respectfully this elephant seems irrelevant only because it was asked and answered

The elephant in the room that I'm talking about isn't irrelevant. It is healthy and able to affect the outcome of an election held this year.

If racism is a bad thing, why do you downplay this particular display of racism?

What if the candidates were Herman Cain versus Hillary Clinton? How would you vote MS?

personal racism is not the same as institutional racism, which is the bigger problem

Both are elephants in the room, but the latter was mortally wounded during the 20th Century, has shrunk to the size of a mouse and continues to shrink. You would have everyone to believe that the latter continues to be the source of the woes that you complain about. Yet, you don't cite evidence that the latter elephant is currently the size that you say it is.

Sure, elderly minority citizens (in the USA) have been greatly affected by institutional racism. There are still plenty of living minorities who grew up prior to the passage of the Civil Rights Act. Yet, the youngest adult minorities (currently alive) didn't grow up under the same conditions, because that particular elephant in the room was dying and still is.

There is another elephant in the herd that I have not mentioned, one does affect the younger generations of minorities, but that elephant isn't political.

This thread is about a political elephant in the same herd, one that isn't dying. If all racism is wrong, then this elephant is just as important as all of the other elephants, no matter what size each elephant is.

I am in favor of talking about that herd of elephants called racism. If you are going to complain, then complain about the entire herd, not just about one dying member.

its not dying, its just changing shapes

as to personal racism, I dont complain about it because it has virtually NO impact upon another person

someone can hate blacks all they want on a personal level, and I would never know so long as they didnt violate my rights, so long as they didnt break the laws by discriminating against my personal choices,,,,

that is to say, I dont care if my boss is racist or not, so long as his racism isnt of the variety that causes him to RESTRICT my opportunity or job advancement

racism comes in varying degrees, from minimal and personal to large and institutional

I am more concerned with the latter because of its more COLLECTIVE impact on a population

Antonio Luckett, a sales representative in Milwaukee who is black, called the attacks on [Stacey] Dash unfair. But when people speak out against a symbol of black progress like Obama, he said, "African-Americans tend to be internally hurt by that."

"We still have a civil rights (era) mentality, but we're not living in a civil rights-based world anymore," he said. "We want to say, `You're black, you need to stand behind black people.'"

Luckett said one reason he voted for Obama in the 2008 primary against Hillary Clinton was because Obama is black: "Yes, I will admit that."

Is that racism? Not in Luckett's mind."It's voting for someone who would understand your side of the coin a lot better."

Such logic runs into trouble when applied to a white person voting for Romney because he understands whiteness better. Ron Christie, a black conservative who worked for former President George W. Bush, finds both sides of that coin unacceptable. . .

. . . Christie says he, too, shares the sense of pride in Obama smashing what for blacks is the ultimate glass ceiling. He understands that black pride springs from a shared history of being treated as less than human, while the history of pride in whiteness has a racist context.

But he still sees black people voting for Obama out of a "straitjacket solidarity."

Christie sees it in his barbershop, where black men shifted from calling candidate Obama "half-white" and "not one of us" to demanding that Christie stop opposing the first black president.

He sees it in the comments of radio host Tom Joyner, who told his millions of listeners a year ago, "Let's not even deal with facts right now. Let's deal with our blackness and pride - and loyalty. . I'm not afraid or ashamed to say that as black people, we should do it because he's a black man."

The actor Samuel L. Jackson said much the same thing: "I voted for Barack because he was black," he told Ebony magazine. "Cuz that's why other folks vote for other people - because they look like them."

And just last week, the rapper Snoop Dogg posted a list of voting reasons, written by someone else, on a social media account. No. 1 on his pro-Obama list: He's black. Snoop's top reason to not vote for Romney: He's white.

As if the outcome of an election has no collective impact on a population.

Again, you haven't supported your claim about the latter elephant with evidence. You just keep repeating the claim as if doing so would be sufficient.

Also, let's not overlook the fact that the former elephant in the room is currently working in favor of President Obama, the presidential candidate whom you are supporting. It's easy overlook an elephant when you approve of its results.

Come to think of it, the former elephant is institutionalized . . . in the African-American culture. It is collective, as described in the AP story that I mention in my OP.

Here are some excerpts from that AP story:








In the above quotes, African-Americans are telling each other that they must support President Obama because he is black. Now, that is collective racism.

2008 numbers.
Blacks 95 percent
Hispanics 67 Percent

Racism does not have to involve hatred. Racism can simply be the belief that one race is somehow superior or inferior to another race.

This in fact is the correct definition of racism. Therefore, if a black person votes for a black candidate partly or mostly or completely because of their shared race, it is not necessarily racism. What they are doing is expressing a belief that that person, because of their shared race, which implies a shared background and values, is more likely to pursue policies that the voter wants. (In other words, he's not Herman Cain.)

Ms Harmony, I apologize for using "black" because I was too lazy to write out African-American twice. I read in another post your reasons for not liking the word black.

Solidarity is not racism, even when it's solidarity with your race. Racism is a belief in keeping the "unfavored" race OPPRESSED.

Also, expecting to get meaningful analysis from actors and celebrities and politicians is like trying to stuff an elephant into an apartment room. Notice that the only quote that had any depth to it came from an ordinary person, a Milwaukee salesman.

This obsession with "black racism" is, in my mind, just a cover for that same old fear that "they're going to take over and it will be awful." I'm pretty much in the camp of, "Yup, some people of all colors are racist. The world is far from perfect. Get over it."