Carter, Racism, and the Thought Police.
Jimmy Carter, born in the early part of 1900, has a peculiar perspective. He lived during the Jim Crow era. He lived through the the Civil Rights era. He lived to be President for one term and he continues to make interesting comments following that term. So he comes on national TV and in essence states that the Tea Parties and protest to Health Care Reform were rooted in racism. Basically: protest to Obama contains racism.
Forget the arguments for or against Health Care Reform, Fairness Doctrine revival, Internet Control Emergency Powers, Bail Outs, Buy Outs, and further expansion of Government. No, there is no pro-argument to support these expansions than saying your opponents are racist.
How nice. How deep. How truly knowledgeable that statement is. Not really.
Carter is projecting himself on all of America.
A good portion of the American Populace today were raised in integrated communities. Their parents may not have liked it, but in the end, they grew up with people not of their own ethnic background (sorry, there is only human race as far as I am concerned). They did not grow up being told that the color of ones skin made them of more or less value. Actually, they were, they were told white people were bad and everyone else was oppressed by the white people and that the color of your skin entitled you to privileges if you were not white because of what some white people you never knew or were related to did to non-white people. Ok… there is a lot of the racism of White guilt.
Of course, one has to ask: what is racism? Is racism the observation of one’s skin tone? One’s nose, hair, or other physical features? If so, is it possible for a blind and deaf person to be racist? Or is racism an observation about someone and deciding that because of that observation they are inferior?
Don’t hire him, he is black.
Don’t hire her, she is female.
Don’t fire him, he is latino.
Don’t give him a raise, he has red hair.
That, plainly, is racism. Is it? If a black man said: don’t hire him, he is black, is it in the same caliber as if a white man said it? Can a person be racist against their own “race”?
How about this:
Don’t hire him, he didn’t go to Yale.
Don’t hire her, her family is poor.
Don’t fire him, he’s in the same club.
Don’t give him a raise, he is Catholic.
That is not racism. But it stems from the same source as racism: elitism. Racism is simply a sub-category of elitism. I can’t think of many people who are happy about Elitism, let alone racism. People don’t like being told they were not hired because they went to one school and not another. The elitism of Education. People don’t like being told that they were fired because of the color of their skin. The elitism of ethnicity.
So why Carter? Why bring up the elitism of ethnicity?
Well, if you have been paying attention to the pro-health care arguments they are often prefaced by ad homonym attacks such as stating the protesters are using Nazi symbols, or are white, or have threatening signs. Forget the context. Forget the argument. It is all about slandering people with the most divisive slur possible: the elitism of ethnicity. For months the pro-change-your-relationship-with-government supporters have been trying to shift the argument to one about elitism (racism). Joe Wilson makes his true statement that Obama is Lying and so another man of the South is brought out of the dusty cupboard to comment on it with authority. Well, regardless of what anyone says, if the argument is not about the actual substance of the Bills or Legislation, then the argument is merely a distraction.
So… why the Thought Police comment in the title?
Hate Speech. Hate Crimes. All revolve around assuming an act was committed because of an emotional thought. A whole new way to try someone with criminal charges and not need to offer any other proof than the difference in their appearance or thinking. That is un-American. The very fact someone committed a crime against another is not because they love that person. So adding an extra layer of Hate is redundant and a path to more lessening of Constitutional rights if left unchecked and a less scrupulous administration comes into power.
Forget what you say, that is protected speech. It’s what you think they will come after.