Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Rhetoric versus Reality. By Eric Smith

With me, whenever rhetoric clashes with reality, reality always wins. Therefore when those in the Republican Party say that it is not racist, that it does not coddle racists, that it is not fueled by the mantra of white supremacy and white privilege, what I have before me is this rhetoric on the one hand and reality on another.

That reality is among many other things the reality of voter suppression, the scapegoating of young African American males as being criminals & inherently dangerous, the promotion of this falsehood that poverty is a matter of choice and is confined to our inner cities dominated by people of color; that rampant drug use, sexual promiscuity, is a black thing.

All of this reality; all of this racial stereotyping; this pandering to this latent fear that white people in this country have had from before the beginning of this Republic, is part & parcel of the Republican Party & the Far Right's agenda. It motivates its base to act on the most primal & primitive of human instincts; fear and jealousy; creating a false narrative of grievance and of being wronged.

A clear acknowledgement of this reality is seen in the Republican Party's never ending efforts to trot out people of color as its spokespersons because the reasoning of the GOP & the Far Right is simple; if they can can get people of color to support policies that are indeed racist, and grounded in white supremacy then of course they can in turn argue that their policies & practices are not racist; are not grounded in white supremacy because a person of color is defending it.

Yet the fact that the Republican Party feels compelled to recruit people of color to defend its policies is proof positive that it is indeed the Party of Racism & White Supremacy because no white person needs a black person to say that they are not racist if racist they are not. The fact that these people in the GOP & the Far Right feel compelled to use people of color to defend their policies is proof positive that they are racist & believe in white supremacy.

They have not recruited the likes of Dr. Ben Carson, Clarence Thomas, Condoleezza Rice, and Herman Cain to speak for them because of the content of their character. They have recruited them to speak for them because of the color of their skin; because they believe that the color of their skin will shield them from the charges of racism that is the reality of voter suppression, the scapegoating of young African American males as being criminals & inherently dangerous, the promotion of this falsehood that poverty is a matter of choice and is confined to our inner cities & dominated by people of color; that rampant drug use, sexual promiscuity, is a black thing.

To them these black people they have speaking for them are the political equivalent of a legitimate business set up as a front by criminal enterprises in order to shield their illegal activities. They are an attempt to hide the truth; to conceal from the public at large their racism & belief in white supremacy that is at the heart of the GOP & the Far Right's agenda.

Of course they will continue to deny this. They will continue to accuse me and anyone else who points this out of race baiting & playing the race card. Yet understand this and understand it well; whenever Republicans accuse people like me & others of race baiting and playing the race card, all it is is rhetoric and empty rhetoric at that for for the reality is that these people do promote racism; that they are believers in white supremacy. Their rhetoric of denial is what they preach. The racist reality of the people & policies they support is what they practice. What are YOU going to believe? Their rhetoric or their reality?