Racism: Plain and Simple

A few of my close friends have chided me about discussing the concept of racism in the presidential contest.  Because I have a desire to portray myself as an objective thinker, one who thinks and writes and draws conclusions about real world events realistically (an oxymoron if ever there was one), I have learned to bite my tongue, metaphorically, to the occasional rants of the rabid Repubs who themselves don’t hesitate to use the ‘n’ word when referring to the president of our country.  I hesitate to call them on it, or use these incidents as examples, of the all-pervasive racism that permeates  current presidential politics because other Repubs shriek that it is me being unfair, that most Repubs don’t think about this issue or let it affect their thinking.  It is with this brief background that I was delighted that I was to have the opportunity to conduct a brief interview with the man who is the national director of the staged media event that people like to call the Mitt Romney presidential campaign, Mr. John Sununu.

“Frankly,” Sununu told me, “when you take a look at Donald Trump, you have to wonder whether that’s an endorsement based on issues or whether he’s got a slightly different reason for preferring Mitt Romney”



“What reason would that be?” I responded.

“Well, I think when you have somebody of your own race that you’re proud of being the potential President of the United States, I applaud the Donald for standing with him.”

Before I ask my next question of Sununu, I pause and think. I’m sure Donald Trump will be positively brimming with gratitude for, and basking in the limelight that his endorsement of Romney will bring him. I’ll throw a question Sununu’s way to make sure that the public understands completely the reasoning behind the essence of the Romney campaign.  After all, if the man managing the campaign can’t fill in the dots for us, who can?  So I "shucked and jived" on to my next question, “Is it fair, in accordance with your logic, for me to assume that you also support Romney because both of you are white?

Sununu glared at me with that same ‘deer in the head lamps’ look that has been so prevalent on Romney’s face when he is asked about his personal tax returns, or how 5 trillion dollars in tax cuts plus 2 trillion dollars more in military spending will reduce the deficit, or why he is against the Lilly Ledbetter Act.  Nearly a minute went by before he answered.

“No,” he said.  “That type of thinking only applies to blacks.”

Just saying . . .