Is Mitt Romney a racist for being moved with compassion after interacting with an American citizen who happened to be black?

While blacks who frown on blacks marrying non-blacks and Jews who frown upon Jews marrying non-Jews do so for very different reasons (one is a social/cultural/ethnic/racial thing and the other is a religious/spiritual thing), they both have one thing in common: identity–i.e., “Never forget who you are and who and where you come from.” A more careful reading of Scott’s literary freestyling (and it reads flowingly well) reveals not “I hate whites!” but “I identify strongly with being black and our history of suffering at the hands of white people, and seeing a black guy married to a white woman just kicks up strong feelings.”

But consider: Wasn’t integration the ultimate goal of desegregation? Wasn’t the idea to create a world where the black man could do and have whatever the white man could do and have? Wasn’t the vision a world in which people were just people?

Desegregation and the civil rights movement not only tore down the walls that barred blacks from the front of the bus, but also the glass windows against which blacks could only press their faces and hands as they watched whites going to the best colleges, living in the best neighborhoods, getting the best jobs and climbing the highest rungs of industry and government.

Many of you have heard by now, that just this week the NAACP, decided that they would prepare to declare the TEA Party movement as racist in whole, if its leaders did not denounce any and all racist fringes. Ben Jealous cited signs saying ‘Lynch Obama’ and ‘Lynch Eric Holder’ as proof of such racist fringes. The only problem with this is that there is no such evidence that signs ever existed let alone were held up by TEA Partiers at any TEA party rally. It was a charge rather like the indelible and erroneous rumor of black congressmen being spat and called slurs, which was also proven false. Even though it was such an obvious fallacy; that didn’t stop Nancy Giles from spewing it out her mouth on Larry King Live.

Dana Loesch, a co-founder of the St. Louis TEA Party, however rightly put her and Stephanie Miller, who insisted on using the insult “teabaggers” as a means of identifying TEA partiers, in their places. Dana, in my humble opinion ran circles around the lies and misconceptions surrounding the TEA Party and its members. As for Ben Jealous, David Webb got him to admit the power of the TEA Party and rightly shot down accusations of racism against the TEA Party movement.

  You cannot go to a 7-11 or Dunkin Donuts unless you have a slight Indian Accent.” -Senator Joe Biden Mahatma Gandhi “ran a gas station down in Saint Louis.” -Senator Hillary Clinton  ”Some junior high n*gger kicked Steve’s ass while he was trying to help his brothers out; junior high or sophomore in high [...]

I don’t know his politics, I don’t know which issues he’s campaigning for, and I don’t know about his background but I do know Democrats. Most importantly, I know racism when I see it. That’s why I’m supporting the candidacy of Alvin Greene in South Carolina. I am not endorsing him but I do endorse his right to run. Liberals hate that I constantly accuse them of being the racists that they are. Too bad. The colossal push to force a black man out of a race he won fairly provides more proof why the Democratic Party is the most racist institution in America today.

The Alvin Greene story reads like a Hollywood script. Here you have a veteran without any political pedigree, get rejected by the party machine then miraculously gets accepted by the people. He achieves the improbable goal of winning his party’s nomination in a statewide race with few resources. Unfortunately for Greene, he has reached far beyond the boundaries reserved for black politicians. He will now suffer the wrath of the Democratic machine because of his ambition and desire to serve his state. While blacks are the most loyal Democrat voters, the party has made it clear that as long as a black person runs for a seat in an all-black district, he won’t have any problem with his party. For the record, Obama doesn’t count. When I say “black,” I am referring to Americans like me that trace their roots to enslaved Africans.

I don’t like Harry Reid.

Now that we got that out of the way, I can say this: I don’t like the Senator from Nevada, but I also don’t think he’s a racist or what he said is racist.

I don’t know if white Americans would have voted for someone with darker skin. Maybe, maybe not. I think that is something best left to white Americans themselves to answer and since I’m not a white American, I won’t answer.

But the thing is, what he said wasn’t racist.

That said, I am also left wondering what would have happened if a Republican had said the same thing. I tend to think that said Republican would be in the midst of an even greater firestorm than the one surrounding Harry Reid.

Now there is sounding educated, and sounding ghetto; that is describing a state of being and education level in association with speech patterns. But speech patterns are inaccurately given race equivalents. This always annoyed me growing up… people insisting I “talked white”. No, I never “talked white”; I paid attention in class and made an effort to always speak properly. I didn’t do good in my classes, I did well in my classes.

As you can probably tell this is a pet peeve of mine. I am always being shot dirty looks from family members annoyed at my need to correct their grammar. In my mind I am doing them a favor…. They just think I have bad unintentional habit of being condescending. Now I do not speak perfectly all the time… I usually loose all propriety when I am angry.

But speaking properly gives an indication of a better educational background. It means people will be more likely to take you seriously. It often means better job opportunities and even better pay. Barack Obama is an educated man and he makes an effort to sound that way. He is the President for crying out loud… he should speak properly! The idea that we would ever make a direct link between speech and race is absurd and frankly racist in nature.

Sadly, just as the original Woodrow Wilson had a flock of Progressive Negroes that followed him as he had them fooled, (W.E.B. Du Bois & William Monroe Trotter) so is the case today.

Today powerful Nevada Senator Harry Reid issued an apology for previously undisclosed remarks he made about candidate Obama in 2008 where he referred to the President as “light-skinned” with no “negro dialect.”

Racism is not the the sole domain of Republicans, Conservatives or Southerners. Not all racists pepper their conversation with the N-word or secretly desire the extermination of black and brown people. Racism is complex, multi-layered, and deeply rooted in the American story. Name calling is not helpful in uprooting racism, but neither is a false sense of moral superiority.

It’s ironic. When Democrats (including key Black Democrats) wanted Secretaries of State Powell and Rice to “fail” under the Bush Administration (i.e., not deliver the goals set forth by the Bush Administration in the best interests of the American people), it was not out of racism and not wanting to see the first two Black secretaries of state to success. Of course, it was out of principle against the Bush foreign policy.