Did a scientist unleash a scenario similar to “Flash Forward,” except we flashed backward 50 years in race relations? That’s my explanation for a time span I have dubbed National Racial Insult Week.
The week started with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid apologizing for reducing President Obama’s ascension to light skin and lack of discernible “Negro” dialect in a quote for an upcoming book.
On Monday morning, politico-turned-reality show star Rod Blagojevich said he was sorry for telling Esquire magazine he was “blacker” than Obama in the mag’s February issue. If those two idiotic events don’t inspire you to hum “We Shall Overcome,” reminisce on these racial run-ins:
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Rush to judgment
On Wednesday, Rush Limbaugh proved, once again, he should be broadcasting from a broom closet after making idiotic comments about Tuesday’s earthquake in Haiti. Just one day after the natural disaster killed an estimated tens of thousands, Limbaugh took to the airwaves suggesting Obama is capitalizing on it as an opportunity to bring together the “light-skinned and dark-skinned [black] communities within this country.”
Clearly, Limbaugh needs to grab a front seat in somebody’s African-American studies class. Reid’s foolish quip aside, blacks — no matter the societal stigma on skin shade — are not two separate communities that need to be united like East and West Germany. Limbaugh is only spared the distinction of dumbest statement related to the disaster because of the Rev. Pat Robertson, who asserts the earthquake is payback for Haitians who made a deal with the devil 200 years ago.
Bigots for Stroger?
What’s white, black and bigoted all over? A campaign flier from Soldiers 4 Stroger on display at gapersblock.com and, apparently, circulating the streets of Chicago.
A group of race-baiters — including gang leader-turned-community activist Wallace “Gator” Bradley — created campaign material that manages to insult the Irish, blacks, Chicago voters, a brand of pancakes and the notion of common sense in one fell swoop. White political figures of the Democratic Party, including Mayor Daley, are identified as “massas,” while black candidates who dare to “split” the “black vote” by opposing embattled Cook County Board President Todd Stroger are derided as slaves.
It is downright demeaning to see Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown referred to as Kizzy from “Roots,” and candidate Terrence O’Brien, who is white, crowned “Cracker Boy Bottom Feeder.”
Stroger’s camp released a statement saying his campaign does not endorse or condone such activities, but I’ll take it a step further and command these so-called Soldiers to burn the remaining racist nonsense, particularly those citing Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Then, let’s save a little gasoline to torch this week from our minds. We can start fresh in time to honor MLK.
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**This column ran as “Kyra Files” in the print edition.**