It’s Ignorance and Economics NOT Racism, Stupid!

There’s now more evidence that racism may not be what it actually purports to be. Instead, there’s an even more viscous collaboration between sheer, bloody, utter ignorance and, unfortunately, economics. These two aspects have been on full display for a while now on both America’s political stage and in American culture. For starters, the Republican debates for POTUS [President of the United States] these past few months have been lessons in futility, frustration and even disbelief for many as the men [and until recently, a woman] attempted their hand at challenging Barack Obama. At the other end of the spectrum, supply and demand conspired against Red Tails; a potentially high grossing movie. But we shall discuss this latter facet after we explore the ramifications of ignorance.

While ignorance is no excuse, what is even worse is irresponsible obliviousness. This is probably the best way to describe the venue audience in the televised debates in the more than 15 Republican Primary Debates. This audience egged, cheered and gave politicians like Newt Gingrich standing ovations when they made blatantly racist statements in response to questions or in stating their positions. Asked why he accused President Obama of being a ‘food stamp’ president, Gingrich said more people had gotten onto food stamps under Obama. This former speaker of the House of Representatives impugned that black people were keener to take food stamps [free groceries] from the American government instead of looking for a job. To those who could read the subtext, Gingrich was basically saying that ever since the first black president got into office, more black people had stopped working and sought to get food stamps instead.

Newt Gingrich: Take Them Off Food Stamps and Give Them Cake!

Not only was this entire subtext or context callous, but also pure political pandering. Mr. Gingrich, like all his fellow contenders, knows for a fact that most of those who collect food stamps are regular white folks who have jobs, but just need extra support from the government to make ends meet. Secondly, in impugning that Blacks were lazy, the presidential primary contestant fed his base of fellow white people the meme that the high black unemployment was a result of no work ethic – completely ignoring the institutional impediments to blacks in juxtaposition with white in a recession like the one America is going through. Of course, being a professor of history, Gingrich knows – only too well – that his statements are, at best, equivocation. What makes these apparent ‘truisms’ more portentous is the fact that many in his intended audience do not know much about blacks and other minorities and may be biased as a result of history’s lessons. In simple terms, Obama has his work cut out for him when it comes to dispelling these untruths since they, ostensibly, ring true to many white people.

In close association to this, because there are only a handful of African Americans – about only 39 million of them in a country of over 300 million – the demand for all things African American vis-à-vis white is just not effective. George Lucas of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises tried, for a long time, to promote Red Tails to Hollywood – but none of the major studios came up to finance this all-black-cast movie. Oscar winner Cuba Gooding Jr was just not a draw enough for them. What they required was a major white person to lead the cast of historically black World War II pilots – a person who’d render the movie more marketable but also take away the essence of the story and its significance. Mr. Lucas ended up paying over US$ 100 million to get this picture made.

But in Lucas’ estimation, there was no racism involved. Just like American Idol is more likely to produce a white winner, it seems as though the majority whites in the U.S. will mostly vote for another white person. Who can blame them for not knowing what to do with talented minorities? They have been, for a long time, inundated with white heroes that their actions could easily be cleared of racism in a more accepting court of public opinion.

The Original Red Tails – Tuskegee Airmen

On the political scene, 2012 might be an even much more electrifying general election season than the historical 2008. Obama will probably contest against either Newt Gingrich or presumptive nominee Mitt Romney in the general election after this primary season ends sometime soon. Both these Republican gentlemen have laid out some dearth accusations against the Democratic President in a bid to make him another Jimmy Carter. If Obama does what many expect him to do, the public will be educated on what the African American work ethic is; why one ought to look beyond labels like ‘food stamp president’ and ‘welfare queen;’ and especially why there is no difference between a white or black president. Of course, this might be another lesson in futility considering that the majority whites could, given their ‘failed experiment’ with a black guy, may vote another white man into power. Contrariwise, movies like Lucas’ Red Tails might actually start a whole new trend. While Tuskegee Airmen was a work of art, it was not as Afrocentric as its successor and with a whole market for African Americans rests in Africa. If Africans can appreciate The Lion King, Jerry Maguire and give Nollywood, Ghallywood, Bollywood and Lolliwood the millions of dollars for their feature films, surely a movie with cool black stars and superheroes might work on the dark continent.

Dennis Matanda
Editor – [email protected]

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