A certain fringe element

I watched the news tonight. I don't, usually (GUESS WHY. Hint: It's awful!), but my roommate turned it on while I was making dinner and I'm apparently incapable of walking away.

If you missed it, former President Carter gave a speech tonight in which he said "I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he's African American." It's a response to Sen. Wilson and the recent conservative demonstrations and, predictably, the news sphere has exploded with talking heads and accusations and analysis. My roommate claimed Carter was calling anyone who disagreed with Obama a racist, I pointed out the 'intensely demonstrated animosity' bit, she waved it off as 'implied,' we shut down the conversation to avoid killing each other heated argument (hey, it's worked so far). But that's beside the point.

My own feelings on race, conservatism, and Obama are complicated (much like the issue!) - I suggest reading Ta-Nehisi Coates and the Tenured Radical if you're interested in thoughts much more intelligent then mine.

One thing that stood out at me, amidst all the discussion, was the line put forth by both sides - that racism is still around, sure, but (white) Americans (the demonstrators in particular) are Good People Making Their Voices heard, it's wrong to call them racist, some are kinda iffy but it's just a fringe element. The extremists.

And just, no.

( I know you've heard this all before, but- )

It's every god-damned where; casual, pervasive, systematic. It's in our movies, our music, our books, our heads. It's on our televisions, telling us it doesn't exist.



I am really not looking forward to the national debate these next few weeks.