Disguising Racism

HAVING BEEN IMMERSED in within the venerable, veritable bosom of comfortable middle class American society fo' sixty five years, I know a gang of racist denying racists when I see one. I see them all the time, at senior centers, in churches, and in many other places. I see them incessantly. My comfortable, entitled, privileged lower middle class life is inadequate to its intent to color blind me. i can see skin color, no matter how hard I might try not to. We are all racists, in the sense that we distinguish between races. I find hilarious the expressions of sanctimonious moral outrage unleashed by conservative Christians at the mere mention of the remotest possibility that there might be the slightest chance that somewhere deeply ensconced within their minds might lurk, hidden even from themselves, a racist molecule. Racism is easily disguised. Well disguised people, fearful and resentful of possible exposure, do not submit willingly to the exposure of their true nature. Today's racists, unlike those fifty years ago, are ashamed of their racism, ashamed of the reaction they might get from others, and so they try to hide it, not always well. Obama was elected because the United States has a large progressive constituency, in fact a majority of American are liberal on most social and economic issues, and, when they vote, they win elections. Trump was elected as a backlash against social progress, spearheaded by conservative evangelicals who apparently prefer law, order, and divided culture to unity and progress. Within the Trump supporter community racists are a clear majority, and most of the hateful vitriol directed against Obama was based on racism, even though nobody is willing to admit it. Our current civil strife may well be a purgative much needed to expose the sources of racism and, it is to be hoped, its cure. the source is obvious; mainstream american political conservatism.