I don't know how many of you out there are fans of the Colbert Report, but if you don't watch it you should. There are very few sources of good political satire, and the Colbert Report is the best there is out there right now, much better and more biting than the Daily Show. Of course, they are looking for guests for these types of show that are easily mockable, but there was a guest on there yesterday that made me more angry that anyone has in a long time.
Unless you live in a hole, you are likely know aware that the Democratic Party recently decided that they might not want to nominate a corpse to run for president in the next election as they have in the last couple of years, and the result has been the rise of Barak Obama. Obama is definately the most charismatic Demo to be set up for president since Dirty Bill. He knows how to talk to the common man and he is definitely motivated. He seems to have clear views on many of the major issues and says what he thinks, though I am sure this will change as the election goes on. But the one thing that every news service is going crazy about is not that Senator Obama is smart, motivated, charismatic, or strong. They want to talk about the amount of melanin in his skin. That's right, Barak is black.
Or is he? The guest on the Colbert Report tonight was adamant about that fact that Senator Obama was not really black. You see, his father was born in Kenya, and his mother was white, so he is not the descendent of a West African brought to America in the slave trade. So he is really African American, but he does not represent those whose ancestors were brought to here against their will. She says he does not represent Black America. Barak Obama is not black enough.
For the two weeks leading up to the Super Bowl, you could not surf through three channels without hearing what an achievement it was for American Society that two black coaches were in the Super Bowl. It was to long coming they said, but this was a show of how far American has come in race relations. This story was repeated every day, and I remember seeing a video collage on Sports Center with prominent black athletes re-iterating this fact over and over.
How does this racial awareness combat racism? Why should more be made of the fact that Senator Obama, Tony Dungy, and Lovie Smith have more melanin in their skin than I do? And how many levels of blackness, whiteness or any other color does there have to be. Tony Dungy appears to have less melanin in his skin than Lovie Smith. Does that mean Tony Dungy is less black and more white? What does that even mean?
If we really had surpassed racism, then there would be no mention fo race at all. We would refer to people by their name, their personality traits, and their accomplishments. Because there are few generalizations that really work anymore. Our world is to connected and our personalities to diverse to generalize people anymore. Cultures are homogenizing, and because of that we should just be people, and not defined, as Dr. King said years ago, not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
But there is no way to know if my insight into this issue is clear enough. After all I am a white guy who grew up in the suburbs in an upper middle class home. Plus I am male, so that makes me even less trustworthy. But my ancestors hail from Scotland, England, Norway, and Iceland. That is awful mixed. They ranged from serfs to an English King. So in order to take my word for it, you have to ask yourself, “Is he white enough?”
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