I’m not one to shout ‘racism’ much. I watch Keith Olbermann frequently, and while I like the program generally, I can’t stand the way he invents new reasons to call the Republicans ‘racist.’ For example, I didn’t think it was racist that Joe Wilson shouted ‘You lie’ in Obama’s address to congress. Now, Joe Wilson is a first class idiot, but I didn’t see racism there.
Generally, I am hesitant to find racism in people for three reasons: 1) ‘racism’ has no good definition that I know of, 2) I think it is possible to be racist without knowing it, 3) it’s always hard to really know someone’s intentions. Having said that, the recent rage over the Acorn scandal is very thinly veiled racism. The scandal in question is the recent ‘undercover’ video that was taken by two teenagers and given to Fox News. In it they get Acorn workers to help them cheat on their taxes, affirm prostitution, etc. All sorts of nasty stuff. What followed was a complete defunding of Acorn, which almost every single Democrat in congress supported.
I think it was appropriate for Acorn to be defunded. Yes, those were low level workers, but I believe it shows some weaknesses in the organization. I am sure that as a whole, Acorn does many positive things, but because of the scandal, it was time for their government funding to end. So if you ask any conservative why they hate Acorn, they will say “Because Acorn is a corrupt organization.” This is false; conservatives generally hate that organization because it is run by black people and it largely serves black people.
The reason I know this is that shortly after the Acorn scandal unfolded, it was discovered that members of Halliburton (now KBR) gage-raped a female coworker, and when she went to the higher-levels of Halliburton to complain, she was put in a box without food and water for two days. Because this happened in Iraq, the rapists and those who covered up the crime could not be prosecuted. The prompted the Democrats (specifically Al Franken) to put out a bill that said employees of contractors could at least sue the contractor in that situation.
When the Senate voted, almost all of the Republicans voted against the provision. Their justification was that KBR is an independent contractor, and the government should not interfere with their business. But of course, all of those same Senators were absolutely outraged when a far less morally significant crime was committed by Acorn. The Acorn workers didn’t actually do anything; they gave advice about how to do it. The KBR employers actually screwed up someone else’s life. And it appears the Acorn workers were all low-level employees, as opposed to the KBR supervisors who assigned the rape victim to that box. The only difference I see between the two organizations is color.
