Editorial by a White Man for a Georgia Newspaper - About Race & Obama

 (received as an old-fashioned forward-of-a-forward)  Andrew M. Manis is associate professor of history at Macon State College in Georgia and wrote this for an editorial in the Macon Telegraph.  The chairs in the photograph were placed by someone at aTown Hall meeting on healthcare.  The watermelon/KFC photo is from a rightwing blog and the watermelon trap is from a rightwing email.  The one with melons on the lawn was distributed by a Mayor - in a blue state.

Andrew M. Manis: When Are WE Going to Get Over It? 
For much of the last forty years, ever since America "fixed" its race problem in the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, we white people have been impatient with African Americans who continued to blame race for their difficulties. Often we have heard whites ask, "When are African Americans finally going to get over it? Now I want to ask: "When are we White Americans going to get over our ridiculous obsession with skin color?"  Recent reports that "Election Spurs Hundreds' of Race Threats, Crimes" should frighten and infuriate every one of us. Having grown up in "Bombingham," Alabama in the 1960s, I remember overhearing an avalanche of comments about what many white classmates and their parents wanted to do to John and Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Eventually, as you may recall, in all three cases, someone decided to do more than "talk the talk."

Since our recent presidential election, to our eternal shame we are once again hearing the same reprehensible talk I remember from my boyhood. We white people have controlled political life in the disunited colonies and United States for some 400 years on this continent. Conservative whites have been in power 28 of the last 40 years. 

Even during the eight Clinton years, conservatives in Congress blocked most of his agenda and pulled him to the right.Yet never in that period did I read any headlines suggesting that anyone was calling for the assassinations of presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, or either of the Bushes. Criticize them, yes. Call for their impeachment, perhaps. But there were no bounties on their heads. And even when someone did try to kill Ronald Reagan, the perpetrator was non-political mental case who wanted merely to impress Jody Foster.   But elect a liberal who happens to be Black and we're back in the sixties again. At this point in our history, we should be proud that we've proven what conservatives are always saying -- that in America anything is possible, EVEN electing a black man as president. But instead we now hear that school children from Maine to California are talking about wanting to "assassinate Obama." 

Fighting the urge to throw up, I can only ask, "How long?" How long before we white people realize we can't make our nation, much less the whole world, look like us? How long until we white people can - once and for all - get over this hell-conceived preoccupation with skin color? How long until we white people get over the demonic conviction that white skin makes us superior? How long before we white people get over our bitter resentments about being demoted to the status of equality with non-whites? 

How long before we get over our expectations that we should be at the head of the line merely because of our white skin? How long until we white people end our silence and call out our peers when they share the latest racist jokes in the privacy of our white-only conversations? 

I believe in free speech, but how long until we white people start making racist loudmouths as socially uncomfortable as we do flag burners? How long until we white people will stop insisting that blacks exercise personal responsibility, build strong families, educate themselves enough to edit the Harvard Law Review, and work hard enough to become President of the United States, only to threaten to assassinate them when they do?  How long before we starting "living out the true meaning" of our creeds, both civil and religious, that all men and women are created equal and that "red and yellow, black and white" all are precious in God's sight?  Until this past November 4, I didn't believe this country would ever elect an African American to the presidency. I still don't believe I'll live long enough to see us white people get over our racism problem. 

But here's my three-point plan: First, everyday that Barack Obama lives in the White House that Black Slaves Built, I'm going to pray that God (and the Secret Service) will protect him and his family from us white people. Second, I'm going to report to the FBI any white person I overhear saying, in seriousness or in jest, anything of a threatening nature about President Obama. Third, I'm going to pray to live long enough to see America surprise the world once again, when white people can "in spirit and in truth" sing of our damnable color prejudice, "We HAVE overcome." 

************************************** 
It takes a Village to protect our President!!! 

Comments

[www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=504344623]

I LOVED his honesty and ability to speak freely. There are so many that share his same thoughts, but lack both the courage and platform to express it. What irritates me is that when someone white brings such issues to the conciousness of other whites it's an epiphany, but when a person of color does it's considered "whiny"...when will we say enough is enough? I question how far we've really come...

[Slugbug]

The same response happens with women and feminism - we can be called ball breakers, dykes, feminazis etc.

I question much of the "progress" in the last 40 years.

Success is the best revenge but it seems elusive sometimes.

Thanks for your comment.

[Erma]

That was a great article. I wonder what the answer to most of his questions will be? Whites are likely calling him a turn coat. It's difficult to look in the mirror and admit what you see.

[generic viagra]

Where did you have these freaky photos ?

[Neenee0949]

I pray for President Obama and his family's safety from racists every day. I am adding God bless Andrew M. Manis for the courage to speak out, and I pray also for his safety and the safety of his family from those who don't appreciate his candor.

[Slugbug]

Thanks!!

[Unique]

The Reds are in big trouble once Whites can talk about race qutoas without being punished. Immigration is inescapably tied to race, for example. All topics can be brought to the table, Dark criminality, Dark innate dull-wittedness and the destruction of our schools, Dark breeding habits and the displacement of Whites, Dark consumption of White resources and the drain on our economy. And once the Darks are open for criticism, we can also talk about their allies and enablers, the elites in general and Jews in particular. Nor can the Hindus and Orientals escape scrutiny, once the Jews are on the table. From esophagus to anus, the whole multi-cult is connected. The Regime will be out to silence this fellow faster than a Mel Gibson. I don't trust him and I suspect he's only out to succeed BHO, but I hope he keeps making noise.

[Slugbug]

Well maligning Jews is not a very good place to start. We need to all co-exist and stop making artificial religious and racial distinctions. The illusion of separation is what kills us.