The One Lesson Too Many White Folks Have Still Not Learned - Telling Black Folks What Is Or Isn't Racist!

Directly after the second Presidential debate and all day yesterday on the news, I watched white folks stumbling all over themselves trying to explain how John McCain's remark "that one" was not racially-tinged phrase. I repeatedly heard all about how it sounded like an "old man remark" or that it was a phrase from the "old Irish tradition, something my grandmother would say." Yet, just about every white pundit or news journalist was sure that McCain's remark was not racist and admonished the television audience against even implying that it could be viewed as racist by anyone.

Now I don't mind white folks trying to explain the remark, but please don't tell black folks how to interpret, feel, or react to the remark. If you have never experienced in your life being referred to as an inanimate object by a white person, then you don't know how if feels and you sure in the hell don't know how to recognize when it occurs.

In an American Government course as a freshman undergraduate I was pointed out as "someone to ask" about the three-fifths compromise for slaves by my professor. This occurred in a class where I was one of two people of color, me and a kid from Puerto Rico. Not to leave me completely alone by myself, in the same breath that professor also said to my fellow white classmates that they could ask Juan about being an illegal immigrant. Since Juan and I were sitting next to each other in the second to last row in the back of the class, the phrase "all eyes on me" fits the bill in this case.

Too many black folks know when, where, and how we are being excluded, examined, and made an example of, so please spare me telling black folks how to interpret the words and actions of an old throwback man like John McCain. I know that one second after McCain said those words, the needle on my platinum issue black woman's racism meter began twitching and jumping with quickness toward "what in the hell did he just say?" and settled in between "did he realized what he just said and did was racist?"

So thanks, but no thanks, to your excuses for John McCain, he should not have said it and he should not have pointed, it was completely unprofessional, mean spirited, and racially-tinged!

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Update - Racist Obama Waffles Creators Asked To Leave Conservative Christian Family Values Summit - Too Little Too Late!

The organizers for Value Voters Summit kicked out the creators of Obama Waffles. Too little, too late, in my book. Their move rings hollow especially after all the bad press and the protests. Not too mention that a few folks had to remind them it was a summit on Christian family values and that allowing racist products to be sold at the summit is not exactly Christian.

The organizers are attempting the equally lame excuse of not looking at the boxes carefully and misunderstanding what was actually on the product being sold. Baloney!!! One look at those huge banners make clear what was being sold and from all the news reports, the boxes were stacked like towers around their booth. Are they blind?

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Urgent Memo To White Folks! Obama Waffles Is Not Satire, It's Racist! Period!

White folks just a friendly word. If you want to lie to yourself about engaging in racist behavior, so be it, but don't expect the rest of the world to buy into your racism as something to be ignored or downplayed. Mark Whitlock and Bob DeMoss, the creators of Obama Waffles, this so-called satirical take on Barack Obama are racists, period! Anyone that purchased their racist product is supporting their racism and engaging in racist behavior themselves!

Depicting Barack Obama as a Muslim is not satire, it's racist. He's not Muslim for the millionth time and its equally insulting to Muslim Americans because it doesn't really matter if it's a well-established fact that Obama is Christian, the point of white folks depicting him as a Muslim is to tie Obama to white folks fears of our latest boogeyman, the international Muslim terrorist. That's a racist smear at it's very best.
Depicting Obama in stereotypical Mexican dress, including a sombrero is not satire, it's racist! It's an racist insult to citizens of Mexico and Mexican Americans. Further, attacking Michelle Obama and Obama's former pastor on this product has nothing to do at all with politics, but a whole lot to do with demonizing black people to white people. And that is racism at it's best as well. What also makes this such a despicable display of public racism is that this item was sold at a summit for conservative Christian family values. Can't you feel all the Christian love?

And the part that bothers me the most of this kind of racism is that white guys like Whitlock and DeMoss count on people of color taking the high road and never responding to their racism in kind. And maybe folks of color need to reconsider that position. Maybe it's time we start producing a few satirical items of our own.

How about a special edition of John McCain's Krotchety Krispies Cereal? They would go "Snap Crackle, POW Pop" when you pour milk over them! I for one would love to see the Sarah Palin Liar's Lipstick brand developed. Couldn't you see it? A lovely bright Alaskan cherry red lipstick enhanced with a special beeswax compound to help sooth one's chapped and cracked lips after telling one endless lie after another. How about a special edition of Cindy McCain's Jelly Beans for Candy Addicts? Each jellybean would be marked with the name of the most highly addictive painkiller imaginable and each bag would come marked "stolen from a local charity for kids near you." How about that white folks, sound like satire to you?

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