Are we going to go through the entire list?
NEWSFLASH: This is the United States of America. EVERY SINGLE ONE of your presidents has done SOMETHING racist in their life. Period.
That is the nation your forefathers built. How do I know? MY FOREFATHERS did the labor!
But sure, let’s go through the list. We have a couple whose records might be mostly clean. If John Adams wasn’t an out and out abolitionist, he was at least kind of against slavery. But even our man, Jimmy Carter, has certianly used some off color adjectives out in those Georgia peanut fields.
It’s the nature of the land. Hitler and South Africa LEARNED FROM THE U.S.! They are very clear about this.
To paraphrase something my friend, Steve Heath, said on the Book of Face recently, we grow up in an atmosphere of prejudice, hatred and animosity. How could we not all have prejudices? We are all at least a little bit racist (we can squabble and split hairs over the definition later).
In fact, we should stop calling people racist. We should just call out racist actions. Everyone denies being racist, and if you point out their racism, they will call you a racist. The word is almost meaningless these days.
Here’s the deal. The best way to stop racism is for each of us to recognize the prejudices we have within ourselves, and stop doing racist things. Stop discriminating.
Yes, we should call out racism when we see it. Call out all those dead and living presidents. But let’s please not pretend that we are surprised.
MSNBC: Lyndon Johnson Was a Civil Rights Hero But He Was Also a Racist
