Good Wednesday morning to all.

Jumping right into something I was trying to avoid, but just can't. Inevitably, if you read my blog, or just about anything else I've ever written, said or otherwise, you may have noticed that I tend to stay away from conversations of race. There are occasional anecdotes, or particular issues that I weigh in on, but race as a whole is something I'm not fond of talking about. I've often wondering if a "conversation about race" is really needed in this country, or whether it would just create more issues than it solves.

There is a part of me that thinks that, in a country such as America, if you defend civil rights law, who cares what your personal beliefs are. There will always be a race battle, a class battle, a gender battle and an age battle in a nation with such a wide array of people as both legal residents and citizens. Race education may be a good idea, but trying to convince people to respect someone in any capacity seems rather ridiculous to me. That's a personal problem, not a national one.

Now, there will always be an issue of economics, poverty and so on. And surely questions arise about how much different things would be had our history not included slavery or if blacks (and more currently Latinos) were not considered second class citizens at points in our history. Don't forget, women can be included in this category too. Really only one demographic has never been a part of the "second class citizenry." However, as I said before, that is what laws and education are for.

Why do I bring this up? Well, yesterday I got in a lengthy Twitter debate about comments made by comedian Bill Maher on Sunday. Originally, I thought the only comment he made was, "if you're a racist, you're probably a Republican."

I refuse to get into the merits of what he said. He's probably wrong, but since he didn't cite anything, or base his comment on fact, he's entitled to his own opinion. Now, there are obviously questions about the far-reaching effects of comedians, specifically those that make legitimate political points (Jon Stewart), and Maher wasn't being funny, but I choose to think people can take what they want from commentary on television shows. I don't find his comment "morally reprehensible," at all. Ignorant, absolutely.

The Twitter argument started because one person responded by saying that, "my parents have been Republicans for 30+ years. They are 'clearly' racists." That was the direct quote. I called her on it, by pointing out that that isn't what Maher said. He said that if you're racist you're probably a Republican, not the reverse (she tried to point out that she didn't quote him, but it's pretty clear she was attacking his premise, which she reversed). Why does this matter? Well, in this point it really doesn't. Taken either way, Maher's quote is ridiculous. Whether it's true or not is irrelevant really, because it can't be proven one way or the other. I'll admit to knowing far more racist Republicans than Democrats, but I'm not so sure that's not because D's try a lot harder to be politically correct, personal beliefs be damned.

The thing is, however, that in most cases, words really matter. When you reverse someone's premise, thereby changing the meaning of what they said (not uncommon in politics), you can make something innocent sound far worse. The whole setup is fallacious anyway. Take this: "Most NFL running backs are black." That's true. "Most black people are NFL running backs." Not so much.

It was, however, an argument I wasn't going to win, as evidenced by the fact that the two people I was arguing with ignored half of my statement. I said no less than seven times that Maher was wrong, but they only focused on how I said not to reverse his premise. Then, this morning, I finally watched the actual clip. Turns out they ignored half of Maher's statement as well. The whole thing is worth watching, but the comment is at the 2:14 mark:



"I have never said, and would never say, because it's not true, that all Republicans are racist. But now-a-days, if you're racist, you're probably a Republican."

So not only did she change his entire premise, but he very specifically said that it isn't the case that all Republicans are racist. Kind of changes the entire argument I had yesterday and just goes to show just how easily so many of us can cut out half of something to have it serve our personal or political goals.

Take the rest of the debate. Near the end, one of the people said that, since I disagree with Maher's comments, I should write a blog post expressing my disgust. Except I'm not disgusted. Not in the least bit. Have you ever watched a Bill Maher comedy sketch? This isn't even close to the most inflammatory thing he's ever said. In addition, in this day when the mainstream media spends all of its time ripping the mainstream media, while showing far more commentary than actual news, I find it sad that we are once again turning to a comedian to express our social frustration. Like a few years ago, just before Crossfire was canceled, right after Stewart went on the show to tell news channel hosts to stop comparing real news to his late night comedy show. I understand that many people get their news from comedians these days, especially youth (although I'm guessing most 20-somethings aren't watching Bill Maher), but it speaks volumes about where our news media is that these guys have such giant political voices. It also speaks volumes about where the state of comedy is that Jay Leno still has a job, but that's another post.

Anyway, I got off topic. First, it should be recognized that racism does not bother me. I grew up the son of a black father and a white mother. I was raised by my white mother in an impoverished, heavily minority neighborhood. I'd say I had three best friends in the neighborhood growing up, one Asian, one Latino, and one mixed guy like me. The only people I ever saw getting into trouble were black. In high school alone, I went to a high class, private, 90-something percent white private school, a low-class, poor, high minority public school, and an extremely diverse, mixed income, public school. I had best friends that were white, black, Asian, Latino, you name it. At Garfield I played football, basketball and baseball. At one point I was the only black player on the varsity baseball team (which can also be said about my current office). At one point I was one of like five not full black players in the whole basketball program. And the only other white guy I can remember playing football the year I did was the kicker, Karel. The point is, I took racism from both sides of the aisle - the "House Negro" up in the AP section trying to learn something, and one story I'll never forget.

In eighth grade, I was a starter on the Whitman Middle School boy's basketball team, a school I would later spend five years coaching at - coincidentally the five most successful years in the program's history. My best friend, Kevin, grew up right up the street, in the "upper middle class" neighborhood, as opposed to the upper class neighborhood in the other direction. I, on the other hand, lived 10 miles away, in the inner city. Both Kevin and I played on the Whitman team, games every Thursday, while also playing on separate rec league teams. One Saturday, my predominantly black (and soon to be City Champion) rec league team, came to Whitman to play Kevin's all-white team. We killed them. More specifically put, I killed them. I had like 25 points, which is unheard of in a rec game. Even remember the final score: 60-24.

But at one point, I was dribbling next to the sideline, a place I'd spent many days do that same exact thing, with Kevin defending me a few feet away. A mother was sitting court side, closer to me than Kevin was. While I'm standing there, she leaned in to the woman next to her and said, "I wish they'd just send these poor black kids back to their welfare and food stamps where they came from. They shouldn't be on the court with our kids." I froze. Not the first or nearly the last time I'd heard something like that, but it was the circumstance. I knew every single kid on the other team. I went to school with all of them, and was friends with most of them. Surely this mother had to know that, because I'd seen her at Whitman games before. Even Kevin froze. No one could believe that she'd just said that loud enough to be heard. We were 14.

We finished the game, shook hands, went to Kevin's house for food and put it out of our minds, but it's stuck with me. That type of in your face racism happens everyday across this country. But does it change my life? Not in the slightest. Everyday I am sad for that woman. Yet, a kid who almost flunked out of middle school at one point, now sits in a nice Washington, DC office, despite years of racist and classist comments. I've always felt that you choose the way words affect you. Some can cut deeper, of course. But one thing I always noticed living in the inner city was that fights rarely over started over actions, but words. Pride was always the motivator. Pride puts a lot of black people in jail. It used to run my life too.

And yet we're worried about what some white comedian said on ABC. This, while an oil spill threatens to devastate one of the most highly-minority populated areas of the country - again, unemployment in the black community is higher than the Yankees batting average and a few weeks ago a black man, early 20's, shot nine people in DC over a misplaced bracelet. Yeah, priorities, right?

Maher was right about one thing. Imagine if the Tea Party was a group of black people, carrying guns and talking about social change. Come to think of it, that's happened before. On a much larger scale, for a much larger purpose. And it was bloody. I'd like to think that we've advanced from that point, but I'm not so sure. When a black pastor said, "God damn America...for treating your citizens as less than human," it was all the outrage, as was the black church. Even though the full sermon was about how governments change, exactly what the Tea Party is now asking for. The sequence right around the actual comment was about how governments fail. I'm not sure that even the girl I was arguing with would claim that the US government hasn't failed blacks at some point, even today. But only that one line came out, and that black church, Obama's church, was ridiculed throughout the media.

Racism is two-sided. When I look at Bill Maher's comments, I don't see them as racist - ignorant yes, but not racist. I'm not sure calling someone else racist makes you racist, unless those who argue the other side say he is saying most racist people are rich and white (also known as Republicans). He said something stupid. Not racist. You know who else recently did something stupid? Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, who completely left slavery out of a declaration making April Confederate History Month (can already see the eyes rolling - "he fixed it!" - thinking this wasn't a big deal). So, he would celebrate the great history of the commonwealth, yet leave out the most divisive part where all the black people reside? And that isn't a bigger deal than someone saying racists are usually Republicans? To the people who argued with me, where were you on that? I heard nothing. This was a governor, a representative of people, who made this omission. Where were you?

Nowhere. But you feel no shame, because you'll find some other place where he's done something good, like saying working women hurt the family structure. Or you'll just pivot to something Barack Obama has done wrong, because you "give credit where credit is due." To which I say fine. If you're going to play politics, play politics. Just stop pretending that your politics are above my politics. We are both equally dishonest and ridiculous, on a daily basis, because that is how politics work.

And to that end, here is some credit where credit is due. Finally, the Republican party is embracing a few black candidates. And look, even that left-leaning scourge of humanity, the New York Times had it on the front page, above the fold.