An Honest Man

I would imagine that BET founder Bob Johnson and I have little in common. He is a billionaire, Black, entertainment executive who supports Hillary Clinton. I’m a middle class, white, stay at home mom who supports John McCain. I know very little about this highly successful man, but as of this morning, I’m a fan. Mr. Johnson is not politically correct, and I find that refreshing in a media mogul. He recently was in South Carolina campaigning for his favorite candidate when he spoke of Geraldine Ferraro and he recent comments which some say branded her a racist.

“What I believe Geraldine Ferraro meant is that if you take a freshman senator from Illinois called ‘Jerry Smith’ and he says I’m going to run for president, would he start off with 90 percent of the black vote?” Johnson said. “And the answer is, probably not.”

“Geraldine Ferraro said it right,” Johnson added. “The problem is, Geraldine Ferraro is white. This campaign has such a hair-trigger on anything racial it is almost impossible for anybody to say anything.”

Bravo, Mr. Johnson! At last, someone can see the minefield in which White America must tread. A world in which ever phrase, every look, every gesture is parsed in an effort to get to the “hidden meaning”. Why is it racist to suggest that a part of the attraction Barack holds for many voters is because of the color of his skin? Let’s be really honest here for one moment, if we can. Oprah Winfrey may be supporting Obama because she really is a supporter of socialism, but does she really want me to believe that there’s not a small part of her heart that goes pitter-pat at the thought of a black man in the White House? I don’t buy it for a moment. Especially since Ms. Winfrey was a member of Barack’s racist church. Is she a racist? I don’t know, but like Mr. Obama, she is tolerant of them and enjoys their warped brand of Christianity.

Mr. Obama’s recently gave a speech on race in which he called for a new and open dialogue. I don’t buy what he’s selling for a New York minute. When Mr. Johnson made his remarks, they dismissed them by saying, this was “just one in a long line of absurd comments by Bob Johnson and other Clinton supporters who will say or do anything to get the nomination.” It doesn’t read that way to me. It reads as someone being honest at last about the role that race plays in politics. I don’t think it’s racist to observe that some people are voting for Obama because of his race, or sexist to say some are voting for Clinton because she’s a woman, or ageist to say that some won’t vote for McCain because he’s old. They are just observational statements of fact.

The problem with Obama’s campaign is that it wants to be everything at once. It strives to show the historical importance of his candidacy without allowing anyone to discuss why it’s historic. The racial problems he is facing won’t go away until he stops being the BLACK MAN running for president and starts showing himself to the American people as just a guy who wants to be commander-in-chief. A guy who doesn’t have a “hair-trigger” about all things racial.