I just read the article on Philly.com by Frank Fitzpatrick titled: “Same Attacks On McNabb”. In the article Fitzpatrick argues that both President Barack Obama and Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb are both victims of racism.
I have major probrems with people making this charge. First of all, it’s a charge which most of the time can’t be proven and secondly it immediately creates a toxic atmosphere.
There’s no way in the world that Mr. Fitzpatrick can listen to somebody on the radio and judge what is in the hearts of the callers.
Is there some truth to the statement that somebody people are against McNabb and President Obama because of their race? Yes, there’s some truth to it, because we all know that there are still people who judge people simply by their race and their race alone, but how do you identify those people.
Former President Jimmy Carter didn’t do President Barack Obama any favors by throwing the charge of racism on the national healthcare debate. It’s a charge that winds up tarring too many innocent people.
Again how does President Carter look into the hearts of all those people and seperate the racists from fair-minded people.
You wind up alienating the fair-minded people.
Not only does it tar innocent people, it creates an atmosphere where people aren’t listening when a legitimate and provable racism charge is made.
I also think it’s damaging when the charge is just thrown out there because I’ve talked to thousands of minority youngsters who did something wrong and put themselves in bad educational or criminal circumstances, yet believe that their main problem is racism and racism alone.
Some of these youngsters will never deal with the issue that’s really damaging their chances to succeed because they’ve been in an environment where the racism charge was used to much.
