Many southern senators won't let go of their racist past

By Gail Moore

I must admit that with all of the mud slinging in this presidential election, it takes a punch in the gut to make me stop and say, "How dare you?"
Such was the case in April, when Republican Rep. Geoff Davis of Kentucky said of Barack Obama, "That boy's finger does not need to be on the [nuclear] button."
How insulting.
This statement proves once again that many in the Republican Party are seriously out of touch with reality. It leaves me to ask Rep. Davis what news source he watches. What newspaper does he read? And has he been to his children's school lately? However, Rep. Davis is a new-found southerner and a staunch conservative who's voted with the Bush Administration 90 percent of the time. There's a clue there.
Rep. Davis, in America in this millennium, numerous words have been banished from use in public speaking. However, they slip out by accident sometimes, and "Good Old Boys like yourself must either apologize or defend them.
I'll give you a quick course in public speaking, Rep. Davis. The use of the word "Boy" when referring to an adult Black male and the word "Gal" when referring to an adult Black woman are legacies of America's racist past. I'm sure "Good Old Boys" like you, and many Whites for that matter, long for the good old days. But the days when Whites could speak their racism freely without reprimand are over.
Calling a Black adult male "Boy" is a legacy of the old south; a south when White people believed themselves superior but learned they weren't; a south where Whites ruled through force and intimidation; a south which launched a civil war for control and power but conceded shamelessly in defeat.
I know it's hard to let go, Rep. Davis, but the new south is exploding with diversity. The growth in the number of Black and Brown families in the south now outpaces White families' growth. Wow, I'm sure that scares the heck out of you. I've taught my children, and they will teach theirs not to stand for the use of insulting racist remarks made by elected politicians. I've taught them to organize and get them out.
It should be a requirement of White elected officials to see the movie Roots or expand their brain by reading the 600-plus-page epic American novel. The book chronicles the Black experience in America. However, Rep Davis, an immigrant born in Montreal, Canada, probably saw no need to know American history.
With early intervention, Rep. Davis's distorted view of reality could have been corrected — perhaps in the 1960s during his time in elementary school in West Philadelphia. Then again, at West Point in the 1980s Rep. Davis studied alongside Black, Latino, and female students, which should have been an awakening.
I'm sure during his military service to this country Rep. Davis broke bread with many Black, Latino, and Asian soldiers, but to call a Black solider "Boy" in those surroundings probably would have resulted in a case of whoop-ass.
The point I'm trying to make is that if your elected official is so out of touch with reality that it's repulsive to hear them, how effectively can they lead?
If an elected official still expels the rhetoric of America's racist past, does he or she really understand the dynamics of America's growing diversity?
It's time to move on. As America faces the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression, a loss of international respect, loss of the middle class and a changing ethnic demographic our leaders much change too. Not only do we need elected officials in office who understands these dynamics, but we deserve one. Move on, Rep. Davis, because you're the problem.