Race in America - Part Deux

As I discussed in a post last week, I think we should be a little weary of the idea that we have entered a post-Black or post-racism period in America. Two events this week seem to put a focus on the reality that race is still on the tip of too many American's vituperative tongues. In the first incident, we have learned that Rick Perry hunts at a location that was once (and maybe still is) known as "niggerhead." Details are still sketchy, but it appears that the name is still used by many who live near the site: Washington Post. The more we learn about this candidate, the less savory he becomes to all but the most radical, right wing of Americans (by the way, Rush Limbaugh says it's no big deal).

The second incident involves Hank Williams Jr., possibly best known today for his song that begins every Monday Night Football broadcast: Slate. The conservative singer was recently on Fox News where he compared Obama to Hitler and called him the "enemy." The exact quote from Williams, speaking of the golf summit this summer between Obama and House Speaker John Boehner (you just can't make up the names of conservatives: Bush, Dick, Colon, etc.), "one of the biggest political mistakes ever ... It would be like Hitler playing golf with (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu." When it was pointed out to him that he was comparing the President to one of the most hated men in history, Williams replied, "That is true, but I'm telling you like it is." Now the first thing to say here is that we really need to consider who we allow to be spokespeople and pundits in America. The second is that this is the sort of person that is emblematic of what is wrong with America today. The absurdity of comparing Obama to Hitler is not as troubling to me as the notion that so many Republicans now have that democrats are actually "enemies" of the country. 

So is racism dead in America? I think not. Now who is the party that spread it? Again, this seems rather obvious. A final point for today, a  60 minutes/Vanity Fair poll asking people if they knew what the GOP stands for found that only 45% do ("God Opposes Populism" for those who don't know). While silly polls like this that just show how uninformed Americans are a little tired (just like the Leno skits), I think a more interesting poll would be to ask the GOP and its many supporters what they actually do "stand for." But that's just a silly liberal, Hitler-loving enemy speaking in "elitist" tongues ...