The Institutionalization of Racism

OBAMA AND THE INSTITUTIONALIZATION
OF RACISM


Barack Obama ran an explicitly racist campaign, and his presidency has done more to exacerbate racial tension and anger in the US than anything since Malcolm X’s “White devils” tirades.

I have seen racism, and have participated in it, and have a personal testimony of its hideousness. It is one of the worst, if not the very worst, of all human behaviors. It degrades and humiliates the victim, and desensitizes and trivializes the perpetrator.

Without going into all the gruesome details, I will simply say that I have felt the dehumanizing slap of racism across my face, and have felt the corrosive blistering of it burning in my own heart. It is terrible, and it is a very, very hard habit to break. Over the past 40 years, I have striven, with the help of many wonderful friends and teachers, to rid myself of this curse. I’m probably about 98% clean. It crops up once in a while, and always leaves me feeling filthy and ashamed. Each such occurrence provides an opportunity to get rid of one more little disgusting piece of the past.

One of the most powerful statements I’ve read is Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream that someday his children will be judged, not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their characters. Amen, Brother King. I have the same dream for my own children. In my opinion, this is an excellent definition of racism: that people are judged by their skin color, rather than by their character.

Now comes Barack Obama. During his campaign, almost daily, he stated that he was uniquely suited for the job because of his skin color. He claimed special knowledge or insight because of his skin color. His being Black would make him a better president than his opponent, who wasn’t Black. He and his party pounded the race issue. If elected, he would be the First Black President. His wife said she was ashamed of her country for considering anything but race. Any criticism of him was laid to racism. Millions of his supporters said they’d vote for him only because of his race. The chant, “Yes we can,” long a Hispanic anthem in the form of “Si se puede,” was everywhere. Its prominence in the campaign linked Hispanics with Blacks against Whites. A large number of statist Whites said they would or did vote for Obama strictly because of his race.

Since his inauguration, there has been no letup in the torrent of racist invective and hubris. Every critic of him or his policies is accused of racism. To be anti-fascist is to be anti-black. To be pro-Constitution is to be anti-black. To resist destroying our children with debt is anti-black.

He appointed a woman to the Supreme Court in spite of – or perhaps because of – her statement that, being a Latina, she was wiser than any White judge. He has defended racists like Jeremiah Wright and Van Jones, even giving Jones unprecedented power over our nation as the so-called “green jobs czar.” He has chummed up to Hamas and Hezobolah, Iran, Hugo Chavez, and every two-bit racist madman to come down the pike. He has spat upon his own countrymen and our allies.

I hate to say it, but when I see a car driven by a Black person, and it has an Obama bumper sticker, I wonder, “Did this person vote for Obama because he was Black, or because he is a fascist? In spite of his character, or because of it?” I never felt this way before. What do Blacks think when they see me or hear me speaking against Obama? Do they think I’m a racist? If that was their sole motivation in voting for him, I don’t see how they could think otherwise. Since race was the only factor in their decision, anyone opposing them must have been an opposing racist.

There were surely people who voted against Obama out of racism, although not in the numbers the fascist press would like us to believe. Should I wonder if the White person with the McCain bumper sticker were racist or fascist? Interesting question. McCain didn’t really put up anything resembling a rebuttal or refutation of Obama’s racist, fascist campaign. In fact, he seemed intent on copying Obama and legitimizing him. John McCain is a fascist sympathizer, and if this nation were Italy or France in 1945, he’d have been shaved and paraded through the streets naked – if he weren’t lynched. (Yes, John McCain was a brave and dedicated warrior for America, but as a presidential candidate, he was and remains a disgrace, with his mealy-mouthed apologizing for liberty and the Constitution. Adolph Hitler had a terrific war record, too.)

Barack Obama is not an American president. He is most emphatically not a people’s president. He is a Black president, and a fascist one. He has driven a racial wedge between Blacks and Whites. He has made racism the coin of this realm, as institutionalized as it was in Nazi Germany. Those who voted for him because of his race essentially sold their souls, and the soul of an idea equality’s greatest spokesman pronounced in such superlative and thundering words 41 years ago.

And what did they sell it for? This? A two-bit megalomaniac on a spending binge with other people’s money? Barack Obama doesn’t even have the character to be a real tyrant. He’s a punk, and he’d be a punk regardless of his complexion.


Sic Semper Tyrannis,
Rebsarge