Looking for Racism (in All the Wrong Places)
By Robin of Berkeley
American Thinker
Rich Benjamin embarked on a treacherous journey into the heart of enemy territory. No, he wasn't a soldier stationed in Afghanistan. And, no, he didn't masquerade as a veiled woman in Saudi Arabia.
A black man, Benjamin lived for three months at a time in these lily-white communities: St. George, Utah; Coeur d'Alene, Idaho; and Forsyth County, Georgia. He anticipated a gauntlet of racial hate. And yet he describes his journey this way, in his book, Searching for Whitopia.
In St. George, I fell in with a hospitable, if rowdy, poker crew, gathering for Texas hold 'em at least twice a week. Being a proud Episcopal, I regularly attended the Sunday services at Grace Church. ... I hiked up Taylor Creek in Zion National Park with the Episcopalian Seniors social group ... In Coeur d'Alene, I fraternized with retired LAP cops, attending their annual charity gold tournament to support wounded brethren. ... Finally, in Forsyth County, I got to know IgNite, the youth ministry of First Redeemer, and attended the Baptist mega-church's main service every Sunday morning. This drew me into a whirlwind: lunch with the youth after service, Friday night socials, volleyball and pickup basketball in the church's gleaming indoor gym ...
I hosted about ten dinner parties and luncheons, some spontaneous, some formal ... Ben, a twenty-six-year-old cobbler who arrived with Kina, his longtime girlfriend, teased me because they felt the meal was "fancy." To this day, I wear a handsome pair of sandals that Ben cobbled for me ...
Not only did I entertain, I received a flurry of invitations: to a Memorial Day pool party, to BBQs, to birthday parties, to family suppers, to demolition derbies to ... county fairs, to "bowling nights," to multiple hikes, to volunteer benefits ... to horseback riding and cattle roping."
Benjamin's sojourn was, according to him, a whirlwind of "fun" and a "gabfest." Looking beyond race, his new neighbors welcomed him with open arms. It appears that the only risk the newcomer faced was exhaustion from so much merrymaking.
Benjamin's travels should prove once and for all that red states are not a hornet's nest of racism. And yet the word on the liberal streets is that conservatives, particularly the Tea Partiers, are white supremacists.
The race-baiters, such as Al Sharpton, Obama, and Eric Holder, manipulate the public's fears by resuscitating that tired old bogeyman of racism. Not surprisingly, the NAACP recently went on record yet again accusing the Tea Parties of sinister, KKK-type associations. Obama frightens blacks in speeches by anointing himself some sort of postmodern Abraham Lincoln freeing the slaves.
The message: there's an ever-growing threat that white conservatives will, at any minute, erupt like Mount Vesuvius. And it's only the Democrats who can keep a lid on the seething volcano.
If Rich Benjamin really wants to explore racism, he should tool around the slums of this nation -- Oakland, Detroit, Newark. There Benjamin would witness firsthand the mean streets, ghastly schools, and families in tatters.
It's liberalism and the continual picking at racial wounds that keeps blacks beaten down. And what is more racist than presuming that blacks cannot succeed without the Great White Hope?
But stoking resentment and paranoia keep the wheels of the Democratic machine well-greased. Race-peddlers make big money from agitating and inciting. If they didn't sell hate, what else could they offer?
In the end, even with the kindness of white strangers, Benjamin joins the ranks of the agitators. His startling conclusion at the end of the book? He was treated like visiting royalty not because his white neighbors were colorblind, but because he's a "no demand" black.
In particularly twisted logic, Benjamin maintains that his white neighbors were welcoming only because he's an affable black man. This invites the question: if a nasty, demanding person of any race came to town, won't he be snubbed because no one likes nasty and demanding people?
The book degenerates into another rant against whites, another command for more conversations about race. Benjamin dedicates the book to his godchildren with this: "That you may inhabit a better world." What in God's name does Benjamin not like about the world he currently lives in? The man holds a Ph.D. from Stanford and is head over heels over our new president.
I wonder how the people of Whitopia feel about their dissing by the itinerant stranger, the one they invited into their homes and hearts. What was Ben's reaction -- Ben, the young man who crafted a pair of shoes for Benjamin with his own hands?
I know I would feel betrayed, as well as sad. But my sadness wouldn't be for only myself, that my friendship had been contorted to maintain the rigid party line. I would feel sad for Benjamin -- as well as the Obamas and the Holders of the world. They are like spoiled children who are never satisfied no matter the riches that this world bestows upon them.
They are the perennial fault-finders, which is why they always look so angry and unhappy. As Thoreau put it, "The fault finder will find faults even in paradise."
A frequent American Thinker contributor, Robin is a recovering liberal and a licensed psychotherapist in Berkeley. You can contact Robin through her blog: www.robinofberkeley.com.
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