WCBStv.com is reporting on New York Governor David Paterson's assertion that the McCain-Palin campaign is racist.
What, you might well ask, is the basis for this accusation? Governor Paterson can probably best speak for himself:
"I think the Republican Party is too smart to call Barack Obama 'black' in a sense that it would be a negative. But you can take something about his life, which I noticed they did at the Republican Convention – a 'community organizer.' They kept saying it, they kept laughing," he said.
Gee, Guv, I'm not so sure your logic holds up there. I went to school with a large number of blacks ("African American" had not yet been invented as a term of division and victimization in the 1970s), and as far as I know not a single one of them were "community organizers". Throughout my career in a number of fields I have had bosses, colleagues, and subordinates who were black; not once did it occur to me to think of them as "community organizers".
Governor Paterson, do you think perhaps it would be accurate for the NAACP to change the name of the organization to National Association for the Advancement of Community Organizing People? No?
When Eliot Spitzer's personal foibles compelled him to resign his office, thereby elevating Paterson to the Governorship, there were stories in the news. Hey, did you know that Paterson guy will be the first legally blind governor? I'm pretty sure no one was using the phrase "legally blind" as a code word for black. That was simply a statement of fact. As it is a fact that Paterson is black.
Also a fact is Barack Obama's former life as a community organizer. He uses that past career as both explanation for why he's such a swell guy and justification for his leadership experience. When Sarah Palin raised the community organizer experience, it was to compare and contrast that entry on the resume with her own time serving Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska. Is there anyone willing to make the absurd claim that "mayor" is code for "white"? Kwame Kilpatrick and Marion Barry don't exactly fit that stereotype - though both men have stereotyping issues of their own to overcome, so perhaps they aren't the best examples to cite here.
Governor Paterson, and everyone else: words mean things. The argument is used all the time to explain why certain words are not to ever be used - except for those times when it's okay. Rather than muddy the waters by trying to ascribe different, offensive, meanings to words spoken by public figures why not simply assume that what is said is what is meant unless facts prove otherwise?
Not very effective politics, I understand that. But it is an effective social policy that we as individuals can choose to implement over the objections of our politicians.
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