Could we all just TRY to get along?

Race is a sensitive, frustrating, volatile, and politically hot subject. It’s one most people try to avoid and also try to show how tolerant and accepting they are. I believe no one is truly tolerant or accepting until race is not an issue.

Two recent and ongoing events come to mind. Joe Biden’s comment about Barrack Obama and the Super Bowl.

Joe Biden: During an interview and when asked about Obama, (his competition in the upcoming 08 election), Joe Biden said, "the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy." I heard a replay of the interview and I felt Joe was choosing his words carefully, realizing that anything he said could and probably would be used and twisted. Joe labored over the words, articulating each one as a constructive and complementary adjective.

How did it get construed? As though Joe Biden made an ethnic slur. When I heard that I said to myself, "What? That’s not what he intended!" So the news report on PBS went onto say that African Americans consider the complementary word "articulate" as a racial slur because it is used in a way to imply they are acting "white like." I would never have known that if I hadn’t heard it on the TV.

I remember my days in the south as a youth and the popular phrase to show that one was not racist was, "some of my friends are black." It was said sincerely, to reflect that one did not choose the value of one’s character by the color of their skin. I understand that, but the way it was over used became a stereotype of white acceptance. I understand that, too. This thing about the word "articulate" is completely new to me. I suspect it was also unknown to Joe Biden.

When I heard Joe’s quote, I suspected the objection would be to the word "clean." But that turned out to be okay. My bad!

What did offend me was the notoriety given to the coaches of the two teams that made it to the Super Bowl, Chicago Bears and Indianapolis Colts. I watched during the entire playoffs and it never once occurred to me that the color of a coach’s skin was any kind of attribute OR hindrance. But when the two teams won and both coaches were "black" it was picked up on immediately.

My first and still prevalent thought was "Why should that be important?" But each coach was interviewed and both acquiesced to the recognition, saying something about it being historical and how they owed their success to other coaches who gave them an opportunity. I suppose those words are true enough. I just wish it wasn’t important!

I don’t think what Joe Biden said about Barrack Obama is important either. A candidate for the presidency running in the Democratic Party said something nice about an opponent running in the same party and for the same office. Race has nothing to do with it.

If you hear the opposing party (or the right leaning media) condemning Joe Biden, they will be making news and not reporting it. If you hear the conservative talk show circuit making a big deal about Joe Biden, that would make sense. What might fool some of the people most of the time is if the conservative talk show hosts say something nice about Joe or say that the incident is unimportant. THAT would be like saying "Some of friends are Liberals!" THAT would be VERY condescending.

That’s As I see it. . .