I don’t ask that provocative question because Wilson is white, went to a predominately white school, works in an overwhelmingly white institution and chooses to live in a state with a very small Black population. These are not reasons to assume she is a racist — they all apply to me, as well.
I ask the question because of a question Wilson asked Madrid in debate. Wilson asked Madrid why she doesn’t condemn Al Sharpton as a racist and anti-Semite. Regrettably, Madrid hedged the question. We liberals don’t like being forced by others to condemn our allies. Ours was the big tent before the Republicans stole the concept (and stuck us with the cleaning bill). Condemnation comes more naturally to the arrogant, the self-righteous and the powerful.
I have no reason to believe that Wilson is a racist. Clearly, she is an opportunist, looking to drive a wedge between Jews, Blacks and Hispanics. Admittedly, not nearly as big a wedge as Sharpton himself has done, but Wilson is happy to sow ill-ease among constituencies that tend to favor Democrats. It’s the Rovian Way. The referendum this fall is on the tactics of sleight-of-hand, divide & conquer, and keep them all afraid. Will it continue to work?
Can anyone tell me what Wilson said when Trent Lott waxed nostalgic for the lost opportunities of the segregationist Strom Thurmond’s presidency; gosh, if only ole Strom had won. Funny — I remember Wilson’s thoughts about Janet Jackson’s breast, but not what she had to say about Lott or Thurmond. Someone, please remind me.
Segregationists are by definition racists. Where did they all go when they fled the Democratic party in the Sixties? Did they just stop voting? What an odd coincidence that the Republican Party took over the South in the same period. Not that any Southerners or Republicans are racists anymore.
The sad truth is that bigotry, racism and hate are human qualities that most of us are capable of and too many of us express without shame or self-awareness. There are Republican racists and Democratic racists, black, white, Jewish, Muslim, and Christian racists. Even atheist racists. Denying that or pretending to be holier than someone else doesn’t change that fact. It just confirms the human frailties that unite us, even as our words divide us. mjh
PS: I take offense at Wilson’s arrogant invocation of her Honor Code. I also attended an institution with a simple and rigid honor code. Unless she is working at cleaning up the US House of Representatives, which sorely lacks an Honor Code — and I see NO evidence of that — she is clearly in violation of her Honor Code and mine. Expulsion is the only punishment.
[update 10/1/06]
ABQjournal: 300 Turn Out for Speech by Sharpton By Debra Dominguez-Lund, Journal Staff Writer
“Why denounce Democrats when you can ask your own Republican leaders— President Bush and Karl Rove— why they stood next to me at the Voters Rights Act signing at the White House this summer?” asked Sharpton, the 2004 Democratic presidential primary candidate. “I was invited to the White House and acknowledged by them, now I await sister Wilson to denounce them, too.”