Sanctum Santorum
January 4, 2012
Today marks what should be an ignominious event in our nation’s history, but sadly remains one which instead is willfully ignored. The Rosewood Massacre, the result of an unproven and quite likely unfounded rape accusation made by a white woman against a black man began 89 years ago on this date.
You will most likely not hear any mention of this sad event. Most of what you will hear today will concern the results of the Iowa Caucuses, particularly what many feel is a surprising surge by Rick Santorum to narrowly finish second to Mitt Romney. It is an odd comparison that the willful ignorance of the historical murders of innocent African-Americans is edged out of any coverage while the willful ignorance of a politician who assassinates the character of a group of people using the same flawed perspective employed by bigoted and racist mobs nearly 9 decades ago is widely displayed. Muhammad Ali once said “The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.” What an incredible waste we’ve had to endure if a perspective embedded in bigotry persists for hundreds of years.
Continuing to reveal the iniquity of his innermost feelings, Rick Santorum waded in deep with his proposal on improving the lives of “black people”. Santorum continues to perpetuate the increasingly popular and long-held stereotype that the majority of welfare recipients are black, lazy, and undeserving of any type of empathy, much less assistance.
If one wants to believe the stereotype is not widely held within the ranks of the GOP, one only has to recall the recent statements made by media whores Newt Gingrich and Donald Trump, who would justify the abrogation of child labor laws so that indigent, indolent black children (their presumption) could learn the value of an honest day’s work. I watched the crowd around Santorum break into applause, a tacit agreement to his bigoted assertion, knowing full well that there was an extremely high likelihood that a number of them were recipients of some form of the “welfare” Santorum was denigrating. The fact of the matter is that white Americans account for the largest percentage of welfare payments each month because they make up the largest sector of the population. Using the conservative notion that any form of monetary disbursement by the government should be considered taboo, programs like Social Security, food stamps, veterans benefits, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment benefits and corporate bailouts would be considered “welfare”. Sadly, Santorum and those of his ilk only focus on welfare statistics that show people of color are disproportionately represented without acknowledging such representation is due to higher poverty rates among that segment of the populace.
I understand Santorum’s pandering to the racial hostility of the electorate, however. Iowa is a state which has a 91% white population. The GOP has been playing to the prejudices of its membership (rather than trying to address and alleviate them) ever since Southern white voters defected from the Democratic party en masse pursuant to the signing of the Voting Rights Act by Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965. Aghast in the face of nationwide rioting following the murder of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Richard Nixon rode the “law and order” mantra into the White House because the voters who supported him understood the code meant he would “put the coloreds back in check”. George Bush the elder used a similar stratifying scare tactic with the now infamous Willie Horton ads in 1988.
Today, Santorum, Gingrich, Trump, et al. are losing the desire to conceal their hatred. The presence of a black man in the highest office of the land has made them feel that unleashing the full measure of their vitriol is perfectly warranted. It is sad to witness that the mindset of the candidates and the voters have utterly failed to progress in all these years, that racial politics is the course de rigueur. It is despairing to know that socially and politically, this segment of the American population wants to revisit Rosewood, FL once more. Sad, but completely expected by those of us who continue to endure this ignorance.
You will most likely not hear any mention of this sad event. Most of what you will hear today will concern the results of the Iowa Caucuses, particularly what many feel is a surprising surge by Rick Santorum to narrowly finish second to Mitt Romney. It is an odd comparison that the willful ignorance of the historical murders of innocent African-Americans is edged out of any coverage while the willful ignorance of a politician who assassinates the character of a group of people using the same flawed perspective employed by bigoted and racist mobs nearly 9 decades ago is widely displayed. Muhammad Ali once said “The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.” What an incredible waste we’ve had to endure if a perspective embedded in bigotry persists for hundreds of years.
Continuing to reveal the iniquity of his innermost feelings, Rick Santorum waded in deep with his proposal on improving the lives of “black people”. Santorum continues to perpetuate the increasingly popular and long-held stereotype that the majority of welfare recipients are black, lazy, and undeserving of any type of empathy, much less assistance.
If one wants to believe the stereotype is not widely held within the ranks of the GOP, one only has to recall the recent statements made by media whores Newt Gingrich and Donald Trump, who would justify the abrogation of child labor laws so that indigent, indolent black children (their presumption) could learn the value of an honest day’s work. I watched the crowd around Santorum break into applause, a tacit agreement to his bigoted assertion, knowing full well that there was an extremely high likelihood that a number of them were recipients of some form of the “welfare” Santorum was denigrating. The fact of the matter is that white Americans account for the largest percentage of welfare payments each month because they make up the largest sector of the population. Using the conservative notion that any form of monetary disbursement by the government should be considered taboo, programs like Social Security, food stamps, veterans benefits, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment benefits and corporate bailouts would be considered “welfare”. Sadly, Santorum and those of his ilk only focus on welfare statistics that show people of color are disproportionately represented without acknowledging such representation is due to higher poverty rates among that segment of the populace.
I understand Santorum’s pandering to the racial hostility of the electorate, however. Iowa is a state which has a 91% white population. The GOP has been playing to the prejudices of its membership (rather than trying to address and alleviate them) ever since Southern white voters defected from the Democratic party en masse pursuant to the signing of the Voting Rights Act by Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965. Aghast in the face of nationwide rioting following the murder of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Richard Nixon rode the “law and order” mantra into the White House because the voters who supported him understood the code meant he would “put the coloreds back in check”. George Bush the elder used a similar stratifying scare tactic with the now infamous Willie Horton ads in 1988.
Today, Santorum, Gingrich, Trump, et al. are losing the desire to conceal their hatred. The presence of a black man in the highest office of the land has made them feel that unleashing the full measure of their vitriol is perfectly warranted. It is sad to witness that the mindset of the candidates and the voters have utterly failed to progress in all these years, that racial politics is the course de rigueur. It is despairing to know that socially and politically, this segment of the American population wants to revisit Rosewood, FL once more. Sad, but completely expected by those of us who continue to endure this ignorance.
©2011 Ronald B. Cason, all rights reserved
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