Well I guess this puts all the talk about a "post-racial America" to
rest.

The Associated Press released a report on Saturday that shows a majority
of Americans, in fact an increasing number, still harbor prejudice
against blacks and Hispanics. 51 percent of all Americans expressed
anti-black attitudes, compared with 48 percent in 2008 when the
president first won election. Another AP survey showed 57 percent of
Americans expressed anti-Hispanic feelings.

The results were not actually surprising. Once we got past the euphoria
of Obama's historic win, which was only possible with a multi-colored
and multi-ethnic coalition, it became clear that the progress we gained
was also going to result in a significant and predictably ugly backlash
as well. Those who were not ready to see the long line of similarly
pigmented men in the most powerful position on Earth were surely not
going to sit back and not try to stir things up a bit. It should be
pointed out here that by no means do I believe all people who are
against Obama are so inclined because he is part black (which to most
means he is all black). Certainly the president has enough liberal and
progressive ideas to make conservative folks cringe regardless of his
skin color and ethnic background. I also don't believe all Democrats, in
every corner of the country, are cool with a black man running things.
So this isn't just about Republicans being racist. But with that being
said, there is no doubt that the Republican Party, and Mitt Romney, are
aware that a great many people in their party, do harbor, let's call it,
*discomfort*, with the different-looking man who sits in the White
House. Which is why there have been so many efforts from some on the
right to question Obama's "American-ness," his religion, his belief in
and loyalty to our country, and even his intelligence, which is what
Trump is alluding to in his silly $5 million offer for the president to
release his college transcripts and application.

The Republicans are not stupid in their appeals to the people that the
AP survey indicated are out there who have negative feelings about brown
skinned people. There is simply no way that the subtle racist codes
being thrown out in the last week alone are not intended to get a rise
out of those voters who harbor resentment or discomfort at that man in
the *White House* who is one of those people. John Sununu's comment that
Colin Powell's endorsement of Obama was due to them sharing skin color
is one example. It meant that intelligence and reasoning couldn't
possibly be a factor. It also said that Powell wasn't to be trusted
because remember, he too is black. Sarah Palin's "shuck and jive"
comment was another thinly veiled harkening to the stereotype of the
shiftless and lazy negro. And as I mentioned there was The Donald
getting all kinds of attention by bringing up the none-too-subtle idea
that President Obama would have never gotten into Harvard without
affirmative action, which of course is another issue that brings up that
anti-black and anti-Hispanic feeling in many on the Right.

How anyone can think all of these incidents are just pure coincidences
is amazing to me. More telling is that in none of the cases did we hear
Romney himself stand up and say such talk was not welcome on his behalf
and in his name. Of course not. Romney will welcome any vote he can get,
even if it means it comes as a result of appealing to the racists in his
party. Which, according to one of its own members, includes a lot of
people.

"My party is full of racists."

That is what retired Army Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson said on Friday, a
Republican and former chief of staff to Colin Powell. He added, "My
party, unfortunately, is the bastion of those people -- not all of them,
but most of them -- who are still basing their positions on race. Let me
just be candid: My party is full of racists, and the real reason a
considerable portion of my party wants President Obama out of the White
House has nothing to do with the content of his character, nothing to do
with his competence as commander-in-chief and president, and everything
to do with the color of his skin, and that's despicable." Well there you
go.

IT'S GONE BYE BYE

What this mostly boils down to, why I think for those who are just plain
going crazy seeing Obama in the White House, is that for the 51 percent
types, that group that harbored negative feelings towards blacks, there
is a strong sense that they are losing the America they *fantasize*
about and expect it to be. They don't like seeing so many people of
color in places they didn't expect, they don't like seeing gays being so
out in public and demanding equality, they didn't expect to see women
not asking for, but demanding equal pay, and still having the power of
choice for themselves.There is just this overall sense that the America
they envision in their heads is not the one we are and are becoming.
This to me explains all the posters and yard signs and phrases we hear
along the lines of "We want our America back." What they don't get or
don't want to get, is that we are *not ever* going back to what we were.
And that is a *very good* thing. Our country has come a long way to get
to where we are as far as beginning to actually allow our
multiculturalism to become more out there. We have come too far to go
backwards on gender equality and women's choices. Too far to ever want
to be a nation that doesn't give people a chance to love who they want
and marry who they want. America is not going back. And even if Romney
could win this election, it won't change that. The genie is out of the
bottle and won't go back in.

The Republican Party has a lot of good people in it, people who are in
it simply because they support the basic principles of small government,
at least when it comes to government's role in people's lives. For those
people, all the racist codes and attitudes that are coming from their
party are not representative of them. But here is the thing. If you are
a member of that party and you see this happening and do nothing or say
nothing to call your own party out, then you are in essence standing
with those *idiots*. I have always heard people on the Right try to call
out all Muslims for not standing up to Islamic extremists, insinuating
that they must agree or condone the actions of the extremists, proof
being their silence. Well back at you. What does Romney's silence mean?
Or the silence of non-racist Republicans.

We may not be post-racial yet as a society, but what Barack Obama's
election four years ago symbolized can never be lost. No matter what
those in the 51 percent who harbor negative views of blacks may think or
feel, it was a message that America is moving forward. And the days of
only seeing white men dominate our politics and discourse are not long.
A lot of us, including many white Americans, who support this forward
progress, know that we are far better off as a country because of who we
all are. We *all benefit* from a much more diverse group of people
running things and *adding* to the discussion. That is what the young
lady at the University of Texas at Austin doesn't get in her Supreme
Court case where she is charging UT's efforts to have a more diverse
student body violates her rights as a white woman.
The world is diverse and we are only going to become more so. Those that
don't get that or accept that are going to become less and less
relevant. And that is a very good thing.