Geraldine Ferraro tried to stick her foot in her mouth, but her loafers were too small. So instead she unpacked a whip and stuck that in there, and it fit just right. This week she theorized that a self-made black guy with a Muslim name has a political advantage over a white woman who is the wife of a two-term president.
Put in historical context, a statement like that doesn’t make sense. Let’s conduct a poll of all the presidents and see which of the black ones felt their ethnicity aided their ascent to the White House. Wait, there’s never been a black president. All the black people who ran for this office before Barack Obama were so thoroughly marginalized that you can’t even call what they did running for president.
Let’s set the record straight on this race issue yet again. I’m a black man. Despite how close my skin tone is to white, I can’t think of a single instance in which my color has worked to my advantage. You are at a constant disadvantage to your white counterparts in everything you do.
The first time I heard the term “race card” was during the OJ Simpson trail. Whites insisted that Simpson manipulated his race to get acquitted. In reality he manipulated his checkbook, and it pissed off whites that a black man possessed the financial means to beat the state of California in court.
Forget producing the race card, I don’t need to see it to believe it exists. A concrete definition will suffice. In absence of one my working definition is this: Race card means when a white person makes a discriminatory remark about blacks and gets called out on it, said white person can claim blacks are being overly sensitive about race.
Geraldine, if you say something racially insensitive and someone calls bullshit on you, your immediate reaction should not be hostility. If you are defensive and you point blame elsewhere it’s an automatic admission that you have not taken the time to look internally at whether or not you are acting intelligently.
Ferraro is not racist but the fact that she doesn’t understand what the term “racism” means highlights why it is a massive problem in America. In defense of her statements about Obama she said: “Racism works in two different directions. I really think they’re attacking me because I’m white.”
GF, you’re talking about prejudice. Racism is a much larger issue. It entails the use of power, money and public policy to create a system that encourages and enforces discrimination against a specific group of people based on the notion that their race is inferior. Black people make up a small percentage of the American population. We don’t have much wealth or education and we are grossly underrepresented in government. We can be prejudiced, and I know plenty of blacks who hate the man, but racist ... it simply isn’t possible, because we don’t have any power. Sometimes I wish blacks could be racist because white folks look like they’re having a hell of a fun time with it. Heck, I don’t even want to buy the damn thing. I’d settle for a test drive around the block.
It’s troublesome that liberal whites act in a racist fashion so often without realizing it. We all know where the conservatives stand. They’re transparent. They hate black people. The liberals are translucent. They like us when it’s convenient.
When liberals need black votes they come into our communities and act like they’re down. They’ll crank dat Souljah Boy like the dance is still in style. When we’re dunking basketballs and cracking jokes they commend us for being so darn entertaining. But when they feel challenged by blacks, as the Hillary campaign does by the Obama campaign, we’re not so fresh after all.
In essence, what Ferraro is saying about Obama is that he has not earned his lead in the race for the democratic presidential nomination. He’s just lucky. He was in the right place at the right time and he’s a trendy color. Apparently, black is the new black. The reality is that Obama is running a better campaign. Don’t take my word for it. Ask the American people. The primary results speak for themselves. If the shoe was on the other foot and Hillary had the lead, the DNC would be insisting that, for the greater good of the party, he step aside and let Hillary assume the nomination.
What’s twisted about the situation is that this is the first time in a long time we have solid presidential candidates to choose from. McCain represents the status quo. Next. The other two candidates can make some change happen at a time when, if we don’t change, our empire is doomed to collapse. Instead of evaluating the candidates on the merits of what they can do for the people, our time is being wasted on Geraldine Ferraro’s stupidity. It’s as much a disservice to Hillary as it is to Obama. I don’t care if Ferraro was hosed down and attacked by German shepherds back in 1965 while trying to lead civil rights marchers over the Edmund Pettus bridge. Her remarks about Obama demonstrate her ignorance, right now. No further debate is necessary. So put the deck of race cards away and lean back. The American people are a little busy right now. The fate of our nation is at stake, and we ought not make time for narrow-minded, has-been politicians.
