Imagine this. <\/p>\n
An elected politician saunters slowly up to the microphone. He squints as light bulbs flash in the background. The room is abuzz with idle chatter, which tapers off as he takes a swig of water and clears his sizable throat. <\/p>\n
\u201cLadies and gentlemen\u201d he begins, \u201cEntrepreneurs, civic leaders, members of the press; I\u2019m glad you could all make it today.\u201d He pauses to survey the crowd and, satisfied that they\u2019re drinking this all up, he clears his throat again and continues: <\/p>\n
\u201cDemocracy, George Bernard Shaw once observed, is based upon the belief that voters know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard\u2026. <\/p>\n
\u201cI certainly hope he was right because, after much cajoling by supporters, I have decided to run for the Presidency of the United States of America.\u201d <\/p>\n
The audience erupts in cheer. One hundred people get on their cellular phones at the same time. The bulbs flash at an even more furious pace than before. For one whole minute, the place is a genuine zoo. It calms down and he continues his speech. <\/p>\n
When it\u2019s over, he opens himself up for questions from the audience. A reporter in the front row asks what his position is on race. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t go to the racetrack\u201d he replies. <\/p>\n
Everybody laughs and he points at a lady at a nearby table. \u201cWhat is your position on affirmative action?\u201d she asks. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s very affirmative,\u201d he replies. <\/p>\n
Cheers and hoots go through the crowd. He pointedly picks non-reporters for the next three questions, but on man number four, he misses the notebook concealed under her plate. <\/p>\n
Says a twentysomething blonde, \u201cWith all due respect, Governor, I think you\u2019re dodging the tough questions. What is your position on race issues?\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cOh, you mean the human race,\u201d he replies, \u201cI\u2019m all for it. Next question!\u201d <\/p>\n
She shouts back, undeterred, \u201cHow would your policies benefit African Americans!?\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cHow would my policies benefit black Americans, Miss Myers? I\u2019m not sure I like the blatantly racist assumptions behind that question. I don\u2019t like this trend which treats our differences as the only things that matter. My policies would affect black Americans the same way they would affect white Americans or brown Americans or red Americans or yellow Americans or, for that matter, blue Americans.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cBut what about racism and discrimination?\u201d she shoots back, \u201cwhat would your policies do to insure that African-Americans aren\u2019t discriminated against.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cWell, first, I would treat everybody as human beings, which is more than you are willing to concede to me at this moment. Second, I would never — NEVER — use the term African American. It\u2019s degrading. My Irish ancestors came here and were given the title Irish American as a way of mocking them and watering down their citizenship. Third, I would cease to use the term race. PERIOD. If I had to use a substitute for race it would be the lumbering \u201cpigmentation of skin\u201d, the difficulty of pronouncing which would go a long way toward obliterating the concept of race. Fourth, I wouldn\u2019t kid people. Life is unfair sometimes and government usually only makes it worse. Fifth, and last, I would tell all Americans that here you are free. To toil and sweat and, sometimes, to fail. But, here, you can truly succeed. It\u2019s all up to you. Make the most of it.\u201d <\/p>\n
He would then refuse to ever address the issue of race again. <\/p>\n
This is a candidate I could vote for. <\/p>\n
<\/font> Jeremy Lott<\/a> is Senior Editor of SpinTech Magazine<\/a><\/i>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Copyright \u00a9 1999 Jeremy Lott. All rights reserved.<\/font><\/small><\/small> <\/small> <\/font><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “I’m all for the human race” by Jeremy Lott August\/September 2000<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5816,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[109],"class_list":["post-164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tae-articles-and-commentary","tag-the-abolitionist-examiner"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p89tuq-2E","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2001\/08\/Articles-and-Commentary.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4106,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164\/revisions\/4106"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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