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September 10, 2008

I'm not a racist but...

By Greg Purcell

Will white people REALLY support Obama? A few frank reflections of racial issues from an average white guy.

::::::::

Pennsylvania is not ready for a black QUARTERBACK, let alone a black president!" comedian Bill Maher

MY name is Greg Purcell and I AM a Racist:
At first that statement may sound like a boast. It's not. It's just that I am finally confessing a sin that many progressive white people have NOT come to terms with. I stand before you with the shame of an alcoholic at his first AA meeting, admitting that I have a problem that is, many times, out of my control.

First, as an autobiography, I am a 51-year-old white male who was raised in the north by a hard-core southern family. I am an avid Obama supporter, living in the South Georgia area. As a rule, I tend to enjoy the company of southern black folks more than that of the local rednecks. I have even dated black women in the past, but like the recovering addict, I still spend each day struggling with my own inherent negative racial stereotypes. For example, if a young black teen gets into an elevator with me, I unconsciously put my hand on my wallet. If the hip-hopper looks like the white rapper Eminem, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eminem, It doesn't bother me as much.

 This type of attitude in myself concerns me, but it also underlines the inner racial problems that exist even among the most progressive white people.
Finally, I want to apologize in advance to my black friends for any remarks in this article that may seem racist or offensive. Like Obama said in his one frank speech on the issue: America NEEDS to have this discussion!
 
The mainstream news media is pushing the idea that racism is not a major issue in this campaign. I've heard it said that only a small percentage of the electorate would NOT vote for a candidate because of his race. It’s been suggested that America is past that. I strongly disagree and fear that if the Democrats believe that, they are in dire straits this election season!

First, a true personal story: (this happened three months ago near Savannah,Georgia)
My stepdaughter was dating a 28-year-old local white boy. Like the fiancée of our future president's daughter, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1051911/Meet-family-The-f--ing-redneck-pregnant-teenage-lover-man-wants-president.html he's another self described "fuckin redneck". She and her two teenage sons were riding in this young man's pickup truck, and since there were 4 of them in the cab there were only seatbelts for three. He was driving up an inclined ramp at a high rate of speed, approaching a bridge over the river. There was a "t" intersection just before the highway actually crosses the bridge and an oncoming motorist pulled out and hit the truck broadside.

The old pickup containing the four of them rolled over the embankment, end over end, spilling gasoline and broken glass everywhere. It came to rest upright, but at a 45-degree angle. The driver and my stepdaughter were temporarily knocked unconscious, but my two step-grandsons were frantically trying to exit the gas soaked wreckage. A passer-by saw this mishap, stopped his vehicle in the middle of the road, darted across traffic, down the embankment (ignoring gas and broken glass) and began to help the teens climb out the window because the door was smashed.

I need to interrupt this story for a fact that would be insignificant in any other description of a heroic rescue:
The man who risked his life to save my wife's daughter and grand kids was BLACK.

About that time, the 28 year old driver regained consciousness, and instead of thanking the good Samaritan for saving all of their lives, the first words out of his mouth were: (I apologize in advance but this needs to be quoted with no censorship:)
"Get the FUCK out of here, you goddamned FUCKING NIGGER!"

The kids told me that they were so appalled and embarrassed that they ran up the hill to thank the man for helping them and to apologize for the redneck's racist comment. Since then I have been ashamed to be white.

Perhaps it was an isolated incident? I don't think so. I hear the "n" word and racial presidential jokes on a daily basis. Ironically, most of them start with the phrase: "I'm not a RACIST but..."

Here are a few gems: it won't be the WHITE HOUSE anymore if Obama is elected"...
Obama will enslave the white people".

One highly educated young white man dating one of my stepdaughters tried to explain that slavery “was not as bad as it was described!” His reasoning for this repulsive statement was: “because slaves COST so much, most plantation owners took very good care of them. They were almost always well fed and never beat!” (I swear this is a true story!)

A local redneck was selling T-shirts with the monkey "Curious George" on them and the caption "Obama 08".After Ebay pulled the auction due to copyright violations, THIS replaced it:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=003&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&viewitem=&item=130242269486&rd=1
 
I also keep hearing a lot of jokes locally about how quickly Obama will be SHOT if elected
EXAMPLE: "Black guy says to St Peter: 'I was elected the first black president!'..St Peter says 'WHEN?'...About 25 minutes ago'"

This issue NEVER makes the mainstream media. Even Christian Republican candidate Mike Huckabee, speaking to a gathering of the National Rifle Association, reacted to an unscripted crash backstage with the ad-lib quip:

That was Barack Obama. He just tripped off a chair. He was getting ready to speak. Somebody aimed a gun at him and he...he dove for the floor." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_S76OnHlys&eurl=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/16/huckabee-talks-about-some_n_102178.html?show_comment_id=13098290
The next day Huckabee apologized for the unfortunate comment and the issue was immediately dropped.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/16/huckabee-talks-about-some_n_102178.html?show_comment_id=13098290

Incidentally it has been my argument to the local rednecks that if Michele Obama is(as they say) an unpatriotic "black power" Muslim anarchist because of her "first time proud of my country" slip, then the same reasoning should be applied to Huckabee’s gaff. Would his remark make Mike Huckabee a "racist extremist who is advocating the assassination of a black presidential candidate?”
Perhaps if Hillary Clinton had made the comment it would have gotten more airplay on Fox News (oh..wait...she DID say something along those lines!)

Last summer, my wife had surgery, and during her recuperation we received the care of a home health care nurse. One of the people the agency sent was a wonderful and compassionate "50 something" white male nurse who introduced himself by saying that he was a "born again Christian, who believed in the power of God to invoke healing". He asked if we would be offended if he said a prayer before he started his duties and we, of course, did not object. Later, while he was finishing a dressing change, The TV was on in the background with CNN reporting the details of the Jena 6 march in Alabama http://www.democracynow.org/2007/7/10/the_case_of_the_jena_six
He turned to me and said
I can't believe THOSE PEOPLE are making such a big deal over a NOOSE IN A TREE!"

A local guy who I had come to think of as a friend, sent me the email that was going around claiming Obama was a Muslim, he did not wear a flag pin or recite the Pledge of Allegiance. He said "Check this out. This totally disgusted me. If you had ever pondered the idea of voting for this guy, you should ponder it again."
I responded with this rather derogatory post about racists, rednecks and religious people, and we haven't spoken in almost a year!
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_greg_pur_080120_an_answer_to_evangel.htm

My own father, a life long Union-backing Democrat (who passed away two years ago) would have had a great deal of trouble deciding who to support in this election. In addition to being a sexist who despised Hillary Clinton, he was openly racist. I recall him discussing a local county election for sheriff. He said that the Republican incumbent was "as crooked as they come", but "the only person the Democrats could run against him was a (N-word), so he would have to vote Republican or not at all!

He and his predominately Republican friends had apparently developed a "code word" for black people since the 'N-word" has become so socially unacceptable: They called them "DEMOCRATS".
Example of use: I won't go in THAT restaurant because there's too many DEMOCRATS in there!"
I tried unsuccessfully on more than one occasion to explain the obvious irony of a man who had supported the Democratic party all his life to use that term!

Perhaps it's just a southern thing? Unfortunately not. I have white friends in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware. I took a mental survey of the 14 northern people I know best, and came to the following conclusion:
8 are admitted racists and Republicans, so there's no way THEY will ever vote Obama.
2 others own a business and would normally vote Republican but they are very concerned about continuing economic problems and have actually considered Obama's message. I'll list them as 'maybe".
One couple is an affluent independent group and we never talk politics, so it could honestly go either way.
The one that concerns me the most is a "fire breathing liberal democrat" who has ALWAYS agreed with me on political issues. Just before Hillary lost he said "The ('little N-Word) is a Muslim!!! I can't believe anyone would support him!". We haven't spoken lately. He and his wife would be an interesting window into the views of how much headway has been made with Hillary supporters.
So out of 14 people, I have 8 'absolutely not". I have 4 "perhaps", and two "unknowns".  It’s not a scientific poll, but also not good for Obama! I've heard it said that if you eliminate all the admittedly racist white voters, there is a much larger and more disturbing group, the "I'm not a racist BUT..." crowd.

These people have deep seated racial problems that they either cannot admit to, don't even realize, or that they feel inherently guilty for. These people need a good reason to vote AGAINST Obama. They need to be able to say to themselves (or others) "I'm not a racist, but Obama is a Muslim",
or "I'm not a racist but Obama will raise my taxes" or more commonly: I’m not a racist, but Obama is just TOO INEXPERIENCED! (it has been my observation that Sarah Palin has MORE than enough ‘experience” to satisfy these voter’s requirements in that department!)

Ironically (and admittedly racist to a certain point) I've been able to reach some of these folks by saying  "Obama had a black father who left when he was very young. HE was the Muslim. His white mother and grandparents raised Barack. They sent him to a Christian church and school and gave him a good education. If this happened to YOUR daughter would you call the child that you raised a (n-word) when he ran for president?"  http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/diarymanage.php?submit=view&did=9029
Amazingly enough, a white teen pregnancy where the white parents are left to raise the mixed race baby of some "worthless N-word" kid hits closely enough to home here in the south to garner a lot of support for our candidate!

EXPLOITING RACISM IS THE CRUX OF THE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN AGAINST OBAMA: The idea is to present any number of legitimate reasons to those voters already pre-disposed to oppose him for racial reasons.

It's despicable in today's world to aggravate an already widening culture divide, but the most egregious thing this campaign has done is to VALIDATE the nation’s residual racial tension by selecting a vice presidential candidate whose family exudes the radical racial views of the past! She doesn't even TRY to hide her racism in public:
http://www.laprogressive.com/2008/09/05/alaskans-speak-in-a-frightened-whisper-palin-is-%e2%80%9cracist-sexist-vindictive-and-mean%e2%80%9d/
 
The "Country First" candidate who would rather "lose an election than lose a war" has DECLARED war... on half of THIS country's people in order to WIN his election. McCain, the self-proclaimed “maverick” who has pledged to "reach across the aisle" and “work with Democrats and Independents to change and unite our country” is clearly willing to leave it more divided than at any time in the last 40 years, to destroy this country to “win an election”. He’s banking it all on this question:

Will the Democrats REALLY rally behind a black candidate?

Obama was much more effective with his 'I don't look like the other presidents" line. He immediately backed down when the McCain camp attacked him on it, and he shouldn't have. I don't have all the answers, but if this issue isn't addressed, it will be 2004 all over again.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/8/94116/88327/357/590522

Finally, we now have another OJ Simpson trial that will be nationally televised for the next few months. This could be the next "October Surprise".

I must admit, I'm not optimistic.



Authors Bio:
Greg Purcell has gone incognito to protest this board's policy of not allowing authors to edit/remove archived content! Many of my(and others)old posts are about as timely as a tutorial on Windows 95! I personally believe that such content clogs the internet search engines. I was astonded after doing a Google search on "Greg Purcell" what actually comes up! Since I cannot remove the old trash and cannot remove my name from it, I'll do the next best thing: I'll retract my bio and picture and let the audience decide which of the 25 "Greg Purcell"s that come up on a search actually posted here! If you agree that authors should be able to remove old posts, please contact the board owner, Rob Kall. Thanks!

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