THE WEST VIRGINIA PRIMARY WAS THE FIRST OPENLY RACIST CONTEST OF THIS YEAR’S PRESIDENTIAL COMPETITION
JOSH FRY, A WEST VIRGINIA
24 YEAR OLD EXPLAINS HIS VOTE FOR JOHN MCCAIN IN NOVEMBER—HE WANTS TO VOTE FOR “A FULL BLOODED AMERICAN.” ACCORDING TO KATHLEEN PARKER’S COLUMN ON MAY 14, 2008
“HIS FEELINGS AREN’T RACIST, HE EXPLAINED, HE WOULD JUST BE MORE COMFORTABLE WITH ‘SOMEONE WHO IS A FULL-BLOODED AMERICAN AS PRESIDENT.’”
I am sorry Josh, but I do not believe you! Your words came directly out of a racist’s mouth and were born in a racist’s mind. In fact, your words gave expression to the racism that abounds in West Virginia and many Midwestern and Southern states.
Over 50% of those who voted in the May 13th Democratic primary in the Mountain State said they would vote McCain (a conservative Bush Republican) rather than vote for Obama, Racism was given as a major factor.
Anyone who chooses to vote in the primary of his political party of choice in May, but abandons it in the general election in November simply because his party has chosen a black candidate, resembles a racist if I ever saw one.
We have seen remnants of racism in earlier primaries. Central and Southern Ohio Democrats certainly voted for Clinton because of racism. Unfortunately, I met some of them this winter in Florida. I simply could not believe my ears. In the 21st century, there are old timers whose minds are so frozen in the past that they cannot overcome the sickness that racism represents.
The same holds true for Southern Indiana, Missouri, and much of the southern reaches of the American South.
However, yesterday, in the midst of the rush of the racists to the polls in West Virginia to vote for Hillary Clinton who is playing the race card in a subtle, but effective way, the people of Mississippi were electing a Democrat to the vacant seat left Roger Wicker who was appointed by the Governor to replace the resignation of a major racist, Trent Lott.
The Republican Party in Mississippi ran a picture of Barack Obama’s black face on the television screen in their ads against the Democratic candidate, Travis Childers. In spite of this racially motivated advertising, Travis Childers won the seat that has been held by Republicans forever. Good job Mississippians.
I was taught to judge a man by his character and his works and not the color of his skin. I have little or no respect for men and women of this generation who have not outgrown their “childish ways.”
Most of us are a mixture of races and breeds. There is no full- blooded American left in this country. The only full blooded-Americans who live in the 21st century are full-blooded American Indians.
Josh, if you insist that you will only vote for a full-blooded American, you better find a candidate off one of the Indian Reservations and check his blood-lines very closely because the probability is that somewhere in his heritage, one of his brothers had sex with a white (Caucasian) girl who produced a child of mixed blood.
A major part of the residual racism we confront in this nation emanates out of ignorance about our history, our biology and our denial of the truth.
I am familiar with a Southern family who were racist to the core. Than on day, when anthropologists were digging in their family’s property, they discovered both Indian and Negro off springs from members of their “formerly pure-blood white male relatives.”
My mother’s family is comprised of Shawnee Indian and German blood. My great grandmother was the exact image of an “Indian Squaw.”
Desmond Tutu, the South African Anglican Archbishop on May 13th, the same day that racism came out into the open in America for the first time in this year’s presidential race, said that America “was haunted by a racial divide that still offers blacks what he called only ‘the illusion of equality.
I have been so very proud of most of this nation’s voters who have so overwhelmingly shown a genuine colorblindness during this campaign. For the first time in our history, America can show the world that we are “a nation under the God of Love,” a truly democratic nation and a melting pot that allows men and women of various races to live and work side by side without the dark venom of racism to poison our relationships.
I believe that Barack Obama is the best candidate for public office since John F. Kennedy. I had the honor of spending several days with JFK when he was the Junior Senator from Massachusetts. When he was assassinated, my heart was deeply wounded and my faith in this country went into a downward spin from which it took years to recover.
While a supporter Hillary Clinton earlier in this election, her behavior in this campaign has so embittered me that it would make it very difficult for me to support her in the fall, although I will never vote for John McCain simply because I do not want another four years of George W. Bush.
Josh. I am sure at 24 years of age, you are only reflecting the attitude of the home and family in which you were reared. I urge you to get out from under the racial blanket that you were given as a child and now that you are a man put away childish prejudices.
I do not know if you remember the legend of the man who was walking through the woods and in the distance he spotted a creature that struck fear into his every fiber. As that creature drew closer, the man noticed that it was not a creature at all, but a man, a human being. And as that human being came even closer that man with great relief realized it was his brother.
The more exposure we have to other races, people from other nations and ethnic backgrounds, the closer we come to each other, the more we are able to understand that we are all alike. We are all human beings. We are all in this together.
You are not old enough to remember how fearful Americans were of the Soviet Union. We were convinced by the fear mongers of the time, Senator Joseph McCarthy, and others like him that they were going to wipe us off the face of the earth.
I happened to be among the first American citizens to visit the Soviet Union after travel between the two countries was approved. To my surprise what I realized shortly after arriving in Leningrad (St. Petersburg today) is that the Soviet people were just as frightened of us, as we were of them. But as we conducted cultural exchanges; as more and more Americans traveled to the Soviet Union and more and more Soviets were permitted to travel to the United States, we all began to realize that we were all in this together and that for either country to employ the atomic bomb to conquer the world as we believed at the time was their intent, the more absurd our fear appeared.
The same principle is true with racism. The more we get to know people of other races the less of a threat they pose to us, our country and the world.
Take a good look and listen to Barack Obama. If you are half as smart as I hope you are, you will see that the election of this man to the presidency will give the world a whole new understanding of the United States of America and place our nation on a new and more constructive path.
4:24:03 PM 
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