Digby discusses the sad truth that Barack Obama's presence in the race is like tossing lit dynamite in to the river - all the stunned fish are floating to the surface. In this case, those stunned fish are the really awful racists and bigots (as a side note, I wonder if the media watchdogs who lecture dirty-mouthed liberals will discuss this particular issue; don't turn blue holding your breath!). One of the points digby raises is the way such racism is enabled by elements of our larger media culture - Limbaugh's "Obama the Magic Negro" being the most horrendous. The distance between Limbaugh and an anonymous commenter using a racist epithet to describe the junior Senator from Illinois is small, indeed. Of course, the very idea that this is so is anathema to Limbaugh's numerous fans in the media, who are probably as guilty of the same kind of horrid racist thoughts as he is, but have a bit more discipline (and less Oxycontin in their system) than to make a public spectacle of their bigotry.
My only complaint about digby's piece - and remember this, if you will; of all the progressive bloggers and websites out there, to my mind Hullaballoo and specifically digby is not just head and shoulder, but several body lengths ahead of them all in insight, wisdom, occasional humor, and provocation; simply put, he is the absolute best of the best - is the idea that somehow this is either surprising or that such displays of hatred have been dormant or are a product of "nineteenth century thinking". Sadly, as someone who lived in the land of cotton for five years, I can only say that such things not only still exist, but there are few mechanisms we possess that can make them go away.
We can make them much less acceptable, and we can start by yanking the plug on Viagra-man, just like we did on that nappy-headed imbecile (looking at pictures of Imus makes one wonder he could ever use an insult that included reference to someone else's hair). That, however, is just the beginning. We need to keep doing exactly what Digby is doing - pointing out how toxic our current mainstream media is, how much it dismisses as "politically edgy" or even "humorous" some of the most hateful, vile talk imaginable; how those who approach right-wing radio hosts and bloggers with knee-pads (Howard Kurtz is the best example of a fellatalist of the right, but there are others) are as guilty of those who continue to spew such racist bile because they refuse to call it what it is.
Every chance we get, we need to hang the white hood on these folks, showing them for what they are. To my mind, no better service to the 2008 Presidential race could be made than to rid ourselves of the bigots; Obama's presence will certainly speed up that process, but we need to keep the pressure up.
I shall put it as baldly as I can: Rush Limbaugh is a bigot. Period. He is racist. Period. He should be removed from the airwaves. Period. Howard Kurtz, Kate O'Beirne, and other fans of Limbaugh and the hate-and-noise machine are racists. Period. They are bigots. Period.
We need to get it through our collective skulls that the passage of a few laws forty-some years ago did not rid of us of the collective disease of white supremacy. we need to disabuse ourselves from the idea that the success of a new class of African-American intellectuals, entrepreneurs, journalists, and politicians somehow eliminates the stain of four-hundred years of racist animus and attempted genocide. We need to embrace the idea that, if we are to survive as a nation, all of us have a duty to repeat as often as possible, that Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, Michelle Malkin, Deb Schussel, Ann Coulter are nothing more than disrobed Kluxers who burn our eyes with their stupid, racist hatred rather than crosses. People will wail and gnash their teeth at this, but you know what? I don't care because I'm right and their wailing and teeth-gnashing indicts them of a softer, less conscious version of the same kind of racial animus.
Oh, and to really piss 'em off - I would rather see Al Sharpton run for President than any African American out there. He's got more brains, more guts, and more political know-how than the entire mainstream, Dem and Republican, field.
Racism isn't back. It has never left. But, we can fight it, if we are willing to do what it takes.
