When I was growing up, being overtly racist was not in vogue. Don’t get me wrong, there were plenty of racists and racism, but the preferred approach was far more subtle.
In my day, racists knew to conceal their racism with coded language and innuendoes like the Willie Horton ad, or the push pulling tactics against John McCain by Karl Rove suggesting that McCain had an illegitimate black child.
Now, blatant racism seems to be all the rage. Led by the president who consistently spews racist, unsubstantiated allegations, the once hidden racists are emerging from the bushes like the munchkins after Dorothy dropped a house on the Wicked Witch of the West. Only, instead of singing songs of support for Dorothy and her caravan of friends, the racists are trying to detain and deport her.
Two events in the last few days really illuminated this shift in the approach of racism. First was a tweet from the president’s son, junior, that displayed both overt and subtle racism. On Saturday he took to Twitter to show support for the republican senatorial candidate in Maine and wrote:
“Angus King is a Fake Independent who votes with Schumer 88% of the time. Angus wants to repopulate Maine with Syrian and Somalian refugees. Support @SenatorBrakey who fights for secure borders and Better Jobs for Maine. #me #maine.”
Now, if you’re not careful you’ll miss the significance of the 88. Not only is this statistic incorrect (following in dad’s footsteps here), it is probably a dog whistle to neo-nazis who use the number 88 as a code for “Heil Hitler.” When you couple his dog whistle with the overt hostility towards black and brown immigrants, his words are horrifying.
They are frightening not only because of their substance but because of the source. Our country has shifted so much that the president’s son feels free enough to write public statements that are false and bigoted without fear of consequence.
The second instance was far more brazen. A website called TheRoadToPower.com produced a racist robocall against Georgia Governor candidate Stacey Abrams. The call, which consists of a white man’s terrible impersonation of Oprah, begins with this line, “This is the magical Negro Oprah Winfrey asking you to make my fellow Negress Stacey Abrams the governor of Georgia.”
It only goes downhill from there–referring to Abrams as Aunt Jemima and calling white women that like Oprah dumb. It would be comical if it wasn’t real.
While this call and Junior’s tweet are appalling, they are not surprising. As I said before, racism is not new; even overt racism is not new. What is troubling, however, is the shift back to this type of overt racism in our country.
What we see happening now is the result of what happens when racists go into hiding like they did when I was growing up, instead of changing. We never corrected and healed from our racist past, and so it remains a present sore festering in our country. It is not that we have become more racist this election; rather, it’s the symptoms of our disease flaring up once again.
Therefore, those of us who love justice, peace and all people, just like God has called us to do, we must work to bring about healing. This is more than a call for forcing political correctness because that is only treating symptoms. This is a call to do the hard work of loving each other. It may seem trite or corny, but it truly is the only answer.
Fear fuels the extreme hate we see in our nation. But there is no fear in love. Perfect love drives out fear. To treat our sickness of hate, we must use love to remove the fear fueling it. Once the fear is gone, then all that will be left is love.
—Until Next Time—
Palooke
Awesome