Call Bigots On Their Racist Rants About Obama

There's a good chance you've already heard a racist joke made at our president-elect's expense. As expected, they are flowing with ease from plenty of folks right here in Highlands County, and throughout the country for that matter. It's amazing the ignorance and insensitivity these joke-tellers exhibit. And, perhaps, those of us who just let it happen without calling these bigots on their comments are just as much to blame.

Racism didn't disappear when Barack Obama was elected president by a large majority of Americans. Race relations obviously changed, though, when white voters finally moved past prejudices of the past and cast ballots by the millions for a person of color. It was a triumph for our nation, and even the world, that the most powerful country on earth could get past racial differences to some degree.

No one was so Pollyannaish to believe racism died last Tuesday. That's why these disgusting jokes are spreading. What surprises most of us, though, are some of the people who are telling them and the people who think they are funny. Some of our more respected citizens are doing this. Shame on them.

This has nothing to do with who anyone chose for president. There were plenty of legitimate reasons for reasonable people to choose John McCain or any other candidate for president over Obama. Race wasn't one of them, though, and neither were the dirty lies being spread on the Internet about him being a Muslim, or not being an American citizen, or any of a number of outrageous things being said as fact.

In a local cafe Saturday morning, a conversation was overheard with a woman believing there was some kind of conspiracy because people in other countries were celebrating Obama's victory too much. She apparently was alleging that something was fishy, that Obama's election was part of a master plan to overtake the United States or something ridiculous. Apparently she preferred people burning our flag and chanting "Death to America" rather than being excited about our president-elect. Talk about convoluted reasoning.

No, this silliness shouldn't surprise us, considering all the crazy talk spewed during the election about Obama. It's still disappointing though. And when we hear it from people we like, it really sends us reeling. That's why it's critical that when we hear such nonsense, such bigotry, we call it what it is. We've stood around decades and centuries too long and let this kind of thing exist and grow. Now it's time for it to stop.