Day By Day

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Jonah Comments on Chrissie's Racialism

Jonah Goldberg on Chris Matthew's comment on Obama's race:

Personally, I think Chris Matthews' momentary colorblindness offers a telling insight. As many of us have argued around here for a while, conservatives aren't obsessed with Obama's race, liberals are. That's why we've had so many asinine, nasty and ignorant charges of racism hurled at Obama's critics. There's a certain species of liberal that can't get over Obama's race. They assume that conservatives can't get over it either and so criticism of Obama from the right must — according to Olbermannesque thinking — stem from some evil desire to see a "black man fail" or some other idiocy. I think it's nice that we have a black president as do most conservatives I know. I just don't think it's the most important thing in the world. Nor do I think that his blackness makes bad liberal ideas suddenly good. Black men are wrong when they say 2+2 is 5 too.

Unlike Chris Matthews, I go weeks, even months, without "remembering" that Obama is black. It's just not a big part of how I see the world or his day-to-day presidency. It is a big part of how Matthews sees things. I leave it to others to decide whose outlook is healthier.

Read it here. [emphasis mine]

This conforms precisely to my experience. Not once in any conversation I have had with a conservative has the issue of Obama's race been raised. It just isn't important enough to notice. But my liberal friends and associates mention it frequently. They really are obsessive on the subject, and assume that everyone else is too. Sad..., really sad!