Yes, Race Is Part Of This Election Year

The right side of the political arena have half-jokingly commented no that Senator Barack Obama is the presumptive Democratic nominee for President of the United States, that racism no longer exists in America.


They do this while people like Charlie Sykes go on the radio daily and whine that they can't talk about Obama's physical features without it being considered racism. I don't understand that logic at all. What does a person's physical features have to do with their qualifications? Does that mean that McCain should be off the Republican ticket because he as a neck wattle and a rigor mortis grin? No, so who cares about Obama's lip color, his build, or the size of his ears, except a superficial twit?


The other day, I pointed out that the Democratic headquarters in Viroqua was vandalized for the second time, including having racial slurs being painted on the building. There was also a link to a person in Florida that was making threats to Obama's life.


Now, there is more disturbing proof that racism is alive and well and playing a bigger part in this election that most people would care to admit.


Noted white supremacist, David Duke, is shooting his ever vulgar mouth off, stating that "the white people are losing control of this country." Nice sentiment. I thought the country was supposed to be base on equal rights for all, not just for one group. But then again, there are more than enough people that think they are more equal than others. From the article:

Although the South has had more racial violence than most of the country, Randy Blazak, a sociology professor at Oregon's Portland State University, says white supremacists live all over the United States. Blazak, who has studied skinheads for two decades, calls white supremacists a counterculture, not a movement, contending the latter term overstates their numbers.

Blazak said white supremacists thrive on fear of changing race relations, the women's movement and gay rights. Blazak said white working class people in particular long for a "Leave It To Beaver" society.

"Those were the 'good old days' for straight, white males. But for everyone else, it was a pretty raw deal," Blazak said.

wnbc.com, from New York, also has a report. At the very end of their report is this paragraph:

While most Americans have little or no direct contact with white supremacists, organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center keep close tabs; the law center estimates some 200,000 people nationwide are active in such groups.

An estimated 200,000 white people feel they are superior to others, based solely on their skin color. And those are only the ones that are open and honest about it. That number does not include the people that are in denial of their racism, even though the evidence is there for everyone to see. It also does not include the people that may secretly agree with the racists, but are smart enough not to be as blatant about it. It also doesn't count the number of people from minorities that have racism towards whites, or towards other minorities.

Add all these people in and the total is easily in the millions and probably tens of millions of people who are racist to some degree.

Now, I am not saying everyone who opposes Obama are racist. I can think of many people who haven't shown any indication of opposing Obama except for the fact that they oppose anything progressive. Unfortunately, I can also think of many people who have openly displayed racism, but will deny it until they are blue in the face.

But if anyone were to deny that race will play a major part in this presidential race, from both sides of the political aisle, they would only lying to themselves and/or they are completely out of touch with the reality of this world today.

The saddest part is they should be correct. Race shouldn't play a part.