Lott learned the hard way that trying to be earnest in ones praise of a colleague can have ramifications beyond the immediate comprehension of even the most skilled press spokesperson. But what he didn’t know is that many people in the land of the free are so comfortable in leaving the past behind and forgetting that even after MLK was dead blacks still weren’t free. A small few would still say they weren’t. They may be right.
So long as people like Lott can make such remarks and only be asked to step aside there will forever exist a void between those who feel – sometimes rightly, other times wrongly – that they are victims of discrimination either in the present or in the past. With every politically incorrect statement comes a wave of public outrage similar to that of a patriot at the beginning of a war; an initial furious outburst that weakens and fades away in time, giving way for a want of normalcy and a desire to be content. It appears there is a sad and incredibly unfortunate twist to public outrage; it is not the same authentic displeasure that the public have against someone who commits a ‘greater crime.’
I am Australian. I have no degree or official expertise in American politics or American society, but I have been baptized by a storm of American culture, in all its white glory. In the schools of my country the students are taught to be entrepreneurs, always told to create our own pile, never share it. We are never told the truth about the first peoples of our land. We are given a glossy, patriotic version of history barely including a certain gruesome hiccup in the middle of the 20th century. We are told that we live in a system undefeatable and ultimately righteous, but forever reminded that the system needs young people to defend it.
I do not pretend that Lott’s remarks affect me directly or even indirectly. With Lott’s replacement unpacking his briefcase in the Senate Majority Leader’s office as we speak, it will not be long till the wounds mend and the G.O.P gets on with the show. The politics is still the same, and foreign policy hasn’t changed. But what the ‘average American’ forgets is that the world is watching them more than anyone, albeit reluctantly and with a certain degree of repulsion. After all, when the world’s western countries breed their children on a certain sugar-coated reality what else do they expect other than us to be worried over whether or not people can live as equal.
Doing nothing more than asking for ones resignation does not send a message to American’s or the world that bigotry and – wait for it – racism is intolerable. The American people, however free and strong and right they may think they are should stand up as one and call for a very public lynching of Lott and all his sympathizers. The U.S cannot send the message that while Saddam can hate his people and consolidate his power through violence and oppression, the U.S can get away with just asking Lott to just shut-up and not say anything too controversial. There is no greater analogy than the one about ‘if the tree falls in the distant forest, did it make a sound?’ that symbolizes the existence of the bigots in American culture. After all if they say nothing, doesn’t that mean they don’t exist?
As a child of Californication I have chosen by the means of what freedom I have, to resist the idea of political correctness. There is no alternative to being correct, other than being wrong. You cannot divide correctness by varying levels of acceptance. When it comes to even suggesting that one particular ‘race’ of people – if there were ever such a thing – is of any less worth than another there is no room for a middle ground. There is no grey area that makes an old man like Lott right, even if he was saying it all ‘in the moment.’
Sadly, the lesson learned by the rest of the world as we were bombarded with political commentary by CNN on who would take Lott’s place and which NCAAP member was disgusted ‘but not surprised’ was one we’ve learned before. The lesson: Old men of the G.O.P make for bad international relations, and even worse PR.
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