Let's Talk About Race - Opposing the President Doesn't Make You a Racist

Commissioner Michael Williams: Let’s talk about race. As an African-American son of the south, I grew up in a time and place where you didn’t have to divine intent or deconstruct code words to find racism. When it raised its ugly head it was like a blunt instrument waved in your face to keep you in your place. It was as unmistakable as it was demeaning

Unfortunately, with political waters getting rough for the first time for our president, his supporters are quick to latch on to the actions of a fringe element, and ignore the racial transformation this country has made to take us back to a past era where opposition to a black man was about the color of his skin and not the content of his ideas.

Recently former president Jimmy Carter asserted there is a “belief among many white people, not just in the south but around the country, that African-Americans are not qualified to lead this great country.” Absurd on its face – after all, Mr. Obama wouldn’t have been elected without tremendous support from white voters. This statement is not damaging because it is a false observation, but it stigmatizes the discussion about race relations.

When someone of public prominence carelessly and callously demeans the motives of millions of honest Americans as racists when they are simply concerned about policy ramifications of the President’s agenda, we stop hearing each other. How can the President win over critics when critics are so unfairly stigmatized by such a personal attack on their character? You can hear the conversation around dinner tables and social gatherings: ”If we disagree with Obama, the liberals think we are a bunch of racists.” This truly hampers the effort to find common ground.

Furthermore, stigmatizing honest opposition as “racist” appears to be a way of not answering legitimate questions about policy reform. I, for one, oppose the President’s healthcare plan because it will explode the deficit, allow further government intrusion into the doctor-patient relationship, and continue to insulate healthcare consumers from the true cost of their care. The President and his allies should explain why my concerns are misplaced. But by attacking the character of their critics, they don’t have to answer their charges or win the debate over policy differences, because the charge of “racist” is the nuclear option. Once it is launched there is no need for conventional warfare in the political sense: winning and losing on the merit of policy.

What grieves me most, however, is not that false cries of racism short circuit our debate, but that it makes legitimate concern about pockets of racism impossible to hear among the majority of Americans where it truly exists. Racism does still exist in America today – on both sides of the political spectrum. Now it will be that much harder to expose because the real cry will be impossible to distinguish from the false one, much like the boy who cried, “wolf.” Racism exists, but so does opportunity, and I can personally attest to the fact that there is far more opportunity than racism.

We have rid our institutions of government of the practice of discrimination; if only we could rid our political discourse of the ugliness that ensues when we ascribe discriminatory motive to statements with no obvious discriminatory aspect. New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd couldn’t help hearing a missing word in Congressman Joe Wilson’s outburst during President Obama’s speech to Congress. The Congressman yelled, “You lie.” Ms. Dowd couldn’t help hearing, “you lie, boy.”

While Congressman Wilson started a fire, Ms. Dowd poured fuel on it. The greater ugliness is not the inappropriate outburst, but Ms. Dowd intentionally injecting a word loaded with a history of racial condescension to label a whole movement of opposition.

I have a suggestion for future discourse. Let’s leave race out of the debate unless someone clearly raises it as the rationale for their position on an issue. Instead, let’s stick to the substance of the argument for the good of the American people.

The fact is I can disagree with my president based on the politics of ideas instead of the politics of identity, and so can millions of Americans. When liberals seek to change the debate from the content of reforms to the character of their opposition, it smacks of desperation. And it makes me wonder if they have forgotten what real racism is like. While I appreciate President Obama’s response to this controversy in real days, he has missed an opportunity to disavow his supporters. They are taking this country back to an uglier time and place, when so many of us want to move forward.
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Michael Williams, 56, has been elected three times statewide in Texas as a Texas Railroad Commissioner, and is a  Candidate for the U.S. Senate. As a federal prosecutor he successfully fought against the klan and other white supremacists groups. As high-level aide in the U.S. Department of Education under President George H. W. Bush, he made a controversial stand against the use of race in college admissions.

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