By Walter E. Williams
Christine ODonnell U.S. Senate candidate from Delaware has faced considerable criticism and news media attention about her youthful association with witchcraft. Have we seen similar news media attention given to other politicians who have made bizarre remarks that border on gross stupidity -- possibly lunacy?
During a congressional Armed Services hearing in March Rep. Hank Johnson D-Ga. expressed concern that stationing 8000 Marines and their equipment on Guam our Pacific territory could cause the island to become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize. Such a remark is grossly stupid but the liberal press didnt give it anywhere near the amount of attention and derision that they gave Christine ODonnell.
On the campaign trail in March 2008 then-presidential candidate Obama told his Beaverton Ore. audience Over the last 15 months weve traveled to every corner of the United States. Ive now been in 57 states? I think one left to go. Whether Obama misspoke or not thats a grossly stupid remark but white liberals among the intellectual elite and the liberal news media all but ignored it. Of course when former Vice President Dan Quayle misspelled potatoe they pounced upon it and had a field day.
So what might explain the liberals giving Hank Johnson and Obama a pass whilst playing up the perceived shortcomings of Christine ODonnell and Dan Quayle? The answer might be as simple as just looking at the colors involved. ODonnell and Quayle are white and Johnson and Obama are black. That means the white liberal vision comes into play where to openly oppose criticize and ridicule blacks is racist. The key term is openly. I bet that when alone in trusted company white liberals crack up over the things that some black people say and do. The white liberal vision holds one set of standards to which white people are obliged and another thats lower for blacks. I dont believe that white liberals are racists in the sense that Klansmen and neo-Nazis are; however their paternalistic and demeaning attitudes toward blacks are far more debilitating.
There needs to be a bit of elaboration of the statement that to openly oppose criticize and ridicule a black is racist. If the black in question is a conservative possibly Republican then any sort of criticism and treatment is acceptable. This was seen in the criticism and ridicule of Clarence Thomas Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell. Garry Trudeaus Doonesbury cartoon featured President Bush referring to Secretary Rice as brown sugar. Pat Oliphant showed her as a parrot with big lips and Ted Ralls cartoon had Miss Rice proclaiming herself Bushs House nigga. Don Wrights cartoon depicted Justice Thomas as Justice Scalias lawn jockey. These cartoons were carried in major newspapers nationwide. Ask yourself what would happen to a nationally syndicated cartoonist and the newspaper that carried it depicting President Obama as a wide-eyed fat-lipped monkey.
Racial double standards are nothing new. It has been the currency on jobs and college campuses where there is an acceptance of behavior by blacks that would be condemned if done by whites. Often misguided white liberal professors in the name of making up for injustices of the past give black students grades they didnt earn. Being 74 years old I have frequently told people that Im glad that I received just about all of my education before it became fashionable for white people to like black people. That means I was obliged to live up to higher standards.
More blacks need to be bold and challenge the demeaning attitudes of white liberals. During the early years of the Reagan administration I had a number of press conferences in response to a book or article that I had written. At several of them I invited the reporters to treat me like a white person -- just ask hard questions.
