Dear Larry: I cannot understand how a person like former President Jimmy Carter can keep saying that the criticism against President Barack Obama is based upon race and that America is racist. I also cannot believe there are people around Jimmy Carter who are saying racist words about the president. I am sure he knows it was white people who elected Obama.
Larry, you are not a mind reader, but I would like to know what you think is going on with Jimmy Carter. — P.C.
Dear P.C.: I agree with you that it is improbable there are people around the former president who are making racist statements. If this is true, then the racist thoughts are coming from his experience and thoughts.
Jimmy Carter grew up during a time when whites were overtly racist. The Ku Klux Klan ruled the South, and any politician needed its endorsement to get elected. Remember, Jimmy was elected in the South. I believe these thoughts are still within his psyche.
Therefore, it is my belief that former President Carter is fighting his own demons. He is seeing racism when it does not exist and/or projecting his own racist thoughts on others. He is getting old, and we may be witnessing ghosts from his past that he thought were buried rising from places in his mind.
Dear Larry: Recently I've seen something that puzzles me and hope you can help me to understand.
I am a member of a popular Internet dating site that tries to match its clients with people who would be compatible. I have received several matches with African-American gentlemen, which I think is fine. I've been around long enough to know there are things much more important than skin color that make for a good or bad relationship.
The thing I'm wondering about has to do with one of the questions clients answer as part of their profiles.
Their answers are displayed on their pages as part of their introductions.
The question is: "Other than your parents, who was the most influential person in your life?" For non-African-Americans, the most common responses include a favorite teacher, a sibling, a coach, an uncle or a special friend.
For African-Americans, almost without exception, they include John F. Kennedy, Jesse Jackson, Martin Luther King or some other public figure whom I am pretty sure they never have met.
I never have seen anyone from any other ethnic group respond like that. I have thought and thought about why this might be but have come to no conclusion. Your thoughts are appreciated! — Ann
Dear Ann: I believe this phenomenon is steeped in African-Americans' history.
Blacks were brought to this country without their consent and enslaved by the ruling class of people. Blacks remained slaves until the government and guilt-ridden people decided to free the slaves via the Civil War.
In 1875, those rights were taken away, and Jim Crow laws were put in place by the government and others who were tired of hearing about the plight of the poor black man.
In the 1960s, the government, guilt-ridden people and angry minorities restored these rights.
If you will notice, African-Americans' enslavement, freedom, discrimination, equality and advancements seem to happen because of government, the guilt-ridden and angry people. In other words, black people's existence seems to be in the hands of government and other people outside of their families.
If people think they are not in control of their own destinies and there are no thoughts of "rugged individualism," they always will choose the people they think have power or control over their lives.
If their own fathers, uncles or siblings are made or seem powerless, they will be discounted and not chosen as the people who have had the most influence in their lives.
To find out more about Larry G. Meeks and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
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LW2 - I wonder why she finds this fact so surprising. I bet for a lot of women who weren't content with being second-class citizens in the 30s and up to the 60s, Susan B. Anthony was one of the most influential people in their lives. She was instrumental in fighting for women's right to vote. Now, for most of us, even whose grandmothers were born after women got full citizenship rights, this is such "ancient history" that we don't think about it much in our daily lives. Being able to vote is taken for granted. So are the ability to attend the same schools as men, get the same jobs and the same paychecks. For African-Americans, being second class citizens is not such ancient history. So yes, they are still inspired by people who fought for their rights a mere 40 years ago, who made it possible for a Black person to go to the same college as White students, to apply and get the same job, and live in the same neighborhood. My boss, who is only 20 years older than me, remembers when Black people weren't allowed in the same restaurants as Whites and had to sit in the back of the bus. He remembers when there were three bathrooms in public places like airports: Women's, Men's, and Colored's (UGH, what a disgusting word the last one is!). Although these things still existed in some places in the 60s, I was a mere baby then, and have no personal recollections of the sort. Give it another half a century of equal rights under the law, and African-Americans will also be citing their teachers, parents, and clergy people as the most influential people in their lives. For now, the memories of the third bathrooms and separate entrances to restaurants or stores (if they were allowed in at all) are too recent, and the people who put an end such abominations are their personal heros.
Comment: #1
Posted by: Ariana
Sat Oct 3, 2009 10:16 AM
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Hello Larry,
Thanks for nailing Jimmy Carter's hide to the wall. Just wish he would fade away like an old soldier - which, by the way, I happen to be.. Your advice, which I don't always agree with, is priceless. Please keep up the good work. I wish we had more like you. Yes, I am white and am a Korean and Vietnam Wars veteran. I hope and pray that the day will come when I won't find it even necessary to state my race to qualify my comments - so that they will be better understood. May God bless you for the good work you do.
CN
Comment: #2
Posted by: Chris
Sun Oct 4, 2009 3:52 AM
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I'm just sick of Carter, period. He was easily the most inept, ineffective president of the 2nd half of the 20th century, and he's done plenty of damage to American foreign policy even since leaving office. He's gone to the Middle East numerous times to get in the middle of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, and we also have him to thank for the fact that the North Koreans have now gone nuclear (it was his idea to go over there and bribe them with a treaty promising food and fuel if they'd stop enriching uranium, which they didn't). I don't care to hear his opinions on anything, and frankly I wish the media would ignore him.
Comment: #3
Posted by: Matt
Mon Oct 5, 2009 1:24 AM
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Hi Larry,
I disagree with you, somewhat, on Carter. I believe the people he is talking about are racist, but disguising it otherwise. I believe he was talking about people like Glenn Beck & Rush Limbaugh and the blind followers, who I do suspect base many of their fears on racism. Some people cannot tolerate anything or anyone different from what they have always known. Many of these people are just as upset because a democrat took over for a republican, but much of the hatred directed at Obama is fear of the unknown boogie-man who they always suspected was black and can't be trusted due to the color of his skin. By the way, I am a white woman. I don't believe in pulling the race card when it isn't warranted, but I think it is in this case. I have never before heard or seen the kind of physical threats directed towards a president before -- not even Nixon. There are veiled (and not so veiled) calls for his overthrow or assassination. People show up at rallies with guns. There is intimidation & threat from those who "want their country back". Their old, white-man run country. I also believe these are the minority, but a very loud, vocal and motivated minority who can be incited to act by the comments of these people. What I find funny is that they seem to think that, if they just get rid of Obama, they will be in charge again. I don't think they realize that the next in line is Joe Biden &, after that, Nancy Pelosi (the horror!!!).
Comment: #4
Posted by: Julie
Mon Oct 5, 2009 3:59 PM
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Re: Julie. Yeah, opposition to Obama HAS to be rooted in racism. It couldn't be his association with known communists and unrepetant terrorists, his racist preacher, or shady businessmen in Chicago. It couldn't be his attempted nationalization of the entire healthcare industry, his attempted takeover of the energy sector via Crap-N-Trade, or his nationalization of the banking, housing, and automotive industries with the bailouts and stimulus packages. It couldn't be his utter and complete ineptitude at accomplishing any part of his own agenda, even with both houses of Congress firmly under control of his own party. It couldn't be his gallavanting around the world, apologizing to our enemies for the US's very existence and bowing to the Saudi king, or jetting off to Copenhagen to beg for the Olympics when the economy is a mess and we've got two shooting wars on. It couldn't be the way he's snubbed our ally England, pushed Honduras to reinstall a Marxist usurper, or thrown the Polish and the Czechs to the Russian bear with the cancellation of the missile shield. It couldn't be his utter failure to deal effectively with the Iranian or North Korean nuclear threats via diplomacy, sanctions, or anything else. It couldn't be his Attorney General promising to reinstate the assault weapons ban, or his appointment of 40 unelected, unaccountable "czars" to oversee domestic policy. It couldn't be the 1.5 TRILLION that he's looted from the American taxpayer in only eight months. It couldn't be that he's utterly failed to prevent the economy from cratering to the worst levels since the 1970s. No....it's got to be because he's black. (And by the way, Pelosi and the rest of the Dem bunch are going to get voted out in '10, followed by Obama/Biden in '12. Trust me - the conservatives know their civics at least as well as you do.)
Comment: #5
Posted by: Matt
Tue Oct 6, 2009 2:23 AM
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