Harry Reid’s Mortal Sin of Racism

OMG! Did he really say that out loud?

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada described in private then-Sen. Barack Obama as “light skinned” and “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.”

First, a few stipulations here, just so you know I don’t have a dog in this hunt:

• I don’t like Democrat progressive programs;
  
• Nor do I care much for Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader;
  
• In fact, I hope the man is defeated roundly the next time he’s up for election;
  
• and may he rot in Dante’s Inferno for his infernal health care bill.

So, having cleared away any idea that I could ever be a Reid supporter (heaven forefend!), here are some thoughts about the current brouhaha over Reid’s common-sense political remarks about then-Senator Obama during the presidential campaign.

First let's enumerate Reid’s mortal sins here:

• He had the temerity to remark upon the light skin tone of our half-blood prince. Because the Grievance Mongers have grabbed the entire conversation, a white person may not ever notice this out loud, any more than a man is ever permitted to observe to a friend that a woman is attractive. Reid didn’t talk about skin color publicly, but he didn’t keep it to himself, either. Dumb move, Senator.
  
• Reid opined that it was a factor in Obama’s favor while campaigning that he didn’t speak with a “Negro dialect” except when he chose to do so.

WAAAYCIST! DIE! REPENT FOREVER! (It still won’t be enough)…
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In the rigid orthodoxy of politically correct speech, such observations are verboten; they are morally wrong. In fact, Reid shows his obvious deep and abiding racism by even thinking those thoughts, much less permitting them to pass his lips.

Balderdash! Obama knew his light skin gave him an advantage, as it does every light-skinned black. If you live in a black community where people trust you and are willing to be open about it, they’ll tell you a lighter skin is an advantage. In fact, in some of the black sororities, a girl used to have to pass the brown paper bag test, i.e., her skin couldn’t be darker than a grocery bag.

It’s mean-spirited, but it’s reality here and everywhere in the world, as any dark-skinned black knows only too well. He or she is discriminated against by whites? Sure they are. But their lighter-toned fellow Africans are even worse.

As for the remark about his ability to speak average, educated American English (an accent the Baron and I call “Eastern seaboard” but California has it, too), big whoop.

During our recent gubernatorial campaign in Virginia it was remarked upon frequently that the two contenders, Mr. Deeds and McDonnell, had different accents. McDonnell’s speaking voice is typically Eastern Seaboard while Mr. Deeds speaks with the vowels of his home place in southwestern Virginia. In other words, he talks like a country hick.

Mr. Deeds’ accent was considered a disadvantage to him in the race. The contention was that given the limits of his speech patterns, Deeds wouldn’t sound as polished as Mr. McDonnell; the contention was correct.

But the journalists were talking about white boys, see, and you can natter on all you want. You can even make fun of how an educated man speaks (Mr. Deeds is indeed educated) and you can do so with impunity. In fact, no one would ever accuse you of being, say, a “regionalist” for observing Mr. Deeds’ disadvantage in elocution.

We’ve seen Obama “talk black” when he wants to, as Reid also observed. Talking one on one with black voters he was caught on camera any number of times clipping his word endings and using slang. Heck, even Hillary did it in a black church during the campaign. She was one good ol’ Southern magnolia while she was up there speechifying.

This braying in the MSM about Senator Reid’s observations only points to their essential lack of gravitas and integrity. The things he said were true, but the content of his remarks was trivial. He was spot on when it came to Obama’s national image and all the hypocritical sneering in the world won’t change that.

White male is the default position on this globe. If you’re not white or not male, you can beat your fists on the walls of reality all you want. You can degrade a whole culture in your attempts to bring down the white man. You can self-destruct over it, and many folks have. But you can’t change it. And if you’re wise, you learn to deal with it.

You can see how this works out characterologically if you observe Mrs. Obama; she has a ways to go in the wisdom-and-facing-reality department. I know a number of black women like her: educated and with lots of material advantages but they won’t let go their Resentment because it serves to define and energize them. They pass this mess of pottage down to their children, thinking it will protect them. In reality such corrosive attitudes do their carrier greater harm than they do the object of their hatred.

White women have their own share of Bitter Resentment. I know more of those than I care to count. Talk about professional Grievance Committees. No wonder men are giving up on women.

It is too bad that the Bad White Man, Harry Reid, now feels compelled to geld himself in public in an attempt to receive benediction. He will never be excused or pardoned for a truthful off-hand comment. So now when he stands there with his testicles in his hands begging the press to take them, even more contempt is piled onto him.

All the lies, abasement, and posturing of the political class don’t make them credible or even humbly human. I’d vote for the politician who was willing to be honest about the reality of race and gender in our culture.

But wait! If they were willing to be honest about the nature of things then they wouldn’t be politicians. So never mind…