Reid Compared To Lott

Unimportant news (except in a political and Kabuki Theater kind of way, which is always fun):

Harry Reid compared to Trent Lott

Every time one of these "racially insensitive" comments surfaces, one of the first reactions by the person's opponents is to call for them to resign or be fired, which has already happened to Sen. Harry Reid. I don't believe he should, just as I didn't think Don Imus or Rush Limbaugh or a whole host of other people needed to be forced out. But what Reid said is not akin to Trent Lott's words. I didn't call for Lott's resignation either. Below is one of the pieces in my book that deals with the context of Lott's comments.

Reid, in a very real sense, was speaking the truth, a truth many of us would like to ignore, or a truth many of us believed was sacrosanct before Obama was elected. His mannerisms and tone of speech and background were helpful in his run. Had Obama had dreadlocks and he spoke like my Southern cousins, his journey to the White House would have been even more difficult, if not impossible. Image matters, and a "clean-cut" straight-out-of-central-casting look helps -- a lot -- and that's precisely what Obama had.

What we learned November 2008 is that race alone no longer makes things impossible, but there are certain characteristics that still makes things harder. It can also be said that if he was shorter or obese or uglier that his climb would have been steeper, just as it would be for a qualified white man who had long, straggly hair and a nose ring.

Don't Ignore Lott's Remarks -- From "Proud. Black. Southern. (But I Still Don't Eat Watermelon In Front Of WhiteB

By Issac J. Bailey

I was sitting at the dinner table one night at a friend's. We were shooting the breeze, talking loudly, mostly about nothing.

We laughed about how a dog psychic could lead O.J. to the real killers and light heartedly, but half-seriously, talked about how the pastor was wrong for urging members of an area church to vote Tuesday ...for all the Democrats on the ballot.

 

And that's when the 62-year-old pecan-colored woman at the table stopped laughing and turned deadly serious. She turned to one of here nieces, her eyes steadying themselves like a fighter pilot locking on a target, and gave these words of warning." If I find out you vote Republican, I will slap the (expletive) out of you."

There was no joy in her voice, no: "I'm just kidding." She hadn't been much a part of the conversation before those words, wasn't much of a participant afterward, but I shook as she shared her brief statement. Her words threw me and the entire mix of young and old Americans sitting around that table, all of who happen to be ``black.''

It threw me because I'd never seen this woman angry, never heard her voice raised until that moment. And it threw me because I was a 20-something-year-old man who has prided himself on being choosy about the candidates for which he voted. Those candidates have included as many Republicans as Democrats.

For the longest time, I dismissed her words. Sort of let them fade from my brain as though they never existed, until the latest dust-up with Sen. Trent Lott.

His words at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party reminded me of her words, and how I was foolish to ignore them, and how foolish Republicans, or any American with a conscience, would be to ignore Lott's. Because they weren't a one-time slip of the tongue, rather a confirmation of his seemingly lifelong held beliefs.

Yet, it should be the country's, not Lott's, failure on trial. We've failed miserably, black and white Americans alike, on the issue of race because we thought a series of laws and social programs and the collection of racial data alone could overcome our past.

I was foolish to ignore that 62-year-old woman's words because they spoke to a pain that I, having grown up after most of the civil rights struggles, can only intellectualize. She grew up in an era when millions of Americans took pride in being racist, when a public lynching was a real threat. She grew up under government-sanctioned, public-supported bigotry.

She was a little girl trying to understand the world when Thurmond said nothing would make Negroes acceptable. She was a teenager when he performed the longest filibuster in U.S. history against civil rights legislation.

She was a young adult, trying to make her way, even as doors slammed in her face for no other reason than her having been born the wrong color, when the Republican Party, and many Democrats, began playing upon racism to court votes.

And she was a gray-haired old lady with creaky knees just a few days ago when Lott reminded her of it all. Thurmond and others like him may have eventually walked away from the hateful venom they so effectively spewed, but it doesn't mean their repentance removed all the scars they inflicted.

As we count the many ways we've moved forward in this country, the way Jim Crow, the official version anyway, has long since been killed. ... As we orgasmicly outline how the black middle class has grown and black Americans are the wealthiest, healthiest and most educated dark-skinned people the world has ever seen ... we'd better stop acting as though that 62-year-old woman is dead, that she isn't entitled to her anger - her rage - particularly when every time she expresses it she's either ignored or shooed away like an annoying fly, or told her pain - her life - shouldn't be discussed outside of history classes.

We must find a way to stop ignoring her pain while remembering to not become blinded by it.

Reid, in a very real sense, was speaking the truth, a truth many of us would like to ignore, or a truth many of us believed was sacrosanct before Obama was elected. His mannerisms and tone of speech and background were helpful in his run. Had Obama had dreadlocks and he spoke like my Southern cousins, his journey to the White House would have been even more difficult, if not impossible. Image matters, and a "clean-cut" straight-out-of-central-casting look helps -- a lot -- and that's precisely what Obama had.

What we learned November 2008 is that race alone no longer makes things impossible, but there are certain characteristics that still makes things harder. It can also be said that if he was shorter or obese or uglier that his climb would have been steeper, just as it would be for a qualified white man who had long, straggly hair and a nose ring.

Don't Ignore Lott's Remarks -- From "Proud. Black. Southern. (But I Still Don't Eat Watermelon In Front Of WhiteB

By Issac J. Bailey

I was sitting at the dinner table one night at a friend's. We were shooting the breeze, talking loudly, mostly about nothing.

We laughed about how a dog psychic could lead O.J. to the real killers and light heartedly, but half-seriously, talked about how the pastor was wrong for urging members of an area church to vote Tuesday ...for all the Democrats on the ballot.

 

And that's when the 62-year-old pecan-colored woman at the table stopped laughing and turned deadly serious. She turned to one of here nieces, her eyes steadying themselves like a fighter pilot locking on a target, and gave these words of warning." If I find out you vote Republican, I will slap the (expletive) out of you."

There was no joy in her voice, no: "I'm just kidding." She hadn't been much a part of the conversation before those words, wasn't much of a participant afterward, but I shook as she shared her brief statement. Her words threw me and the entire mix of young and old Americans sitting around that table, all of who happen to be ``black.''

It threw me because I'd never seen this woman angry, never heard her voice raised until that moment. And it threw me because I was a 20-something-year-old man who has prided himself on being choosy about the candidates for which he voted. Those candidates have included as many Republicans as Democrats.

For the longest time, I dismissed her words. Sort of let them fade from my brain as though they never existed, until the latest dust-up with Sen. Trent Lott.

His words at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party reminded me of her words, and how I was foolish to ignore them, and how foolish Republicans, or any American with a conscience, would be to ignore Lott's. Because they weren't a one-time slip of the tongue, rather a confirmation of his seemingly lifelong held beliefs.

Yet, it should be the country's, not Lott's, failure on trial. We've failed miserably, black and white Americans alike, on the issue of race because we thought a series of laws and social programs and the collection of racial data alone could overcome our past.

I was foolish to ignore that 62-year-old woman's words because they spoke to a pain that I, having grown up after most of the civil rights struggles, can only intellectualize. She grew up in an era when millions of Americans took pride in being racist, when a public lynching was a real threat. She grew up under government-sanctioned, public-supported bigotry.

She was a little girl trying to understand the world when Thurmond said nothing would make Negroes acceptable. She was a teenager when he performed the longest filibuster in U.S. history against civil rights legislation.

She was a young adult, trying to make her way, even as doors slammed in her face for no other reason than her having been born the wrong color, when the Republican Party, and many Democrats, began playing upon racism to court votes.

And she was a gray-haired old lady with creaky knees just a few days ago when Lott reminded her of it all. Thurmond and others like him may have eventually walked away from the hateful venom they so effectively spewed, but it doesn't mean their repentance removed all the scars they inflicted.

As we count the many ways we've moved forward in this country, the way Jim Crow, the official version anyway, has long since been killed. ... As we orgasmicly outline how the black middle class has grown and black Americans are the wealthiest, healthiest and most educated dark-skinned people the world has ever seen ... we'd better stop acting as though that 62-year-old woman is dead, that she isn't entitled to her anger - her rage - particularly when every time she expresses it she's either ignored or shooed away like an annoying fly, or told her pain - her life - shouldn't be discussed outside of history classes.

We must find a way to stop ignoring her pain while remembering to not become blinded by it.