Excuse me Glenn Beck-- About Joe Wilson?
Dear Mr. Beck,
I am struggling with the joys of post-racial politics in America.
See, in a post-racial America, when we see a member of Congress break all traditional rules of decorum and respect by shouting, "You lie!" at the President of the United States during a joint session, we say to ourselves, "That was so rude, he should be censured; his emotions got the better of him."
In a post-racial America, we say, "well of course he is against reform-- his top campaign contributors are health care professionals. Money and corruption remains a very powerful force in American politics."
Sometimes the really savvy observers in a post-racial America speak not of race, but of generic othering-- the grouping of someone into a scary category by accusing them of being Marxist, communist, fascist, Hitleresque, Heath Ledger Jokeresque, or liars. People can do that to anybody of any party and of any race, e.g. George W. Bush. This is just a feature of the coarseness of contemporary political dialog.
But in this post-racial America, if someone wonders if this, by all accounts, unprecedented effrontery was in any small way related to emotions embedded in racial themes that are part of our collective history and psyche, well, such a ponderer is herself or himself a racist, trapped in the old America. Yes, in the post-racial America, erasure is paramount, so when a white Congressman from South Carolina, born into the segregated south in 1947, whose two political mentors were Strom Thurmond and Floyd Spence (fellow South Carolinians who were members of the States' Rights Democratic "Segregation Forever!" Party), cannot contain himself when in the presence of the first African American president in U.S. history, we cannot discuss these possible influences on the emotions that caused his outburst. Surely they would be irrelevant to the ideas of a policy maker from South Carolina, a state that holds firm to the Confederate Flag, that refused to honor the federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr., and is home to GOP operative Mike Green who likes to tweet knee-slappers like: "JUST HEARD OBAMA IS GOING TO IMPOSE A 40% TAX ON ASPIRIN BECAUSE IT'S WHITE AND IT WORKS." That, too, is Post-racial America.
So Mr. Beck, you seem to have this labeling thing down, knowing just when it is okay to call someone a racist, so I am wondering if you could tell me about the gentleman from South Carolina, the Honorable Addison Graves "Joe" Wilson, Sr. (R - SC). Since he apologized, nevermind. Forget I even mentioned any of this. Please.
I am struggling with the joys of post-racial politics in America.
See, in a post-racial America, when we see a member of Congress break all traditional rules of decorum and respect by shouting, "You lie!" at the President of the United States during a joint session, we say to ourselves, "That was so rude, he should be censured; his emotions got the better of him."
In a post-racial America, we say, "well of course he is against reform-- his top campaign contributors are health care professionals. Money and corruption remains a very powerful force in American politics."
Sometimes the really savvy observers in a post-racial America speak not of race, but of generic othering-- the grouping of someone into a scary category by accusing them of being Marxist, communist, fascist, Hitleresque, Heath Ledger Jokeresque, or liars. People can do that to anybody of any party and of any race, e.g. George W. Bush. This is just a feature of the coarseness of contemporary political dialog.
But in this post-racial America, if someone wonders if this, by all accounts, unprecedented effrontery was in any small way related to emotions embedded in racial themes that are part of our collective history and psyche, well, such a ponderer is herself or himself a racist, trapped in the old America. Yes, in the post-racial America, erasure is paramount, so when a white Congressman from South Carolina, born into the segregated south in 1947, whose two political mentors were Strom Thurmond and Floyd Spence (fellow South Carolinians who were members of the States' Rights Democratic "Segregation Forever!" Party), cannot contain himself when in the presence of the first African American president in U.S. history, we cannot discuss these possible influences on the emotions that caused his outburst. Surely they would be irrelevant to the ideas of a policy maker from South Carolina, a state that holds firm to the Confederate Flag, that refused to honor the federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr., and is home to GOP operative Mike Green who likes to tweet knee-slappers like: "JUST HEARD OBAMA IS GOING TO IMPOSE A 40% TAX ON ASPIRIN BECAUSE IT'S WHITE AND IT WORKS." That, too, is Post-racial America.
So Mr. Beck, you seem to have this labeling thing down, knowing just when it is okay to call someone a racist, so I am wondering if you could tell me about the gentleman from South Carolina, the Honorable Addison Graves "Joe" Wilson, Sr. (R - SC). Since he apologized, nevermind. Forget I even mentioned any of this. Please.
