The Audacity Of Hatred.

I never got all caught up in that "post-racial" America nonsense during Obama's run for the Presidency. Call me a realist, but I don't think it's realistic to expect one guy, whose job (when properly done) has even less effect on the average person's life than the mailman, to erase 400 years of American infamy in 21 months. That was just silly.

The campaign, to their credit, never specifically played up this "post-racial" angle either. Obama and his senior advisers tried everything in their power to downplay the issue of race. You could argue that "yes WE can" was a subtle nod to this "post-racial" aspiration, but you could also argue that Obama was simply saying the years of divisive politricks were over. I choose the latter. Either way, dude won.

But winning always means someone loses in the process. And as I've long said here, the animus we saw rear it's ugly head at various points in the race wasn't simply going to go away November 5th. While the media has shifted focus to transition teams and cabinet level appointments, Anti-Obama America is really, really, really madd, sonn.

Cross burnings. Schoolchildren chanting "Assassinate Obama." Black figures hung from nooses. Racial epithets scrawled on homes and cars.

Incidents around the country referring to President-elect Barack Obama are dampening the postelection glow of racial progress and harmony, highlighting the stubborn racism that remains in America.

From California to Maine, police have documented a range of alleged crimes, from vandalism and vague threats to at least one physical attack. Insults and taunts have been delivered by adults, college students and second-graders.

There have been "hundreds" of incidents since the election, many more than usual, said Mark Potok, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate crimes.

You guys know that I really don't like heavily quoting stories, and I suggest you read this one in it's entirety, but here's just a smidgen of the stuff seen and heard since The Beige One became Prez-elect.

Four North Carolina State University students admitted writing anti-Obama comments in a tunnel designated for free speech expression, including one that said: "Let's shoot that (N-word) in the head." Obama has received more threats than any other president-elect, authorities say.

At Standish, Maine, a sign inside the Oak Hill General Store read: "Osama Obama Shotgun Pool." Customers could sign up to bet $1 on a date when Obama would be killed. "Stabbing, shooting, roadside bombs, they all count," the sign said. At the bottom of the marker board was written "Let's hope someone wins."

Racist graffiti was found in places including New York's Long Island, where two dozen cars were spray-painted; Kilgore, Texas, where the local high school and skate park were defaced; and the Los Angeles area, where swastikas, racial slurs and "Go Back To Africa" were spray painted on sidewalks, houses and cars.

Second- and third-grade students on a school bus in Rexburg, Idaho, chanted "assassinate Obama," a district official said.

University of Alabama professor Marsha L. Houston said a poster of the Obama family was ripped off her office door. A replacement poster was defaced with a death threat and a racial slur. "It seems the election brought the racist rats out of the woodwork," Houston said.

Black figures were hanged by nooses from trees on Mount Desert Island, Maine, the Bangor Daily News reported. The president of Baylor University in Waco, Texas said a rope found hanging from a campus tree was apparently an abandoned swing and not a noose.

Crosses were burned in yards of Obama supporters in Hardwick, N.J., and Apolacan Township, Pa.

A black teenager in New York City said he was attacked with a bat on election night by four white men who shouted 'Obama.'

In the Pittsburgh suburb of Forest Hills, a black man said he found a note with a racial slur on his car windshield, saying "now that you voted for Obama, just watch out for your house."

The incidents have occurred from coast to coast, border to border. Those who say racism is "a Southern problem" clearly don't know what the heck they're talking about.

You can start attacking me now, but I lay the blame for this nonsense at the feet of the very people who played up the race angle (be it subtly or not so) during the campaign. This includes Bill and Hillary Clinton, who along with their surrogates, launched every underhanded racist and xenophobic attack in their antiquated playbook at the Obama campaign. I don't have time to rehash this stuff, but if you need refreshing, just peep Jack & Jill Politics' Clinton Attacks Obama Wiki.

Also complicit were John McCain, Sarah Palin, and the entire GOP. Apparently clueless that the Clinton Scheme didn't work, they took it and ratcheted the same empty rhetoric into an "us vs them" style of class/racial warfare. Anyone with a brain could get the whole "give those shiftless Negroes your money" angle of their "socialist" bent against Obama and Biden. When that failed to move the needle, they went straight for the "paling around with terrorists" nonsense, which also failed. But one thing they succeeded in doing was getting people really, really mad, as if "their" country was about to be stolen by That Beige One on election day. I don't remotely consider McCain a racist, but I consider him the worst sort of opportunist for allowing the same level of racial slander that ruined his 2000 campaign to be run against his opponent. He could, and should have admonished this sentiment, especially as it became more visible and widespead. But he chose to look the other way, all in the name of winning the campaign. Country First, huh?

Finally, the media needs a kick in the a$$ too. Seriously, where was the mainstream media in repudiating this sort of nonsense when we saw it on the campaign trail? CNN chose the middle of the election season to air their disastrous Black In America, which didn't do a whole lot to dispell some of the very stereotypes Obama was railing against in the first place. For all the hot air on MSNBC, I didn't see Keith Olbermann or that windbag Chris Matthews show disgust as people shouted death threats and spouted such nonsense as this.

[Editor's Note: Even if you don't normally watch videos, or lack a sound card, please peep the opening 5 seconds of the first video. I hope you had a light breakfast.]









I won't even say anything bad about Fox News. Why bother?

If there's anything good about this year, it's shown me that slightly more than half of America (yes, Black people included) is willing to look beyond their long held myths and stereotypes about people of color. Does this make the United States post-racial? Hell to the naw. Is it encouraging? Yes.

But at some point in the future, that small minority (I'm thinking less than 3%) of the United States that chooses to still remain divided over something as comparatively inconsequential as skin tone will need to be addressed.

Post-racial my black a$$.

Bonus: Some misguided Negroes will need a lobotomy too.



Question: Do the incidents noted above surprise you? Will these people's animus only continue to grow with time or will these people eventually accept reality? Had McCain and Palin won, would we see a similar outpouring of anger?

Obama election spurs race crimes around country [AP]