Why There WIll Always Be Racism...and Who Is Responsible

Why is it every time I hear the word "racist," I cringe?  Probably because I just know we, collectively as caucasian Americans, are about to get slapped.  Fortunately, it's usually just a verbal 'dressing-down', though there have been other times that it became physical.  Seriously, am I the only one that feels this way?  Why, too, is this term allowed to be bandied about with such careless indiscretion?  Let me put it this way - I feel, personally, that every time something doesn't go the way certain blacks think it should, we're racist or the situation is racist.  I'm undoubtedly going to be on the hot seat for not being politically-correct, too, and using the term 'blacks'.  I'm sorry....but I'm not doing it.  I refuse to use that term.  I will not use it until we start identifying everyone by their heritage.  You know, calling people Spanish-Americans, German-Americans, Irish-Americans, etc.  How 'bout we try a little thing I like to call, "Common sense?"  How 'bout we just call everyone, regardless of race, creed, or color....Americans?  I am sick and tired of so many people thinking we owe them something.  No, I am not speaking solely of blacks now.  I am speaking of...people regardless of race, creed, or color. 

NO ONE OWES ANYONE ELSE ANYTHING!!!!!

I suppose many are wondering why I am on this tirade now.  Why am I doing it tonight and what sparked it.  I'll tell you (you knew I would, right?).  The President gave a speech at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's annual awards dinner on Saturday.  When said speech got transcribed for the press so it could be in the print media, the Associated Press, in a certain section, dropped the President's "G's".  The excerpt read this way:

"Take off your bedroom slippers. Put on your marching shoes," he said, his voice rising as applause and cheers mounted. "Shake it off. Stop complainin'. Stop grumblin'. Stop cryin'. We are going to press on. We have work to do."


We've all heard the President speak and, admittedly, he makes those words sound like that for a reason.  It's not that he is a buffoon, lazy, or uneducated...and we ALL know it.  He does it for emphasis.  He does it because he knows how to change his speech patterns at certain times to convert a certain message.  Face it, whether you like him or not, whether you think he is a good President or not, whether you are racist or not....the man gives a great speech.  He is an effective orator.  Don't believe me?  He's living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, isn't he?  He "sold it," even if we don't want to admit it.  So here's the thing - in this speech and this particular segment, an AP writer was present and heard the President's delivery.  THAT is how he wrote it so he could convey the President's intent as closely as possible.  To change it and make the words say, "complaining, grumbling, and crying," while grammatically correct, would have diluted and changed the message.  We all know it because we've all heard it.  Now, here's the issue and the point of this posting today - Karen Hunter, an author that also teaches a journalism class, called the passage above that was written and posted by the Associated Press, "Inherently racist."  She even argued with a linguistics expert who said the passage, based on the President's delivery, is actually the correct version rather than the version printed by other media outlets.  They, in fact, added the "G's" to the words.  "For them to do that," she said, "it's code and I don't like it."


My blood pressure is rising and I am livid, quite honestly.  The author wrote a story.  he did not use any code to make the President sound ignorant, nor did he do it because he is racist.  he did it because he got the story right.  I....nay, we...are tired of this kind of verbal lashing.  It seems to me that blacks want civil rights.  Abe Lincoln put us on a great path.  Rosa Parks helped.  Dr King helped.  Listen, we are ALWAYS going to have something that bothers one group about another.  It's inherent in human nature...but damn it, do we ALWAYS have to use race?  How much longer are we going to play that card?  There's an old saying that is appropriate here - "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem."  You want race to stop being an issue - stop making it an issue.  Someone grab Jesse Jackson the next time he takes his show on the road because he wants "equality," and make sure he cannot spew his venom about how we, the white man, continue the atrocities of our great-great-great-great grandfathers.  I never owned a slave, nor do I want to.  I have worked with some of the best black men and white men in the world.  We all have.  We've also met and seen some of the most disgusting black and white people, too.  It isn't a race thing - it's a people thing.  The race issue will not go away until blacks are no longer allowed to use it to get what they want.  Ironically, the ones that don't use it are the ones that seem the classiest "Americans" to me, too.


Until next time..................