Screw the Racism Charges and Those Who Make Them

Having participated in civil rights work in the South many years ago -- before it became popular and while it still entailed some minor difficulties such as being targeted by gun firing and Molotov cocktail hurling crackers -- I in recent decades have been amused by being called a racist. The charge invariably is hurled at me by individuals who've never done or risked anything for equal rights and opportunities for everyone other than chanting mindless slogan and participating in protected protest marches. The charge, to which I've become accustomed, is routinely made because I oppose, and to silence my opposition to affirmative action and any and all other racially based preferences. I oppose those things for the same reason that I opposed white supremacy in the 1950s -- the flip side of every preferential  program is racial or ethnic discrimination against those not in the specially advantaged group.

Now though, the NAACP has crossed an important line by lashing out against the nation's tea parties with the obviously false racism charge. The tea parties are highly popular with, and participated in by a broad spectrum of ordinary Americans of every race, ethnic and religious group, and economic class. By its attack, the NAACP has not only forfeited whatever scant shreds of credibility it had left, but also, and far more significantly, it has transformed the racism charge into one that will be devoid of any meaning in the future. The racist epithet can no longer have any impact as it clearly has become an empty label, designed solely to silence or to demonize and denigrate anyone who expresses or supports a position not favored by the person or entity making the accusation. In addition, racism frequently is charged for a political purpose, any such purpose that may be advanced by fanning racial divisions.

P.S. an Explanatory Note: In the early days of affirmative action I supported those programs and overlooked the lunacy and illogic inherent in endeavoring to correct the evil effects of racial discrimination by resorting to, and perpetuating more racial discrimination, albeit of a different variant. I came to oppose such programs for three reasons, one of which is set forth in the above post. In addition, it became clear to me that racial favoritism -- no matter how well intentioned or scrupulously implemented or attempted -- had adverse impacts on everyone -- the recipients of preferred treatment (most of whom already were well and advantageously situated both socially and economically) and on other members of the supposedly favored group who never received any preferences as well as on those disadvantaged by the programs. Finally, what began as an effort to offset and correct the effects of past discrimination quickly was transformed into a permanent discriminatory entitlement that quickly gave rise to, and came under the control of a very vocal, strident and greedy self-perpetuating and politically poisonous but powerful constituency. The misguided efforts have caused and are continuing to exacerbate serious divisions within, and harm to our society and virtually all of our institutions.