Racism has a unique place in American life, it crosses ages, genders, and groups. White Americans are not immune to racist attacks, but the difference is, white people seldom suffer the exhaustion of living it every day. The difficulty for people of color is that the so-called micro-aggression is only perceived as important when it involves celebrity or money. I am over sixty-years-old and unfortunately, it takes more than two hands and both feet to count my personal incidents of being called a monkey or worse. That, of course, leads to the latest slap in the face of a black American. Actress and comic Roseanne Barr, who quite frankly has been arguably unstable for a few years, decided it would be funny to call one of the most trusted advisers and personal friends of former President Barack Obama, Valerie Jarrett, an “ape.”
Barack Obama was called ‘Curious George,’ Michelle Obama was routinely referred to as Moose-chelle, and those were the names made public. Almost always the pseudo-apologies went to people other than the object of the insult, things were said like, “you libs can’t take a joke… The first thought by these degenerates was never to think that a large swath of the American fabric was ripped open, my humanity and identification is not a joke but, lighten up, I was told. Well, Roseanne tore that scab back just a bit more yesterday and for the people who were dependent upon her for a living, the bleeding has started. In a few weeks this will become a footnote, like Lolade Siyonbola, exactly you have forgotten. She is the young black graduate student at Yale set upon by a classmate and the police for falling asleep while studying.
Of course, if I feel and express outrage, load up the Republican finger pointing cannon. I watched a segment with Don Lemon last night on CNN and the exasperation on his face was what I feel inside after every one of these incidents is followed up by a conservative telling me why I am over reacting. Tonight, it was a conservative commentator named Carrie Sheffield, who in rapid-fire succession brought up Hillary Clinton, Joy Behar, Bill Maher, Madonna, and Jay-Z. If you happen to see her, you know why I feel exhausted at times. No Matter how often Lemon tried to center the outrage of the moment, she was reloading the chamber. Finally, Lemon sarcastically, started a verbal talking point countdown to end the segment, and mercifully she stopped talking. Even if it was a hollow gesture and followed months and years of unhinged diatribes against Jews, immigrants, and blacks, Roseanne issued an apology. Republican Rick Wilson who has been a constant thorn in the Trump debacle tried to pull Sheffield back from the abyss, but she dove headlong into the culvert. People like Carrie Sheffield are so vested in the age of Trump, any excuse and bus driven by a conservative to throw liberals under, will do.
I wonder why conservatives take racist acts as a personal affront to their values; do they not understand the moment or is the glare from the mirror a bit too bright?
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