I used to think of a racist as someone who was prejudiced and intolerant of people whose skin color was different than their own; that a racist was someone who felt themselves somehow superior to others as a result of being that different color.  To me this included black persons who felt themselves better than Caucasians or Orientals and Orientals who felt themselves superior to other races as well as white persons who have demonstrated historical prejudices against all races.  Extreme racism was marked with horrible dialogue and aggressive, sometimes murderous behavior to strangers of another color.  For example, the Ku Klux Klan injured many decent, innocent people in Jim Crow America.   To my way of thinking, these were the real racists in our society and they always represented a very narrow slice of America, a slice that has become more and more narrow year by year.

Contrary to my belief that racists were a narrowing slice of people in our country, I recently realized that the definition has changed by some to simply having been born white.  I cannot deny that.  I’ve always been white.  Am I thus reasonably considered to be a racist?  Sadly, because of this new definition of racist my definition no longer holds any meaning to many people.  As a politically created divide grows more and more, the term “racist” is a constant accusation that is hurled toward those with the temerity to disagree with a member of the accuser’s race.   The government has created this situation and sadly, as a result, the cry of racist has lost its significance.  

At the age of 10, I remember asking my mother and dad why those angry people in Little Rock were shouting at those colored children and why did they need the protection of the soldiers as they got off the school bus.  They were just little kids and all they seemed to want was to go to school.  This was my first lesson in prejudice and I believe it had a profound influence on my life.  I couldn’t see then and I have never been able to understand why those children shouldn’t have had the same right to attend school as anyone else in Little Rock.  I could not understand the reason for separate drinking fountains, restrooms or shanty-town communities in the South.  This wasn’t true where I lived in Connecticut.  Yet in today’s America I have been called a racist by Jimmy Carter because I am so highly critical of Barack Obama. 

When Floyd Patterson fought Ingmar Johansson I wanted Patterson to win.  I was questioned as to how I could favor the Negro over the white man.  Simple, he was the American.  Still I am told today that I am a racist by Jeremiah Wright and Father Pfleger.  It is understood to be so because I oppose Barack Obama and what he is doing to this country.   

In junior high school I argued vehemently in favor of Rosa Parks who simply wanted to keep her seat in the front of the bus or those men who were being shot with a water cannon or threatened by Lester Maddox with that axe handle because these black men had the audacity to want to be served lunch in his restaurant.  I was called a “nigger-lover” by a boy from Arkansas who was a vehement segregationist.  When we talked about this I could not understand the offense he took when he told me stories from his past in Arkansas and he could not understand how I could be so unaffected by his stories.  Still, today some call me a racist.  Among others Bill Cosby has told me so.  You see, I disagree and I am highly critical of Barack Obama and what he is doing to this country.

I pledged a fraternity in college.  The one I chose was the only one at my university that at the time was integrated.  I regarded Roscoe and Bill then and I do now as my brothers.  I also was aware of the brothers before me who had initially integrated the fraternity.  They had stood by their black brother when thugs burned a cross in the front yard.  I was proud of them and I was pleased that not only were we racially integrated but we also had a mixture of Jew, Protestant, Catholic and Agnostic.  We had a mix of scholar and athlete.  Yet Malik Shabazz has identified me as a racist.  He said that I am a racist because I believe the Duke Lacrosse players were unfairly and unmercifully persecuted by Mike Nifong and because I am a white male.   

Throughout my career I have had the opportunity to manage large groups of employees.  During my tenures as a senior manager I was the only manager within one organization of 650 employees who despite my opposition to Affirmative Action never had an Affirmative Action complaint filed against him.  Still, today some consider me to be a racist.  I’ve been told so by Leo Terrell, the black civil rights attorney.  You see, I believed that all the evidence pointed to the guilt of OJ Simpson.      

Yes according to all these people and many others just like them I am a racist.  They charge that I am a racist because I take a view of the evidence and come to a conclusion that disfavors someone who is black.  What is worse is that government methods to help them have made these people their own worst enemies.  If what they truly seek is racial equality they need to win the hearts of those people who might truly have racist leanings.  Instead they promote language and government programs that enlarge the base of those who now consider themselves to be their opponents.  As a result of unbased accusations the term racist has lost its impact. Just like the little boy who cried, “Wolf.”  The cry of racist has been so diluted that the charge deserves to be ignored.  The unfortunate thing about this is that there are still some examples of that narrow slice of racists in this country and just like that little boy who cried, “Wolf,” when real racism raises its ugly head, thanks to the influence government has had on these people, the charge is likely to be ignored.