"This is how we feed the animals". Wait... What?!
I am not sure what is more tumultuous for the state of Florida right now: the threat of Hurricane Isaac or hosting the Republican National Convention. But thanks to one man's heinous and nauseatingly blatant racist display of character, it will be a miracle if the GOP can weather this storm unharmed.
By some act of the universe, a vast majority of my course load this semester surrounds issues of racism, both past and present. I have the opportunity and pleasure to analyze mass mediated approaches on race and gender, race and gender in the world of advertising, the struggle of inequality during colonial and post-colonial eras in Great Britain through literature, and fascinatingly enough, race in the context of sex and discipline as it applies to women's studies. With that being said, I am on issue overload. I have confused Phyllis Wheatley, the black poet, with Phyllis Williams, the black Harvard Law professor so often this week that my Major British Writers professor just ignores my raised hand. I do, however, recognize my sheer luck of such exposure and constant discussion, thus heightened awareness of race issues in our world, but my heart hurts today to see the sanctity of the GOP convention, the progress for humanity, and the feelings of an innocent CNN camerawoman diminished by one man's dumb mouth. I am appalled as a Republican, as an advocate of democracy, as an American, and as a human, that there are people ignorant enough to be incapable of accepting and cherishing diversity.
I am sure that my grandmother, who attended the RNC in support of Ronald Reagan, is turning over in her grave. Get a grip, America. This is 2012, not 1961.
Read the full story here: Race Row Brews
