OPINION: Ugly racism from the left

Some liberals are obsessed with race. It's all they can think about. So here's the state of our nation, after the election of our first post-racial president:

First off, black people are cool. They have always been cool, though it wasn't always widely accepted. Today, with a hip, young, attractive black president who communicates with talent matched only by Ronald Reagan, we're told black may be cooler than ever before.

Veteran newsman Larry King explained it to the country Thursday night on CNN. King said: "My younger son Cannon, he is 8. And now says that he would like to be black. I'm not kidding. He said there's a lot of advantages. Black is in. Is this a turning of the tide?"

If it's en vogue to be black, that can only be a good thing in a country where black people have been forced to the back of the bus, and where black members of sports teams have stayed outside while their white teammates dined at whites-only restaurants.

It can only be a good thing in a country where even today, some racists won't hire or advance people who happen to be black.

For freedom-loving Americans, the elevation of a black man to the highest office in the land represents a rising tide that will lift all ships. When all people are free to flourish, a nation can prosper.

But not all people understand the inherently egalitarian nature of colorblind freedom, in which decisions are based on merit, character and a host of considerations that don't include sex, creed, nationality or color.

In an otherwise fabulous inauguration ceremony, the Rev. Joseph Lowery, a Methodist minister who's black, shocked the masses when he infused racism into a prayer. He asked God "to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man, and when white will embrace what is right."

The vast majority of white people almost always do what's right, Rev. Lowery. In fact, there's no reason to believe that white people embrace what's right with less frequency than brown, yellow, red or black people do.

The fact that good white people far outnumber bad is the reason this country ended slavery in short order. It's one reason more than 360,000 Union soldiers, most of them white, gave their lives in the Civil War. White people, who embraced what was right, helped black civil rights leaders, such as Lowery, succeed in the mid-20th century.

Among the millions of white people who embraced what is right during our country's civil rights battle were Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, who were killed by the Klan in Mississippi after a day of registering black voters. And wasn't Viola Gregg Liuzzo, mother of five children, a white embracing what is right when she was shot and killed by an Alabama Klansman for helping southern blacks? And what about all those white editors and reporters and lawyers who risked their lives throughout the civil rights movement by actively fighting segregation and racism? What about all those white people who marched on Washington, demanding civil rights for blacks? How about R.C. Hoiles, founder of The Gazette's parent company, who editorialized against Japanese internment in World War II? Didn't they embrace what is right?

Weren't most people who voted for Obama white people, trying to embrace what they thought was the right choice for president? How dare you suggest that white people don't embrace what's right, Rev. Lowery. It's a good thing most black people don't embrace your antiquated views.

"The civil rights movement would not have yielded such great results so soon if courageous whites had not participated, many losing their personal wealth and social standing, some dying alongside blacks," wrote columnist Bill Maxwell, who is black, in the Jan. 20 issue of the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times.

Upstaging Lowery's racist remarks were those of presidential economic adviser Robert Reich - labor secretary under President Bill Clinton - who advocated a racist approach to President Obama's proposed economic stimulus plan while meeting with members of Congress this month. (See it: www.youtube.com/watch?v=opxuUj6vFa4)

"I am concerned, as I'm sure many of you are, that these jobs not simply go to high skilled people who are already professional or to white male construction workers," Reich said. "Criteria can be set, so that the money does go to others, the long term unemployed minorities, women, people who are not necessarily construction workers or high-skilled professionals."

So white men who pound nails and pour cement are the villainous ruling class now, and they must be denied federal largesse because of their skills and professionalism. And making sure they get no pork will be Reich, a man born into privilege who graduated Dartmouth, Oxford and Yale, after attending one of the finest high schools in New York.

This enormously wealthy man - who's white as white can be and born with a silver spoon in his mouth - wants to make sure the government goes out of its way to exclude hard-working, blue-collar men who happen to be white.

Racism and sexism don't get bolder than that.

Obama, known as our first post-racial president, should condemn Reich's comments and denounce him as an adviser. If the federal government gives away money, and creates make-work jobs, it most certainly should not exclude on a basis of race. Millions have fought and suffered and died to make this a country of racial equality, and we can't tolerate policies that would change our course.

Black people are cool. So are white, red, brown and yellow people. People are cool, and it's time we stop judging them based on the color of their skin.