“Like Comparing Ivan the Terrible to Swipper the Fox.”

He made a mistake and he apologized.

Senator Harry Reid made a comment about then Senator Barack Obama which many Americans view as racist. Senator Reid has since publically and privately apologized for his remarks to current President Obama who emphatically accepted.

Some in the media and career politicians likened Harry Reid's comments to Trent Lott's divisive separatist rhetoric back in 2004 while honoring the 100th birthday of Strom Thurmond. Trent Lott is a "racist" pure and simple, and comparing the two would be like comparing Ivan the Terrible to Swipper the Fox from “Dora the Explorer.”

Will the stench of racism and prejudice ever dissipate in America? Never!
No matter how many conversations we have and policies implemented to combat this disease, it will always be a part of the American landscape.

To be blunt, racism and prejudice is as American as apple pie, the Liberty Bell, Mount Rushmore, the KKK, the Sons of Liberty, the Daughters of Liberty and Tea Baggers. Quite frankly, in some families racism and prejudice are a family tradition.

In 2008, with the election of America’s first and I hope not the last African American President, many Americans hoped that the stain of racism was finally wiped clean from the American fabric. Alas, if anything since the election of President Obama, the stain has mushroomed into an international eye sore.

When a career politician like Michael Steele, who’s quoted as saying something “stupid” with perfect regularity just a few days ago when he made a racist comment about Native Americans demands that Reid step down because of his statement, it magnifies how racism and prejudice are woven into our daily lives.

Senator Reid made mistake, and he apologized for it.

Whether we use racial and prejudiced charged ideology privately or publicly, only when humankind ceases to exist will racism and prejudice cease to exist. Until that day, one cannot exist without the other.



Anthony P. Johnson, Candidate for State Representative for 42nd Ward & 180th District
647 East Raymond Street
Philadelphia, PA 19120