The Human Race-ist

Though millions of Americans may have been under the unfortunate delusion that the election of the first African-American to President of America signaled a shift in race relations, time has rained the cold waters of reality down upon that proud parade. Every day, we are faced with new, disturbing displays of racism, hatred, and fear in places public and private.

Take Serena Williams' recent outburst during the final moments of her Semi-Final tennis match against Kim Clijsters at the US Open - an unnecessary display of anger, for sure, but what that moment revealed was another chapter in the disdainful language, and vitriolic racism that seemingly boils beneath the thin veil of Caucasian dominance. A cursory review of comments posted in YouTube.com (of video of the meltdown), from the seeming safety of internet anonymity, reveals a barrage of racist comments about blacks everywhere - conjured school-ground racist taunts that, as a nation, we would have hoped we had seen the dying days of.

The advent of blogging (just as I am doing here), forums, YouTube and posts to AOL's tabloid-drenched news articles has given license to angry, ignorant, repugnant, and bigoted rants. In debates of the impact of the internet to the news we digest every day, these posts surely rank among the most detrimental to any civil discourse we could hope to participate in.

Sadly, the displays of blatant racism are not limited to the emboldening anonymity of the internet. This weekend, as a self-described "angry mob" of protesters descended upon Washington, D.C. -- in surprising numbers -- we bore witness to proud placards that proclaimed Obama to be Hitler, Stalin, a communist, and other entirely childish, but dangerous things. But the worse could be seen on a lady's sign, the written sign of an angry conservative who had joined the thousands bent on lambasting government taxes, socialism, healthcare takeover, and other such matters - her sign made reference to the an African Lion at a zoo, and a "lyin' African" in the White House. Seriously? This is what the debate over differences has come to, grotesque displays of the kind of racism that sent lynch mobs after young black men by the thousands - stringing them up by their necks until they were dead for deeds such as looking at a white woman, or failing to obey the orders of whites. The kind of awful racism that rendered blacks as subordinate, well over a hundred years after slavery had ended. The kind of vicious racism that placated a white majority into deep seeded opinions that blacks were inferior; to be feared; to not offer them jobs, loans, or other facets of society that the majority enjoys without question.

When is it enough? When do we follow the path from vile protester signs to the voices that misinform them; when do we trace the path from outspoken ignorance to the bloated, hate-spewing, careless and dangerous voices that happily wind up the broken toy and set it ablaze in a society that, even in spite of such retardation of progress, tries hard to help the U.S. become a better union.

Come on, people. Do something about it. Confront it. Counter it. Educate the misinformed, propagate the truth, and help our slice of the human race kick the racist blight from our shining potential.