Geraldine Ferraro, Ron Paul and "The Racist Card"

This article provides a brilliantly-conceived response to those who accuse others of playing "the race card."  It's called "The Racist Card."  This card is played by anyone who is making comments about a particular person or group of people that are blatantly race-related, then claiming that they aren't a racist because of all the other things they've done and seen in their lives. 

Geraldine Ferraro played The Racist Card when she said Barack Obama only got to the position he is in because he is black.  From the article:

"The racist card is textbook strawmanship. As opposed to having to address whether her comments were, as Obama said, "wrongheaded" and "absurd," Ferraro gets to debate something that only she can truly judge—the contents of her heart.

It's a clever and unassailable move: How would you actually prove that Ferraro is definitively a racist? Furthermore, it appeals to our national distaste for whiners. It's irrelevant that the Obama campaign never called Ferraro a racist. It's also irrelevant that Ferraro said the same thing of Jesse Jackson in 1988. And it's especially irrelevant that Ferraro apparently believes that Obama's Ivy League education, his experience as an elected official, and his time of service on the South Side of Chicago pale in comparison with the leg-up he's been given as a black male in America. By positioning herself as a victim of political correctness run amok, Ferraro stakes out the high ground of truth telling."

The article also calls out Ron Paul, who is pretty evidently racist.  

I have friends who have pulled this stunt on occasion.  They make a racist comment, then they claim not to be racist because they aren't "actively persecuting" black/Asian/Latino people, or some other such nonsense.  They seem to be living under the impression that racists are these caricatured, slavering creatures with horns on their heads and white hoods in their closets, occasionally roaming down from the hillside to set fire to black churches and throw shit at non-white minorities. 

Not true, my friends.  Racism in today's America is far more subtle, but the effects are nonetheless profound.    

A common complaint I hear is, "You can't say anything these days without someone calling you a racist."  No -- actually, you can't say racist things without somebody calling you out on it.  Sure, mistakes are sometimes made, and people get unfairly labeled by part-time jerks like Spike Lee or Al Sharpton.  But not nearly as often as you might think from all the whining about "PC police" you hear from the Ferraros and Ron Pauls of the world.  Everyone's a little bit racist...but just because you might not believe you're a racist at heart doesn't give you a free pass for your words and actions.  

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