"He's just not my kind of guy"

Let me preface this posting today by saying that the first part of this blog, word for word, is from J. Scheckner of americablog.com.

Jon Stewart's A block was laugh out loud funny last night. The Chris Matthews/Terry McAuliffe bit (6 minutes in) is a must-see if you missed it. But the portion that got me thinking was the part about the media coverage of the West Virginia primary results. Stewart highlights the dance-around-it dance describing why Clinton came out on top: "her working class base""working class whites""white voters earning less than $50,000""blue collar whites""white regular people""white rural Americans"Stewart's report also showed soundbites from three West Virginian women who possibly unknowingly outed themselves as racist and grossly misinformed. Why is it we can't just call it like it is? White, uneducated, poor voters in West Virginia don't identify with the suburban-raised, Wellesley and Yale Law educated former First Lady and Senator from "the big city." A majority voted for Clinton because she's white. Or to be even more blunt, because she's not black.I know anchors, reporters, and pundits can't come right out and say it - as Stewart spent 5 minutes pointing out - but I don't know why. Racism is shameful and the behavior of ignorant, close-minded people. We may be hesitant to label someone a racist, but if someone won't vote for a black man because he's black, then guess what? Here's your name-tag, Princess Bigot. I actually think pretending otherwise is a problem. Maybe if people didn't think it was acceptable to hate based on race, we'd spread a little good. Ignoring the issue isn't going to make it disappear. Euphemisms only perpetuate the myth that we're somehow past the ugly, naked truth. And the results from Tuesday's primary - where many poor, uneducated, white folks voted for the millionaire white woman because they saw no viable alternative - prove we are buried deeper in the racist muck than anyone in the media cares - or dares - to admit. Why has it become taboo to tell it like it is? Who are we afraid of offending? The offensive? I say if someone's that ignorant in the year 2008, she's earned it.

I'm not saying people that we as a country are racist. We have so many examples that mentioning them seems futile. My question is will we ever get to a point in this country where we are not racist anymore. Yes, I am a left leaning, middle class, white person, from the suburbs of Minneapolis... However, excuse my optimism, I think by the year of 2200, there will be almost no racism in America. Let's start by looking at the past of America and see how far we have come. 100 years ago, the most targeted groups for racism were probably the Irish, the Italians, and the Jews. I have never once heard a sincere racist statement pointed at the Irish or Italians and it took until I was a freshman in college until I heard my first anti-Jewish comment. That is an amazing improvement in just 100 years against several groups of people. 150 years ago, blacks were only counted as 3/5 of a person in terms of voting. Today, we have a real chance of electing a black man to be president of the United States. In the scheme of things, 150 years is not that long. It's only a half a dozen or so generations. I am very optimistic that we will eliminate racism by the time our great grandchildren are our age.

1. I hate Title IX. About twenty years ago, the NCAA decided they were going to do their part for equality. So, they came up with a rule Title IX which basically says two things - Colleges must either spend the same amount of money on men's and women's sports or have the same number of participants. Unfortunately, the result of this is still being felt today. It took a few years, but in the past twenty years, almost every college has had to cut a lot of men's sports to comply with Title IX. Yesterday, Arizona State University said they are cutting Men's swimming, men's tennis, and men's wrestling. The University of Oregon said they are cutting men's wrestling earlier this week. Why? Because sports like football cost so much money, schools would go broke if they had to pay the same amounts of money for men and women. At Iowa State, there are a lot of sports in which there are women's teams but not men's teams. Soccer, softball/baseball, tennis, swimming, volleyball, and gymnastics. At one time, Iowa State had all of those sports where men could play. In fact, Iowa State's men's swimming, and gymnastics teams had three national championships. After Title IX. They had to axe them all. At Arizona State, last year they added women's fencing and women's water polo. In the state of Arizona, there are almost 6000 official high school boys who wrestle. High school wrestling is huge in AZ. Guess how many official water polo and fencing team participants? Zero would be the correct answer. I am sorry my liberal friends, but I cannot stand for forced equality programs like Affirmative Action and Title IX.

2. In drinking news, Miller Brewing Co. is starting to see cash-strapped drinkers trading down to economy beers, the company's chief executive said. This is great news for Anay "Keystone Light" Amin, Josh "pour me another Old Milwaukee"... But don't mind me fellas, I will be enjoying the High Life.