It’s also important for you not to play the race card yourself. You can’t imply, or be seen to imply, that anyone who criticizes you is a racist, closeted or otherwise. When you implied that Geraldine Ferraro was racist for saying that you are “lucky” to be where you are in this election, that you wouldn’t be where you were if you weren’t African-American, she was indignant. It is a good bet that many whites (and maybe some blacks) agreed with her. Whites resent being accused of racism for remarks they regard as innocent or innocuous. It’s hard to think of what would turn off whites quicker than playing the thin-skinned victim. One of the strengths of your campaign has been to get past the old-style politics practiced by the Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson and other “race men” who use skin color as a political tool.
-Evan Thomas, A Memo to Senator Obama
White people are way too sensitive to being called racists for you to even IMPLY that a racist statement is racist. So much bullshit about tippy-toeing around the word “racist” has come out through this campaign. The writer goes on to use the phrase “real racists” in the next paragraph. What the fuck is a “real racist”? Someone who says racist things? Oh right, there’s all that shit about what is in one’s heart. You know, those innocent remarks white people make when taking out their wallets, like “Oh, haha, hope there’s no black people around!” No, no, no. To quote my father: “You don’t say nigger, you don’t say spic, but it’s what you fucking do” that makes you a “real racist.”
But the mainstream media can’t have it be like that. To them, you are only a racist if you don a white robe and spout racial slurs. Putting the responsibility on Obama, his campaign, and his surrogates to not upset all the nice, polite, not-really-racist white people is JUST MORE RACISM.
alicia dk 