Jack & Jill Politics

Michael Goldfarb is shocked, shocked that a political candidate would diversify the background at a campaign appearance to portray a particular message:

The Obama campaign discriminates against people of color, and their own supporters no less, in what is presumably a misguided pander to white voters. Very strange, but perhaps Obama’s candidacy really has transcended race in America (surely this is a first). Alternatively, the campaign may just plan to stage-manage it out of public view.

Nothing quite showcases the misguided sense of victimhood some folks on the Right have than viewing this as “discrimination.” These folks view any kind of racial identification as in and of itself “racist” with no sense of proportion whatsoever. After all, what’s the difference between tailoring a background to make a candidate look good and and an eyewitness wrongly identifying a suspect because they think all black folks look alike? It’s all “discrimination” after all.

Goldfarb and others are notably uninterested in racial discrimination in any context that has the potential to affect people’s lives, unless of course they themselves feel discriminated against. Here the lack of proportion comes into play, as in: Academia’s alleged leftward tilt is the same thing as the Taliban.

Of course, Goldfarb would have defended as “inclusive” rather than pandering, the invitation of a Gospel Choir to the Republican convention in 2000. It’s positively naive to think other politicians don’t do the same thing ALL THE TIME, but it only matters here because Obama is black, and so in this context it is seen as somehow unethical. Conversely, the Bush Administration screening out dissenters at campaign rallies isn’t discrimination, it’s “freedom”.

What it is, completely and utterly, is trivial. Expect to see another 3000 articles this week on Obama “discriminating against his own supporters”. Only in America can a black man be accused of being a radical Christian and a radical Muslim and of hating white people and black people at the same time.

BONUS: McCain discriminating against his white supporters at his MLK speech:

What a racist!