Racial Overtones - Will Your Vote be Influenced?

Just how angry was the American public at the Bush Administration? We elected a black President. That day was hailed as a seminal point in U.S. history, a sea change in race relations. Yet four-years after an election that inspired hopes of a post-racial future, the Republican Party seems hell-bent on dragging the nation backwards. 

"We're at a tipping point", said Susan Glisson, director of the Institute for Racial Reconciliation at the University of Mississippi. "But I don't know which way we're going to tip."

Her concern is based on something called "implicit bias" - prejudices that people don't realize they have. Perhaps I'm overly sensitive to prejudice because of my Hispanic roots. My mother had a dark, olive skin tone. She was a beautiful young woman bearing a resemblance to Lena Horne. As a child my friends would often ask if my mother was Puerto Rican or black. Not that it matters, but we were told that she was Spanish. I never really knew. Regardless, I've always been very sensitive to prejudice and have taken a strong stand when I think an injustice has been done. 

Implicit bias is a curious thing. I've known people who make patently racist remarks and then vehemently object to be characterized as racist. They are so blind to the affliction and shocked to be confronted that they react as if they're defending their very life. I have first-hand experience with just such an incident. A Michigan field hockey parent that I was very close to ended our friendship because I objected to the raciest stereotypes he posted on Facebook. It was a sad day, and I miss my friend, but there are some wrongs that are too important to ignore.

So what does this have to do with the election? Sorry. My readers will come to realize that I have yet to completely master the ability to distill colliding thoughts into a coherent message. Tangential diversions from the theme may occasionally confuse the audience, but I'm hoping that you'll come to realize that nothing I do is ever a simple process.

Anyway, back to the election and implicit bias. Studies show that longstanding negative stereotypes about African Americans have produced a segment of the population that harbors anti-back biases yet don't even know it. You've heard the stereotypes. Blacks are inherently dangerous, unintelligent, or prefer welfare to work. Such unconscious biases are present in people of all backgrounds, not just whites. The disturbing thing is that the Republican Party knows it, and is fanning the fame of prejudice for political advantage.

Turn on the television. The Republican ticket is flooding the airwaves with racially-charged commercials designed to pit middle class whites against the minority poor. Republican ads accuse President Obama of gutting the work requirements enacted in the 1996 Welfare Reform Act.  Another alleges that Obama redistributed $716 billion from Medicare - a program serving an overwhelmingly white constituency - in order to fund ObamaCare - a program for poor blacks and Hispanics. The ads are intended to reinforce each other's claims, and to exploit the implicit bias of whites. 

If the claims were true I would not be condemning the ads as repugnant falsification of the President's policies. Unfortunately for you and me, they Republican Party will stoop to any depth to win back the Oval Office, even if it means inciting a new race war in this country. But don't take my word for it! The Washington Post's fact checker, Glenn Kessler, gave the ads his lowest rating - "Four Pinocchios".  Politifact was equally critical, describing the ads as "a drastic distortion" deserving of a "pants on fire" rating. 

There are so many reasons that I could not vote for Mitt Romney. My issues with his economic policies are paramount, but no less objectionable to me is his total lack of character. As if his position du jour is not enough to question his character, I cannot rationalize how a supposed "man of faith" could be so flexible with the truth. Flexible is the new Republican word for lie. Nor can I fathom how he could willingly endorse a campaign strategy that is intentionally divisive. 

If I influence just one person to take a stand, and cast a vote against racism and divisiveness, this post will have been worth the effort. I'm not suggesting that Obama is perfect, or that the Democratic ticket does not stretch the truth in its ads. They most certainly do. The difference is that the Republicans are inflaming old resentments. The Romney campaign is ignoring criticism about accuracy and veracity in favor of  blowing the dog-whistle of racism. We all know what "take our country back really means.