Limbaugh, Hannity, Wright and White Racism -- The Visible Ceiling

When Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity claim that Reverend Jeremiah Wright's outspoken sermons against white racism and bigotry are themselves a form of racism, Rush and Sean are engaging in the worst kind of lying demagoguery. How do you speak out against white racism if you don't call it by name and label the disease for what it is? For generations, blacks in America were held back by walls of segregation, separate but equal laws, poll taxes, lynchings, second class citizenship, deeply ingrained white racism, etc. They had to overcome a very Visible Ceiling of white laws and white attitudes. Now, in recent years, many of those walls are crumbling, and blacks are making huge economic and social progress in all walks of life -- from the presidency on down. This improvement in the lives of blacks is not a threat to whites. It is an example of one more minority group in our country beginning to share in the same benefits that the majority has always enjoyed. Whites who fear black progress and want to hold back that progress are fools. A rising tide lifts all boats. These are economic and social issues -- not issues of race or skin color. What is good for blacks is good for whites -- and good for all Americans.

The Limbaugh and Hannity slanders of jeremiah Wright's attacks on the evils of white racism are cynical, demagogic attempts to turn the truth on its head, to claim that those who speak out against racism are racists, and to divert attention from who the real racists are.