Martin LeFevre: Racism In America

Meditations - From Martin LeFevre in California

Racism In America

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To people outside of the United States, the ongoing story of the white cop arresting a well known black professor from Harvard in his own home, and the furor over Obama saying the police acted “stupidly,” must seem like inside baseball.

What happened essentially is this. One of the most prominent African American intellectuals, Henry Louis Gates Jr., returned home from a trip to China to find his front door jammed. He called a friend, another man of color, and they were able to get inside. A woman walking by, cognizant of a spate of robberies in the neighborhood, saw their exertions and called the police, without mentioning their race.

The police were at the scene within a few minutes, but by that time Dr. Gates was already in his house. He showed proof that it was indeed his house to the white cop who demanded it, and then, understandably, got testy and accused the policeman of racial profiling when he was asked to step outside. Exactly what verbal fireworks went off next is a source of some dispute, but the picture worth a thousand words shows Dr. Gates being led out of his house in handcuffs.

If not unfathomable enough, this dog with a bone story in the national media is the fleshless twin of the ‘birther’ movement, a freakish trend also fanned by cable TV.

The ‘birther’ movement pertains to the nearly 60% of Republicans, and nearly 25% of Americans in general who believe or aren’t sure that Barack Obama was born in the United States, and therefore doubt he is legally president of the United States.

The US Constitution requires that presidents be born in this country. So this canard is a cunning way of saying that Obama both stole the election and is not a true American. (That’s a rectal irony, since Bush actually did steal the 2004 election.) The vast majority of so-called Americans who think this way reside in the South, where it seems most white people believe Barack is a closet Kenyan Muslim who came into power in a bloodless coup.

It is becoming abundantly clear that a half-black half-white man becoming President of the United States of America has not healed the old racial divides that lay just below the surface.

To get down to the nitty gritty of what is really going on in this country, allow me to relay an incident that my father related to me a few days ago. Anecdotal though it is, it reflects a disturbing social-political current in the USA.

My octogenarian parents had gone out to dinner with a few of their dwindling number of long-time friends. As apparently often happens at these soirees, a malicious discussion of politics ensued after a few drinks during dinner. One old man, the father of my best friend in high school, gave vent to the right wing racism prevalent amongst their well-heeled circle of friends in the Midwestern state where I grew up.

Most of my parents’ friends, it must be noted, are wealthy retired Republicans and bigots of the first order. My own parents, though usually voting Democratic, shared these racial sentiments to a significant degree before one of their grandsons had a child with a young black woman.

At dinner, the bigoted blowhard, a man who was never known for holding back his outrageous views on all manner of subjects, said, in referring to Barack Obama, “I’d kill that nigger son of a bitch.”

To his credit, my father stopped the proceedings by saying, “Jim, I’ve heard you say a lot of stupid things over the years. But that is the stupidest thing you’ve ever said.”

My father went on to inform his friend of fifty years that he could be arrested for making such a comment. That seemed rather ludicrous to me, given that the old man barely made it out of the hospital the last time I was in town. But then I recalled hearing about a crazy octogenarian, screaming anti-Semitic and racist crap, killing a guard at the Holocaust Memorial in Washington a few months back.

It is in such a climate that President Obama, before his subsequent “beer summit” with the offending white officer and irate black professor, absurdly talked about “teachable moments” regarding race.

We’re long past a politic discussion of race in this country. This situation is a disgrace, a national shame.

Martin LeFevre is a contemplative and philosopher. martinlefevre@sbcglobal.net

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