A few days ago it occurred to me that if Barack Obama is the Democratic Party presidential nominee, there are some blacks who may campaign for McCain. I know that sounds ridiculous, but hear me out. The blacks in this category are those who have built their lives around seeing all white people as racist. These are the people who, if anything goes wrong in their lives, it's the fault of "racist white people." I sympathize with them because when a white store clerk is rude to me, I don't know if it's because she or he is having a bad day, or if they are being rude because I'm black. If you're white and a clerk is rude to you, you know it's not personal. If you're black, you're never sure. So while I understand blacks who see racism everywhere, I don't care enough about what an underpaid and harassed store clerk might think of me to get upset.

But for those blacks who see racism on the face of every white person, they are going to be in big trouble if Obama becomes president. Think about it. There is no way he can be elected president with getting a majority of the white votes. If the majority of white people vote for him, to any black person who accuses them of being racist they can say, "I'm not racist! I voted for Obama!" And for that matter, whites who didn't vote for Obama can say they did in order to claim non-racist status. The day after Obama is inaugurated, there won't be a racist white person in America! And that will be very confusing because racism will be as alive as it ever was.

However, if on Election Day you notice that John McCann got elected because he received the majority of the black vote, you'll understand. There were simply too many blacks who wouldn't know who they were if there weren't racist whites to hate. With John McCann in the White House, the identities of these blacks will be safe and secure.

Hmmmm. It just occurred to me that white racists will vote for McCann to keep their identities safe and secure.

It's obvious -- McCann wins in a landslide!

© 2008 by Julius Lester

TODAY'S WORD

Barr (bar): To utter an elephant's cry.

Which is what black and white racists will do if Obama becomes president.

You may have noticed that the look of the blog is changing. I got bored with the previous look. I want to add a comment feature to the blog so readers can comment
directly, but, for reasons I can't fathom, the comment feature is not appearing, even though I have checked all the right boxes blogger.com indicates. Equally, the little envelope enabling people to e-mail me directly has disappeared. If anyone has any suggestions as to what I should do, I'm listening.