Emailing While Racist

Racism is alive and well and brewing in the Republican party. Newscoma.com reported on its blog that Sherri Goforth, legislative aid to Tennessee State Senator Diane Black (R-Gallatin), emailed this photo - “Historical Keepsake Photo” - to “the wrong list of people.”

Every white president in the image is depicted with a portrait or photo of himself until you get to our 44th and first black president Barack Obama. His picture is a caricature of the grossest, most racist sort: a black background with white eyes piercing through. This image is reminiscent of a spook, a racist term used for blacks to suggest because of their dark skin they can blend into the night and look like a ghost. The image also looks like a coon, another abhorrent caricature portraying blacks as lazy, inarticulate buffoons.

Either image is offensive and racist and particularly repugnant when applied to the President of the United States. It reminds us this country and more importantly the Republican party has a long way to go on race relations and living in reality. When a reporter with NIT news in Nashville asked Goforth about the email, she said she “felt bad about sending it to the wrong list of people” but never apologized to the President.

“I went on the wrong email and I inadvertently hit the wrong button,” Goforth told NIT. “I’m very sick about it, and it’s one of those things I can’t change or take back.”

To email such a bigoted image of the president of the United States to the “wrong list of people” demonstrates how comfortable and emboldened she was sending it to the “right list of people.” The right list of people meaning other racists who reject the reality of our black president. Ms. Goforth should have been immediately fired and her hate mongering denounced by her boss Sen. Black. Instead she received a letter reprimanding her for her bad behavior. WHAT!?!

When I saw the photo and read where it came from, I wasn’t surprised but maybe a little dismayed. I was actually ashamed to call myself a Republican and support conservative ideas. Comments like these from Republicans over the years (remember "macaca") is when I struggle to reconcile my political beliefs with the party they belong to.

But Republicans must have quietly decided this would be the “summer of their discontent” and they would celebrate racism by smearing it in the face of the President of the United States and his family. Last week, good ole boy Rusty Depass, GOP activist, racist and former chair of the state elections commission posted a comment on his Facebook page saying a gorilla who escaped from Columbia's Riverbanks Zoo was "just one of Michelle's ancestors - probably harmless." He later told a local reporter: "The comment was clearly in jest." Oh, so it’s okay to make jokes comparing black people to gorillas? Must be just part of being a Republican. Disgusting!!!

Wait there’s more from the good ole boys down in South Carolina. Indigo Journal, a liberal South Carolina blog reported that Mike Green, a GOP consultant with Starboard Communications in Lexington, SC joked on his Twitter page: "Just heard Obama is going to impose a 40 percent tax on aspirin because it's white and it works."

Then Green offered the standard muted apology from a bigot: "I realize that my comments were hurtful, wrong and have no place in civil discourse." Liar! What you meant to say was the comments are clearly a part of your daily discourse but what, oops, I meant to say is that they have no place in “public discourse,” because then people will know I’m racist.

Where is the outrage from the Republican Party, its leaders and Michael Steele to this garbage hurled at the President and Mrs. Obama? By not speaking out loudly against this hate and denouncing this trash, Sen. Black (how ironic) and Republicans are condoning this racism and saying it’s okay.

Reading this hate fueled mess and some 30 pages of blog responses to the Newscoma posting, my anger rose up and I remembered why I voted for Barack Obama, even though I didn’t agree with most of his policies. I had a feeling of elation and utter satisfaction when I entered the voting booth and for the first time had a choice to vote for a more than qualified black candidate for president. Because to attain any recognition, power or stature in society, blacks are still expected to be ten times more qualified than their white counterparts. Yes, that was the deciding factor for me in choosing Obama over McCain. (This will invite many assaults from the pure conservative bloggers.)

My mother told me she wept election night as she watched Obama give his victory speech. She wasn’t crying because she thought his election would end racism but rather because it meant her struggles for equality mattered and had effect. Often she tells me her first encounter with racism at 12 years old living in Richmond, Virginia. In 1952, she was on her way to ballet class and she sat in the one empty seat in the back of the bus next to a white man. At the next stop, several people got off the bus and the white man said “you can get up and move now.” My mother simply replied “I’m already in the back of the bus, if you don’t want to sit next to me, you can move.” He asked her again. She again calmly responded with more resolve “you can move because I’m already in the back of the bus.” Irate, the white man yelled to the bus driver “make this woman get up.” The driver looked back at my mother in her pony tail and bangs and drove off.

Decades later in 1976, as a married woman and mother of three, she thought these battles were behind her. She and my father built their dream home in the suburbs of Richmond in a subdivision called Salisbury. It was understood any homeowner would get automatic membership to the neighborhood’s club. I was 10 at the time and remember my mother explaining to me that I couldn’t go swim with my friends at the club because I was black and they didn’t accept black members.

My parents applied for what they thought was an automatic membership they would pay for like all the other families. They along with another black couple were denied membership. The club had no black members and wanted things to stay that way. My parents were the only couple to sue. After losing in the lower court, they appealed to the Virginia Supreme Court and won. We never joined the club because that wasn’t what the fight was about. As my mother always says, “it was about standing up for what was right.” To this day she tells me that she urged my father to sue, knowing it could possibly affect his business because she didn’t want her children to have to fight the same racist battles she did.

Sadly, the battles remain. A few years ago, a client hired me over the phone because they were so impressed with my proposal, ideas, and experience. A few months later on a trip to D.C. I joined them, some of their colleagues and other consultants for dinner. I left dinner before the rest of the group. One of the other consultants told me our client, who was an older white man from the South, looked at everyone when I left and said astonished “I didn’t know Crystal was black.”

Why did it matter?

Ms. Goforth’s twisted, sick, hate filled email dredged up all my experiences with racism and reminded me what’s really wrong with the Republican party and made me question why I want to be a part of it. The perception is the Republican party is a haven for radicalism in all forms, racism included.

Republicans have an image problem as one blogger commented on Newscoma:

Wow, just what the GOP needed. They will be the minority party for a while if they keep this nonsense up. All the socialism and Marxist remarks, all the racism and just down right hatred of those who don’t fall rank and file with their belief system. It’s really taking a toll on their brand.

So, what should Republicans do to reverse this image of being a welcome mat for hypocrisy and hate mongering? Realize old white men aren’t winning elections lately. Evolve and recruit some dynamic, believable, intelligent candidates of the non-white complexion. As a conservative black woman, I’d like to see myself or my views reflected in someone else besides Michael Steele. This is how you actually become more diverse and WIN elections instead of just talking about it.

The Republican party could also heed Senator George Allen’s advice about his presidential campaign during his racist "macaca" rant. "We’re going to run this campaign on positive, constructive ideas. And it’s important we motivate and inspire people for something."

And you can start by standing up for what is really RIGHT!