{"id":2363,"date":"2008-11-11T16:59:00","date_gmt":"2008-11-11T16:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2008\/11\/racism-and-criticism\/"},"modified":"2008-11-11T16:59:00","modified_gmt":"2008-11-11T16:59:00","slug":"racism-and-criticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2008\/11\/racism-and-criticism.html","title":{"rendered":"Racism and Criticism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Charges of racism have been thrown around in the comment box and it caused me to ponder the matter more deeply.<\/p>\n

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Is it possible to criticize our President elect without being racist? Let\u2019s put it the other way around and ask whether it is possible to be pleased with his election without being racist. It seems to me that one might be either critical of Obama or uncritical of Obama because of racism. In one instance I might be critical of the man because I dislike and distrust all black people, but on the other hand, I might be uncritical of the man because I like and trust all black people. Both positions would be racist because one is judging the person by their race.<\/div>\n
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Let us put the man\u2019s race on one side for a moment and consider the question from another point of view. Let\u2019s say we\u2019re talking about a Catholic being elected. If I am a Catholic I might be delighted with the election of my co religionist. If I am a Protestant I might be alarmed by his election. Both positions (if based only on the candidate\u2019s religion) would be prejudiced, shallow and dangerous.<\/div>\n
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Instead of asking if a man is Afro American or Asian American or Native American or Catholic American or Italian American we should not ask not about the prefix, but the noun. In other words, we should ask what kind of American he is, not what kind of Afro American. For the man himself and his supporters, if he is a good American his race and his religion do not influence his policies. (A man\u2019s religion might connect to the abortion issue, but more on that later)<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
For me to be delighted because a Catholic is elected (simply because he\u2019s Catholic) and give the man my unqualified support because he says he is a Catholic might be understandable, but it would not be supportable. I might feel elation at a Catholic being elected, but if he denies the basic tenets of Catholicism my enthusiasm would be shallow and misplaced.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The question then returns to the enthusiasm for the new President elect from among Afro Americans. It is certainly understandable that Afro Americans would be excited by the election of an Afro American. I think I can understand that enthusiasm\u2013given the downtrodden history of the black race in America. In fact, I can also share the sense of pride and accomplishment in our own country that we have come so far as to elect a black man to the highest office in the land. In that respect I am proud of my country.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
However, I have to get past that and ask not only if he is an Afro American, but what kind of American he is. In other words, what does he believe? What does he want to do? What does he want to accomplish? One of the most bitter ironies about Barack Obama\u2019s radical pro-abortion platform is that while he is the hero of the Afro Americans, the policies he promotes are likely to kill off far more unborn Afro Americans than ever before. This is because the ratio of abortions to live births is far, far higher among black women than any other racial group in America. Reference<\/a>.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
From my pro-life perspective we have the bitter irony of an Afro American being swept to power by the Afro Americans so that he can allow total freedom for abortion which will then allow the slaughter of even more unborn Afro Americans. This, it seems to me, is a racial crime against Afro Americans, and I\u2019d be against it no matter what race the pro abortionist is.<\/div>\n
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And I\u2019m the one who is somehow anti-Afro American?\u00a0<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
So go figure.<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Charges of racism have been thrown around in the comment box and it caused me to ponder the matter more deeply. Is it possible to criticize our President elect without being racist? Let\u2019s put it the other way around and ask whether it is possible to be pleased with his election without being racist. It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":557,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nRacism and Criticism<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Charges of racism have been thrown around in the comment box and it caused me to ponder the matter more deeply.Is it possible to criticize our President\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2008\/11\/racism-and-criticism.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Racism and Criticism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Charges of racism have been thrown around in the comment box and it caused me to ponder the matter more deeply.Is it possible to criticize our President\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2008\/11\/racism-and-criticism.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Fr. 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