No, true racism is found in the "soft bigotry of low expectations" - those who believe that blacks and other minorities are incapable of taking responsibility for their own lives and need government help to make it. This form of racism, far from being a response to the injustices of slavery, shares precisely the same intellectual heritage as slavery itself.
What is slavery but the complete removal of independence and responsibility from the individuals enslaved? A slave has no initiative or responsibility. A slave does what he is told and is punished if he doesn't. He need not think, use judgment, or exercise responsibility of any kind; just do as Massa commands no matter what.
It is absolutely repugnant to put human beings in a position where they are no more than cattle. Today, we would never dream of enslaving people, but the philosophy behind affirmative action and the unwillingness to expect people of every color to live up to the same standards as everyone else is exactly the same as the assumptions which underlay slavery.
The odious slaveholders justified their "right" to enslave other men by saying that the slaves had not the intelligence, moral strength, or education to make their own decisions and lead their own lives - their place in life was to obey their betters.
By lifting themselves up, not from failed schools, but from chattel slavery itself, blacks like Booker T. Washington, George Washington Carver, and Frederick Douglass proved that blacks have every bit as much ability to stand independent, proud, and free as anyone else. Thanks to the abolition of slavery, American blacks have the same choices as everyone else, and the same right to make those choices.
Can anyone look at Colin Powell, Condoleeza Rice, Thomas Sowell, Clarence Thomas, Bill Cosby, and countless wealthy black entertainers and athletes and say that they achieved their positions only by positive preference and don't really deserve their success? Of course not!
The examples of today's successful blacks at all levels put the lie to the belief that blacks can't make it on their own. These men and women expose the liberal lie that blacks must be given an unfair advantage in order to get anywhere.
No, the poll has it exactly backwards. The real racists are those who believe that blacks' troubles are not their own fault - in other words, the real racists are those who believe that black people are childlike lesser beings who must be helped along by their mental superiors to have any chance of success.
As long as the media believe this lie, as long as they publish this slander against people of every color, we will never escape the legacy of racism. The words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. have been quoted countless times, but they must be repeated until every American clearly understands, believes, and practices them - most particularly the mainstream media, who now stands revealed as the elitist racists they are:
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. [emphasis added]
True Americans respect anyone who earns his or her own way. We expect people to make choices and to accept the consequences of their choices.
When people choose to break the law by dealing drugs, we expect them not to whine when they go to jail. When people drop out of school, we expect them not to whine when they don't earn much. When people make bad choices, whine about the results, and expect taxpayers to support them, we hold them in contempt. Expecting adults to behave like adults is not racism, except to the mainstream media.
Barack Obama will lose this election, not because he is black, but because he has chosen to associate himself with racists, terrorists, and criminals; because his policies are socialist and pacifist; and because he is by far the least experienced Presidential nominee in history. Anyone who believes otherwise is merely betraying their own inner racism: their own belief that a black man is unworthy, not only of winning on his own personal merits, but of losing on his merits as well.