Michelle Obama Creates Racial Strife

If you didn't know this was given in 2015, you might think it was given in the 1950s or '60s.

Surely we've come farther than this in 50 years.

Well, those of us who look for the good in life see that things are MUCH better than they were back then. We've come a long, long way as a society. Because there are those of us who choose to see it that way.

But then there are those, like Barack and Michelle Obama, who have a pessimistic outlook on life and can't see it. All they see is race. They see everything through the prism of race, and it distorts everything they see. Those kind of people are the ones ginning up the hate in places like Chicago, New York, Baltimore and Ferguson. And Tuskegee.

This speech wasn't productive. It was counterproductive. It was hurtful and divisive. In a time when we need leaders calling on people to ignore differences and to see each other as more than just the race that they are, this does the exact opposite.

Michelle Obama should be ashamed of herself for this. The fact that she isn't tells you everything you need to know about her and people like her who insist on colorblindness yet do everything they can to point out the color of peoples' skin.

A Black Man and a White Man Discuss Race

Today I did something that I very, very rarely do - I confronted a friend about race on Facebook. This wasn't just any friend, either. This was a person who used to be one of my closest friends - someone who Kristi and I both have known and loved for a long time. In fact, it's fair to say that without this person Kristi and I may never have gotten married. But now this is someone whom I'm considering unfriending.

So yeah - this hurts.

This friend is a black man and has long been a voice for inclusion and diversity. He celebrated his blackness, and that was pretty cool. But lately, his posts have become more polarizing and less inclusive. He's always been focused on race, but usually in a very educational and philosophical manner. But then something happened. His posts started to get more confrontational and one-sided and divisive. But he's my friend and he's entitled to his opinion.

But today he linked to a story about some New Jersey teens who did a great thing the right thing and paid for some merchandise, even though the store was closed. Great story. But he interjected race into it and it just made my blood boil. I am firmly of the belief that there's enough racial tension in this country and that inserting race into everything is one of the things that's tearing out country apart.  So I called him on it. This is that conversation: (click on the image to enlarge it)

...and that's where I left it.

I don't mind having an honest conversation about just about any topic, but what infuriated me was his complete unwillingness to even slightly admit that he might be wrong in interjecting race into this. Well, that and his condescension.

Friends, I meant everything I said in the discussion. If we want to live in a world where race doesn't matter, then let's all let it not matter... together.

And for my friend, I pray that someday you'll see how hurtful you've been and how you're actively involved in setting the clock backwards on race relations, especially since you're in a position to influence young minds.

"It Wasn't Racial."

I didn't blog about it. Purposefully. It was too soon. We didn't have all the facts. And we didn't know anything about the three teens who murdered Australian student Chris Lane in cold blood last Friday.

But now things are starting to come to light.

After the killing, people all over the internet began wondering aloud what the reaction would be to this killing by those who said that Trayvon Martin was a racial hate crime. They were, for the most part, silent on the issue. People who for weeks and months have been raising holy hell on Facebook and Twitter and in blogs and changing their status profiles to pictures of hoodie-wearing people suddenly have nothing to say. Well, most people, anyway. I did see a few pop up here and there to say something along the lines of "this was just a killing. It wasn't a hate crime. It wasn't about race."

Yeah. Well now there's this from the Daily Caller:

One of the teens charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of Australian baseball player Christopher Lane in Duncan, Okla., previously posted anti-white statements on his Twitter feed.

Not about race, huh? Not a hate crime? Notice that James Edwards is the one using the word hate in the hashtag of his tweet. Not anyone else. To me, that screams hate crime.

So, Oprah, Al Sharpton, President Obama et al, where are you now? You hypocrites.

[edit: It seems that people are giving Jesse Jackson credit for speaking out on this matter because he tweeted on the matter. Let's be clear - that's not speaking out. That's just saying something. But good for him, anyway, for sayting something, even if it was weak.]

The Lynching

Yet again, Bill Whittle is amazing.

Obama: Honor Trayvon With Gun Control

From MSNBC: 

President Obama called on the nation to honor Trayvon Martin a day after George Zimmerman was acquitted of his murder by asking "ourselves if we're doing all we can to stem the tide of gun violence." 

His comments came as family members of Zimmerman and Martin, as well as pundits, celebrities, and court observers had strong reactions to Saturday’s not guilty verdict, with those reactions taking various forms — from joy and outrage to Shakespearean references and calls for peace. 

"I now ask every American to respect the call for calm reflection from two parents who lost their young son. And as we do, we should ask ourselves if we're doing all we can to widen the circle of compassion and understanding in our own communities," Obama said in a statement on Sunday. 

"We should ask ourselves if we're doing all we can to stem the tide of gun violence that claims too many lives across this country on a daily basis. We should ask ourselves, as individuals and as a society, how we can prevent future tragedies like this. As citizens, that's a job for all of us. That's the way to honor Trayvon Martin."

President Obama, you're an opportunistic race-baiting pot-stirring controversy-ginning piece of crap.

The Zimmerman case had nothing to do with gun violence or race.

Micromanagement and Race Relations

From ABC News:

President Obama spoke to Shirley Sherrod, the USDA official who was ousted after a race flap, and expressed his "regret" over the events of this past week, the White House said this afternoon.

According to the White House, Obama "emphasized that [Agriculture] Secretary [Tom] Vilsack was sincere in his apology yesterday, and in his work to rid USDA of discrimination."

On Thursday morning Agriculture Department officials e-mailed Sherrod a specific job offer and today Obama told her he hoped she would take it.

Sherrod was offered a job tasked with settling lawsuits from minority farmers who say they were discriminated against in applying for farm loans. Vilsack on Wednesday said Sherrod was offered the job because she "has a unique set of skills trying to turn the page on our civil rights chapter which has been difficult."

Two questions:

1. When will Obama keep his nose out of state and local affairs, quit micromanaging and just mind the general running of the country? He had no business injecting himself into this matter. In fact, his involvement simply made this a much bigger mess than it had to be.

2. When will the race debate actually be over? The answer is when people of color - all colors - stop using race as an identifier and simply start treating people as people. By continually focusing on "black America" or "white America" people of all colors are doing a disservice to us all and to the eventual goal: a truly colorblind America. People should be judged by their capability and their character, not their skin color. It's no longer whites who are the primary keepers of racially-charged views and thinking. When everything is filtered through the lens of race, that's what makes one a racist. And by constantly crying foul on the supposed basis of race, it only furthers racial tension in this country. If those people would just let the past go and quit holding a grudge for slavery and civil injustices in the first half of last century, the better we will all be. I'm not saying that the people who lived through it should forget - quite the contrary. It has made them stronger and has made them who they are. But compared side by side, civil rights has come a hell of a long way from 1950 to 2010. And that's what's important - the present. The past is ugly, but the present and the future are a whole lot brighter, if only we would all let it be.