Racializing Politics

If you haven't been paying attention to the media coverage on the Race for the White House, then I suspect that you've been living under a rock somewhere on the planet of Mars! Even I've abandoned Youtube for the more astute and comical punditry of the crew over at MSNBC (Shoutout to Olbermann and Abrams!), but I digress. This election has been one of the craziest political rollercoaster rides and to be honest I don't think my stomach can hold on much longer.

So what gets my gag reflexes goin' the most? The always underlying and most recently overshadowing conversation around race. No, I was not shocked when Barack Obama was forced to explain his name or his origins, this is America, that type of ignorance xenophobia is expected. Nor was I agitated by the rantings and ravings of Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Johnson, etc. Nooo that didn't get my blood boiling either. It began with Geraldine Ferarro's comments and her clear inability to have a discussion about the way in which race potentially dominates the consciousness of American voters. My stomach twisted a second time when reading the NYT op-ed piece by Orlando Patterson titled The Red Phone in Black and White (can we say race card? GIN!). And just when I thought my stomach had settled, the drama of Rev. Jeremiah Wright tickles my uvula. Rev. Wright is the latest Obama supporter that the candidate has been asked to denounce, reject, renounce…basically prove that he utterly despises their existence. Though the denunciation of Wright, unlike that of Farrakhan, is not directly related to race, it has, unfortunately forced Obama to use tomorrow's speech in Philadelphia to discuss the role that race and religion has played in this election cycle.

This political race has provided the most opportune time to have an intellectually conscious discussion on race in America and I can't help but think that we're squandering the opportunity on what I can only describe as foolishness.