‘White America has lost its mind’

Yeah, going to have to go ahead and agree with the Village Voice‘s Steven Thrasher on this one. I’m happy to say I have a broad spectrum of friends and family members, but the less educated they are and the more rural their living situation, the more likely it is that they watch Faux News, listen to conservative talk radio, collect guns and think other white people feel the same way they do about race relations. They also enjoy circulating, usually via e-mail, a variety of conspiracy theories marginalizing “others” as well as predictions about the world’s demise.

It’s pretty scary, actually. Some of these folks are really banking on the world collapsing, Jesus returning to whisk them away and their gun collection saving their hide when all the brown-skinned people come to get them. Incidentally, many of them brag about how they’ve never lived, or traveled, anywhere other than within the boundaries the county they were born in.

Get mad at me for that description if you want, but you know I’m speaking the truth. Don’t make me get one of my crazy relatives from Alablamastan on the phone …

Fortunately, most of the people I spend quality time with are a lot more rational than that. And, let me just add that I don’t shun my crazy friends and relatives. I listen to them and try to make sense out of their rambling rage, but ultimately I’m a fan of inclusiveness, tolerance and positivity. (It should be noted that they think I’m nuts also because I’ve got — gasp — Jewish, Muslim, Latino, Asian and African-American friends … the white immigrant friends, though, have “cute accents.” Mmmkay.)

Still, knowing what I know about those on the far-right fringe, bless their hearts, I totally understand where Thrasher got his material … and I think he’s spot on.

Here’s a snippet from his article:

As with other forms of dementia, the signs weren’t obvious at first. After the 2008 election, when former House majority leader Tom DeLay suggested that instead of a formal inauguration, Barack Obama should “have a nice little chicken dinner, and we’ll save the $125 million,” black folks didn’t miss the implication. References to chicken, particularly of the fried variety, have long served as a kind of code when white folks referred to black people and their gustatory preferences—and weren’t many of us already accustomed to older white politicians making such gaffes? But who among us sensed that it was a harbinger that an entire nation was plunging into madness?

Who didn’t chuckle, after all, the first time they heard that white people had doubts that Barack Obama had even been born in the United States and was therefore ineligible to be president? It sounded like one of those Internet stories in which some (usually white) writer does his best to prove something everyone knows to be true is actually the exact opposite. And you go along with it for a few paragraphs to see how long the writer can convince you that what you know is right is actually wrong.

Seemed like that, didn’t it? After all, what was the beef? Obama’s father was Kenyan, and the kid was born in Hawaii—which is barely a part of the United States to begin with (only a state in 1959!). His mother was white, and after the Kenyan guy left, she married an Indonesian guy, so little Barack lived in Jakarta for a while before coming back to Hawaii to be brought up largely by his white grandparents. . . . And that’s it? Come on, this was after-school-special material, the kind of thing that brings a tear to your eye because little half-Kenyan/half-white Barry made good, not the stuff of conspiracy novels.

But the more you shook your head at it, the more it seemed to have taken root deep in the lizard part of the white nervous system. Obama is not an American. He says he’s Christian, but he has a Muslim-sounding name. He’s not black, he’s not white. . . . Is . . . is he even human?

Today, Newsweek has found, nearly a quarter of Americans believe that Obama is a Muslim, with barely 42 percent of the nation accepting his claim that he’s a Christian. CNN finds that a quarter of Americans also believe that Obama was “probably or definitely” born in another country.

Harris found in an online poll that 14 percent of Americans believe in their hearts that President Barack Obama is the antichrist, with nearly a quarter of Republicans saying so.

At least in this form, however, Satan (sometimes) wears a flag pin.

Read the rest of the article, which is spot on, here.

One assumption is that white Americans are losing their shit because, after centuries of dominating — and let’s face it, abusing — other people, they’re not going to be part of the largest demographic in a few years:

Rhiannon “Rhi” Bowman is an independent journalist who contributes snarky commentary on Creative Loafing’s CLog blog four days a week in addition to writing for several other local media organizations. Additionally, she’s on the steering committee for the Greater Charlotte Society of Professional Journalists. To learn more, click the links or follow Rhi on Twitter.

This article appears in Sep 28 – Oct 4, 2010.