What Do Progressives Mean By " Racist"?

WHAT DO PROGRESSIVES MEAN WHEN THEY ACCUSE "RACISM"

Please understand when I write this particular blog, I have not done research as I usually do, and am expressing a purely subjective opinion and a conjecture based on what a compilation of observations. I hope merely to open a debate and dialogue on this question which I do not believe anyone has asked yet...

I have been listening to a lot of accusations being thrown out by the Progressives, Liberals, and Die -Hard Democrat pundits accusing the opposition to President Obama, his policies and the direction of the Democrat controlled Congress of "Racism". I have heard former President Jimmy Carter ( the man personally responsible for destroying any youthful tendencies of liberalism in me) spout off how he believed that the majority of the marchers in DC were motivated by racism and that many did not feel like a black man was qualified to be President of the United States. Let us forget that this man was himself truly not capable of being a president himself, and focus our attention the his claim. I am curious as to what the basis or what evidence that he has. I saw many signs at the rallies I have attended and at the rallies I have not. Not once have I seen a sign with the "N" word in it, or something akin to "see what you get when you put a black man in power" or "have we sunk so low as to reduce our standards of the presidency". No overt or covert suggestions that because we have a black man in office we are offended.
Then it hit me as I was listening to a syndicated talk radio show this afternoon, when two educated black men with diametrically opposite views of the protest were expressing their opinions as to the motivation of the protest march. One man stated that he had voted for President Obama but thought these charges were groundless rhetoric and baseless, even demeaning. The other was a civil rights attorney( with 20 years experience). He could not name persons or instances of what he believed were racism but when pressed he stated that the calling of President Obama a "communist, a socialist , a fascist" and more importantly calling him a "radical was a code word (sic: the "n" word )" was the basis of his opinion.

This conversation solidified the questions into one for me. I no longer was asking " how could they come up with such a charge? what is the evidence? Are they stupid or is this just a political ploy? The question became a search instead, as this relatively young black spokesman represented the debate itself.

What does he mean by racism? Certainly, if he goes back into the 60's several groups of black activists and even black militant groups were labeled "radical" The Black Panthers were often described as radical. Perhaps in the charged environment of the 60's some die hard racists might have hidden behind that accusation. Certainly, they black community itself was awakening as never before and acting ways it had never done.
Yet there is a fact that is overlooked by the left or perhaps deliberately ignored. The Black Panthers were radicals by their own definition, with ties to Marxism ,Black Nationalism, and even anarchy. Yet there were predominately white organizations equally extreme that were also labelled radical. The Weatherman is an example. The SDS another. Each had similar affinities to Marxism and the overthrow of the US government as then existing. What set these groups apart from the many organizations that protested and marched in those days is their fundamental belief that the US government, the system it represented, and the concepts behind our Republic were wrong, evil and in need of destruction. Much of the protesting during the Viet Nam War, from all the camps were expressions of disagreement of policy, not the fundamental nature of the US government itself.

The irony of trying to link the charge of racism to communism or socialism is that these social and political entities are egalitarian. That is, race, sex or nationalism are eliminated. All persons are viewed as equals. These societies in theory are color blind. In fact, history shows that, especially in the case of Communism, Communist countries have existed in Latin America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Every color and race have communist representatives. The same can be said of socialism. Fascism would even be more absurd in regards to merely linking it to President Obama's color. The major examples of fascism were the National Socialist Party and Mussolini's National Fascist Party. The Nazis believed to a greater degree than the Italians that blacks were subhuman and an inferior race. To say a black man resembles Hitler because of his race would be absurd to ridiculous.

The sad realization of this belief that "Radical =Racism" belies an unfortunate understanding of not only the very important definitions and connotations of the words, but a sad lacking of the understanding of why the word radical was used in the past in describing a group of black activists and militants. The word radical itself was even used by King George III to describe our founders. Each of the labels is accurate because radical is an abrupt and often unexpected departure from the norm. Even sadder is the sad lack of understanding of the political nature of the other names used. Further adding sadness, is the lack of understanding of why the communism, socialism, fascist and even radical are dangerous to our way of life and the very foundation of our country. I am saddened by the prospect that this young black man's thinking, his conduct, and his spirit is clouded by anger and perhaps his own form of racism.

To be clear on the question, it is important for the progressives to understand that we refer to the type of thinking, tactics, and politics of Saul Alinsky who wrote (strangely enough, the manifesto for these aforementioned groups) "Rules for Radicals" This book is the Bible ( asking forgiveness from the Almighty on the comparison- Alinsky dedicates his book to Lucifer....). It is very familiar to czars within President Obama's inner circle. I believe the President is very familiar with it either directly or through his associations with his friends and devotees such as William Ayers and Bernadette Dorn. Alinski's son praises our President for being a master at it.

I ask the Progressives to look up racism and then come back with examples other than the accusations of disagreement of policies and even the accusations of the President's being a communist et al. Show us the signs like the ones in Alabama in the 60's. Show us the racially provocative slurs. Show us the ethnically biased thought. Otherwise cease the ridiculous accusations of racism and get on the real debate as to whether the other terms are accurate or not. And by the way, you might do some reading on those topics before you open the debate.