Why Bill Maher is Not Racist
I suspect the reason why the term ‘racist’ is such an easy term to use nowadays is because it is a word without standard or objective criteria. And since “racist” is such a subjective term, like “hot” or “cool," one can apply it to anything or anyone, without fear of contradiction, or charges of unfairness, or charges of hypocrisy.
If it were not so, then how could someone on the Left so shamelessly behave as if s/he is an official arbiter of what is racist? Without the obligation of having to define the word, those on the Left obviously feel free to use it in any manner that suits their fancy, and what suits their fancy is to use the word to bludgeon anyone who does not share their progressive, atheistic worldview, all the while absolving their ideological soulmates from it, regardless of what they say or do.
Take for example this comment on Obama’s handling of the BP oil spill: "I thought when we elected a black president, we were going to get a black president. You know, this [BP oil spill] is where I want a real black president. I want him in a meeting with the BP CEOs, you know, where he lifts up his shirt where you can see the gun in his pants. That's -- (in black man voice) we've got a 'motherf***ing problem here?' Shoot somebody in the foot." Would you think this person is a racist?
How about if I told you the originator of the quote above once said “I don't know, it was just, it was just a crappy week for America. The oil spill making a huge mess. And Arizona deporting all the people who mop up." Is that racist?
What if this same someone was sued by an African-American ex-girlfriend for physical and verbal abuse, including making “degrading racial comments?" By now you would have to conclude that the person I’m referring to is clearly a racist. After all, Rush Limbaugh, who played a song parody called “Barack, the Magic Negro," based on a column by an African-American writer calling Barack Obama a “magic Negro," is called a racist. Tea Partiers who protest Obama because of his policies are called racist. Surely anyone depicting our first African-American president as a stereotypical gangsta thug would be called a racist as well.
However, if you are a liberal, you probably won’t, because the person I’m quoting is Bill Maher, who has become somewhat of a spokesperson for progressivism over the years, thanks to his shows on ABC and, now, HBO. In fact, not only can’t Maher be a racist, he -- in his role as liberal commentator -- gets to determine who is indeed a racist. But that determination is easy, it is simply anyone with an R next to their name on their voter registration card. As Maher said on ABC’s This Week, “I would never say, and I have never said, because it's not true that Republicans, all Republicans are racists. That would be silly and wrong. But nowadays, if you are racist, you're probably a Republican.”
In a rational world, Bill Maher would be denounced for what he is -- a racist -- regardless of how he votes. However, in the world that we have, it is only possible to label a person a racist if someone finds a few copies of The Weekly Standard in a brown paper bag hidden on the top shelf in his or her closet, even if that person is African-American. A white person, however, is by definition a non-racist, even if caught burning a cross on a black family’s lawn, if he or she drives up to that lawn in a car that has the appropriate “Hope and Change” bumper sticker . . .
--DK