I was having a fabulous day.
I was on cloud nine, I had done a dorktastic chair dance over a problem
I’d solved, I was working from home on a cloudy rainy day, and it was Friday; I
couldn’t have been more gleeful. Seriously,
when is the last time you felt glee? I
had skipped lunch and decided at four to go run a couple of errands. I got in the car full of happy thoughts of
buying things I needed for my new home, for Halloween, and sweet blessed food
for the weekend. And then I cranked up
the engine and heard the following on NPR’s “All Things Considered”:
Leah Moreland had a much
different answer. Moreland sat a few feet away from Hake; the two women are
related through marriage. Moreland is supporting McCain.
"I don't want to
sound racist, and I'm not racist," Moreland says. "But I feel if we
put Obama in the White House, there will be chaos. I feel a lot of black people
are going to feel it's payback time.” And I made the statement, I said, 'You
know, at one time, the black man had to step off the sidewalk when a white
person came down the sidewalk.' And I feel it's going to be somewhat reversed.
I really feel it's going to get somewhat nasty."
I was half way down the street before I heard that first
line, when I snorted and said “Well, then, you’re a racist”. Because, come on! It’s the same as prefacing a statement with
“No Offense”, when you say that, all you are planning on doing is offending
someone, but you want an out. And we
elitist, snob liberal PC types have given it to you as long as you say ahead of
the statement that you’re a jerk.
And then I had made the turn and was waiting at the light
when I heard the rest. I didn’t know
whether to laugh, cry, scream, curse or drive straight into on-coming
traffic.
Moreland says she doesn't
think all black people will "want payback." "I'm not talking
about you(to the black people in the room, this is part of an NPR panel
series), and I'm not talking about them. I'm talking about the people
that are out on the street looking for trouble. Putting a black man in the
White House — and if he gets there, he gets there; I'm going to live under his
presidency and everything. And I'm still going to be friends with anybody black
that wants to be my friend and everything. But I really feel there's going to
be a time of adjustment. I really feel it. I hope I'm wrong. I hope I'm
wrong." (bold and italics mine)
Yeah, because there are no white angry people that wouldn’t do just what
she’s implying should Obama win. No,
they are all good, God fearing, Christian people. Good God fearing Christians that want to tell
everyone else how to live their lives and think that the American Government;
that was founded on the SEPARATION of church and state, should be dictating our
lives but not regulating our economy aside from bailing out Wall Street. The ‘live under his presidency’ really got to
me too.
I sincerely believe there will be a time of adjustment if Obama wins, but I
don’t think it’s going to be nasty black people at all. There could be instances of that. We’ve already heard about acts of violence
against McCain supporters by Obama supporters, but I think that street runs
both ways. Oh yeah, I was trying to
think of one… what about those kids at a school in the Pacific Northwest that
hung an Obama cut out in effigy. No, not
an attack on an actual person, but I don’t discount that it hasn’t
happened. Suddenly I find myself humming
Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit”.
So with that said, I would like to write a letter to Ms. Moreland:
I like to think I’m pretty news and political savvy. I read a lot of news of all ilks. If I remember my fundamental public school
education correctly, the Republicans have always run on a platform of less
government regulation. They were always
the keep your chocolate out of my peanut butter party right? So riddle me this Moreland… where the hell do they get off saying “I’m
going to put my chocolate (oops bad analogy, I guess they are the peanut
butter) I’m going to put my peanut butter in your uterus, your marriage, and
all your other civil rights… but keep your chocolate out of my AK-47!”
And honestly I just got sidetracked by rage, because the real feeling I had
at the end of that interview was:
bereftness. Gah, that’s not even
a word, bereft-ness, but I felt bereft.
I felt hurt, and violated and crushed.
And as demonstrated above, I did what people do when they feel that way,
I became enraged. Ms. Moreland? That is what makes people do the things you
imply. If you are afraid that a black
woman or man is going to shove you off the sidewalk or to the back of the
bus? Then maybe that’s because you feel
like the world is moving forward and it is not taking your racist ass with it. Maybe you long for the days when you could do
that to them with impunity, and I’m sure never did, but you can’t admit it
anymore. Maybe you’re afraid that
payback is going to be a bitch. And if
that is the case? Then you haven’t been
paying attention to anyone but your own small self, because this has nothing to
do with payback. It might, to small groups
of people; just like it will be payback to small groups of people if McCain
wins. I don’t mind you thinking about
how this will affect you. I mind that
you can’t get out of your own small prejudiced mind to realize what a major
cusp of history we are on the precipice of.
And yes you are a racist. Just
because you have a few black friends, or maybe you had a nice black cleaning
woman growing up, who you feel warmly towards?
When you apply a reaction, a feeling, a mindset to a group of people but
exclude the ones you know? You my dear
are a racist. Oh! In fact, I am a racist, because all this time
what I’ve been afraid of? Are the ‘real
Americans’ Sarah Palin touts that are going to go looking for revenge big and
small style if Obama wins. To be quite
honest Ms. Moreland, I am disappointed in both of us.
I don’t know you well enough to feel my disappointment in you very
deeply. I feel my disappointment in me
on several levels. I’ve had a great few
weeks. I did amazing things at work, I
did and witnessed amazing things for charity, I spent time bonding with friends
and family. So why am I so disappointed
in myself? And the country? Because I slipped back into hopeful
naïveté.
Yes, the campaign is ugly, but I’ve read “Scorpion Tongues: Gossip, Celebrity and American Politics” by
Gail Collins; and at least no one this year has implied that anyone else’s wife
was a street walker, murdered their own troops in the civil war, or had
fornicated with animals . McCain has
been allowed to disavow himself from implicit racism since that’s been being
handled by sub groups sending out emails implying that Obama is a terrorist or
GASP a MUSLIM! This probably would have
been the same as implying Teddy Roosevelt might have Catholic sympathies back
in the day.
I have the luxury to work in a place where people are very
charity minded, in a completely overwhelming sense. Lately I have been exerting myself for the
raising of funds and goods for many of these charities, and the outpouring has
swelled my heart and brought me to tears.
Ms. Moreland, I would bet any amount of money that you probably
contribute to your own charities, and that your heart and eyes well up
too. I am in no way implying you are not
a good person. From your interview all I
know for certain is that you are a racist.
From your interview, I’m going to take liberties and extrapolate that
you also are the kind of person that wants to have a say about my civil
liberties and what I can or cannot do as a US citizen. I feel fairly confident in assuming the only
civil right of mine that you don’t want someone else to fuck with on your
behalf, is my right to carry an assault rifle.
Ms. Moreland, why don’t you and I compromise? You keep your politics out of mine and
everyone else’s: belief system, uterus,
racial status, sexual status and personal life.
I’ll keep my politics out of your and your like minded brethren’s: gun toting, religion… oh that’s all I can think
of, because I don’t support a party that wants to take away any of your rights. I support a party that wants to uphold all of
your rights and everyone else’s. Yes, we
want to regulate whether or not you should own an assault rifle, I’d be happy
to sit down and discuss that one. But I
still think the second amendment had more to do with keeping England at bay than strafing endangered species
from planes in Alaska. But let’s have a cup of tea and you can tell
me why you think I’m wrong.
Ms. Moreland, I apologize for some of my language in my
letter to you. I am as passionate about
what you said as you are mealy mouthed saying it. We’re both women, we can both vote, we both
get our say. So stand up straight, and
say what you mean, this isn’t a Faulkner play.
You’re a Republican, not one of us wishy washy PC liberals, say what you
mean. Or if you can’t, maybe you have a
really good reason to be embarrassed. I
know I am on your behalf. You got to
speak on the radio, I know NPR will allow a good deal of people to comment on
your statements. All I have to arm
myself against ‘oh not you” but you
know, those people, are my words and
my vote. And it’s people like you and
your people, that makes me hope ‘that guy’, wins.
Sorta kind regards, a different kind of racist,
Danielle
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