The “art” of manufacturing racism

obama-fingerWhen Barry Obama was elected in 2008, we were told the beginning of the Post-Racial era was here.  But since that time, it seems like race is being thrown in your face at every turn.

What seems like a very reasonable reform — requiring you to prove YOU ARE who you SAY YOU ARE when you show up to vote — is painted as racist. 

Here in Pinehurst, we’re in the waning days of back-to-back US Opens.  Of course, the drive-bys — being WHO THEY ARE — put together a meme about the lack of black players and how that must mean the game of professional golf is racist.   I like this rebuttal to that spin:

[… ] As former PGA Tour player Paul Azinger put it last week, when discussing the absence of black golfers in the field, “It doesn’t matter how old you are or the color of your skin. You shoot numbers, you’re in.” […]

That’s right.  Being judged by the content of your character (or your golf score) rather than the color of your skin.  What a *radical* concept.

bill-cosby-500The very-silly News & Observer has reported on another attempt to manufacture racism out of thin air: 

The Wake County school system has determined that dolls given by Enloe High School Principal Scott Lyons to his teachers were not racially offensive as alleged in a complaint filed with the school district.

At issue are what Mark Garrison, a member of the Coalition of Concerned Citizens For African American Children, charged were “Sambo” dolls given to staff in December. David Neter, Wake’s chief business officer, concluded after an investigation that what Lyons gave were actually “Dammit Dolls” that are meant to relieve stress.

In February, Garrison filed a complaint with the school system with one of the points being over the dolls.

Garrison reiterated the charge in a June 4 email to school board members and Superintendent Jim Merrill. Garrison charged that Lyons “used poor judgment and obvious un-professionalism and insensitivity by giving ‘Sambo‘ dolls as Christmas gifts to his staff.”

[…]

Sambo, you ask?  If you grew up in the South, and are at least middle-aged, you might remember The Story of Little Black Sambo.   Here is a Google search offering up examples of Sambo dolls. Here is the Dammit Dolls website.   NOT even close.

You might remember, in 2011, when Wake County school board members got attacked as racist because they tried to institute a policy of letting kids actually attend school reasonably close to where they live.  The drive-bys and the NC Democrat Party teamed up to use this spin to turn the school board’s GOP majority into a Democrat majority at the next election.

THIS is unifying?  In 2008, we got sold the concept of MLK, but have ended up with Saul Alinsky.