“He’s a credit to his race” racism: Growing up in the late 60s and early 70s it was not uncommon to hear a “culturally aware” person say, when talking about a “good black,” that they were a “credit to their race.” Personally I found this expression to be perhaps well intended, but also disingenuous and a double entendre, with hopes it would recede from our national lexicon. Nevertheless, it was used in 2007 by a lifelong political hack who today is the befuddled President of the US. In referring to Barack Obama, Joe Biden stated “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.” In other words, in Biden’s mind and world, to know of a black person who isn’t stupid, dirty, ugly, and poorly spoken is the exception: Obama was a “credit to his race.”

Profit and exploitative racism: Exploiting misery and tragedy is one of humankind’s most ignoble endeavors. On a national level, it occurs, for example, when legislation portending to deal with an acute crisis includes funding for totally unrelated pet programs of politicians. On a personal level, it can be demonstrated when someone who did nothing to assist in a crisis claims they were there on the front line helping out. Perhaps even more despicable is when tragedy is selectively exploited, which at this time in our society largely involves race, and the main player is what is oxymoronically referred to as “Black Lives Matter.”

Simply put- and anyone with a trace of humanity will agree- all lives matter, and that certainly includes black lives. What BLM has done, and it has profited them $90 million in the past year alone, has placed relative value on the lives of black people based upon the manner of death: those handful who have been killed during encounters with police are of enormous value to them, the primary source of their income (including/especially via donations), whereas a child killed as collateral damage of black on black violence is largely an embarrassment. Though statistics can be used emotionally, and should always be questioned, in 2019 there were 15 black Americans (unarmed) killed by on-duty police. In contrast, roughly 6,800 black people were murdered by other blacks. In other words, the chance of a black person being killed in intra-racial murder was 453 times greater than an unarmed black person being killed by police- BLM garnered about $6 million for each unarmed black person killed by cops.

Politically necessary racism: Political power can be obtained in many ways- by force, by reasoning, by projecting a belief that “we’re all in this together and we want everyone to succeed,” and by projecting a belief that there is “us” and “them,” and that “we” are right and “they” are wrong. This latter strategy, applied to race, has become the primary message, the means to acquire and maintain power, by the current iteration of the Democrat party. Full consideration of this topic could fill volumes, but the core understanding is that racism, or more correctly, perceptions of racism, must exist, because this allows the Democrats to be the “Us” (kind-hearted, compassionate, and sinless), as opposed to the “Them” (evil and greedy racists). Of course the “Them” is simply anyone who disagrees with their agenda. Democrats need racism, and the last thing they want would be to proclaim, “Great news, we’ve succeeded in eliminating racism!”

Paradoxically, for 100 plus years- from the end of the Civil War to the Reagan era- Democrats held the dominant political power in the South not because they attacked others with allegations of racism but because they were unapologetically racist: creating and exploiting a state of fear of black citizens among the white electorate was their basis for political power.

It might just as well have been racism: For those who follow NASCAR, there is a young driver named Bubba Wallace, the son of a white father who is apparently a successful businessman, and a black social worker mother; Bubba chose to identify as a black person, hence is a relatively rare black driver on the NASCAR circuit. In June of 2020, one of his crew discovered, as it is, a “noose” hanging in his assigned garage for that particular track. A noose can reasonably be considered an overt symbol of racism given its relationship to lynching, but it would require intent.

There was immediate and furious reaction, and the FBI was called in to investigate this ostensible “hate crime.” It was quickly revealed that the “noose” was a door pull and had been in place long before the garage was assigned to the young and angry race driver. I remember being disappointed that this immature and privileged millionaire sports celebrity passed up an opportunity to offer healing words, so to speak (such as, “I reacted impulsively and used my platform as a celebrity to stir up outrage, when I should have suggested we hold our anger until we know the facts.”). Rather, he chose to go down the “it just as well could have been racism” path, and NASCAR was ordered by its CEO to initiate “unconscious bias training.” This type of training- that presupposes a particular demographic is racist without any basis- is, paradoxically, inherently racist.