Anonymous said...
I think it was Romney, probably thinking: " I am the white master; who is this n______ not listening to what I said and do [sic] what I told him! Where is the whip?"
February 21, 2010 3:35 AM
My first thought was to expunge this hateful comment from my blog; this is my sovereign space, and I don't want the "N" word being used here by anyone in any context. However, I then gave the matter further thought: The Gail Collins op-ed, entitled "The Wages of Rages", was intended to illustrate the "rage" of the Right, and isn't this a perfect example of "rage" from the Left?
Mitt Romney's father, George, was known for his strong stand on civil rights. Mitt Romney states that Martin Luther King and his father have served as his role models. Perhaps there are many reasons to criticize Mitt Romney - I don't agree with many of his positions and am appalled by his flip-flops - but why make him out to be a racist?
Gail Collins would have us believe that "rage" is characteristic of Republicans. Collins is wrong. There are also Democrats consumed with rage. Rage today is found almost everywhere. Notwithstanding the picture of a smiling Collins presented to us by The Times accompanying her op-eds, would Collins claim that she is free of rage?
Myself? I am no different from anyone else, and given my past, rage burns inside me. The questions then arise, how do we control it, how do we mend it, and how do we channel it in positive directions?
The N word is used to illustrate the rage found inside Romney at the time when an African American had the guts to stand up to him (his or his father's "records" notwithstanding). Otherwise how do you explain the fact he put his hands on the man. Had the passenger been a middle aged white male, the outcome of this little incidence would have been completely different.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I do agree with you that under no circumstance and in any context should the N word be used.
My apology!
Anonymous, thanks for your comment.
ReplyDeleteWhen I read the Collin's op-ed, I was entirely unaware that the musician was African American - such is my ignorance of modern music.
But let's just suppose a young white rock star boarded an airplane and lit a cigarette in the aisle in front of me. Would I wait for the stewardess to intervene, or, might I tap him on the shoulder and demand that he immediately extinguish the cigarette, given my sensitivity to cigarette smoke? An unlikely set of circumstances? No. This happened to a friend of mine, and regrettably, after the smoker refused to extinguish the cigarette, my friend broke his nose. Was my friend out of line? Absolutely. But this involved "rage", not racism.
Road rage? How often does the angry driver consider the skin color of the other driver who purportedly annoyed him/her?
Have you never seen two people inexplicably get into a brawl after some inconsequential slight? Does race always enter into the equation?
Re Mitt Romney, I wasn't there as a witness, and I presume you also were not there. Was Romney seated directly behind the musician, and given that Romney's seat was upright, did this cause him discomfort? Or did Romney just have an argument with an associate or family member and was irritable at that precise moment? Did Romney first request that the musician raise his seat, and was the request met with a rude refusal?
Perhaps Romney overreacted to the refusal of the musician to raise his seat, and probably -as was observed by another person who responded to my blog entry - he should have left the matter to the stewardess, but why presume racism?
My point again: "rage" is common to many and is not confined to a particular political party, as Collins would have us believe.