On race in America - Post Election

I have regularly found posts on various blogs that say more or less: "The government is now going to hand out freebies to blacks." "Now that Obama's elected racism is over and we don't have to worry about it any more." and such like. Racist rationalizing.

Such comments piss me off. But, before I could pump up the righteous anger necessary to fire off a couple of rounds from my semi-automatic Bic, a blogpal of mine from the midwest, who goes by the name "It aint necessarily so" emptied a glorious Gatling Gun on the topic, so, with his permission, I quote him...

How dare you. Who the F do you think you're talking to like that? You and your pale, skinny, toothless, methed-out kind are the majority of the people with their hands out.

And you don't get to decide when equality has been achieved and when individual failure can be attributed purely to individual failings. As long as people like you continue to breathe our oxygen and exert your pernicious influence on the lives o others as you are now, it will be more difficult for some people to succeed than others.

You have to be feeling pretty inferior to want to elevate your own social status at the expense of somebody that you feel you can make appear lower than yourself. Do you think anybody that isn't just like you would be influenced to agree with you because of a comment like this? No, sir, you are at the very bottom of the social heap.

And you prove that by being the only ones who feel the need to be so repulsive to pull yourselves up a notch. Do you see anybody else doing this? Do you see black people who are so afraid of drowning socially that they jump on the backs of other people struggling to stay afloat and trying to push them under? I don't. That's just you, you anemic reprobate.

I think that *you* are the one who is confused by what the election of President Obama means to the average African-American. Your suggestion of what that is infuriates and nauseates mean. You are *so* unworthy to live among us, you POS. You're the part of America that shames the rest of us. And in my experience, you white supremacists are the dregs of the white race.

You are also threatened by what the election of a black man to the White house means to a loser like you who needs his racial prejudice to shelter him from the reality of what he is. You may be white and in the South, but you're no man, and this election makes it a little more obvious to everyone that knows you how inferior you are to a man like Barack Obama. He has class. You have a double wide. He shot up through the sea of other black children, of college applicants, of other Harvard law students, of other Chicago attorneys, of other Illinois state legislators and then of other national legislators in D.C. including Hillary Clinton to the highest office in the land like a hot knife through butter. And you? Look at yourself.

You need to put the black race down because you feel inferior. You are. Racist posts like this may help you to temporarily forget how meaningless and failed your own life is and give you a moment of comfort which you are willing to take at the expense of others, but I'm here to tell you that they have the opposite effect. They're seen by the rest of us for what they are: the desperate and unprincipled efforts of a loser in the game of life willing to do just about anything to feel better about himself. You don't deserve to feel better about yourself.

You deserve your small, unwashed, unloved, undistinguished life.

Some thoughts...

It's been almost a week since the uncontested (and incontestable ) victory of Barack H. Obama in the Presidential race.

The hoopla has largely subsided, save the few whose fear and anger does not quench in the sweet, warm rain of historic events. On some blogs, the partisan gall continues with threats of gloom, doom and the end of civilization as we know it.

Now, for some of us, civ-as-we-know-it for the past eight years (and even before that), can't end soon enough. An imperial President, who feigned 'folksy' to appeal to the lowest common denominator, was not the country, or the government, we wanted.

It could not be other than that, one day, there would be a President of color and it could not be other than that, one day, there would bigots and racists who'd hate the very notion of that President.

It is simply progress... The nineteenth and twentieth centuries versus the twenty-first. Class versus equality, caste versus equality - and the silly idea that looking at someone's skin as an avenue for judgment bears serious consideration - versus equality.

The world that spawned the bigots, the racists and, indeed, the current semi-literate-in-chief, is all but over.

Already, the country is different... Progressives, including veterans who had, until Tuesday night, packed away that American Flag that had flown over the Capitol, were gone to the cellar or the attic or the desk drawer, to find and display those flags, so proud are they - are we, that America is offering us a promise again. Yes, I am proud and hopeful... Just today, the WaPo offers this:

"Transition advisers to President-elect Barack Obama have compiled a list of about 200 Bush administration actions and executive orders that could be swiftly undone to reverse White House policies on climate change, stem cell research, reproductive rights and other issues, according to congressional Democrats, campaign aides and experts working with the transition team."

Granted, this is merely evidence of President-Elect Obama doing the job we hired him to do, it also bodes well for our country, our freedoms and the most historic election on our lives.

America lives up to its promise...

A truly historic occasion - I am thrilled by the results of the election, and proud of my fellow citizens for choosing hope over fear... Our latest "long national nightmare" may soon be over... Congratulations to President-Elect Barack Obama!

(and kudos to Senator McCain for a truly gracious concession speech - probably the finest words he spoke throughout his campaign...)