Annapolis Capital Punishment

Picture the scene. CP is checking out at a local grocery store, looks at the cover of the "Washingtonian" magazine and makes an innocent comment to his son about how the next issue's cover will be all about the Obamas coming to town. I'm a DC native and have been there through many presidential transitions.

Then the cashier chimes in, "A friend of mine likes to tell the joke of how they will rip up the Rose Garden and plant a watermelon garden in its place."

Ooops. Beep. Beep. Beep. Alarm! Alert! What a stupid, nasty, ridiculous @%^%#&@q@@ comment. Obama is not even sworn in and the racist jokes start. Now you can say it's not worth reacting, it was meant in jest, nobody got hurt, nobody mean anything racist but I'm sick of how some people think it's okay to make such comments. I am not going to let him get away with it.

"You know what, " I told him. "We are about to see the end of four years of an illiterate, boorish president who has lied to us and taken this country downhill so quickly and here you are making stupid, ignorant and racist comments about his soon-to-be successor."

The cashier was unable to comprehend my reaction. "It's not my joke. I was not telling the joke. I was only relating what my friend said," he told me, as if that mattered.

"And the difference is what?" I asked him.

"What's coming next?" I wondered to myself. Jokes about fried chicken, okra and chitterlings for state dinners? Hair braiding studio in the West Wing?

I dressed this guy down telling him how his remark was ignorant and insulting and he should not expect everyone to appreciate it--as I did not. I gave him a "word to the wise" explaining that when you work with the public, it's best to keep such comments to yourself. He kept going on, trying to justify or excuse his remark, unable to comprehend what I was telling him. I just left the whole thing alone.

Was this an isolated incident or indicative of what may become an increasingly commonplace situation? Meaningless chatter from a rather stupid person or the reflection of widespread sentiment? A silly and innocuous remark or evidence of a hurtful racial stereotype? You be the judge.

We have come such a long way. We have such a long way to go. As the president, Obama will be subjected to (and why not?) all kinds of satire, jokes, cartoons, caricatures and banter that will be coming from all corners, just as is every president. Sorting that out and determining what is acceptable and what is beyond the pale will not be easy. It does not mean that we should refrain from criticizing or questioning or lampooning him. Nor should we be treating him differently from how we have treated any other president. That's the key--no differently. Make fun of him for doing stupid things, making mistakes or telling lies, eating his words, but for the color of his skin?

He's going to be the president. Last time I checked there is no constitutionally mandated position for "black president" or "African American president." He's the president and he'll make speeches in the Rose Garden as have others before him. If he wants to grow watermelons there or if he wants to grow and eat Arugula, that's his business. If a white person thinks it's funny--and acceptably funny--to make insulting slur-jokes to another white person, it's high time that people of conscience let the ignoramuses know that it's not funny.

By the way, speaking of tearing things out at the White House, one of the first official acts of The Reagan Administration was to tear off the photo-voltaic panels that Carter had installed on the White House roof.

As Lynn Anderson sang in her rose garden song, "Along with the sunshine....there's got to be a little rain sometime...."


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