Arizona State And Archie Bunker

I know that white folks believe that black people are paranoid when it comes to race. I admit that we are. All too often we will take a normal human interaction and internalize it into a racial slight. Sometimes - okay most of the time - it is not about race, the person is just a jerk. You cannot be subjected to 400 years of constant mental and physical abuse in a society and heal in a few decades. And it does not matter if the President of the United States is black. To be black in America is to be emotionally fractured.

However, call me paranoid, but there is some racist shit that has been going on with our President. First, Arizona State University snubbed President Obama, announcing that it would not be granting him a Honorary Degree. Their reasoning: his body of work has not warranted such an award. There are some things that are so ignorant that you don’t even try to defend or analyze. It speaks for itself. The University has since recanted and I have no doubt that someone will be forced to fall on his or her sword behind this.

Then, there is the furor over the President speaking at Notre Dame because his views on abortion and stem cell research are condemned by the Catholic Church. The biggest screamer is my favorite right-winger, Pat Buchannan. For some reason, I just like the guy. Maybe it’s because he insults me and then lets out that big Irish laugh. Anyway, when President George Bush came to speak at Notre Dame, he had a record of putting so many inmates to death in Texas Penitentiaries, that they should be renamed Slaughterhouse Number 5. The Catholic Church has historically condemned capital punishment. However, not a voice in dissent was raised by Buchannan or Catholic Bishops.

But ASU's comments that the President's "body of work did not warrant a Honorary Degree" was a stab in the heart of every African-American in the country. We have all been there before. No matter how many fancy degrees we get, no matter how hard we work on the assembly line, when it comes time to be rewarded for our work, all too often we are told we are not quite good enough.

I have a law school classmate that worked at a Fortune 500 as a tax lawyer. He is a fellow graduate of Tulane Law, except he graduated in the top ten percent. He went on to get his LLM in Tax Law at NYU, the best program in the country. When it came time for his promotion, his boss told him that they wanted to give him the pay raise, but not the title. Seems he was moving up too fast and some of his co-workers who had been there longer would resent it. Stunned, he told his boss "if the title does not come with money, I will not be happy." They immediately gave him the title and the money. He is no longer working for that company and they are no longer in business.

It's like running the hundred yard dash and breaking the world record and the judges say you had on improper shoes. So you run it again and break the record again, and the judge says, the wind was at your back.

Some white people feel they need to put us in our place. They need to always remind us that they are better than us, even if you are the President of the United States.

One of my favorite episodes of All in the Family occurred when Sammy Davis Jr. was a surprise guest at the Bunkers. Archie pleaded with Sammy to explain to his meathead son-in-law that he was not a racist. Sammy said "Archie for you be a racist, that would have to mean that you believe you are better than me. And, after spending the last 30 minutes with you, I am here to tell you, you ain’t better than nobody." Archie turned to Meathead with this big smile on his face. Some white folks will never get it.