Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Cracked

In the midst of our wonderfully productive national conversation on race we suddenly get this story dumped onto the pile:
The FBI is investigating as a possible hate crime an incident in which a woman was beaten to the ground in front of her child at the entrance to a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Morrow, Georgia, south of Atlanta.
For some reason this story wasn't a story on September 9 when it occurred. Now, whether that's because the FBI didn't release it until today or because the media wants to continue showing us their curious methods of story selection and timing is beyond the scope of my current research budget. But let's just say the timing is interesting coming right after all this other stuff and alongside Jimmy Carter's ignorant rant. He's also from Georgia.

Bottom line, politicians are incapable of not using the race card. There's no doubt the GOP would use it, in a more subtle manner, if Colin Powell were president and was having trouble getting anything passed while being called a warmonger. On the other side, there's no surprise that people who wished for failure in Iraq to help their party win back power would tar an entire group with only scant evidence to help the same party retain power. Simply put, we're not post-racial as a people.

When a president who looks like Obama reaches approval ratings in the neighborhood of George W. Bush, without people blaming his skin pigment, we'll be there. Our present mess is simply a waypoint on that highway, but we do race better than any country on earth. We will get there--and without help from politicos.

AND...09/16/09

I failed to properly condemn the action at the Cracker Barrel--a despicable action even if race wasn't involved--not on purpose but because I got too caught up in explaining everything. So yes, I'm also part of the problem.

No comments: