So, why am I bringing this up? Well, it seems that Ralph Nader accused Obama of trying to 'talk white' last week. This shocked me to no end, really. Up until now, no candidate had made such a blatant racial comment. & But with this one thinly-veiled message of hate, the door has been opened for this election to be nothing short of a racial battle of epic proportions.
And, to be honest, this saddened me far more than the 'Baby Mama' incident. It just screamed that the one-drop rule is still alive and well here in the United States of America. &
It is a mindset that was created over four centuries ago and is into the fifth now; and it sadly won't just vanish because some 'outsiders' say it should. In the end, I'd rather all titles like 'black' or 'white' could be dropped and we were all just Americans. After we get good enough at that, we could take the next step and just be people.
But, such a day is far, far in the future. I have a deep-seated fear that as this election goes on, the racism problem is going to become more and more severe. & In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if near the end we saw a white supremacist group paying for TV ads JUST to attack Obama and his campaign. And those ads would likely air because the colors black and white are always trumped by the color green.
So, is there anything we can do? Accept that its going to get worse before it gets better? Settle in for months of thinly-veiled racism and hate speech being shoved down our throats? I sadly don't know what we can do, at this point. I only pray it doesn't get as bad as I fear it will.
- Citizen Voices blogger Steven Garrett is a professional food blogger who lives in South San Diego.
