COLUMN: The new racism

Unfortunately, I was wrong.

Thinking that a racist was someone who believed his or her race was superior to any other, I thought that few such prejudiced people remained.

As it turns out, not only are there an awful lot of new racists, but I am apparently one of them.

I came to the disturbing conclusion after weeks of watching Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats label as racists all who are opposed to health care reform, cap and tax and any other bill President Obama proposes.

All this time I thought I was just a conservative Republican. Little did I know that the terms “Republican” or “Conservative” were just euphemisms for racist.

As far as I can tell, this is a fairly recent development. I was just a child when Jimmy Carter was in office, but I do not recall Republicans being racists then, nor do I recall Carter labeling all his opponents as racists.

Of course now, Carter thinks those opposed to the Democratic-Socialist agenda are in fact racists.

Carter told NBC Nightly News that the “overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he's African-American.”

Really? I thought the animosity was based on the fear that the administration seems intent on taxing the country into poverty and redistributing the collective wealth of generations of Americans, among other things.

Even William “depends on what is is” Clinton did not label his opponents as racists.

When people referred to him as a hillbilly cracker from Arkansas, he turned the other cheek. The worse thing anyone was guilty of during the Clinton years was being part of the “vast, right-wing conspiracy.”

Of course that was back when racist meant racist and not “opposed to Obama.”

It is interesting that the people who spent eight years railing against George W. Bush were never accused of being racists. They simply opposed his policies, principles and everything else about him.

Even Cynthia McKinney managed to escape the racist label when she wildly accused Bush of having advance notice of the 9/11 attacks.

Yet people have been labeled as racist for making far less serious accusations than that against Obama.

Weird isn’t it?

I guess if you dislike the President’s politics, you are only a racist if the President happens to be a black man. To the President’s credit, he said he believes those who are opposed to his plans are not racist, but simply dislike his policies.

If only the rest of the Democratic Party would follow his lead and quit attaching the racist label to their opponents.

If being against a poorly crafted health care reform package makes me a racist, then so be it. If opposing a cap and trade bill that will cost the average American household thousands of dollars each year makes me a racist, then I guess I am one. If disliking the idea of radical, anarchist, communist advisers having the ear of the President of the free world makes me a racist, then I am guilty as charged.

Admittedly, this soul-searching has been painful. Coming to terms with being one of these so-called racists has been very difficult.

As hard as it has been for me, I can only imagine how Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele must feel.

Steele, the first African American to chair the Republican National Committee, recently wrote that “Voicing opposition to the president’s policy proposals is not being a racist. It is being an American.”

That is exactly what I used to think. We can only hope that will be true again one day soon.

Kristi Reed is a reporter for the Barrow Journal. You may reach her at kreed@barrowjournal.com.