Sent to you by Karl via Google Reader:
The usual crowd of race hustlers, including Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, the New Black Panthers and Barack Obama, have been making as much hay as possible out of Trayvon Martin's death. Clearly, they think that this episode has ballot potential in November. I can see only one way in which it does have that potential, and I'll get to that in a minute. But first, a few reasons why I think their ham-handed attempt to paint America as a racist nation will be a bust.
First, in terms of characterizing America as a racist nation, the fact that we have a black president kind of, sort of, a little bit, makes it stupid to try to paint a whole nation with the "racism" brush just because a big Hispanic man in a bad neighborhood pulled a gun on a big black guy in the same neighborhood. That's true whether the killing was motivated by self-defense, insanity, or racism.
Second, people are beginning to catch on to the media's games. In a way, it's useful that the Martin killing followed on the heels of the Toulouse massacre. It's a reminder that the media has a few templates for murder: When a black person dies at the hands of a non-black person, it's a front-page racially motivated crime. When a non-black person dies at the hands of black person, it's a bottom of page 27 story. And when a Muslim kills people while shouting "Allah is great," Islam has nothing to do with it. Here, the media is sticking to its narrative with regard to both the Martin and Mohammed stories, despite pesky little details that put the lie to the media narratives.
Third, this was a one-person crime. Zimmerman didn't belong to a White (or Hispanic) Supremacist movement. He wasn't a corrupt small town sheriff. This wasn't just another in a long line of racially motivated murders in the same community. It's awfully hard to make a serious case for institutional American racism based on a sordid neighborhood dispute.
Fourth, crying "racism" is losing its impact. I read the other day (and I can't remember where) that every time the President dips into the strategic oil reserves, the price of fuel drops. But here's the kicker: With each successive release of oil from the reserves, the price drop has less staying power than it did during the previous release. Within an ever shorter time, fuel prices return to the price at which they were before the President used the reserves. In other words, the market is getting smarter at recognizing that the sudden influx of oil is a Band-Aid fix that doesn't repair the deep problems with our oil supplies — so prices remain the same. With the racism cry, there's a similar phenomenon: Americans are getting smarter at recognizing that the sudden screams of racism have nothing to do with the fact that America is, overall, a non-racist country, something that is true regardless of pockets of racism that may pop out here and there.
There you have it: four very good reasons why the bleats of "racism" are not going to convince Americans that they are still deeply racist and that they must reelect Barack Obama to continue to expiate their sin.
However, I'm not sure directing manifestly false insults at the America people is really going on here. I think the New Black Panthers gave the real game away when the announced a bounty on Zimmerman's head (dead or alive.) What the race hustlers are telling Americans is that, if they don't reelect Barack Obama, there's going to be rioting on the streets, and that those who haven't gotten with the pro-race program, can expect to have a bounty placed on their heads (dead or alive).
This isn't about racism; this is about threatening American voters.
That's all.
UPDATE: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton, who has a real knack for connecting the dots, has collected all the dots into a single post and come to pretty much the same conclusion I did.
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