The Coded Racism of the McCain/Palin Ticket

Six or seven years ago I worked at a video store in Takoma Park, Maryland. It was one of those independent type of video stores -- heavy on foriegn and cult films, with movies categorized by their director -- nestled in the charming Old Town square of a wealthy, white, pseudo-liberal enclave. One Sunday, I worked the morning shift alone. I liked Sunday morning shifts. Almost nobody rented or returned movies, and I was free to get high, get some food, and watch movies all day. This particular Sunday was especially slow because there was some sort of art/folk/hippie fest going on down the street to distract my usual customers. Some time around mid-morning, this white lady rushes through the door with a video to return. She slams it down on the counter and says to me, "This is late, but I'll have to pay for it later. There's a bunch of black people standing by my car."

I remember being stunned. I can't believe she just said that to me. I can't believe I look like a person that another person would look at and think, "Yeah, he looks racist. We can be racist with one another." Fuck me.

After that brief shock, I looked out the window to where she had parked, and the "bunch of black people" standing on the curb by her minivan was, in fact, a family of four. A mom, a dad, and two preteen kids, no older than 10.

This is what racism in America has become. It's no longer explicit and out in the open. It lives in cul de sacs and board rooms and the neighborhood bar, where white people feel comfortable with other white people and feel free to say what they truly feel. And when it does see the light of day, it lives in carefully coded messages that only those who share similar feelings would even pick up on.

This is how John McCain has chosen to run his presidential campaign.

John McCain, at last night debate, speaking about an energy bill that was supposedly rife with evil earmarks: "You know who voted for it? You might never know. [pointing at Obama] That one. You know who voted against it? Me."

John McCain is one racist motherfucker. "That one?" Really? The backbone of bigots everywhere is to dehumanize the targets of their hatred. But more importantly, "that one" allows McCain to cast his opponent as "the other," as "one of them." It's code for "the blacks" or "the gays" or whoever is different and must be feared. It's an easy, covert way to call Obama a terrorist, a Muslim, an elitist, a black guy. These are things that John McCain is counting on that you'll fear, but more importantly, that you'll hate. You wouldn't vote for one of them, would you?

So every time you hear Sarah Palin say community organizers don't have job responsibilities (read: "black people don't work"), or you see the white lady on "The View" say that Obama is hiding facts about his life (read: "you just can't trust blacks"), or you watch anything on Fox, just remember: the white sheets and burning crosses might be absent, but the sentiment remains the same.