posted by Sam Richards

The uproar over Harry Reid’s comments is standard fare for anyone who pays attention to race relations as viewed through the prism we call “political correctness.” A misguided white man uses an unwise phrase (or two…or five…) and suddenly people are calling for his head, including the National Republican Senatorial Committee:

On Saturday it was released that in 2008 Reid made racially charged comments about then Senator Barack Obama. Unfortunately, this is just the latest in a long history of embarrassing and controversial remarks by the senior Senator from Nevada. We hope Reid’s fellow Democrats in the Senate and on the campaign trail will stand up and rightly condemn these racially insensitive remarks by their elected leader. Sign the petition to condemn Reid’s remarks and encourage other Senate Democrats to do the same. ~ NRSC

Amazing. Wow. His comments must have been hard-hitting and over-the-top racist for this group to condemn them and give back-handed support to Barack Obama and other “colored” people. I mean, really, Republicans across the country are well known for taking offense at anyone–and I do mean anyone–who says mean things about black and brown people. I’m not sure if any of us fully realize that.

So here is a summary of the controversy:

The Obama controversy is centered on remarks published in the book “Game Change,” by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann. The book cites Reid as saying privately in 2008 that President Obama could succeed as a black candidate partly because of his “light-skinned” appearance and speaking patterns “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.” ~ CNN

Insensitive, is what the comments are being called. While I’m not sure what exactly is insensitive about his comments, since I’m not hearing many Democrats condemn the remarks my guess is that this is a moment when politicians can line up and spit on one another from across the great divide.

But I have to ask: how old is this guy? This is like referring to Pink’s new recording as a record album. “Did you hear that Pink has a new record album coming out?” If anyone said that to me I’d immediately assume that he or she has been totally out of the loop of pop culture and technological innovation for oh, let’s say…about 15 years!!! Maybe twenty. I wonder how many times Harry has heard the word “negro” in the past 30-40 years? Frankly, I’ve heard it maybe once or twice — and usually uttered by old fossils like him. Where’s the guy been? Does he watch TV? Go to the cinema? Engage in conversations with black and brown people? Does he have grandchildren? Why hasn’t someone told him that his drawing on old school vocab?

You see, while his comments aren’t insensitive in my humble opinion, they do open a window into his social world–and that sounds as though it is a very white place indeed. But hey, lighten up. He’s an elected official. Why should THAT matter?

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