Real Republican Racism

by James Atticus Bowden

Republicans are accused of racism as often and certainly as the sun rises in the East.  But, the constant caterwauling from liberalsdemocratsmediaacademics (one word) is just phony.  The real Republican racism is our own clumsy, unthinking and vicious aping of the liberalsdemocratsmediaacademics.  It needs to stop.

            One form of Republican racism is when Republicans ‘step and fetchit’ at the mere accusation of racism.  If some Republicans feel guilty and need to atone, then they really must be racist.  No argument there.  Guilty is as guilty does.  We, who aren’t guilty of prejudice, have no tug to apologize for what we haven’t done, never supported, and find sinful.

            Other Republican racism isn’t the insensitive stupidity of Sen. Lott’s remarks.  Nor, is it the ‘uppity’ re-nomination of Judge Pickering and company.  And it’s not the courtroom assault on racial quotas at the University of Michigan.  It’s every time Republicans think, speak or act like our race-baiting critics.

Most repugnant Republican racism is being color bound instead of color blind.  Like,

  • Using the hyphen.  Putting a hyphen before ‘American’ is as despicable today as President Teddy Roosevelt said it was a century ago.  Even if someone asks to be called by half names, like African-American, they diminish one name as they establish the other.  Racial identity, if one insists on recognizing it, is relevant by exception.  When should race count in America in 2002?
  • Apologies.  The war which ended in a victory over slavery and gained Constitutional protections and the movement which ended in a victory over segregation and gained laws and court-ordered access aren’t sufficient?  Why do the descendants of upright, courageous Americans need apologies from Americans who didn’t commit the evil?  Why should some persons be considered part of permanent groups of victims and villains?
  • Quotas.  Affirmative action goals, bonuses, floors, set asides = quotas.  Discrimination doesn’t improve with the color of the loser.  When will quotas ever end?  Why cheat to get minorities in colleges and then support segregation – dorms, offices, programs, etc. - when they get there?
  • National African-American History Museum.  A separate museum on the mall of the Nation’s Capitol suggests a permanent separateness from American history.  Like you can pull out the black patches from our American quilt.  How many other minorities get their own museum?  Why kill E Pluribus Unum?
  • Virginia Indian Tribes.  A bill to give federal recognition to six ‘tribes’, which have been Virginians for 300 years, makes distinctions among citizens based on blood.  If your neighbor is one-eighth the right kind of Indian, he may open a tax-free shop, start a tax-funded school, get power as a sovereign government against your city/county/state/federal government, etc.  When will special privileges based on race end?
  • Reparations.  When are you responsible for your life – and not place any blame on dead people?  Do you live as an individual, not as an object in a group trying to profit from past shame?  Can a scam in the name of racial civil rights be called crooked publicly?
  • Kwanzaa.  Any celebration of an ‘alternative’ to CHRISTmas based on race alone is shameful.  Even if it is the President pandering.
  • Imputed guilt.  The Virginia House of Delegates – the oldest representative body in the hemisphere – is shucking a salute to Virginia because it was written by a little old lady in the 1950s (guilt by history) who was a member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (guilt by group). 


The Republican race problem isn’t whose votes we lose.  Ethnic bloc voting only measures Democrat race-baiting.  Republicans win elections in the market place of ideas – sooner or later.  Future victories will include all Americans, unless real Republican racism sells our concept of individual dignity and rights down the river.

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