Political Racism

The Racism Faux-Scandals
Source: The Huffington Post
Author: John McQuaid

Racism, thought to be a non-issue, has reared its ugly head recently. Since the election of our nations first African-American president, the vestiges of prejudice and racism have started to make themselves heard again. And in a surprising way. "Reverse Racism" has become a media buzzword as entrenched white upper-middle class male politicians try to retain their power. A seemingly innocuous idea that minorities are now being favored by discriminatory practices this new trend is anything but.

As Mr. McQuaid discusses, this new cry of 'racism' is both shortsighted and, quite frankly, stupid. The issue behind racism and discrimination must be viewed from a historical and social perspective, not from a immediate and shallow viewpoint. From that view, the nominations of Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan are not as some have charged cases of reverse discrimination by nominating candidates that are different and not on pure merit but simply cases of true meritocracy where they were elected because, partly due to their backgrounds, the most qualified candidates.

Truly, to understand racism is to accept subtleties. Racism is not so simple as simply one group oppressing another at a particular time but the analysis of the struggles of an entire people. Thus to these new voices crying for justice against "reverse racism", read a history book and rethink if affirmative action even matters in comparison to slavery.