Lesson 1

My friend Mark recently posted an article about the Kansas GOP House Speaker "praying" for the Obama children to be fatherless and their mom be widow (see link). Since I am dedicating my blog to passive aggressive racism I think this is a good lesson to begin with. One of the comments on Mark’s link was that the good thing about Obama being elected is that it let us all know who is really a racist.

I laughed so hard at that statement, but found so much truth in it. I remember a time, even during the much hated Clinton administration when the office of the President of the United States was highly respected. Why the change? Why the need to feel like you can speak so freely about the disdain for the President of the free world. I am truly bothered by the ease and comfort and the sense of empowered certain people feel saying these types of things.

This is a prime example of passive aggressive racism. Just say you hate having a black president, it’s almost like people are going out of their way to attack him for all sorts of things. The disclaimer before I go on is that I myself don’t agree with many of his policies although I did vote for the man. But spending time on things like authenticity of a birth certificate, or saying things like “who wants a Harvard law professor as a leader“ just make me think, really? Aren’t most politicians lawyers? Now we have a lawyer leading us who is from one of the most prestigious law schools in the country and all of a sudden it isn’t good enough?

Passive aggressive racism is something we sort of have to laugh at. While it’s horrible and sets us all back a hundred years (really only about 60), I cannot put my head around why people don’t just say what they mean. Say you hate being represented by a black man, say you hate that a black man is married to a strong black woman and they are uber educated and still married and the biological parents of their children, say you can’t stand the fact that their very existence goes against all the things that society tries to perpetuate about people of color… but don’t, especially if you’re a “good Christian with family values” wish death and despair upon any family. That is just evil.

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/01/13/403911/kansas-gop-house-speaker-prays-that-obamas-children-be-fatherless-and-his-wife-a-widow/?mobile=nc