Racism In The 21st Century Coming From The Left

Perhaps we need a new definition of the word racism because it is now bandied about in a frivolous manner by race baiters who've never undergone its scourge. All we need to do is look at the history of racism in this country particularly in the South to get a real perspective of the pain suffered by blacks during that dark period. Those who underwent that torment are for the most part deceased but their pain has been exploited by modern day race-baiting demagogues who've benefitted by the changes in our civil rights and in the hearts of most Americans.

According to dictionary.com, racism is described as: "a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule others."

Another meaning given is: "hatred or intolerance of another race or other races."

In 2008, America elected a black president, Barack Hussein Obama which should have been an indication that we are now living in a post-racial time but progressives in politics, the mainstream media and the entertainment industry have now defined racism to mean any criticism at all of their chosen black icon or his agenda.

Obama is half white and was brought up in a middle class environment with liberal white grandparents in relative comfort denied to many blacks historically. He had an Ivy League education and became a millionaire at an early age. Yet whatever bigoted insults he endured during his life they pale in comparison to that still hurled against Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and other conservative blacks dubbed Uncle Toms or Aunt Jemimas by political opponents.

I've recently started reading the novels of James Lee Burke which feature a Louisiana detective, David Robicheaux. Many chapters revisit the times when racism was endemic to the South and blacks were treated by advocates of that first definition of racism listed above who regarded them as less than human. Anyone who's read "To Kill a Mockingbird," is familiar with a time when it was not uncommon for a black man to be jailed for even looking at a white woman. Black men were tossed into jail, could be killed for sport by white trustees and could be made to disappear easily, their bodies never to be found. Lynching of Blacks took place under the eyes of complicit police.

I once interviewed the late Laura Webb Childress, a member of the Bobbettes, whose hit song, "Mr. Lee" made it possible for this 14-year-old urban teen to go on a rock and roll tour during the late '50s.

She told me of traveling through the South in a tour bus and she would be told to look away whenever they passed a man hanging from a tree. The native New Yorker came face to face with segregation and her stories which at first sounded like fantasy to me became all too real when confirmed by my husband who grew up poor and white, in the rural Miami far from the Beach.

As a young boy he read about a man's body being found with his throat cut and when he asked his uncle about it he was told it didn't matter because he was a "n***er and nobody cared". This was over fifty years ago and one would hope this type of injustice no longer exists but if it does it is more rare and not necessarily exclusive to blacks.

Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Whoopi Goldberg, rappers and other prominent progressives perpetuate racial hatred and generate white guilt because this is what keeps them in the public eye.

The Democrat Party has been instrumental in cloaking its racist history and using it as a tool against the GOP, which ironically is the true champion of civil rights. By fomenting and exploiting past racial injuries, it has managed to keep blacks on the government plantation with entitlement programs presented as something due them for past grievances.

Throughout the history of the world there have always been groups regardless of ethnicity that have been tortured and held captive by evil monarchs, dictators and barbarian overlords. Civilized nations have emerged through this morass of violence and the lives of the generations that followed were improved and safeguarded thanks to the efforts of courageous advocates of equality and respect for human life.

Can you imagine a Jerry Seinfeld bemoaning the suffering his people endured under Pharaoh? How about Sean Connery demanding reparations for the lands confiscated by the evil Edward I "Longshanks" of Britain? How many Irish cops, firemen, priests and merchants stopped striving and improving their lives because the Potato Famine held them back? It is shameful that those with a self-serving agenda exploit ancestral pain for political gain and keep minorities mired in the victimization status.

Perhaps they have misread the biblical quote, "life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand" (Ex. 21:23, 24)? Perhaps they truly believe that revenge for past injuries is warranted by the heirs of past victims. But that Judaic law of equivalency was actually an attempt to limit punishment and discourage cruelty. It should also be limited to the one involved in the injury. This law was meant to reject family feuds and the spirit of revenge that led to uncontrolled attacks against perceived culprits and their progeny.

The gist of this law if followed would end the despicable practice of families passing on their hatred for generation after generation in the Middle East. It should also remind minorities that they should not consider the pain of their ancestors as their own and alert them to those who benefit from their continuing dependency.

The new racists come from the left and hurl despicable names at black conservatives. Their latest target is Herman Cain, 2012 Republican candidate for president who has been called a "black garbage pail kid"; "a monkey in the window"; "an apologist for white racism" and the usual "Uncle Tom". Herman Cain is a successful businessman and former CEO of Godfather Pizza who rescued that failing enterprise. Cain is highly educated with more entrepreneurial experience than most members of Congress and without being handed any of the advantages of our current president.

In his bio he writes:

"I was raised in Atlanta, Georgia by loving and hardworking parents. We grew up poor, but we grew up happy. Things weren't always easy, but my mom and dad knew that if they kept their faith in God, faith in themselves and their faith in the greatest country in the world, they, too, could achieve their American Dream."

Imagine that, a black man who has always been proud of this country and recognizes it for being exceptional. Obama could learn a lot from him.

Alicia Colon resides in New York City and can be reached at aliciav.colon@gmail.com and at www.aliciacolon.com