Monday, January 11, 2010

Moving Forward

In a recently announced book titled "Game Change", a statement made by Sen Harry Reid which had previously gone unnoticed has been drawing a large amount of controversy. The book reports Sen. Reid commenting on the electability of then candidate Barack Obama by saying Obama was a light skinned black man with "no Negro dialect" unless he wanted to have one. Sen Reid has since apologized to President Obama for his "poor choice of words" and President Obama has accepted the apology. But of course the subject matter has not been dropped.

Senator Reids comments have been compared to those of Trent Lott. View Trent Lott's comments below:



Personally, I think Trent Lott's comments speak for themselves. Mr. Lott was recounting the Strom Thurmond run for president at Mr Thurmond's birthday party. Strom Thurmond was a well-known segregationist and in 1948 ran for President under the States Rights Democratic Party or Dixicrats. The Dixicrats opposed integration of the races and believed in maintaining Jim Crow's laws, their slogan was "Segregation Forever!" For Mr. Lott to say our country would be better off if we had followed Strom Thurmond's example is not just an unfortunate use of words but a clear move backward to a time of few if any civil rights for minorities in the United States.

So let's compare the statements made by these two men. Senator Reid's comments were about the electability of a legitimate candidate for President in the year 2008. Barack Obama is not the first American of African descent to run for the office of the President of the United States and during the campaign of 2008 it was obviously not yet known that he would go on to be successfully elected. When deciding which candidate to support for his party in the run for Presidency, Mr Reid was not alone in assessing the electability of each available candidate. Mr Reid's assessment of Obama as having light-skin and no "Negro dialect" is not racist, it's an assessment of whether or not Mr Obama will be accepted by the majority of American voters in race for President. Mr Lott's trip down memory lane with Strom Thurmond is clearly a wish to go backwards in time and undo the progress that has been made in civil rights. Hmmm... if the two comments can be compared in any way it would have to be in how opposite they are; Mr Reid's comments move us forward and Mr Lott's comments move us backward.

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