FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 14, 2010
Northern Virginia 912 condemns all forms of racism. Racism, and all forms of prejudice, violates our second value, "Reverence" (i.e., respect). The practice of any form of prejudice does not properly give reverence to others. Every person has a God given right to hold their own opinions and to express them, but when anyone fails to respect others based on factors unrelated to a given subject, the person fails to give proper respect and fails to live up to the high standards that we promote.
Luckily, racism is not nearly as prevalent in our society as it once was; however, there are still isolated examples as shown below, some rather extreme. While all incidents of racism are concerning, the most concerning incidents are when statements are made that appear to indicate actual positions (i.e., rather than in a moment of anger), when they directly advocate violence, and/or when they reflect racist attitudes by those in positions of power within the government. As such, the incidents are listed in what would appear to be the least concerning (i.e., reflecting one persons attitudes coming out in anger without any associated threat) to those that are most concerning (i.e., related to government actions that deny citizens their rights).
- Mel Gibson revealing racist opinions in multiple personal conversations when angry
- Candidate Barack Obama referring to his grandmother as "a typical white person" with her reactions "bred" into her
- Michael Richards using racist language in a public forum when angry
- President Barack Obama stating that the "police acted stupidly" in the Gates incident before he had the facts
- New Black Panther Party leaders intimidating voters at a polling booth
- New Black Panther Party leaders calling for the murder of whites
- Eric Holder dropping the case against the New Black Panther Party over the objections of legal experts
Clearly America has not always been innocent of racism. There has been a history of discrimination against, blacks, hispanics, women, Germans, Italians, Irish, Japanese, etc. We can rejoice that we have made so much progress, but we should always be on guard against its resurgence. It has resurged before (e.g., the Wilson administration re-introduced a segregated Army); and we need to accept that it can happen again, if we are not on guard. Unfortunately, it appears that there has been a recent resurgence in racism (or at least people becoming more vocal about their racism), but this time, the most dangerous examples of racism appear to be from a subset of very powerful blacks against whites. It is a sad commentary that the NAACP chose to focus its resolution on an unproven, alleged incident related to a political opponent rather than condemning the true danger to race relations in this country. In doing so, the NAACP has demonstrated that it is first and foremost a political tool for the President and as such, its role as a respected civil rights organization is once again greatly diminished.