Political and Social Thought to the Left of College Station

“We want our country back.”

That was the sentiment that I heard on Friday afternoon at the protest on the Texas A&M University campus during President Barack Obama’s visit to speak at the Points of Light Institute.

I walked through the crowd among the protesters for several hours, and I saw signs with diverse messages. There where those who where protesting health care reform, and while they readily admitted that the health care system needed to reform they did not support any changes that would reform the system. There where those who where protesting government spending and taxes, although it is hard to take those criticisms seriously after an Administration that spent more than any Administration since President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Administration. There where those who where protesting against illegal immigration and the changing demographics of Texas, never mind the fact that the changing demographics of Texas have much more to do with Latino residents that are citizens of the United States.

While the issues and messages of the protesters may have been diverse, the one thing that was not diverse was the protesters themselves. Of the one thousand people that where on Spencer Park on the campus, about twenty-five percent where students. The vast majority of the protesters where middle aged and white. Most of the people holding signs and shouting into microphones may have been saying different things, but they all shared the same skin color.

I thought it was particularly fitting that some of the protesters held up signs proclaiming that they are not racist, that they simply do not agree with the President’s policies. One protester even voiced the same opinion that he was not a racists, only moments after ranting about illegal immigrants and Hispanics taking over Texas. It must be said that not everyone that disagrees with President Obama’s policies is racist, and not everyone who protest and holds up signs is motivated by racism. In fact in all likelihood most of the people who where in that crowd would probably not openly use racist language or do something that is overtly racist. But that does not mean that is not a racist element in the background. You can not tell me that when hundreds of middle aged white people get together and say that they want their country back after the election of the nation’s first black President that there is not an element of racism.

It seems that now the subject of racism is being clouded by language or rhetoric. Any time racism is brought up in the public debate those where are being accused say that the “race card” is being used. Any time racist language or behavior is brought it is treated as if it has to be completely overt and blatant to be considered racism. The truth is that racism is very rarely as blatant an overt as say, denying a couple a marriage license because they are interracial.

I talked to some people of color that where near the protest, and ask them what they though about the protest and if they thought that there was a racist element to any of the protest. The answers I heard where both honest and revealing. Perhaps the most telling of all was a young female African-American student, who told me that she did think there were elements of racism in the protest. She sited the looks that the white protesters would give her as she looked at their signs, and the defensive posture that she noticed as they prepared for her reaction. She noted that it is hard for her not to see racism in some of the cartoon-like depictions of the President, and the images of the President as Hilter.

We do not live in a colorblind society, and there is no such thing as a post-racial America. Anyone that says that they are colorblind or that America is post-racial is only doing so because they have the privilege to be oblivious. If you think that someone is playing the race card, it is probably because you already played the racist card