Do the Right Thing

Brilliant. By Chris Britt at the Springfield (Illinois) Journal-Register.

I made the mistake of wading into the comments section of the Hullabaloo post about Obama's speech. I haven't really followed the controversy over the Rev. Wright comments. What I've heard of them, I haven't heard anything that I'd disagree with or that I hadn't heard already. But reading the comments at Hullabaloo, it quickly became apparent that either not every Democrat is familiar with this brand of black anger or Clintonites are perfectly willing to pretend that racism doesn't exist in this country and Obama is not fit to be president because he, apparently, is not ready to denounce evil the moment he hears it.

There were a couple of people who advanced the notion that because Obama had a white grandmother (or as it was put, is "half white"), he could have chosen his race, he chose to be black, and therefore he made his race an issue by "choosing" to be black. I don't think the people advancing these arguments are racists necessarily, but, rather, they had somehow never quite understood that white society doesn't really let brown-skinned people choose to be white.

Also, I have found it interesting that Wright is accused of "racism." This accusation goes unchallenged. Not sure if that's because it is so ridiculous or because people really do accept that a black man that expresses a dislike of white America is a "racist." As if racism has nothing to do with power. I think this is the case. I know when I was TAing, it seemed that the kids called all prejudice "racism." One could be racist against blacks, gays, and oatmeal cookies.

Anyway, I liked the cartoon. I wish that all Democrats, liberals, progressives, and radicals, whether supporting Obama or not, would join in and help educate all these people that seem to think what Wright said is anything other than the justified anger that many blacks feel every now and again.