RACE: A POLITICAL HOT BOX

This is the latest cover of Golf week, a golfing magazine picturing a noose on its cover in response to a conversation overheard on the Golf Channel recently. Apparently, the two commentators were talking about the odds of anyone beating Tiger Woods, and offering some tips to the PGA competitors on what they could do to beat him, including "lynch him in an alley." Of course this was an off the cuff attempt at humor, and the commentator, Kelly Tilghman mean no harm. She kept her job, Tiger said it was a "non-issue", but when the editor of Golf week approved this cover, he got fired. The driving factor in his termination....Tiger is part African American.

Hillary Clinton got caught up in the race card wars when she had the audacity to mention the difference between Martin Luther King's rhetoric, historic as it was, actually took a politician to put it in action. That is why MLK fought so hard for LBJ's election. He obviously knew it would take someone in the political world to take his hopes and dreams and put them into action. LBJ got elected (with the massive help of MLK), and the Civil Rights act of 1968 was born. A perfect example of how Obama's dreams and talk of hope were not enough without someone who actually knew how to implement them into action. No harm, no foul, right? Wrong. She was being accused of bigotry, and is now trying to fix the damage caused by her even going near the political "hot box" that is race. Not that she talked about race. She talked about someone from a race other than her own, and a national hero, no less. Obviously, she meant no harm. Why would she possibly want to slam the number one all time leader of the African American, and American civil rights movement. Makes no sense, especially from a member of a family that has distinguished themselves for their work in civil rights and equality since they were teenagers.

Recently Chris Matthews, accessing the success from Hillary in the primaries so far, made the comment "She is probably doing well because of the empathy we feel because Bill cheated on her so many times." But he wasn't fired. Just gave an apology, and that was that. Because gender discrimination is tolerated, but, even to this day, anything racial, or anything regarding a person of color, good intentioned or not, is the third rail of politics. If you go there, you will get burnt.

I just wish we could get past it, once and for all, as easy as that is for me to say. Obama won't be the first black President. He will be the next friggin' President. One of the most powerful and influential people on earth. And all we can talk about is his skin? How about his heart, or his brain? We are absolutely stuck in the mud, folks. Stuck debating, and discussing the same old crap every year. The primary goes to South Carolina, and we have to waste time again (and again) talking about the Confederate flag? The economy is turning to hell, we are in a war, there have been some disturbing scientific studies on the condition of the friggin' planet....and we are going to talk about a 3' by 5' piece of cloth. Take it down, leave it up...your choice. But can't we go onto more important things? We are hypersensitive about race. Too quick to judge, and too slow to move on.

And that is the challenge for Hillary and the other candidates. Finding a palatable way to criticize a man of color in an intellectual way, without suffering the loss of the black vote, she is relying so heavily on to get elected. A vote she knows full well put her husband into the White House.

And that is "The World According to Kimba" Thanks for reading