Racism lives, misogyny thrives and the GOP is laughing

By Libby

Anyone who thinks that racism in this country was eliminated when they eradicated Jim Crow laws or waved the magic wand of affirmative action should watch this video where a black reporter is viciously attacked by a white family for doing her job. This is why I find Geraldine's Ferraro's dismissal of racism so abhorent and as Keith Olbermann pointed out in his Special Commentary last night, Clinton's slow renunciation of Ferraro's remarks made it look as if, "you are now campaigning, as if Barack Obama were the Democrat, and you… were the Republican."

"Black man running" is a meme the "leading lights" of the wingnuts are happy to embellish and promote, lest the electorate develop color blindness. As TBogg discovers, they wasted no time making hay with this latest imbroglio.

For those keeping score at home:

If Democrats, miscegenation aficionados, and other fellow travelers elect a black President, that would set race relations back decades.

But if he were a Republican that they could vote for, why racism in America could officially be declared deader than Strom Thurmond because they would have proved that they can move past their deeply ingrained distaste for people of the dusky hue.

I'm glad to see Clinton finally decided to "renounce and reject" Gerry's comments. She should not be seen as even remotely condoning such inappropriate language and Ferraro should be ashamed of herself, not only for her original comments but even more so for her subsequent defense of her indefensible remarks. This line is especially galling.

“Racism works in two different directions. I really think they’re attacking me because I’m white.

How many times have we heard this from the right wing extremists? For myself, I've lost count and the idea that Obama is enjoying some kind of advantage by running for office while being black is not only absurd, it feeds the racist tendencies that I thought the Democrats were trying to rise above. This kind of rhetoric reduces the race to a trivial contest about which is worse, sexism or racism. Both are are equally harmful and it serves no greater good to attempt to elevate one or the other as the "worse" problem.

I just wish everybody would take a deep breath and try to remember our common foe is the GOP and only by working together will we defeat the party that is destroying this country bit by bit, unnoticed, while we cater to a media narrative that loves to focus on bickering over minutia.