Thread: How Racism Clouds Judgement.

"What if things were switched around?
Think about it. Would the country’s collective point of view be different?
Ponder the following:

* What if the Obamas had paraded five children across the stage, including a three month old infant and an unwed, pregnant teenage daughter?What if John McCain was a former president of the Harvard Law Review?

* What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class?

* What if McCain had only married once, and Obama was a divorcee?

* What if Obama was the candidate who left his first wife after a severe disfiguring car accident, when she no longer measured up to his standards?

* What if Obama had met his second wife in a bar and had a long affair while he was still married?

* What if Michelle Obama was the wife who not only became addicted to pain killers but also acquired them illegally through her charitable organization?

* What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard?

* What if Obama had been a member of the Keating Five? (The Keating Five were five United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s.)

* What if McCain was a charismatic, eloquent speaker?

* What if Obama couldn’t read from a teleprompter?

* What if Obama was the one who had military experience that included discipline problems and a record of crashing seven planes?

* What if Obama was the one who was known to display publicly, on many occasions, a serious anger management problem?

* What if Michelle Obama’s family had made their money from beer distribution?

* What if the Obamas had adopted a white child?

You could easily add to this list. If these questions reflected reality, do you really believe the election numbers would be as close as they are?
This is what racism does. It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes positive qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative qualities in another when there is a color difference.

Educational Background:

Barack Obama:
Columbia University - B.A. Political Science with a Specialization in
International Relations.
Harvard - Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude

Joseph Biden:
University of Delaware - B.A. in History and B.A. in Political Science.
Syracuse University College of Law - Juris Doctor (J.D.)

John McCain:
United States Naval Academy - Class rank: 894 of 899

Sarah Palin:
Hawaii Pacific University - 1 semester
North Idaho College - 2 semesters - general study
University of Idaho - 2 semesters - journalism
Matanuska-Susitna College - 1 semester
University of Idaho - 3 semesters - B.A. in Journalism"



link

This was an interesting exercise.
White people whine a lot about affirmative action.
But look how exceptional, how singularly remarkable a black person has to be to compete with whites who are at best mediocre.
Our subconscious prejudices cloud the lenses through which we view others.

I read an essay by an Asian American a few years ago; he was resentful that whites often hold Asians up as a "successful" minority/ immigrant group.
He points out that the average Chinese American has far more education than the average white, and yet the median income for an Asian American is less than the median income for a white American.
He points out that Asians have to work twice as hard as whites in order to do half as well.

Anyway; I just thought this was interesting.
Couldn't figure out exactly where to post it.

Originally Posted by Kernel Sanders

I don't know if I would attribute that to racism, just democrats being democrats and sucking at elections. A good bit of that is very remeniscnet of Bush-Kerry. These things were not highlighted because Obama didn't highlight them and neither did the democratic party on his behalf. Just look at that huge list of ammo that you were able to compile. How much of it did you hear coming from the Obama campaign?

Or perhaps the Obama campaign decided to focus on issues, rather than tabloid-type, meaningless information...which is what the McCain campaign tended to do. Which is on reason McCain lost.

You make some good point however you ruin it by putting "White people whine a lot about affirmative action" as if all white people think the same.

As for the politics side you should of learned the lesson that personality counts more than anything.If Obama didnt have that great ability of public speaking he wouldnt have won same with any other candidate.