Take It From Me, An Interracial Man in an Interracial Marriage, Robert Stacy McCain is No Racist!

Look, this post is not an attack on Patrick Frey. Sure, I've disagreed with some of the stuff at Patterico, but that's a good thing. My sense is that he's a great blogger who does really inspiring work.

But frankly, his post yesterday, "Is This Racism?," is utterly gratuitous. What perhaps started out as a fascinating debate on Tiger Woods' racial authenticity (an extremely topical AND legitimate issue), the post nose-dives badly into a slanderous fever-swamp of sick insinuations. And for what? All of this mostly works to further spread the LGF smears against Robert Stacy McCain for absolutley no good reason, unless character assassination and the politics of personal destruction generates blog traffic and blogging notoriety. I doubt those kind of things wouldn't be assets to Patrick. The "Is This Racism" post led to another one, with a more discursive exposition of R.S. McCain's alleged "racism." See, "That Quote Most of You Called “Racist” Was Written by Robert Stacy McCain."

I've defended Robert Stacy McCain many times (for example, here and here). I have have done so for matters of principle. Robert's being attacked by people like Rachel Maddow and Charles Johnson because THEY have powerful political motives to further an "evil racist conservative" meme. It's despicable gutter politics, and it's typical of radical leftists who've literally got nothing else.

Now, I've not so much spoken out from a personal perspective, that is, from my background as a black man of mixed-race heritage. People should realize, that for me, politics is color-blind. First, I don't think of myself as "a person of color." I know I am, but I've never for a moment considered that a hindrance to my success, or a ticket to racial shakedown advantage. I've just lived my life, and while I've experienced the deep pain of racism, I don't let race or identity politics define me (unlike folks like, say, Pam Spaulding or Ta-Nehisi Coates). But second, I don't view politics primarily from a racial angle. I attack Barack Obama all the time, but his race is never an issue for me. I deeply appreciate the historic signifcance of Obama's election. I don't like him because he's a radical socialist with a subterranean totalitarian agenda. But to blog that, to call out Obama for the ideological and moral disaster he is for this country gets me branded a racist. And again, that's because the nihilist crazies on the fever-swamp left have got nothing better to do that hang around all day waiting for an off-color political remark, and then, BAM, they've got their prey in the victimology crosshairs.

No, politics is just that for me, politics -- the struggle for power, and competition for the success of one's values over another's. It's the stuff of life, and like anything else with great stakes, folks will use the most wickedly unscrupulous means to win. Allegations for racism are particularly potent to that effect, since they inherently prey on the monumental accumulated guilt-complex of white Americans. No one wants to be called racist. And to be successfully labeled and repudiated as racist is tantamount to banishment from polite society. It can be so potent of an allegation that to be placed on the defense itself causes fits of incredulity, which in turn results in not taking the attacks as warranting a response. "What, me racist? That's preposterous." But as soon as some kind of underground campaign emerges to destroy one's standing, the sociology of the smear builds a life of its own. I'm reminded of Mean Girls, how Rachel McAdams had so much power over others, but then became a victim of her own Machiavellian charms when the gunsights were reversed. Regina George deserved it, because, well, she's mean. But the example is the campaign itself, how Lindsay Lohan besmirched herself just as much by sinking to the pits of scurrility and evil. And so it is with racism. No one wants to be called out as racist, but since so few of Americans are genuinely racist today, if it appears the left really has a genuine one, then, BAM, they pounce like a big game cat. But ultimately it's the accuser who's damaged, most recently Charles Johnson, now having to announce his own exile into puritanical ideological purgatory.

Folks may recall I recently posted my family pictures at the blog, "Halloween 2009." Readers should go back and take a look at them. Diversity begins at home for my family. And my wife gets more of it with her career; my kids more with their diverse school classrooms; and me with my college teaching at one of the most socio-demographically diverse colleges in the nation. You just go with it.

So, when I hear these attacks on McCain, I almost flabbergasted. I've known Robert for two years now. Not a particularly long time, but believe me there's a lot of affinity for this man. One doesn't build the kind of friendships and readership as Robert by deceptively hiding some crazed, barnyard mean Grand Kleagle program of hatred. It doesn't compute. But don't take my word for it. Let's look at what everyone's focusing on, this quote that everybody's all ejaculating over:

As Steffgen predicted, the media now force interracial images into the public mind and a number of perfectly rational people react to these images with an altogether natural revulsion. The white person who does not mind transacting business with a black bank clerk may yet be averse to accepting the clerk as his sisterinlaw, and THIS IS NOT RACISM, no matter what Madison Avenue, Hollywood and Washington tell us.

This is less racist -- if racist at all -- than politically incorrect. And I'm not seeing this quote for the first time. These attacks on McCain have a long lead time.

I recall seeing this a while ago, from victim's identity-grievance spokesman Michelangelo Signorile's essay from 2002 (I read it back when I first started speaking with Robert in 2008). The quote is offered with a number of others that purport to prove Robert's a seccessionist with a rebel-yell sensibility, who would restore the yoke of that peculiar institution to the Old South. Robert's responded to the broad-brush allegations over and over, so skim around at The Other McCain a while, and you'll see there's a whole lot of context that's being left out of the debate.

But since much of the rest of Signorile's slanders have been debunked or disowned, folks now have that quote above to hang their charges. So, is that racist? Is it racist to feel perfectly well in interacting, working with, hanging out, etc., with minorities, but be uncomfortable -- even revolted -- by the possibility of an interracial marriage in the family?

Well, folks probably aren't being too clear on what they mean by "racism." There has to be some element of white supremacy or white racial superiority -- and particularly an expressed intent to oppress the rights and opportunites of racial minorities -- for real racism to emerge. Slavery was racist; Jim Crow segregation was racist; aparthied South Africa was racist; British imperialism's "white man's burden" was racist. There's nothing in the "altogether natural revulsion" quote to raise either the superiority or the oppression triggers.

So we're left, really, with questions of tastes and preferences. And I again remind folks that if Robert Stacy McCain's racist, then so is every other American who decides not to marry someone outside of his or her ethnic demographic. When my wife met me, she never said "I love you but I don't want to have black babies." And vice versa. We just met. Angela Bassett hadn't strolled into my social orbit at that moment, so I said what the heck. I'm good. Let's see if we can make this relationship go.

And really, it's those who are so occupied by such words, how they find so much confirmation of their political superiority, their moral rectitude, who are totally FUBAR. Charles Johnson, Larisa Alexdrovna, the Media Matters cabal, Firedoglake. Hey, if you're looking for some race-shakedown industry allies, you know where to go. Meanwhile, all of this bulls*** has to STOP. If Robert Stacy McCain's racist, the marketplace of human interactions will sort it all out. He'll be ostracized faster than a Swine Flu patient at a Christmas party hook-up. All these witch hunts do is make the accusers feel good. All folks are doing is dragging someone through the mud for statements made years ago, statements that are simply too honest for the racially-paralyzed Internet lynch mobs to handle.

This is old news, and really pedestrian. And as always, the accusers have little in the way of racial integrity to sustain them. How many of these people are really walking the walk of interracial relations? How many really know what it's like to feel the sting of racism and discrimation. And how many really live life in the trenches of today's demograpic realities?

My bet is very few of the accusers, if any. And hence, it's all a sham really. Mostly sound and fury, signifying hatred and stupidity of the first order.