Monday, October 13, 2008

On Racism -- falsely so-called

Several months ago, one of my co-workers told me that he and his wife had been enjoying their subscription to NetFlix. As part of that enjoyment, he went on to say, they had watched together a documentary concerning the lack of fresh vegetables in a Black neighborhood in some major city (I do not now recall the specifics).

The creators of the piece documented what seemed to be a long and arduous trip from this Black neighborhood to the "nearest place" from which to buy good quality "fresh vegetables." The clear intent of exploring the details of the bus ride, encompassing multiple transfers from bus to bus, was to show just how tragically difficult it was for anyone living in this nearly all-Black neighborhood to get any quality fresh vegetables.

After telling me this story, my co-worker suggested -- as was clearly the intent of the documentary -- that there must be some kind of "conspiracy" to deprive this Black neighborhood of quality fresh vegetables.

I was taken aback with incredulity: I could not believe that my bright young co-worker had really been taken in by this apparent masterpiece of deceptive reasoning.

"Do you mean to say," I asked, "that you actually believe that somebody -- or some group of somebodies -- really decided that no one was going to sell fresh vegetables in this particular neighborhood simply because the neighborhood is predominantly Black?"

"Look!" I proclaimed, "This was no racist decision that businesses would not sell fresh vegetables in this particular Black neighborhood. If there were a market for fresh vegetables in the neighborhood covered in the documentary, then someone would be meeting the demands of that market. Clearly, the reason there are no quality fresh vegetables available in the Black neighborhood depicted is because there is no market for quality fresh vegetables in that particular neighborhood."

I find it amazing how readily charges of "racism" can arise. More significantly, I find it amazing how gullible many are to believe these charges of racism without giving careful consideration -- or any consideration at all -- to the underlying facts leading to the accusation.

There is a parallel here: In this current election cycle, McCain and the Republicans have been, on numerous occasions, charged with "racism" without the slightest consideration for the facts underlying the statements or circumstances that led to the charge. This charge arises, often from Barack Obama himself, simply because the Democrat candidate is Black, and for no other apparent reason.

It would bode well for our nation, and show signs of considerable maturity, if members of the press (particularly) and (more importantly) individuals who plan to VOTE would consider the facts at hand before latching onto that "racist" alibi for that to which they have no legitimate reply.

1 comment:

JL MEALER said...

Some people simply do not think for themselves, whether on the basis of everyday reasoning or (and especially) with voting.

People 'in this day and age' are still believing that voting for the Lesser of Two Evils (Democrat or Republican) will allow this nation to change to a point where we can pull ourselves out of the ditch.

As far as the POTUS, people will either go with the obvious leading DC politician and his gang of corrupt stooges or one of the GOP labels and his/her proposed method of "the cure" that must inevitably use the SAME corrupt stooges to pass a Bill into Law or to somehow mysteriously revoke bad laws to fix this nation.

What they never address is that in our corrupted Congress, in order to get a Bill passed into Law or a Law reversed, billions of dollars in bribes and kick-backs must be handed out to the Congressmen simply to buy their vote. Obamacare is a perfect example... Dodd-Frank is another... TARP and the Auto Mailout is yet another.

We have ONE candidate and ONE chance to fix this major lack of jobs issue and crippling financial meltdown that will destroy our nation and the world's economy (even worst than it is) within 2 ears... And that POTUS candidate is all but an unknown except he was a victim (documented) of the Auto Bailout and Congressional corruption that bankrupted him and KEPT HIM FROM HIS FRESH FRUIT...

Don't throw away your vote on the Dem or Repub... Vote MEALER 2012.

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