Commentary:

In defense of one man's outrage

David Anderson at In Search of Utopia has been posting extensively on what appear to be attempts to effectively disenfranchise black voters in Florida and other "battleground" states. Some right-wing bloggers have unkindly said that David is "drinking kool-aid" and going overboard in his outrage over this issue.

I would like to say that although David's vehemence can appear irrational, I do not think that his outrage is unjustified. I grew up in the South, among people who had no problem looking down on people who's skin color happened to be dark, among people who used the "n-word" that I find so offensive that I cannot even type it and feel soiled if I say it. In some respects I can directly relate to David's outrage, even though I'm so white that I'm mistaken for German, English, Irish, French (just to name a few) here in Europe. While growing up, I saw discrimination practiced first-hand, and I saw the attitudes underlying it. I have even experienced discrimination against me for my ethnicity, working for Asian managers in a Japanese owned corporation. While it wasn't the pervasive cultural bias that was still present in the South I grew up in, it gave me some insight into the helpless rage that is induced when you realize no matter how well you perform, no matter what you do, someone of a different color/physical makeup will come out ahead of you even if they don't merit it.

I don't agree with all of David's political views, but he has never made the kind of ridiculous statements of the kind I have read on the weblogs of those who accuse David of being overwrought on this issue. Yes, David is outraged over the appearance of black voter disenfranchisement, but given that it has indeed happened in the recent past, and understanding the helplessness felt when subjected to this form of discrimination, I feel that those who are saying David is going over-the-top are showing what shallow people they are. Instead of trying to place themselves in David's position, with the history behind it, they just say "well, he's over-reacting," complacent in their rights because they have never had them truly threatened, and conveniently forgetting their overwrought rhetoric on their own weblogs on other topics close to their hearts, rhetoric that far exceeds anything David has written on this issue that hits close to the core of his being.

Race issues are sensitive everywhere, but in the United States they are extraordinarily so. Japan still practices discrimination, South Africa had government enforced discrimination until fairly recently, and the history of Europe is replete with instances of ethnic based strife and war. However, sadly, the United States was one of the last "first-world" nations to end the practice of race-based slavery, and the history after that time was almost as shameful. While I have rather ambiguous opinions regarding some of David's excoriations of other bloggers whose skin color happens to be black but who hold right-wing views, I do feel I understand his outrage over the apparent playing the race-disenfranchisement card in the tactical plans to win this election, and I do not feel that his strong emotional response is unjustified. I merely hope that his record of being able to take a breath, step back, and evaluate evidence fairly is retained when examining this topic.