W.M.A.

He won the lottery by being born
Big hand slapped a white male 'merican
Do no wrong, so clean cut...
Dirty his hands, it comes right off
- "W.M.A." by Pearl Jam
These words came blasting through my head as I read this: Republican presidential candidate John McCain says racism exists in America, but will be trumped by the nation's economic problems and play virtually no role when voters head to the polls next week. He said "ninety-nine and forty-one one-hundredths percent" of people will vote based on who they want to lead the country. Sadly ironic in the way he chose to appropriate the slogan of the whitest of all things, Ivory soap to cement his assertion.
It should be further noted that Senator McCain made these remarks to one of the whitest people on Earth: Larry King. And so here's the deal: This is yet another subject upon which the Senator is unqualified to speak. This is a man who repeatedly voted against a state and then a federal holiday to celebrate the birth of Martin Luther King Jr. It would be far too simple to label him a racist, but his ability to discern racism would seem to be extremely suspect.
Instead, why don't we take a look at what "the Real Americans" are thinking. Last Friday, National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" assembled a group of fifteen voters from York, Pennsylvania, to talk about race and the presidential contest. For example: "No matter how this election turns out, I don't think this country will ever be the same again," said Blanche Hake, a retired school teacher who is white and is voting for Obama. Leah Moreland, a McCain supporter said,"I don't want to sound racist, and I'm not racist, but I feel if we put Obama in the White House, there will be chaos. I feel a lot of black people are going to feel it's payback time. And I made the statement, I said, 'You know, at one time the black man had to step off the sidewalk when a white person came down the sidewalk.' And I feel it's going to be somewhat reversed. I really feel it's going to get somewhat nasty."
Hear that John? I guess that's the fifty-six one hundredth talking. Keep your eyes and ears open, kids. It's going to be an interesting week.