Racism in Politics and the Press

Racism in America

Faith Harkness

JRN425: Journalism & Politics

Instructor Stephanie Miclot

July 25, 2012

Racism in Politics and the Press

        Racial issues, or more to the point, racism is nothing new to this country.  The idea of the United States of America being the land of the free and a place where people of every creed, color, nationality can come together to form one single, cohesive unit—while definitely a beautiful thought—has not come to pass as smoothly as our forefathers likely would have imagined.  The leaning is no longer towards the belief system of old racism, which dealt mostly with the inferiority of any races not white due to biological differences and more towards the new racism which has its basis in using established institutions to achieve the mental association that these races are a threat due to a recognized and continual behavior.  One institution that seems to be used pervasively in this regard is the media.  But while some believe that race relations have shown a marked improvement since the election of the first African American President, Barack Obama, media exacerbates the racial divide by generally portraying minorities in a negative light using wordplay to perpetuate drama, and up-playing others racial innuendos and slurs disguised as news.

        As election time comes around again, people are remembering the issues that occurred in the presidential race four years ago and are beginning to see the tell-tell signs that it is starting to happen again. With the running of President Barack Obama and subsequent election to many it seemed like a war of the races—African American against Caucasian Americans.  The 2008 elections were considered something of epic proportions.  While there had been other African Americans who had run for president, none seemed to be actual contenders, but Obama was different.  His charisma and likeability made him a force to be reckoned with.  It seemed apparent that African American citizens would be voting for Obama—not because of his beliefs or the platform that he was running under, but simply because he was Black.  Conversely, others believed that he would not be elected for that same reason, because of the assumption that white people would not allow, nor would they want, a Black man in the White House.  But the question remained—why not? If indeed Barack Obama had all the qualifications to make him a good president-elect, why should race deter him?

        On the night that Obama addressed the nation for the first time as its new president-elect he was quoted as saying, “If there is anyone out there who doubts that American is a place where anything is possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer” (Johnson, 2008).  And yet, it is obvious that there is still a racial divide.  For example, during a speaking engagement in Sioux City, IA on January 1st, Republican presidential hopeful, Rick Santorum in discussing a dependence on federal aid, specifically mentioned African Americans as recipients, “I don’t want to make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money; I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money and provide for themselves and their families” (Robbins, 2012).  Ironically, the audience was mostly Caucasian and of the reported number of people in Iowa that are on food stamps, only nine percent were black, as opposed to the 84 percent that are white (Madison, 2012).  So why did Rick Santorum feel the need to explicitly single out one race above any others or even mention a particular race at all?  

Santorum claims that he does not recall doing so and says that he is totally and completely against racism in any form.  In fact, he claims that he meant to say one word, changed his mind and was going to say something altogether different, inadvertently saying “black”.  If that is the case, then this is still a perfect case of a Freudian slip, which is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary (2012) as, “a slip of the tongue that is motivated by and reveals some unconscious aspect of the mind.”  But this is not the only slip of the tongue Santorum has had along the campaign trail.  In a speech given in Janesville, WI on March 27th, again he made huge faux pas and to those listening, it sounded as if he started to call President Obama a “government nigger” (Unedited Politics, 2012) and then stopped himself.  The debate that is playing out in the media is whether or not this is truly what he meant to say.  Though at this point, the answer is unknown, one can correctly and more than likely assume it is due to the new racism that is holding the country in its grasp.  And this is whether or not he meant to say it, the idea that he may have said it still perpetrates the notion old notion that black people are inferior and a blight to our nation.