Idiot Appointee and Hypocritical Protestor

Reading a story forwarded on to me by OpinionEngine, I couldn't help but laugh at the complete lack of anything resembling rational thought by this California government appointee.

State Education Secretary Richard Riordan jokingly told a child her name, Isis, meant "stupid dirty girl," prompting widespread criticism and posing a quandary for the man who appointed him, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

I read the story, shaking my head and wondering at how he could have been foolish enough to say this to a little girl. If I were Governator, I would consider putting head on the chopping block because he might not be well suited to this kind of a position (but, hey, that's not my choice to make).

Then I got to the bottom of the story and found something that appalled me. This kind of thing, combined with the blatant, disgusting racism of things like Ted Rall's latest cartoon, convince me that race is always at the front of the left's minds. I didn't read this article and think, "Gosh, he shouldn't have said that to a little black girl."

Nope, I was thinking, "Gosh, he shouldn't have said that to a little girl."

In a certain species of Democrat, though, it isn't what he said; it's what color was the girl's skin?

Democratic state Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally, who had scheduled a protest by civil rights organizations, canceled the demonstration after an apparent mix-up over the girl's racial background.

Dymally was quoted in the San Jose Mercury News Thursday saying the child was "a little African-American girl. Would he (Riordan) have done that to a white girl?"

The girl is white, with blond hair.

Dymally did not return telephone calls. His office issued a statement Wednesday calling Riordan's remarks to the girl "outrageous and irresponsible," then issued another statement Thursday saying, "To err is human; to forgive is divine."

"Race is not a factor in this issue," Dymally said in Thursday's statement, adding that Riordan had apologized a second time. "It is time for us to move on."

If it had been a little African-American girl, it wouldn't have been time for us to move on? If someone says something mean to a little white girl, it's easily forgiven, but if someone says the same mean thing to a little African-American girl, it becomes one of the unforgivable sins? To be honest, a flippant statement like that wouldn't rise to the level of a civil rights violation to me, anyway. I mean, where in the constitution does it guarantee me the right to live a life un-offended by the statements of fools?

If it's a civil rights violation every time someone says something that might hurt my feelings, then a lot of people have much to answer for and I'm going to stage a march. Darnit.

And to answer the assemblyman's hateful question, yes, apparently Riordan would have said that to a little white girl.

We on the right have had our share of racist jerks, but the Democrats have promoted racism to a party virtue. Blind, unthinking support of the racism inherent in affirmative action coupled to the ambulance chasing mentality of supposed civil rights leaders always manages to keep race at the forefront. I imagine that Martin Luther King, Jr would be disgusted to see real racial issues and inequities, and the great strides this country has made in addressing valid concerns and rights violations, trivialized every time some crackpot assemblymen (or Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson) decides that "the community" needs to punish someone for saying or doing something stupid but decidedly not racist.

When you see racism everywhere, it becomes something like the conspiracy theories of the tinfoil hat brigade. That is, every ill, every inequity, and every perceived sleight becomes the work of some racist cabal that intends to keep minorities from success--and anyone who disagrees is either part of that cabal or just blind to what is "really" going on. Luckily, like any good conspiracy theory, no amount of evidence can ever shake the believer from their path--evidence is just further proof of a cover up.

The truth is that people occasionally do and say stupid things. That doesn't always make those stupid things into racist actions, even when they happen to a minority. What Riordan did--and what an idiotic thing that he said--is made neither worse nor better by the fact that it was said to a little white girl.

The color of her skin should never have been a part of the discussion.

Read the story.

Posted by zombyboy at July 9, 2004 10:25 AM | TrackBack