Racial McCarthyism abounds in 2010. America is scared and any accusation of racism is quickly and aggressively addressed. But the protection against racism and bigotry in post racial America is now confined to perceived offenses towards Anglo Americans.
While Anglo Americans have not suffered the nooses of the KKK, have not felt the humiliation of Jim Crow laws, have not feared a state in which they must carry their passports at all times, nor have seen restaurant signs comparing them to dogs, the media- government- political complex of the 21st century is now thoroughly devoted to their protection from racism.
The swift reaction of the Obama administration in the notorious incident of Shirley Sherrod is an indication that the fear of the accusation of racism against white Americans has spread into official Washington. The success of the frame-up of an honest and decent farm-saving hero by the Joe McCarthy of race, Andrew Breitbart, is unfortunately just a symptom of the hysteria that has gripped the media and political elite.
Apparently the trio of Breitbart, the GOP, and the Tea Party are the now racial conscience of America. It seems that any creative edit from the triangle of racial terror can suffice to inspire the strength of the federal government to strike down any individual or organization that crosses their path. Shirley Sherrod was indeed lucky that a white farmer came to her defense early or she and the NAACP would have gone the way of ACORN. The fear of anti-white racial accusations has so gripped DC that we can expect future Salem-like trials with Sean Hannity presiding as judge and Goody Breitbart serving as the entranced petitioner.
Breitbart and the Republican party he caters to have found a way to scare the world's most powerful executive branch and the once venerable US Senate into fits with the mere upload function on YouTube. While it's amusing to watch the mass hypnosis the right has performed on the DC media complex, it has real and very negative consequences. One of the most apparent outcomes includes the way in which the US Senate has refused to address immigration reform.
The un-confirmable and fantastical wide-scale anti-Anglo bias, combined with the phantom menace of headless white corpses in the Arizona desert, has been enough to scare DC into a paralysis that perpetuates an entire shadow underclass of abused workers in America. The leaders of our country are so scared of the scare that they have deemed it acceptable to throw the dreams of immigrant college-bound young adults into the streets and to discard the US- born children of undocumented workers into cold detention cells.
There is no reason to not have fixed the immigration system in this country long ago other than the fear of the race-based illusions created by a few cruel grand wizards pulling levers behind sheet curtains, yet DC cowers like a weak lion when they bellow.
After the McCarthy hearings and after the Salem trials there was much gnashing of teeth and wringing of hands. Hindsight is clear and history can prove to be a heartless critic. The media and those in power are at a juncture: will sanity be brought to bear or will we continue to dunk important policies in the hunt for witches?
Mario Solis-Marich is the online editor of MyLatinoNews.com and a progressive talk show host that can be heard on AM 760 in Denver and streamed at WWW.GoToMario.com Mondays through Fridays from 4 PM MT to 7 PM MT.