A Touchy Subject

Black official accuses Wilder of making racial remarks (Registration Required)

'Lt. Gov. John Wilder made "openly prejudiced and racially biased" remarks to Capitol visitors, according to a Carter County commissioner who wants a written apology besides the phone call he got Thursday.

"During your introductory remarks you stated that 'because of affirmative action favoring blacks, women and other minorities, people like me (gesturing to your skin pigmentation) could no longer get decent jobs,' " commissioner Robert Davis wrote in a letter to Wilder, who is white.

...

The commissioner said he believes Wilder should resign, but the speaker said he has no intention of stepping down from the post he has held since 1971.'

Geez, why does it seem to be taking forever for this kind of racial bigotry to finally go extinct? And how long until our elected officials (or government appointed ones) finally realize when they're on camera and in the public eye before they go spouting off at the mouth? How long, also, before their younger and presumably more enlightened colleagues being indicating that there's no place for this in government society any longer?

We're relying on the Iraqi people to stand up for themselves and resist their uprising countrymen, and our representatives can't even stand up to their bigoted colleagues? We're counting on mainstream, moderate Muslims to denounce their fanatical cousins and we still have this kind of public behaviour?

Well, maybe someday.

But the other thing - Trent Lott made similar statements at Strom Thurmond's birthday (which a lot of bloggers get swelled heads at "breaking" the story). Lott's comments, though they didn't seem to be even as insensitive as Wilder's, caused pressure to mount for him to resign as Speaker of the House.

I think that these things should be dealt with privately, and to call for someone to resign their position based on one comment - no matter how ugly - is short-sighted, and vengeful. It serves no useful purpose, unless there's a demonstrable pattern of discrimination that affects how they (Lott, Wilder, whoever) do their job. But, of course, there's no record of this behaviour since the other senators and reps don't seem to have made a big deal out of this beforehand.

Guess we'll just have to wait.