Am I a Racist?

By Roy Digliani

I don't like Bill Cosby's humor. Is it because he's black? I do like Richard Pryor's humor, and he's black, too, so I guess that it's not a skin color thing.

I don't like Alan King's humor, and he's Jewish, so does that make me an anti-Semite? I like Woody Allen's humor, and he's Jewish, so I guess that I'm not an anti-Semite. I remember an incident at one of my son's football games. I'd been interested in the career of an older player who'd gone off to college, so I asked a woman who'd been going to local games for years how he was doing. The woman (an Anglo Saxon type person) stunned me with her answer: "He didn't do anything, he's a typical n****r." The woman's friend (an Hispanic type person) nodded her head in agreement.

After I caught my balance, I found the situation slightly humorous. The Anglo woman was 350 pounds, if she was an ounce, and the Hispanic women was 5'2" with one leg 3 inches shorter than the other. She wore one shoe with a 3 -inch heel. Were they were making themselves feel better by denigrating the black athlete I'd asked about?

What I focused on, however, was the idea of a "typical" person. Where had I heard that concept recently? Barrack Obama's Ayersesque autobiography is where Mr. Obama referred to his grandmother as having the response of a "typical" white person to blacks she might encounter.

I don't understand this notion of a "typical" person. Is Bill Cosby a "typical" black person? If so, why don't I like his humor, but like Richard Pryor's? If Alan King was a "typical" Jewish person, then why do I like Woody Allen's humor and not King's? Maybe humans aren't like apples or strawberries, and maybe they can't be classified as easily. My obese friend didn't seem to have a problem classifying people as "typical." Is she a racist? I'd say yes, very probably. In fact, I think that we might get close to a unanimous opinion that she is a racist.

But, what are we to make of people like Jimmy Carter who seem to be able to see into the hearts and minds of so many and determine, that because they disagree with Barrack Obama's ideas, they are racist? I don't like Barrack Obama's ideas, and he's black, so am I a racist? I agree with Thomas Sowell's ideas, and he's black. Jimmy Carter seems very much like my two women friends in his ability to boil people down to their essence and determine who is "typical." The two women are obviously racists, so what does that make Jimmy Carter?

Maybe he's just a "typical" old man?