Lisa Fabrizio
Created equal
By Lisa Fabrizio
As the winds of prevailing opinion blow, I would seem to be a pretty vile individual. I am a faithful Catholic which, in the eyes of most liberals, makes me a bitter homophobe. I am a woman who celebrates the differences and roles of men and women which, in the feminist playbook, makes me a traitorous misogynist. And worst of all, I have the audacity to be a white conservative and therefore, according to the powers that be, I am a racist.
Now, in the real world where folks actually pay attention to the meaning of the words they use and not to the baggage attached to them by passing whims, I am none of the above. How do I know this? Because the simple application of labels in of themselves, cannot dictate thought or behavior. Just as you can judge a true Christian, not by any jewelry they might wear or books they're seen carrying, but by the way they carry themselves, so too a real racist gives himself away by his actions and words. True racism infects hearts and consumes them with a hatred that cannot be hidden. And that is why we can say that racism — at least the grand-scale type said to have hindered minority access to the American dream — is dead in this country; just take a look around.
Now, this hasn't much to do with the election of our first black president; he is but a beneficiary of a trend that might have happened sooner had it not been for the mischief that has been perpetrated on our nation for years by an odd alliance between the Democratic Party and those who profit from racial discord. They use the regrettable history of slavery in this country as a way to foment the resentment they need to keep the flames of hatred alive.
For years, many of us — including black conservatives who of course have been branded as 'Uncle Toms' — have been pointing out that purveyors of class warfare use phrases like "black robes, white justice" and "speaking truth to power," which have served them well, as they point out that all of their miseries are the result of power in the hands of evil white (Republican) men whose sole desire is to keep them in 'their place.' But those days are over. Again, take a look around.
A recent spate of political scandals involving black politicos has engulfed the pages of some newspapers. I say 'some,' because due to the party affiliation of most of the no-goodniks, their hijinks have, shall we say, flown under the radar. In New York alone, a raft of minority legislators, led by Governor David Paterson, are in the political soup. And the plights of black U.S. congressmen have dominated the news lately.
Rep. William Jefferson, former congressman from Virginia, was convicted in November on four bribery counts, three counts of money laundering, three counts of wire fraud and one count of racketeering, after investigators found $90,000 stashed away in his freezer. Then there is New York's own Charlie Rangel, whose official charges include the non-reportage of over a million dollars of income but whose general malfeasance was wonderfully and graphically captured for posterity in a photo that ran on the cover of the New York Post, where he snoozes in the lap of luxury on the beach of his Punta Cana Yacht Club complex in the Dominican Republic. And now, to complete the coast-to-coast picture, it is reported that Maxine Waters, (D-CA) will also face three charges of House ethics violations later this year.
The key point in all this is that Rangel, Waters and friends — Democrats accused by a Democratic Congress — won't have their old friend the race card to bail them out this time. Proof of this is the advice to Rangel from President Obama who, rather than fight for him along party and racial lines, recommended a sort of political euthanasia, telling an interviewer that the liberal warhorse should end his career "with dignity."
Am I celebrating the fact that these folks may be crooks, liars and thieves? In a way, yes. It fulfills the dream of Martin Luther King; that men should be judged, not by the color of their skin, but on the content of their character. It proves what our Founding Fathers stated in the Declaration of Independence: that all men are created equal. There is no difference between the races when each is given the same chance to grasp the reins of power; a power that can easily corrupt the best of us. What a wonderful place is America; where this is no longer true only of evil white men.
© Lisa Fabrizio
August 5, 2010
As the winds of prevailing opinion blow, I would seem to be a pretty vile individual. I am a faithful Catholic which, in the eyes of most liberals, makes me a bitter homophobe. I am a woman who celebrates the differences and roles of men and women which, in the feminist playbook, makes me a traitorous misogynist. And worst of all, I have the audacity to be a white conservative and therefore, according to the powers that be, I am a racist.
Now, in the real world where folks actually pay attention to the meaning of the words they use and not to the baggage attached to them by passing whims, I am none of the above. How do I know this? Because the simple application of labels in of themselves, cannot dictate thought or behavior. Just as you can judge a true Christian, not by any jewelry they might wear or books they're seen carrying, but by the way they carry themselves, so too a real racist gives himself away by his actions and words. True racism infects hearts and consumes them with a hatred that cannot be hidden. And that is why we can say that racism — at least the grand-scale type said to have hindered minority access to the American dream — is dead in this country; just take a look around.
Now, this hasn't much to do with the election of our first black president; he is but a beneficiary of a trend that might have happened sooner had it not been for the mischief that has been perpetrated on our nation for years by an odd alliance between the Democratic Party and those who profit from racial discord. They use the regrettable history of slavery in this country as a way to foment the resentment they need to keep the flames of hatred alive.
For years, many of us — including black conservatives who of course have been branded as 'Uncle Toms' — have been pointing out that purveyors of class warfare use phrases like "black robes, white justice" and "speaking truth to power," which have served them well, as they point out that all of their miseries are the result of power in the hands of evil white (Republican) men whose sole desire is to keep them in 'their place.' But those days are over. Again, take a look around.
A recent spate of political scandals involving black politicos has engulfed the pages of some newspapers. I say 'some,' because due to the party affiliation of most of the no-goodniks, their hijinks have, shall we say, flown under the radar. In New York alone, a raft of minority legislators, led by Governor David Paterson, are in the political soup. And the plights of black U.S. congressmen have dominated the news lately.
Rep. William Jefferson, former congressman from Virginia, was convicted in November on four bribery counts, three counts of money laundering, three counts of wire fraud and one count of racketeering, after investigators found $90,000 stashed away in his freezer. Then there is New York's own Charlie Rangel, whose official charges include the non-reportage of over a million dollars of income but whose general malfeasance was wonderfully and graphically captured for posterity in a photo that ran on the cover of the New York Post, where he snoozes in the lap of luxury on the beach of his Punta Cana Yacht Club complex in the Dominican Republic. And now, to complete the coast-to-coast picture, it is reported that Maxine Waters, (D-CA) will also face three charges of House ethics violations later this year.
The key point in all this is that Rangel, Waters and friends — Democrats accused by a Democratic Congress — won't have their old friend the race card to bail them out this time. Proof of this is the advice to Rangel from President Obama who, rather than fight for him along party and racial lines, recommended a sort of political euthanasia, telling an interviewer that the liberal warhorse should end his career "with dignity."
Am I celebrating the fact that these folks may be crooks, liars and thieves? In a way, yes. It fulfills the dream of Martin Luther King; that men should be judged, not by the color of their skin, but on the content of their character. It proves what our Founding Fathers stated in the Declaration of Independence: that all men are created equal. There is no difference between the races when each is given the same chance to grasp the reins of power; a power that can easily corrupt the best of us. What a wonderful place is America; where this is no longer true only of evil white men.
© Lisa Fabrizio
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