When race becomes the explanation for everything, no one is safe from accusations of racism. Even innocent little children. Don Surber, the eagle-eyed chronicler of the absurdities of contemporary politics, highlights what he calls a “horrible woman” who has been in the Indiana state legislature for 24 years and cannot see anything but race as the explanation for the most commonplace of child-like behavior.   

Vanessa Summers, 56, is everything that is wrong with today's racial politics. She is a Democrat who has been in the Indiana legislature for 24 years.

This week she accused an 18-month-old boy of being a racist.

During a debate on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act -- which surprisingly she opposes -- Vanessa Summers turned on Republican Jud McMillin’s baby boy.She said, "I love his little son, but he’s scared of me because of my color — and that’s horrible."

Really?

Maybe he's scared of her because she is a big woman with a loud mouth.

Nope, it turns out he is shy around strangers.

Jud McMillin had to defend his son against her implication that the lad is a member of the Ku Klux Klan. The father said: “If he reacted the same way he reacts with anybody brand new, he buries his head in his dad’s shoulder. Whoever it is, it’s what he does. He’s an 18-month-old kid; he’s in a new environment up here in the place like the Statehouse but doesn’t know anybody. I honestly don’t remember anything out of the ordinary.”

Rep. Williams later defended her comments:

"He (the toddler) looked at me like I was a monster and turned around and cried. And I told him (McMillin) you need to introduce your child to some people that are dark-skinned so he will not be scared."

Racism, we have been endlessly lectured, causes people to deny the humanity of others based on their skin color. Humanity, in its child phase, includes a healthy dose of shyness and even fear of strangers. Given the hazards of childhood, that may be an occasionally healthy response.

Instead of treating the young McMillian lad as a normal child, Summers accused him of the cardinal sin of our age. Just because of his race. If that is not racism, I would like to know what is.  We are lectured that black people have no power so they cannot be racist. To an 18 month old, a 56 year old has all the power in the world.

Hat tip: Clarice Feldman