RACISM IS LIKE PORN The fact is, for Black people, racism is like pornography. Are we titillated by it? No. Addicted to it? No. Secret subscribers? Maybe. But where racism is concerned, whether it is visible, covert or even hotly denied by others, just like Supreme Court Justice Stewart "[we] know it when we see it". We're not the only ones and that may be Mitt Romney's undoing. Pollsters may scream "Jobs Jobs Jobs" but when you feel the country will be controlled by people who don't like how you look, what language you speak and whom you marry, its hard to imagine them including you in the America they are "taking back". I'm not calling the Governor a racist. I honestly don't see race as a factor with him. But the Tea Party is a different story. You see most Black people see racism as a factor if not THE factor in Tea Party politics. It's something we talk about among ourselves even if on Morning Joe African American pundits concede it as a class issue. I believe those same pundits at home, seeing Rep. Cleaver being spat upon, signs depicting the President as a monkey and tribesman and bumper stickers that say "Don't ReNig in 2012" turn to their family members and say "That's some racist bull!" When Republicans admittedly want to roll back civil rights advances that many of our relatives fought and died for like the most fundamental American right to vote, we see racism. When laws are constructed to specifically target a group of citizens based on their cultural identity, we see racism. When we see the unpatriotic denigration of the office of the Presidency under this President, we see racism. When President Obama is constantly referred to as someone who "doesn't understand" this and that despite having proved through academia and success to be highly intelligent and capable, we see racism. No, our leaders and representatives don't always call it out publicly. Why should they? It rarely leads to a fruitful discussion. Reverends Jackson and Sharpton are demagogued as race baiters. Most people shy away from that label so they avoid the issue. The brave soul who attempts to bring clarity sees it devolve into a cliched "Who you calling a racist" debacle. In this day and age calling someone a racist is a more heinous act than being one so the accuser is forced to back off before we ever really address the issue. Great strategy if that's what it is. It works perfectly. Open conversations between the races have been stymied by this, leading to the greatest hits of Black punditry: "Well, its on both sides", "I don't think its race so much as class", and "I wouldn't actually say racism". But alas, saying isn't necessarily believing. What we know for sure is that there is a large vocal and well funded entity out there that does not like the fact that the President is Black. That not only hurts and infuriates but it also motivates. Blacks are not a monolithic group but I dare say we all know the feeling and or apprehension of being hated and judged because of the color of our skin. And guess what? Other minorities know it too. The idea that as President you can still be thwarted by racism is something we don't wish to tell our kids. We don't want that horrible, soul crushing, inferiority stirring angst to inhabit our children's psyche. We don't want to raise a cynical and self limiting generation but knowing that one can follow the rules and do everything right but still be restricted by racism does just that. This resonates across racial lines. In our increasingly diverse country non-blacks are related to, raising and caring for Black children and they don't want a Glen Beck world for them either. President Obama's election was certainly historic, the country turned a corner that November. But for us if he is run out office (and that's how it will appear... run out) that will be the story. Not how we got it right, but how we once again gave in to our baser instincts. Allow me to be dramatic. OK more dramatic. It feels almost like the end of reconstruction. A period so peculiar and unsettling we treat it as an anomaly. A period of time with an asterisk. "Barack Obama - 3rd Black Senator in US history. *since Reconstruction." Were the Blacks who served during that time not real people? It was a period when democracy, unfettered (to a degree), allowed Blacks to vote and become elected officials. The backlash was great. Violence, suppression, intimidation and death became the norm. In under 15 years it was over. It would be about 85 years before we saw another Black Senator. This all might seem hyperbolic to some but when its part of your family history it stays in the back of your mind. Racial experiences vary from person to person. It can come in different forms and in varying degrees. But you'd be hard pressed in the U.S. to find an African American who has not been stung by it. Early in the '08 Democratic primary, the majority of Blacks did not support Obama. There were many reasons for this: the Black communities affinity for the Clintons, Senator Obama was an unknown quantity, and the usual combination of suspicion and viability questions that dog Black Presidential candidates. Michelle Obama accurately surmised that when African Americans saw that Obama could actually win they would "come on board". But don't underestimate the affect of the perceived racism from the Clinton campaign. President Clinton made a few unfortunate comments in South Carolina and from that moment on Black people "came on board". So, we might concede your points in polite conversation, let you convince us that class is a much more divisive distinction than race and allow you to tell us that our eyes and ears deceive us. But like pornography, we know it when we see it so we will continue to speak our truth at home and vote our truth on election day.