Lovely commentary...

I was keeping up-to-date with news via MSNBC.com. I read an article regarding tensions between the African-American and Latino communities and how it may be difficult for Democratic presidential candidate, Barack Obama, to garner much support from the Hispanic community. I then read some comments posted by the average Joe Schmos following the article. One guy stated and I quote:

"Unfortunately race will always be a factor in everyday life, but I do believe that White Democrast/White Liberals tend to be more racist than your average conservative; they resent blacks becoming successful in life, since it gets harder for the democrat/liberal to use race as an issue. The Clintons through this presidential race have shown their contempt for Barack Obama because he is black, (they thought the black vote would be easier to get). It is a shame that blacks are ignoring Barack and running to the Clintons, this may be the only chance they get for electing a black president, but I do believe that many blacks tend to look at whites as their savior (sort of a white master/black child mentality). The Latino vote and also the Asian vote will not be there for Barack, it showed in Nevada and will in Florida/California/Texas, etc. Both Latinos and Asians feel they have nothing in common with blacks so their vote will go to Clintons. Understand that the Civil Rights movement fell into the lap of JFK, he like the Clintons were not interested in blacks, but that was an opportunity that JFK exploited, even though LBJ passed most of the civil rights bills; JFK gets the credit, just like Bill Clinton get credited as being the "unofficial" first black president, even though he put more blacks in prison than any other president before him. Obama can have a chance if blacks would unite but I doubt they will, as we have seen in every day life, blacks complain about racism but they never unite for anything meaningful and stick to it, rather they will just cry "racism.""

Wow, what a ridiculous post. First off, I think this guy needs to understand what the definition of "liberal" actually is. It means, "tolerant," "generous," and "accepting of change." Alright, so how are those who see themselves as tolerant, generous, and accepting of change more racist than those who, as definition states it, are typically less tolerant and accepting of change? That makes...sense. Now, if he wants to make the argument that some Democrats are racist, okay, fine, no argument here. But, Democrats are typically more liberal than Republicans and are therefore, usually more tolerant and accepting of change. There are definitely racists in the Democratic community, but to label Democrats as more racist than Republicans and liberals as more racist than conservatives, is ridiculous. If Barack Obama wins the Democratic nomination, whom does he think will vote for the Illinois Senator most frequently? Republicans? The red states in the southeast? I don't think so. There may be some more moderate or liberal Republicans who'd vote for Obama, but he'll garner the most votes from Democrats and Independents, the blue states in the northeast, northwest, and far west. I can't see (m)any true conservatives voting for the Illinois Senator. The majority of his support will be from the moderate to more liberal voters.

I find it funny how this person gets on Democrats and liberals' cases for allegedly being more racist than conservatives, yet he lays out a couple of racist remarks in the comment. He said:

"It is a shame that blacks are ignoring Barack and running to the Clintons, this may be the only chance they get for electing a black president, but I do believe that many blacks tend to look at whites as their savior (sort of a white master/black child mentality)."

This may be the ONLY chance that African-Americans have an opportunity to elect a black president? What year is this? Is it really...2008? Sometimes I wonder... You know buddy, there have been other African-Americans who've run before and there will be others who run in the future. If Obama doesn't win this time around, chances are, he'll run again in the future. If an African-American is elected president in the next few years, I could see Colin Powell running for president. So, please, this isn't an all or nothing situation for the African-American community. This isn't an all or nothing situation for women in this country to elect a woman as president. Look at the diversity of the candidates at the start of the campaign season: an African-American, a woman, a Baptist minister, a devout Mormon, a Latino-American, a former POW, a New York City Mayor, a libertarian congressman, and a former VP candidate from South Carolina. This is a very diverse crowd and shows solid progression in the U.S., I believe. We are not as far along as some European countries, but further along than some other countries, fortunately.

This young lad also said the following:

"The Latino vote and also the Asian vote will not be there for Barack, it showed in Nevada and will in Florida/California/Texas, etc. Both Latinos and Asians feel they have nothing in common with blacks so their vote will go to Clintons."

Barack has had some issue in garnering much support from the Latinos, but it's not due to having "nothing in common" with blacks. As I read today in an article written by a man who's studied and will be publishing a book regarding the tensions surrounding African- and Latino-Americans, he said much of that tension has to do with the two poorest minorities in the country battling with one another for opportunities to work and opportunities to survive in this country, in the middle of an economic crisis and an ever shrinking middle class. Asian-Americans aren't typically involved in that friction with other U.S. minorities. On average, Asian-Americans make the most annually of ANY ethnic group in the country. Yes, even more so than Anglo-Americans. So, while I'm uncertain how the Asian-American vote has been spread thus far into the primary/caucus season, I can say that Obama is not dealing with the same problem in that community as he is with the Latinos.

Finally, this eloquent individual stated:

"Obama can have a chance if blacks would unite but I doubt they will, as we have seen in every day life, blacks complain about racism but they never unite for anything meaningful and stick to it, rather they will just cry "racism.""

This individual had the nerve to label two groups of people as racist and he concludes his commentary by stating this? Claiming that blacks never unite and stand by anything meaningful? What an ignorant statement! It floors me and almost makes me laugh at how a person can rant for a couple paragraphs about how liberals and Democrats are more racist than conservatives and then exclaim that blacks would rather "cry 'racism'" as opposed to standing along side one another in regard to an issue of importance. Heck, I don't even really need to comment on that quote. I can treat it like a George W. Bush quote, where I just quote the person and let the reader come to an obvious judgment. Out of the entire commentary, those final couple sentences are what made my jaw drop more than any other. That'd be like if Don Imus complained for an hour on his radio program that certain groups of people are racist and sexist against Rutgers Lady Scarlet Knights basketball players and at the very end, he belts out that they're nothing but, "raggedy hoes" or whatever terminology it was he used. Oh, okay. That completely destroyed the initial argued he was trying to make. I'm going to head out now, drive around in a van and speak over a loud mic on how celebrities are all racist and then conclude my speech by making derogatory comments about them.