Naturally, all this means that racism in the United States has been eliminated, right? Well, things have markedly improved in the last half century in education, job and housing opportunities, etc. But in the hearts of many (and their mouths) racism is still alive. To cite a few examples:
- Several leading Republicans such as Newt Gingrich and Rush Limbaugh have called Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor a racist for some benign remarks about Latina women (like herself) she made outside of the courtroom in the past. Of course, both of these gentlemen (!!!) have pristine racial diversity records. Limbaugh once advised an African-American female caller to take the bone out of her mouth and lauded James Earl Ray as a hero for assassinating Martin Luther King, Jr. Judge Sotomayor will need to go some (she obviously won't) to be a "racist" comparable to either of them. Since neither Newt nor Rush has a Senate vote on her confirmation, let's just assume that the Republicans in that body will generally give her a fair hearing such as the last two nominees (Roberts and Alito) received from the then-minority Democrats.
- Speaking of Sotomayor, recent GOP presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee had to be also pandering to his "base" (who are these people?) when he called her "Maria" obviously alluding to the doomed immigrant Puerto Rican heroine of West Side Story. Sort of racist, you think?
- Arkansas GOP senatorial candidate Kim Hendren recently called NY Sen. Chuck Schumer "that Jew". Does Hendren feel the same way about Va. Rep. Eric Cantor, considered a major Republican future star?
Actually, it has become far easier to disseminate such garbage with today's technologies. Gingrich tweeted his venomous message, which seems appropriate since he's for the birds.
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