The "Race" For The White House

I guess it has been a couple of weeks since I first heard the rumblings of the Jena 6 storm that was about to roll over the United States. I was sitting on the couch watching some good ol’ fashioned entertainment. That’s right, the news. Suddenly a story came on describing the events at a high school in which some white students had hung three nooses from a tree. To give them credit, these students apparently had plenty of school spirit, because the nooses were the colored according to the school colors. Ironically, those colors are black and gold. This is apparently the only way the color black can appear under this particular tree. It would seem that a black student had dared to defy the high school society trend of only white students sitting in the shade of the tree in question. And that was the way in which the white students responded. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when I heard the report. Was this 1950’s Alabama? Nope. It was Jena, Louisiana, in the beginning of the new millennium. I couldn’t believe it. The home of the free, land of the brave still had racial tension brewing just below the surface.

The news story was soon forgotten, a mistake I feel many of us make. Something that important fell to the backburner while more important things became the focus of my life. Like paying bills. But a couple of weeks later, there was another racial story that appeared in the news. Once again, Jena, Louisiana. But was it a follow-up story that told of justice? Was it a story that explained how the students were reprimanded and punished, and how the other students were shown that behavior such as that would not be tolerated? Was it a success story detailing the steps Jena was taking to bring her diverse communities together? Nope. Although a student was on trial, it was a black student. When I first heard the report on the news, the old story slammed back to the front of my brain like a taser blast at a John Kerry speech. I was once again dumbfounded. There was a black student on trial in a town where white students had hung nooses. Someone call Atticus Finch, ‘cause somebody goin’ need a lawyer. Several young black students seem to have attacked a white student. The white student had nothing to do with the nooses, and the black students went on trial. And were charged as adults. Seriously? While I agree that their actions were their own, they were heavily influenced by what was obviously a racially charged environment. Not of their making. They should be punished, but what about the initial crime? And why are they being charged as adults? And people wonder why there are suddenly civil rights marches happening again. All this I heard on Fox news, but this story should have been reported on weeks before. They were just too busy worrying about a Muslim principal at a New England school. That took precedence. Because we all know who the bad guys are now, right? Well, apparently they are sixteen year old black students in Jena, Louisiana.

We see many black leaders currently in Jena, Louisiana, Rev. Al Sharpton prominently speaking out about the injustices in this country and how they should not be tolerated. And while he occasionally has a double standard that he lives up to, I definitely stand behind him on this issue. However, there is a man who could step in and make his voice heard. And people would listen. There is one who could sweep in and save the day. But he can’t. Why are his hands tied? And who bound him with kryptonite? The right wing media. And I don’t even know how they did it. Let me share a story with you. I was at work one day when I overheard two guys talking politics. I decided to listen in, eavesdrop if you will. Don’t worry, this wasn’t a warrantless wiretap or anything like that. They were standing five feet away, so it was hard to not hear them. It was hard for me to keep my mouth shut. The conversation started with one man talking about the taxes in New York state, where he had lived for the past couple of years. They were outrageous. They were out of control. And if Hillary Clinton thinks she can run a country when she can’t even keep taxes in her state down, she’s got another think coming. I was astounded. This moron obviously had no clue what a senator’s responsibilities were versus a governor’s (never mind that George Pataki is a Republican. You know, the party “against” taxes). The two gentlemen then went on to talk about the upcoming Presidential race. When the New Yorker was asked who he thought was going to win, he said Giulliani, if Fred Thompson didn’t enter the race. At which point I opened my mouth.

“God, I hope not,” I blurted as they turned their heads to look at me. “I don’t think this country can stand another four years with a Republican President.”

Fire burned in their eyes as they both turned their bodies toward me, their shoulders straightening and their muscles growing taut.

“Who do you think is going to win,” they asked as they began to cowboy up. (Yes, in unison. This is my story, shut up unless you want to tell it.)

I went through all the answers in my head. The truth is, I haven’t decided yet. But I was in this conversation, and I had picked my side. Hillary would have been a fun answer to let them play with, but I wasn’t sure if I had the conviction to stand behind that answer. My true choice, Al Gore, isn’t in the race and may never be, so mentioning him would be like spinning my wheels to impress the hot chick that turns out to be a lesbian. So I went with Obama. Which proved me wrong. This was the most fun answer, not Hillary. The man from New York was the one with the answers.

“Obama?!” he exclaimed, foam forming at the mouth. “Hell, he’s just running on the black ticket.”

Now, I’m new to being truly interested in politics, and I haven’t seen all of the debates so far and very few of Obama’s speeches around the country, and I don’t even know what all the independent parties are, but I am fairly certain there is no such thing as the “black ticket”. And so I pointed this out, adding, “Obama rarely mentions race. The only time I’ve heard him say anything about it was when someone asked him directly.”

Well, I knew better than to argue with this man in the first place, because he obviously had a far superior wit to mine. His answer: “He’s just trying to be white.” He had me. I couldn’t compete with his logic, such as it was.

My point? Obama is a unifier, but he is being painted as a divider. He works well with Democrats and Republicans both (Republicans own words), but he has been painted as a man that is only for himself and his party. And somehow his race. This prevents him from going into the fray over the Jena 6 war that is hovering over Louisiana. He can not get involved, and he can’t not get involved. How does a black man that wants to run this country get past the backward ideas of people saying he’s not black enough, or he’s trying to be white, or he’s just looking out for the black people when none of this is true? He can’t, not yet anyway. And that’s dangerous. In a country built on the principle that “all men are created equal”, to see that we still divide people by the color of their skin is deplorable. And it keeps a man from helping people when he can truly do good. That is sick people. That is far more dangerous than any one madman in this crazy, backwards, horrifyingly stupid world.