On this Martin Luther King Day, we have this, from the Houston Chronicle...
Clement said she is heartened by the prospect of the nation getting its first black or female president. Such a victory, she said, would set the stage for "a better nation and a better world."
Such a development, she said, would represent a significant realization of King's dream of a color-blind society.
I don't agree. Personally, I think that when you look at the beliefs of both the black and female candidates in this race, we'd be getting more of the same old identity politics that have plagued this nation for far too long. Just look at the reaction Oprah Winfrey got from her announcement that she was backing Barack Obama for president:
It started with a message on her website entitled "Oprah is a traitor" and rapidly expanded to include several discussions that attracted hundreds of comments.In the original post, a reader called austaz68 said she "cannot believe that women all over this country are not up in arms over Oprah’s backing of Obama. For the first time in history we actually have a shot at putting a woman in the White House and Oprah backs the black MAN. She's choosing her race over her gender."
In this case, I'd say schaedenfreude describes perfectly what I am feeling right now. How ironic it is that the leftists talk about tolerance and diversity, but when it's their preferred group that gets slighted, the mask comes off! I must admit, that's a sweet, sweet irony indeed.
But no, King's dream of a colorblind society most certainly is not realized yet. It will only be fully realized when, in addition to a black man mounting a viable candidacy for president, those who call black conservative luminaries like Clarence Thomas and Michael Steele "Uncle Toms," sellouts or whatever other pejorative they can dredge up are called out for the bigots they are. I'm betting we have a loooong way to go to get there, though...if we ever do, that is.
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