If blacks are raising major cane about anything, Harry Reid’s reference to pre-president Barack Obama likely soared to a WTF meter high. The “light-skinned” black with “no Negro” dialect reference Reid made privately has publicly cast him as another white politician stuck in slavery’s muck. Systematic exclusion, where whites view lighter-skinned blacks more favorably than their darker counterparts, may have emanated in slavery but 2010 charts a social cancer uncured.
Like Reid, blacks who administer paper bag tests instead of open hearts and minds to establish the suitability of other blacks are equally culpable. Ain’t nothing like an educated fool and the sophisticated racism in which both blacks and whites sit comfortably perched is powerless to annul bigotry’s guilt. Until the caste system of skin color is abandoned, there can be no post-racial society.
See: http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-01-10/harry-reid-was-right/
Note: The Reid quote appears in the new book "Game Change."
I like your thoughts expressed and the pic/quote you used at the start. See similar sentiments on the topic: http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/01/10/harry-reid-shouldnt-have-said-it-out-loud-but-how-many-think-i/
ReplyDeleteThanks for indulging my perspective. Getting real about race means having to shed the veil of hypocrisy hiding private thoughts in conflict with public words. Submitting to full racial disclosure requires courage, however.
ReplyDeleteBigoted Harry can pocket the apology but I can't buy Obama's "Closed Book" attempt to downplay Reid's statement as praise.
That was very well put.
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