Hermain Cain, a leading Republican presidential nominee, is at it again when it comes hopping from one side of the racial aisle to the other. This time his linguistic missile is aimed at President Obama, ludicrously charging that the Oval Office occupant was never part of the black experience.
In a radio interview prior to the Republican televised debates with, of course, conservative radio talk show host Neal Boortz, Cain again roams freely across the racial landscape with aplomb, ricocheting off either extreme side depending on its political expedience and ability to help his campaign.
When Boortz goaded Cain with the prospect of going head-to-head with President Obama in general election debates, which now seems more probable than ever, Cain’s bravado kicked into overdrive: “It would almost be no contest,” Cain opined.
That’s expected. Like a proud and talented athlete, no one would expect a person of Cain’s intellect and pedigree to say he hoped he would have a chance against the incumbent.
But here’s where it’s get dangerous. Conservatives and extreme right-wing personalities like Boortz now feel comfortable lobbing racial zingers, and Cain has shown he is willing and able to slam dunk these types of verbal ally-oops. Boortz and others now have the testicular fortitude to suggest that Cain would be able to talk about the black experience in America.
“[Obama’s] never been a part of the black experience in America,” Cain answered on cue, tap-dancing to Boortz lead-in.
Why Cain would even entertain such a question or even allow a racist right-wing person to even suggest that Cain is qualified to talk about the “black experience,” as if this white person has the qualifications to decide who can be the black spokesperson, is tantamount to racial pandering.
What is also reckless about this interview is the fact that Cain would even utter the statement that Obama is not part of the “black experience” in this country. He did not elaborate, of course, because there is no way to rationalize such an absurd pronouncement.
Thirdly, the media is enabling Cain’s repugnant racial double dipping, the way a family member enables a crack addict by giving him or her money to supposedly get something to eat. No one is checking Cain on his racial hypocrisy and contradictions on the air. One day, Cain minimizes racism in America, saying race has not done much to stop blacks in America, now or before, which is preposterous. Cain takes great pains to say that blacks and whites are not very different. But then he says that the president doesn’t have a black experience to speak of. Well, which is it? If we are all the basically the same and have had the same experience in America, then there can be no “black experience,” can there?
But when you are playing before friendly audiences, as Cain performs before right-wingers, then no one is interested in the truth as much as they want their sensibilities to be tickled and massaged.
–terry shropshire
