Race In Your Face

Talk about chickens coming home to roost.  The sight of President Obama in the White House, acting as head of state, the prime representative of the United States, has driven some people--most of them rabid right Republicans--into a frenzy of madness, tripping over their projections and denial and letting out what perhaps even they are surprised is in their hearts and minds.

Most recently there was Cliven Bundy, a tax dodger hero of the right (except perhaps those who themselves own cattle ranches and don't get a free ride) who spouted off with such racist analysis that conservatives are repudiating the guy who was their hero 48 hours before.  Adam Serwer asks why, when what he's saying simply follows from the rabid right theology.  Their problem was nailed by, of course, a satirist: Andy Borowitz headlined: Republicans Blast Nevada Rancher For Failing To Use Commonly Accepted Code Words.

Now a huge firestorm over intensely and personally racist dialogue that no one seems to be denying is Donald Sterling, owner of the Los Angeles Clippers NBA team.  The best commentary on this situation I've seen is from Amy Davidson here at the New Yorker.

Davidson points out how extreme Sterling's comments are, objecting to his girlfriend (that the guy is married and she is 50 years younger are normally the top details but not this time) posting a photo of herself with Magic Johnson, not only a personal acquaintance of Sterling but of course he's...Magic Johnson.

  "But it’s also worth talking about how we let racism hide in a tissue of supposed dispensations. A Magic Johnson gets a pass—usually—and the people at the parties where he shows up congratulate themselves with the idea that their discomfort around other black people had nothing to do with race at all. It is, supposedly, because of “culture” and attitude, education and status. This presumes that it’s left to black people to erase the racial aspect of their presence (or absence)—that is, to remake themselves so that they fit in certain rooms. That is an unfair obligation to start with. (If Magic Johnson isn’t a respectable person to be seen with, how about the President of the United States?) But the recordings expose the fraudulence of the whole transaction, the whole setup."

The Sterling situation is still gathering force, as the multiple ironies as well as big money involved begin to burn through American society.  Maybe making all of this conscious will turn out to be a good thing, a cleansing thing, but at the moment we're in the phase of facing the ugliness.  And it is important that we really face it.