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Election night is stressful for many of us, but responses to Obama’s victory have been nothing short of enlightening. I would like to nominate three of those responses as strangest of all, and to present them for your consideration as nominees in the first annual, “I’m Not Racist But… Award.”

Racism often speaks in a kind of code. So our nominations should not exhibit an overt hatred toward people of color. In fact, we are looking for those who consider themselves to be without prejudice, but regularly imply that people of European descent are the central players in history, and that there is something deeply disturbing with people of color who don’t know their place. The primary criterion for our nominees is the ability to imply that a person of color has the traits used by racists to stereotype a whole minority population without ever saying so directly.

Ladies and Gentlemen, our nominees are:

 

Donald Trump

As the election began to wind down Trump denounced the election as “a total sham and a travesty.” He sent out a stream of angry tweets, one of which called for a “revolution in this country.” Brian Williams was quoted as saying, “Donald Trump, who has driven well past the last exit to relevance and peered into something closer to irresponsible here, is tweeting tonight.”

Donald Trump has gotten very good at playing off the energies of racism, without ever saying anything overt. Trump has hounded Obama for years questioning his patriotism, and whether he was born in the United States. Since Obama’s policies are similar to Bill Clinton’s, one has to wonder why Donald Trump keeps implying that Obama is “not one of us.”

 

Bill O’Reilly

As the campaign wound down, Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly was a bit more direct. He said if Obama won it was because demographics have changed and “it’s not a traditional America anymore.”

“The white establishment is now the minority,” O’Reilly said. “And the voters, many of them, feel that the economic system is stacked against them and they want stuff. You are going to see a tremendous Hispanic vote for President Obama. Overwhelming black vote for President Obama. And women will probably break President Obama’s way. People feel that they are entitled to things and which candidate, between the two, is going to give them things?”

So O’Reilly says that the new demographic (people of color) “wants stuff.” He went on, “They want things. And who is going to give them things? President Obama. He knows it, and he ran on it.”

 

Victoria Jackson

Former Saturday Night Live star, Victoria Jackson, as become a darling of the Tea Party. She tweeted Tuesday night, “I can’t stop crying,” she then tweeted, “America died.” She posted on Facebook: “The Democrat party who voted God out of their platform … won. In the Good vs. Evil Battle, today … evil won.” Then she wrote, “Thanks a lot, Christians, for not showing up. You disgust me,” she tweeted.

Admittedly, none of the above would necessarily imply racism but, again, why such agony over policies not much different than Clinton’s? Evidence that Jackson deserves to be considered for this award is found on her website where one discovers such titles as, “This Black man didn’t vote for Obama, and here’s why.” Jackson should also get points for addressing her co-host as, her”coffee colored sidekick.”

 

So these are our initial three nominations, consider making other nominations and casting your vote for the prestigious, “I’m Not a Racist, But… Award.”