As everyone has heard countless times over the past two weeks, when Tony Dungy’s Indianapolis Colts meet Lovie Smith’s Chicago Bears in today’s Super Bowl, it will be the first one ever to feature a black head coach. It will also be the first Super Bowl featuring two black head coaches.

Lost in all that, is the fact that this will also be the first Super Bowl won by a black head coach and it will also be the first time a black head coach loses the Super Bowl.

Seriously, why does the NFL seem to try so hard to make it known that blacks are a minority and that they should be treated special? They are the only sports league (perhaps the only organization, period) that requires teams to interview at least one minority candidate before hiring a head coach. People are getting interviewed because of their skin color. How is that not as bad as not being interviewed because of your skin color?

Why make a big deal over the fact that black head coaches have led their teams to the Super Bowl for the first time ever? Why should it be special? Its not a handicap to be black, is it?

Why can’t we just celebrate the accomplishments of Dungy and Smith because they are honorable men, brilliant football architects and tremendous motivators? Isn’t that enough of a reason to be happy for these two men? Then why should we marvel that they’re mainstream African-Americans who are articulate and bright and clean and nice-looking guys?

Is it possible that minorities continue to struggle opportunistically and financially because we keep reminding them that they’re different? Are we teaching young black children that their color is an obstacle and that they should look up to men like Dungy and Smith because they persevered despite their skin tone?

Nobody looked at Winston Churchill and refered to him as a “great white man” so why look at Dungy and Smith and refer to them as “black coaches”?

February is Black History month. I think its time to make that distinction history. The more we differentiate, the longer we remain different. The goal was always to be equal but it seems that we’re clinging to ’separate but equal’.

By the way, take the Bears and the points. Final score will be Colts 27, Bears 23.

Who will be our first African-American President?

Someone currently unknown

1-2

Senator Barack Obama

8-1

Condoleezza Rice
20-1

Colin Powell*
30-1

 
Oprah Winfrey
30-1

Lt. Governor Michael S. Steele
 35-1

 Representative Charles Rangel
300-1

 Benson Dubois
350-1

Rev. Al Sharpton
 1000-1

*suggested by Matt

My previous post raised the debate of whether a certain political television advertisement is racist. I couldn’t, for the life of me, figure out how it could be racist. But then again, I had no idea the complete ignorance that still exists in the country.

“Slaghammer”, the brilliant mind behind alchemyanyone.blogspot.com/ , left the following in the comment section of Dr. Blogstein: If you think this ad is racist, you must be a racist but it is far too insightful to be hidden in there.

I hope he is okay with me bringing into the forefront. Read it now and then we’ll discuss:

Incidentally, its a landslide winner of

I think this issue needs some context.

I know people who only recently discovered that blood from black people can transfused into white people. They’ve lived their lives operating on the assumption that black people’s blood is black and is therefore poison to white people. Their opinion is primarily based on a knifing incident involving some family members where the blood of the victim appeared black. I think it was because the blood was all over a gas station floor stained black by grease. I’m pretty sure they saw what they wanted to see.

A couple of years ago, another person told me that God had called him to preach, this only moments before he told me that black people don’t have souls so it is ok to kill them. He believes that the concept of a white person being jailed for killing a black person is outrageous. I’ve heard endless diatribes regarding verses in the bible that support enslaving black people and decades of detailed stories about the evils of the that race.

Of course, not all racists are that outrageously ignorant of biology, but from where I stand, the more intellectual pro-racist arguments are just as laughable. I worked with skinheads in the north several years back. They were constantly rotating in and out of jail because they just couldn’t pass by a mixed race couple without “inviting them to a boot party.”

I mention all of that so I can say this, according to the racist mentality, of all the alleged sins perpetrated against the white race by the black race, by far the most serious and the one they just can’t stop talking about is the “pillaging of their women and the polluting of their gene pool.” Based on my experiences with racism in the south, it appears there have been more minorities beaten and killed for that perceived threat than all of the other reasons combined.

Bottom line, that commercial is not racist any more than a wrench or a hammer can be racist. However, if a person uses the tool and knowingly encourages detrimental racial stereotypes in the process, then that person is a racist. If you don’t agree, then your argument is with the dictionary people. There is nothing racist about a person’s ignorance of the subtext in the commercial, especially if they have not been exposed to the reality of racism.

Regarding the people who actually created the commercial, I guess it could be argued that they had no working knowledge of the history or current reality of racism in the south. Maybe they had no idea that portraying a white woman insinuating sex with a black man might incite racists to action. Maybe some kid in his parent’s basement in Connecticut made the commercial. How sheltered would a person have to be to believe that?

Of course, there is nothing racist about living a sheltered life. The argument about racist voters not voting for black people anyway is irrelevant. I can’t think of a more powerful tool with which to get racists off the couch and into the voting booth than to insinuate that a black candidate in their district has been having sex with white women, in a close election, that could easily be the issue that tips the result one way or another. I guess I can understand why some people have such a hard time understanding it. For those fortunate enough to have never witnessed a crowd of racists being whipped into a frenzy, they could be forgiven for not understanding why the issue of racism is being raised.

Am I the only one so naive to be surprised that the above still exists? Am I also the only one who kind of thinks those ignorant, racist bastards who excel in violence as described in Slaghammer’s comment are just as dangerous as Islamic terrorists who may be living in our country? Shouldn’t Skinheads, KKK and the like be considered terrorists and taken out as part of the War on Terror? Perhaps, while “we’re fighting them over there” we should also be fighting our own homegrown terrorists too!

I’m Dr. Blogstein and I approve this message.

For the past week or so its been debated that a certain political ad in Tennessee is racist. I just don’t see it. I’ll play you the ad, paid for by the Republican National Committee in support of Senatorial Candidate Bob Corker in his campaign against Harold Ford Jr., and then we’ll discuss.

Now, the part people are calling racist is–get this–the fact that the “Playboy bunny” is white and Ford is black. How is that racist?!? A black man shouldn’t have the same opportunity to bang a white bimbo as a white man? Outrageous! I think, taking the leap to call the ad racist shows a line of thinking only a racist would have.

People counter my argument by stating that the scenario of a white woman and a black male appeals to the racism that still exists in many Tennessee voters. But to me that’s ludicrous. A racist was never going to vote for a black candidate anyway, so what point would a racially charged ad be?!?

The ad is silly, dumb, reportedly factually inaccurate, but its far from racist. And anyway, is Harold Ford Jr. even 100% black? I don’t know the man’s personal history but by seeing him in interviews, I would not be shocked if one of his parents was white. But, again, that’s not the point.