Just when you think that we the people have evolved culturally and morally, and have come to embrace a multi-racial nation built on open-mindedness and peace, an insidious trait still presents itself in 2012’s American society. The ugly devil, racism, rears its head and taps you on the back. You need not look any farther than our home state of Wisconsin to witness racism in all of its nastiness.
Playing the race card in politics is nothing new. Jason Thompson, son of Senate candidate Tommy Thompson, reminded us of this at a GOP brunch. He publically declared, “We have an opportunity to send President Barack Obama back to Chicago – or Kenya.” Right after Thompson’s comment, a woman was heard stating, “I’m taking donations for that Kenya trip.” Now if those comments aren’t considered race baiting and racist, I don’t know what is.
RNC Chairman Reince Pribus was there and all he said was that Thompson’s comments were “out of line.” Tommy Thompson apologized on his son’s behalf. You have to wonder, however, about the level of sincerity in his apology.
A Redgranite, Wis. man claiming to be an Obama supporter, made the news for displaying a sign that had an outline of a noose and stated, “Hang in there Obama.” Thomas Savka told WLUK-TV that the sign had “nothing to do with color.” Neighbors said that the sign was in poor taste. The Obama campaign stated that the sign was “inappropriate and has no place in public discourse around elections.”
Another horrifying example of racism in politics is of a photograph going around the internet. It’s of a white man with a shaved head, wearing a t-shirt that states, “Romney/Ryan: Put the white back in the White House.” After seeing this at a Romney rally, I was speechless.
On Fox News, Newt Gingrich stated, “I’m assuming that there’s some rhythm to Barack Obama that the rest of us don’t understand. Whether he needs more rest, whether he needs to go play basketball or watch ESPN, I mean I don’t quite know what his rhythm is.” I could go on, but it just gets more ridiculous. Bringing up rhythm and basketball, seriously, why didn’t he just go ahead and call the President a racial slur? Gingrich’s comments were transparently racist, and ignorant.
There are countless tactics of racism. All you need to do is Google “racism in politics 2012.” A racially coded TV ad by Karl Rove asks the President to show up for work. In the end, the best thing that can be done is to bring racism out into the limelight. For every veiled insult, inappropriate sign, and political hack talking racist smack, call them out on it. What does racism gain? Is racism going to lift this country up? I think not. Does race play a role in this election? I say yes. History keeps repeating itself, and that is a shame. Americans, especially government officials, need to represent themselves by the principals of the U.S. Constitution.