Luck of the Draw

I'm a little disappointed by all the invective directed at Geraldine Ferraro recently. Accusations of racism seem misplaced especially given her history. It seems that these days, what a person says is far more important than how they behave. Is doesn't seem to matter if you devote your life to humanitarian causes if you don't say the right things. Just as tellingly, nor does it seem to matter what kind of bastard you might be as long as you pay lip service to the right points of view. I speak, of course, of Muslims as a group who will loudly proclaim discrimination and a lack of tolerance any chance they get while subjecting their own people to the most draconian and in some cases, evil, intolerance. But that's not really the point I want to make here.

I want to voice my support for Ferraro's point of view. It makes sense to me. Obama certainly wouldn't be in the position he's in were it not for the fact that he is black. I'm not saying that he's not a capable man. He certainly is. But he is nothing special if you disregard his ethnic heritage. Face it, the very worst thing you can call an educated white person is racist. They will tolerate accusations of incompetence, malice and abject stupidity but call them racist and all gloves are off. Support for Obama allows a lot of these types of people to flaunt their "enlightenment." It's not for nothing that more people say they support Obama then actually vote for him in reality.

Obama may or may not deserve to be President. But there's simply no denying that he finds himself in an enviable position. In the past, black people have undoubtedly had to deal with discrimination but those days have changed. Systemic racism is gone in this country. There may be small pockets of it individually but as a policy, it just doesn't exist. I'm living proof of that. I've dealt with racism at a personal level but never professionally. At the same time, I don't deny that many people have looked at me as fulfilling a quota in their lives. I once dated a Southern girl from South Carolina. Her Grandmother remarked that she hoped we would get married because it would be "cool" to have an Asian in the family. Obama is benefiting from the same sentiment. He should recognize this and recall his attack dogs. Ferraro simply doesn't deserve it.