By Edwin Cooney
Since the time I began to be interested in history and public affairs, I've been warned, and I'm sure you have also, to stay away from three topics: race, religion and politics. Of course, to both my entertainment and even at times to my delight, I've avoided that advice, because politics in particular has always appeared to me to be the ultimate pathway toward bridging the social, political and economic gaps that too often create religious, socio/economic and racial societal barriers. Since I've come to believe that societal barrier bridging has always been at the center of progressive politics and government, I've longed to be a "fixer" as my psychologically-oriented friends would put it.
Listening to the recent Democratic presidential debates as I have been, all of the candidates, whatever their policy differences may be, sincerely believe that President Trump, who insists that he hasn't a racist bone in his body, far more than being a patriot is a racist. Since they insist he is and he insists he isn't, the question is obvious: where do we go from here?
Since the passage in the 1960s of civil rights legislation and the fall of Jim Crow throughout the old Confederate South, racist practices in the public domain have been illegal in the same way as lying is illegal while under oath.
Conservatives are forever insisting that government can't and shouldn't legislate morality that is racist behavior, that is, the Liberals’ version of immorality. Their version of morality, anti-abortion laws for instance, must be legislated affirmatively! The fact of the matter is that all of us, in one way or another, seek to legislate human morality. That's why Conservative State judges so frequently emphasize the Ten Commandments. Morality is invariably the whole basis for the legitimacy of government.
As for the regulation of lying, that is a situational regulation such as when one iS under oath or when one is selling a product or service to the public. Most people lie at some point in their lives to avoid embarrassment or exposure. So, since both lying and racism are illegal and generally condemned by society, what protects them from permanent extinction? The answer is threefold. First, lies are highly circumstantial in their commission and in their effect. Second, they protect both the racist and the liar from their greatest enemy — fear of possible consequences of their behavior. Third, their person-to-person convenience is well protected by the right of privacy. (Note: as often stated in popular songs, one can't go to jail for what one is thinking!) Lies are especially useful as national institutions, largely due to their convenience. We even categorize lies, partly to justify them and partly out of our own sense of amusement. We have “barefaced lies," "damned lies," “lily-livered lies," "circumstantial lies" that sometimes save people from unnecessary stress, and, of course, the lies that almost all of us often defend: "little white lies.” Beware, however, that “black lies” (nothing to do with racism, you understand!) are the awfullest lies of them all!! (No, I haven't forgotten the “cute" little innocent fib!)
Racism, or the identification of a person's race above his or her individual value, is unfortunately deeply ingrained in both our culture and in our psyches. Think of it, most of us know a person's race before we know their name! Remember, 85 percent of all our knowledge comes through our eyes and thus our first impression of people follows the same path. (As for the "sightless," our senses are as well attuned to preconceived social and cultural prejudices as are the eyes of our familial and social contemporaries.)
The sin of the lie is that it is deliberate deception. The sin of racism is individual human devaluation. It seems that these two sins, so long as they're privately practiced, are exactly nobody's business — especially the government's business.
I'm encouraged that finally, following decades of covert practice, racism is an issue in a presidential campaign. Historically, all of us to some degree have depended on racist scenarios for everything from entertainment to explanation of societal injustices. We have even developed a defense against criticism of our racist behavior. It's called "political correctness." To too great an extent we resist those who would admonish us for insensitivity.
What's saddest about our denial of institutional racism is that we lack the sensitivity to realize the real damage racism does. It hurts people’s feelings. A deliberate intent to hurt people’s self-esteem is not only anti-social, and unpatriotic, it is evil! The evilest aspect of it is that it is so easily concealable and deniable!
The only path we can effectively utilize to overcome racism is to politicize it. We must render racism so heinous and unpopular that it becomes universally impotent!
President Trump is openly banking on the possibility that you and I will be so fearful of those of color, of unfamiliar religious faiths, of immigrants, and especially of the demands of the poor, as to justify, legitimatize and institutionalize retaliation against them. That's a political challenge that can be best countered via the ballot.
Yes, President Donald John Trump is, beyond a doubt, a racist. The question is, "so what?"
The answer to "so what?" should and must become our national business come the election season of 2020!
Mix racism with politics. That’s where we go from here!
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
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