Race in the Race

(Yeah I know, the title is super funny...hehe.)

Now living in Spain, I often forget how obsessed America is over race. I guess it makes sense; it was only half a century ago that the Jim Crow laws were intact, and not until the early-90s when it became politically incorrect in Mississippi to run private schools and country clubs that blatantly upheld rules prohibiting blacks from entering. (Growing up, my parents wouldn't allow me to go with my white friends to country clubs, primarily for this reason.)

But the race issues in the presidential election are quite misunderstood. Everywhere I look on the internet people are calling McCain a bigot & a racist. I'm not a McCain-lover myself, and for sure, many things he's said do imply that he's a racist. But certain things people claim to be racist comments are just ridiculous. For example, one blog claimed that McCain's ad referring to Obama as "disrespectful" to McCain is an implied racist order to blacks. Firstly, that's a little stupid and way too read-into. Besides, there are much more sophisticated arguments one could come up with against the McCain campaign.

For some reason everyone seems to forget Sen. Joe Biden's numerous racial slips. (Still, I disagree that Biden's comments about Indians at Dunkin Donuts was racist, however, most def stupid to say on TV.) There was one in particular, though, that went a bit too far to be called a slip, when he said (referring to Obama), "I mean, you've got the first sort of mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy." That statement was clearly racist and ignorant.

Again, we Americans need to chill on the subject of race if we want to progress. I agree with Ashton Kutcher when he refers to the making of "Guess Who" and says (from interview with Orange County Register), "There's that scene in the movie when I'm telling black jokes, which makes everybody uncomfortable. When jokes like that don't make people uncomfortable, we'll have made some progress." Unfortunately, what Biden said wasn't a joke, and appears to be how he feels. That's a great movie by the way.