The time is now

Yesterday, I was at the office, working and reading emails. I got one from a nephew and another from his father--my brother.

I was surprised.

Both were racist.

I knew they were both capable of it but hadn't gotten any of these from them in the last couple of years and so, had forgotten their proclivity for them.

The first asked, supposedly (apparently?) seriously how all the African-Americans could get to Washington for the inauguration of President Obama but not out of New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina made landfall.

The ignorance was stunning.

To them and the person who wrote it, both groups were the same people. And apparently, also, the same situation. Or some such. There's twisted logic in there somewhere, I'm sure.

The 2nd one was a picture of a box, propped up with a stick that had a slice of watermelon under it.

It said it was a "plot to kidnap President Obama."

Again, such monumental racism it shocked me.

I thought, if they didn't know how stupid it was, at least they should know to not send it to me.

My responses for both were the same. I just wrote back that both were racist.

That's it.

And that is what we need to start and keep doing.

Every time we see this stuff, we need to call it out for what it is. It's not difficult.

Everyone needs to do this. It's easy and doesn't take much time. And everyone who calls themselves "Christian" or who belongs to a religion should step up and take this stand.

It was reported today that an African-American family was on the road in West Texas for 8 hours and showed up at the motel where they had reservations. A man gardening there started shouting at them that they couldn't stay there. He seemed to make it clear it was because they were black, too.

It's more racism, if their story pans out.

We have an African-American President, folks. It's 2009. We're smarter than all this.

The racism has to stop.

Let's see to it.