JUST WHO JUDGES PEOPLE BY THE COLOR OF THEIR SKIN?

In the 1960s, Dr. Martin Luther King had a dream that people would be judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin. As a result, the color of people’s skin has never really mattered to me. Growing up and going to high school in Cullman, Alabama where no blacks lived, I didn’t know any. However, when I started college at the University of Alabama, I made many black friends. A substantial portion of the football team was black and skin color just really didn’t matter to me anymore than eye color or hair color.

Fast-forward to today and I still don’t care about the color of your skin, I judge you by the content of your character. Now there are some cultural differences between blacks and whites, and that’s okay. There are also cultural differences between those of us who live in the southeast and those that live in the northeast and other parts of the country for that matter. There are also cultural differences between states in the United States. For instance, in the state of Alabama, college football is huge and a very big part of our culture. So when we cross paths with someone who appears to not give a rat’s you know what about the Alabama/Auburn rivalry, we purse our lips and shake our heads. Again that’s a cultural difference between the state of Alabama and let’s say, the state of Georgia. While Georgia certain has the Georgia/Georgia Tech rivalry, it’s not as intense as the Alabama/Auburn rivalry and there are professional sports in Georgia that we don’t have here. The point I’m trying the make is that cultural differences do exist, but do they really matter?

I was watching Geraldo at Large on the Fox News where Governor Mike Huckabee, Ann Coulter, and Dr. Lamont Hill were his guests. They were discussing the now infamous Cambridge incident. Geraldo asked Governor Huckabee how would he react if he were a policeman being asked to investigate a call that two black men were breaking into a house. When conservative Governor Huckabee indicated that the skin color of the alleged perpetrator’s didn’t matter, liberal Geraldo balked.

It seems to me that liberals are the ones that are hung up on skin color. When the industrial canal levy broke, flooding the ninth ward in New Orleans following hurricane Katrina in 2005, many people who lived in the ninth ward and in surrounding areas were in peril. These were human beings, these were our fellow Americans, and for me, these were people that lived only a half day’s drive away. Then some liberal just had to make the comment that majority of the folks in peril were black. Then all hell breaks loose. The perceived slowness of the actions of FEMA was then blamed on the racist Bush Administration/Federal government. Then we started hearing that white people somehow deliberately caused the breach of the levy because they wanted to harm the black folks that lived in the area. There was no proof of any of this, but the liberals got by with the accusations. Of course, they were helped along the way by a left leaning media.

With respect to the Cambridge incident, it does not appear that there is any proof of racism on the part of the white police officer that responded to the call of the alleged break-in at the Harvard professor’s house. However, because the black professor accused the white police officer of racism, the white police officer is automatically guilty of racism. In other words, if you’re white and especially if you’re conservative, and someone decides to accuse you of racism, you are guilty of the same.

A black man that was a good friend of mine and passed away last year at a much too early age was working at his office one Saturday. The work he was having to do involved packing boxes and other manual labor tasks. Other folks were working also. However, on Saturday night, Sam found himself the only one left at the office. The last person to leave had mistakenly set the burglar alarm to go off when the door opened. When Sam was ready to leave and opened the door, the alarm went off. Sam told me that he stood there thinking “oh great”. I’m the only one here, I’m a black man that’s dressed scruffy, I didn’t bother to shave this morning, I’ve been doing manual labor all day, I probably don’t smell good, and the police are on their way. Well, the police arrived, Sam told them what happened and that he worked there. The police made their report and left. Sam then went home. When Sam was telling me the story, I asked him, just out of curiosity, what color skin the officers had, and they were both white.

The current president in his press conference on July 22 indicated that far too many blacks and Hispanics are stopped by the police because of racial profiling. I want some proof of this. I want some blacks and Hispanics to come forward and say that they were stopped by white police officers when they weren’t breaking any laws. If this is happening, I want to know because police officers should not stop you unless there is probably cause. Now if a brunette with long curly hair and blue eyes has robbed a bank and escapes in a dark red SUV, and I’m pulled over because of that, I’m perfectly okay with it. I’ll do what it takes to prove I’m not that person and be happy that the policemen are doing their jobs. Okay, you liberals, should I be offended and cry sexism? Should I anguish mentally for months or even years? Why wasn’t the blonde driving in front of me in the silver Mercedes stopped also?

Before I started driving my SUV, I drove a fire engine red camaro. When I bought it, I was told by my mother and others that I had better behave or I would get stopped. A little red sports car is a police magnet. Well, shortly thereafter, I was headed to the beach and was stopped in the little south Alabama town of Brantley. Was I going over the speed limit? Yes! Would I have been stopped if I had been driving a forest green Ford LTD? I don’t know! The officer was very young and told me that he hoped that he could afford a car like mine one day and to please be careful. Could the officer have been jealous of my car? Maybe. Could he have been an Auburn fan that hated Alabama? Maybe. But bottom line, I was very anxious to get to the beach and was speeding in Brantley. I paid the ticket and for months after that I really watched my speed while driving. Was I profiled in any way? I don’t know and it really doesn’t matter because I was speeding.

I have a good friend, a black woman that’s very into race and being black. If she goes into a McDonald’s and a white teenager at the cash register acts like he or she is not really into waiting on her, she gets all in a thither that the white cashier is prejudice. She will let it bother at her for the rest of the week and will make a note to never go to that McDonald’s again. On the other hand, if I go to a McDonald’s and there is a black teenager at the cash register who acts like he/she doesn’t want to wait on me, I don’t care as long as I get my food in a reasonable period of time, get to eat it, and get out of there and on my way to wherever. Do I care about the little teenager at the register and whether or not he/she is racist? NO! I wasn’t there for a fine dining experience, I just needed something to eat and quick.

If you don’t like the current president’s policies, you are a racist. If you don’t like collard greens, you are a racist. If you think the people of New Orleans were stupid for re-electing Ray Nagin as their mayor, you are a racist. If you think Joselyn Elders was a big embarrassment, you are a racist. If you like county music, you are a racist. If you feel that the death of Michael Jackson didn’t deserve the attention that it got, you are a racist. If you felt that the all of the adulation/praise that Magic Johnson received after revealing that he was HIV positive was not a good thing, you are a racist. If you think O.J. Simpson killed his wife, you are a racist.

At this point I’m very fed up with the fact that if you are accused of racism, you are a racist. You are guilty and all it takes is one little accusation. Next time racism is alleged against me or anyone else, I’m going to ask for proof. It's liberals who are the real racists in this country. I don't care what color your skin is and the way I treat you is not because of your skin color and pretty much all conservatives feel the same way that I do. Liberals are another story. Would a white liberal who doesn’t like collard greens be called a racist?