We're All Racists Now

A lot of people have been bemoaning how they can't wait for this election to be over.  A recent status update on Facebook said as much lately.  Someone wrote that they couldn't wait for this election to be over so their friends could go back to being undercover racists.  It made me wonder what their friends must be like and what must they think of their friends.  But, more than that, it made me think about how race is injected into politics even when it isn't the issue in this election.

I think it's no surprise that conservatives and liberals have different fiscal and social policies.  There was a time when you could discuss the policies of each political philosophy and base your decision to support a candidate running under the banner of one party or the other on the merits of those policies and how successfully they were implemented.  Examples:  Nixon and Reagan were both Republicans.  Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agnecy.  Now it is out of control.  Bloated government isn't even why he had to resign!  Reagan limited the size of government and lowered taxes.  He inherited a bad economy (13% unemployment), but instead of complaining, he turned it around!  Carter and Clinton are both Democrats. Bill Clinton was a good leader who reached across the aisle and worked with Republicans to sign a balanced budget.  Over all a successful presidency (with the exception of that impeachment stuff).  Carter, on the other hand, not so much, what with that Iranian hostage crisis and all those gas shortages.  You can't do that now; just try to do that now.  Mention unemployment, tax rates, immigration, defense spending, education, birth control, the national debt or deficit, the economy, national security, medicare, the environment and you're lucky if you're called anything less than a flat earther women hating child endangering birther throwing granny off the cliff global warming denier 1% loving RACIST!

So this post got me thinking.  Have we reached a point where intelligent people can't disagree about politics anymore because the president is black?  Some people view everything through the prism of race.  That kind of vision must be severely limiting:  To judge people based only on skin color;  To not see people as individuals;  To not hold the President of the United States to account because you see his skin color before the office he holds. More than anything, it limits our ability to discuss the merits of issues.  As soon as someone is winning the political argument using facts on the economy or medicare or immigration....call them a racist.  It is such an emotionally charged word that it makes most people recoil.  They recoil out of shock.  Shock that someone that they most likely know well just said something about them that they know isn't true to advance their own political argument.

And then it happened to me.  The word wasn't used, but message was there:  Stop making your political points about minorities and unemployment.  I don't like your facts about poverty and education .  I don't have any facts of my own, but you're white; you probably don't even know any minorities.  And even if you do, they are few and may have had a tough time recently, but you're white. Pull the race card.  End debate.

Not so fast.  If you know me, I had to push the issue, make my point.  I shared my own economic struggles.  I reasoned that this person grew up in the same town as I had.  That our town was accepting of all races.  That we were lucky to have been raised here.  That's when this person proclaimed just how racist this community, its teachers, and the people who live in our home town had been. This person said I had been living a life of illusion.

This person tried to shatter my illusion by telling me about a mean racist teacher from our elementary school.  I remembered that teacher.  She was mean.  She took a girl in my grade outside who was working too slowly and slapped her across the face and told her to do her work faster!  That teacher was hateful, but that little girl was white.  This person also told me about the mean racist Home Economics teacher at the high school.  I had that teacher.  She was the only teacher who ever kicked me out of class.  She kicked me out of class because I wouldn't eat raisins!  I guess that also makes me a raisinist!  This Home Ec teacher was mean to everyone.  There were a bunch of girls in my class whose mothers had taught them to sew, but the teacher was constantly ripping out their seams and telling them that their mothers had taught them incorrectly.  She was a bad teacher. 

Every so called racist implicated by this person was someone I knew pretty much to be, I hope you will pardon my language, an asshole.  They had been mean and hateful to a large number of people; so, they were equal opportunity offenders.  The world is full of assholes.  Being racist and calling someone a racist is just another form of being an asshole.  When you look at the world through the prism of race, it is like looking at the world through your own asshole.  The view is very narrow, everything you see looks like crap, and every time you turn around it seems like your world is headed down the toilet!

Butt, I mean but, just for fun, I am going to give it a try.  I thought maybe I could categorize some of the people in my life according to their ethnic and minority status.  Let's start with my family.  My husband was born in Mexico, and he and his family came to the United States when he was a young boy.  My mother-in-law worked in agriculture from the fields to the packing sheds, and my father-in-law works in construction.  They have both labored hard to pass the American dream on to their children.  Now, my husband does the same for our family.  

Many of my friends in high school were of Mexican decent.  One friend was more like a brother to me.  To this day his family is like family.  Speaking of family, one of my cousins married a woman from France.  Want to come to Christmas dinner with us?  Turkey, tamales, and escargot!  The woman who took care of my children was born in Japan.  My dentist is Chinese, and my doctor is from India.

My first year of teaching a former teacher came out of retirement to teach science at the school where I was hired.  He was also a former Marine.  He smoked a pipe in the halls and the smell reminded me of my grandfather.  He was an inspiration to this first year novice.  The respect he commanded from his students; the dedication and commitment to his classroom and the school and the community; the way he got his students to perform academically.  He mentored me and taught me management techniques that I still use in my classroom twenty-two years later.  Few others have matched his example since.  Oh, by the way, he was black.  He's no longer with us, but he left a lasting impression and is greatly missed.

It's not race that makes any of these people who they are.  It's what they do, how they act, how they treat others and what they contribute to the world that makes each of them so special.  They are individuals who all have special talents and personalities and gifts.  Each and every one has had an impact on my life.

After the racial slugfest on Facebook, I found myself slipping into that cynical place.  I was beginning to think there must be more people in that asshole category than I had realized.  It's a contagious disease and you only have to be human to catch it.  But that's also the cure.  Being human.  Acting human.  Treating others like human beings.   And that's when it happened to me.  The kindness of a stranger.  A stranger on a phonecall.  A lady who helped straighten out my mortgage payment because you know teachers don't get paid during the summer, and I had some catching up to do.  I thought I was in for a battle, but I made a friend that day.  I don't know what color she was, and I don't care.  She was human and treated me like one too.  A total stranger who was truly helpful with patience, kindness, and understanding.

After all, isn't that all we really need?