Threatening

WITHIN HOURS of Barack Obama's announcement of his candidacy for president in 2007 he received thousands of death threats. Out of their miserable swamp the good ole boys emerged, armed to their remaining teeth with the usual vile far right bile. The Secret Service was horrified, and said so to Obama, who nonetheless persisted in his campaign for president. In every hotel room the half black man inhabited, curtains were drawn, windows and doors well guarded. Miraculously, Obama survived to this day. The threats have never stopped. They come almost exclusively from the white conservative Christian community. We know this because those who make the threats tell us in their threatening messages. They threaten Obama in the name of and defense of God and country, as they proudly proclaim their values of traditional, patriarcal, white, Christian, heterosexual America. Erstwhile they hide in cowardice behind pseudonyms, Bibles, flags, and guns. Racism, like violence, is a core American value, a traditional value, despite protestations to the contrary, despite our most heartfelt desires and attempts to the contrary. These days, as then, the Secret Service handles the threats. Enter something called "critical race theory", ambiguous at best, misleading at most. The term "critical race theory" should be changed to "history", or "sociology", or "modern American culture". When the systemic racism which permeates American society and is so deeply embedded that we notice it no more than a fish notices water, looming as large and unseen as the proverbial white elephant, is closely examined, it is as reality, not theory. Whoever spews "Obama was born in Africa" and "Michelle Obama is a man" spews racist garbage. Whether the heart, mind, and soul are racist, the words certainly are. This, acccording to obama. He should and does know, from experience. Long ago we learned that "color blindness" is inadequate, for it prommotes denial of reality. Since racism is traditional, and since conservatism is nothing but the embrace of tradition, racism is a conservative value and phenomenon. Whoever doubts or disputes this is reminded to bear in mind that neither the KKK nor any of the numerous white supremacist organizations which stain America include liberals among their membership. To a person, they self identify as conservative, and usually Christian. The same holds true for people who spew hatred for Jews, gays, transgenders, and non white non-Norwegian immigrants: most if not all self identify as Conservative, and Christian. Simply ask them, if you can tolerate the stench. Accusations of liberal bias only confirm this. The substance of these facts is indisputable. Arguably, anyone who ackowledges race as a tangible reality rather than a mere conceptual construct is "racist", whether or not there is racial enmity involved. Every human being has a unique skin color. Many are similar, incapable of differentiation to the naked eye, but still...unique. Eight billion shades of tan. Races exist only in theory, as a convenient means of simplifyig a world of seemingly infinite complexity by constructing arbitrary categories. Thank you, Aristotle. When I was five my father underwrote a golden gloves boxing event. All the fighters were African-American. The athletes gave me a pair of boxing gloves in which my tiny hands got lost, and then challenged me to a gentle fight. I laughed and squealed with delight. When I was ten I chased a foul ball at a major league baseball game, but was beaten to the punch by an older, faster black boy. He got the ball, then handed it to me. Early childhood experiences are foundational.