I caught this paragraph at the bottom of a news article that is chiefly about racism in the news:
(Source) “I sincerely regret it and apologize to anybody I’ve offended,” she said. “It’s a very colorful political season and many of us are making mistakes and saying things that we wish we hadn’t said.”
The woman making this statement was fired from Fox News for making a statement in her news segment that some people found offensive and racist. It was likely not intended as a racial slur, but it was taken that way. Many black people feel that there is a covert type of racism that exists when white people are simply ignorant of black culture. Because of this ignorance, white people are prone to saying stupid things that sound racist even when unintended as racism simply because we are being ourselves. I have no doubt that it’s probably true. Intelligent people (and nice people too) say stupid things all the time.
Many of the things that are being called offensive and getting news personalities in trouble this year are not necessarily gaffes that reveal a prejudice. Some of it could just be confusion. For instance, the article quoted above discusses a moment when Chris Matthews of MSNBC was talking about Barack Obama and a picture of Osama bin Laden came up on the screen. Was that planned or simply an “honest mistake?”
I can’t imagine that anyone, even an overt racist, would be stupid enough to make that kind of mistake on purpose. It was obviously not Chris Matthews’ fault. He had no control over the image that appeared behind him. News technology being what it is today, a producer or someone else connected with Matthews’ program would be the one responsible for the photos that appear behind Matthews when he is speaking. Did that person have a script or storyboard of some sort? Did he (or she) have a bevy of political images and just chose the wrong one? Were they in alphabetical order? Did he accidentally click on the wrong image while moving his mouse over the Osama bin Laden photo?
Anything (almost anything, conceivably) could have happened. Is it racism no matter what?
Not to downplay racism at all, there is obviously a lot of it floating around. Sometimes it floats in the opposite direction. But do we have to hear the choir sing every time something happens that appears to have a racial tinge to it? Certain things, like the “terrorist fist jab” comment and the “Obama’s baby mama” reference, are just tasteless. They aren’t necessarily racist (terrorists aren’t all black; in fact, most of them aren’t). So what is it?
Liz Trotta’s observation that this is a political season makes news commentators say things that they regret saying isn’t exactly a clarifying comment for me. People don’t need to be neck deep in presidential election year to come up with stupid stuff to say. Some news commentators have made a career of it. But I can’t help but noticing that this particular presidential election has the first black man to have secured a major political party nomination in U.S. history in the running. That fact alone makes us sensitive to the race issue and actually makes race an issue even if Obama is adamant and sincere about his desire to get past those things. He may want to, but the rest of us can’t.
Race matters. It’s important for a number of reasons, not the least of which because everyone of us is a byproduct of it in some way and the differences between the races are sometimes so striking that there is a natural conflict to the order of things. Political season or not. So why is Trotta’s statement so funny? It was her choice of words. It may be a “colorful” political season, but do we really have to spell it out?
