The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Red and Yellow, Black and Blue

3.24.08 @ 12:01AM

(Page 2 of 6)

Your use of the phrase anti-white discrimination in a recent article is just more proof how truly deluded the conservative view of America is. You'd think that a line of thinking so adverse to progressing forward would at least have a sense of history. We are not autonomous beings, we each are born with a history, a set of circumstances far beyond our control. The circumstances of injustice and oppression on African Americans over our nation's history (and to a lesser extent to this day) have placed African Americans into situations that are disadvantaged. They have lower incomes, less access to education and in general less opportunities due in many ways to the racism that held down their parents and grandparents. And now, after oppressing them for centuries you want to say "My bad, let's start over, clean slate!" and you expect them to compete on the same level? I know that the quota system is deeply flawed, but there must be a system the guarantees any disadvantaged minorities (whether race, gender, socioeconomic class) a helping hand, because bigots like yourself wouldn't take these factors into account. Whites aren't oppressed, they're the dominant power in this country. Stop whining and leave Obama alone. For full disclosure, I'm a white moderate who supports John McCain, but I have a deep respect for Senator Obama, and if conservative hate mongers keep this sort of vitriol flying, I'm liable to change my vote. Thank you for your time.
-- James Robinson

The real issue is not whether there should be a national dialogue about race. It is whether Senator Obama has any credibility on the issue. Though he presents himself as an open minded, healing uniter, he is steeped in the politics of racial division and hate. He has spent 20 years studying at the side of one of the most bigoted race hustlers this country has seen in a long time. I don't think it is unreasonable to fear that some of these ideas might have rubbed off on him.

A person chooses a church to worship in that one feels comfortable in, that nourishes them spiritually, that teaches them, helps them grow as human beings and validates beliefs they already hold. Most people also need to feel comfortable with the style of the minister. It is troubling to think that Rev. Wright's bigoted rantings might have validated some already held beliefs by Obama or that the Senator would want to subject himself and his family to the ministers hate filled monologues on a weekly basis.

A national debate should also be commenced concerning Obama's intelligence and judgment. It is scary that a person this close to the Presidency would pick as his guru, mentor and spiritual advisor, a man who believes that the U.S. government created the AIDS virus to kill black Americans (and apparently accomplished this by first introducing the virus into the gay/white community). Why would Obama want a crackpot like this advising him on anything?

I think we have more than enough reason to be concerned.
-- K. Wilson
Highland, Indiana

I stopped being hopeful regarding the issue of "Race" in America quite some time ago. As to a dialogue, we have been listening to a one-way dialogue on race from people of color for the last 50 years. I was a High School senior when the 1964 Civil Rights Act was passed by congress, so I am not unfamiliar with the struggle. But "dialogue" suggests point and counterpoint; give and take; mutual learning; etc. Us "Typical White People" (heretofore referred to as TWP's) have finally learned to shut up when it comes to the subject of race. Any open disagreement with a person of color automatically nets you the label of "racist." I am a second generation American of Russian-German extraction (my ancestors immigrated to Russia from Germany during the reign of Peter and Katherine the Great).

My family were a hardy farming people imported by the Tsar to farm the Steppes along the Volga River. Their issue subsequently immigrated (legally) to the United States of America after the Bolsheviks murdered more than a million ethnic Germans and imprisoned many more between 1917 and 1930. To my considerable knowledge (my father did an extensive investigation of our ethnic history) none of my ancestors was involved in any way with the slave trade between Africa and the Americas; none of my ancestors ever owned or sold slaves (although they were certainly familiar with slave labor in Russian Siberia); none of my ancestors assisted in enacting or enforcing Jim Crow laws; I was often lectured by my father to avoid using any pejorative when referring to people who did not look like or behave like we looked and behaved. He regularly cautioned that there are many legitimate reasons why people looked and acted in ways that were different from us. In short I do not feel any responsibility for racism in America, nor for the eminently disgusting behavior of racists of every stripe (black and white, and some other colors too), who continually regale us with their vitriol. But I do know a racist when I see and hear one. Mr. Obama has revealed himself to us TWP's and I will vote accordingly.
-- Ron Adolph
Sanger, California

Thank you a lot for letting me read your article on Obama's race speech. Yes, I accept Obama's invitation to talk about race. But such a dialogue can't be neither from the Afro-American point of view, nor under what Obama is trying to sell us: that is has to be HE, or nothing.

America is not Black and White anymore. America is also Brown, and Yellow. Race has issues to be discussed. But there are also, sub issues to discuss within each race. Obama should consider that it took us 400 years to reach here, and he won't have more than 4 or 8 years to fix it. We want to vote a President, not God.

What a shame. I feel Obama is just fraud.
-- Max Diaz

Tom is uncertain of Obama's position on affirmative action -- which is strange, given how far we are into the campaign. And, has Obama been asked his position on slavery reparations?

How much do we owe for causing HIV? For 9-11? How much do owe for nuking Hiroshima? (This last one is priceless: We're racists for nuking Hiroshima; non-racist Japan gets to sneak attack Pearl Harbor for free.)

I should think we're entitled to a reasonable estimate of costs to be incurred before we vote.
-- Rick Salant
Thousand Oaks, California

I am a liberal and I will gladly debate you or any other white person on race. Use facts and it's a debate you cannot win. You will never get a free pass for slavery, or the various other types of European-based racism practiced over generations in this country and around the world. The very fact that Obama had to make a race speech is proof America is an absurdly racist country. I don't remember any Bush having to "bring the nation together" when Atwater slapped us in the face with Willie Horton. I don't remember any white man having to make a speech to apologize for Jessie Helms in Washington, Strom Thurmond in the Senate, or affiliations of Bob Jones University or any of the other incredibly arrogant, insensitive and yes racist things white men in power do every day.

I'm not even a highly paid pundit, Mr. Bethell. I am a college-educated African American woman who has experienced white racism on at least ten different occasions in my lifetime because I live in America, one of the most racist countries in the world. So yes, I will happily debate you any day on race and I assure you, you will lose.
-- Ann Crute
Brooklyn, New York

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