American Racism?! In Racist U.S., Says French Media, "The Post-Racial Era Will Still Have to Wait"

And so we here we have it: as more than a few of us have been predicting over the years, including myself in an in-depth post before the 2008 vote, the 2008 election of Barack Obama would not end the endless accusations of racism and/or cluelessness towards the average (white) American — nor indeed would Obama's reelection four years later.

… the basic truth about racism is as follows: racism is far less an accurate description of an attitude prevalent in a given society, in a given individual, than it is a weapon that is wielded to demonize one's opponents while making oneself appear heroic by parroting (and by doing nothing else than parroting) politically correct platitudes. More often than not, in other words, the fight against alleged pockets of racism is nothing more noble than a self-serving act of self-praise.

As James Taranto puts it (thanks to Instapundit), Antiwhite bigotry has gone mainstream, and indeed, over here in Europe, Louise Couvelaire proves that by stating in Le Monde, aka France's newspaper of record, that four years after the election of the first African-American president, "the black community and minorities in general have reason to worry." Because no candidate has received such an important part of the white vote since Ronald Reagan as Mitt Romney has, it turns out that (to use the old formula) "racism has reared its ugly head".

So, got that, white Americans? Voting against Barack Hussein Obama can only be proof of the unspeakable racism in the dark corners of your sinister soul…

Because "several hundred students" at the University of Mississippi burned signs with the name of Barack Obama while shouting racist slogans (even the Huffington Post raises its eyebrows by deliberately referring to this — rare — event as " 'riots' " with cynical-sounding quotation marks), The Post-Racial Era Will Still Have to Wait, as the title of her article says.

Le Monde goes on to describe the "most conservative zealots' outrageous attacks" in forcing Barack Obama to… make public his birth certificate, while quoting an Associated Press poll that claims that 51% of Americans express themselves in "explicitly racist" terms (up from 48% in 2008), while 56% of them demonstrated "implicitly xenophobic behavior" (up from 49%). (The claims have been, ahem, addressed by Hot Air and Newsbusters…)

The Le Monde writer ends her article with some quotes from a Professor of African-American Studies. Mark Naison of… Fordham university, a paragon of tolerance and free speech as is well known, claims that the Republican Party's "main motor is fear and white anger against people of color or minorities."

Il n'aura pas fallu attendre longtemps. A peine quelques minutes après l'annonce de la victoire de Barack Obama, le 6 novembre, plusieurs centaines d'étudiants de l'université du Mississippi ont brûlé des pancartes portant le nom du président et scandé des slogans racistes.

…L'élection, en 2008, du premier président afro-américain de l'histoire des Etats-Unis devait consacrer l'avènement d'une nouvelle ère post-raciale. Quatre ans plus tard, la communauté noire et les minorités en général ont de quoi s'inquiéter. Fin octobre, un sondage de l'Associated Press indiquait que 51 % des Américains exprimaient des idées explicitement racistes, contre 48 % en 2008, et que 56 % d'entre eux affichaient des comportements implicitement xénophobes, contre 49 % il y a quatre ans. Depuis son discours historique de mars 2008 intitulé "De la race en Amérique", le locataire de la Maison Blanche, refusant d'être le "président des Noirs", joue la prudence. Il n'a jamais abordé ouvertement la question pendant son premier mandat.

… "La rage d'une partie des Blancs qui s'est exprimée pendant la campagne de 2008 ne présageait rien de bon et elle s'est encore intensifiée, analyse Mark Naison, professeur d'études afro-américaines à l'université de Fordham, à New York. L'Amérique ne sera bientôt plus un "pays de Blancs" et ça les terrifie." Les plus optimistes espèrent un rapport de forces plus égalitaire entre les différentes communautés, mais au Parti républicain, la partie s'annonce délicate. "Leur principal moteur est la peur et la colère des Blancs envers les gens de couleur ou encore les gays, poursuit Mark Naison. S'ils lancent une opération de séduction envers les minorités, ils perdront leur électorat de base, mais s'ils ne le font pas, ils n'auront aucune chance de gagner. Il va falloir qu'ils trouvent un autre sujet rassembleur."