Shannon Column: What we saw, and what we got

While sifting through the wreckage of election night last year, I had some small comfort in the knowledge the election of Barack Obama proved once and for all that the United States had moved past
prejudice, overcome the legacy of Jim Crow and was at last a post-racial society.

There was sound precedent for this conclusion. John F. Kennedy’s election put paid to anti-catholic bias and Jimmy Carter proved being a simpleton is no barrier to the presidency, so Obama’s victory
should have allowed us to take off the racial hair shirt.

Obama was popular. Mainstream media loved him. The votes of white people elected him. Major corporations leaped on his bandwagon. Pepsi even changed its logo, so now my favorite soft drink is Wild
Changey Diet Obama!

Naively, I assumed civil rights bean-counters would be satisfied: Now they have a black man in the White House and fewer blacks in the big house. Unfortunately, I obviously had not had enough close
contact with fanatics.

Now I learn the election of Obama is just the latest in a series of ruses by conservative bigots designed to set civil rights back and cause “progressives” to relax on their march toward a brighter future.

A new book — favorably reviewed by the Post — “Between Barack and a Hard Place” warns of the blossoming of “Racism 2.0, which allows whites to celebrate the achievements of an individual such as
Obama while harboring deep prejudice toward minorities as a whole.” Presumably while claiming “some of my best presidents are black.”

Worse — and proof the plan is working — a University of Washington psychologist warns that a survey of 74 “predominately liberal” college students discovered the students perceived a definite goal in
racial progress had been achieved and support for equal-opportunity policies showed “steep declines” after the election.

Even more horrifying for “progressives” she found the students had a stronger belief in the “Protestant work ethic” that anything is possible with hard work.

No wonder Dems are in a rush to confirm Sonia Sotomayor (Miss La Raza 2009) as the next member of the Supreme Court. This sort of revanchist thinking must be nipped in the bud.

Fortunately racial warhorses like U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder are in a position to remind us what a backsliding bunch of bigots we remain. Earlier this year, Holder proclaimed that he and Obama
are “bound and determined” to reshape the federal judiciary and make civil rights a priority. Holder requested a significant increase in his civil rights division budget for 2010 so he can bring more
discrimination cases, hire more people to generate the cases and broaden the scope of the office.

And this week, after the Supreme Court ruled a voting district that came into existence 22 years after the 1965 Voting Rights Act (and therefore could not be guilty of a pattern and practice of
discrimination) was allowed to seek an exemption, Holder proclaimed victory since the Court did not overturn the law.

“As a nation, we have made great strides in advancing and protecting civil rights in the past 44 years since the Voting Rights Act was first passed,” Holder proclaimed. “But there is still more work to be
done to fulfill the promise of full voting rights, free from discrimination, for all Americans.”

Let’s put this in perspective, 44 years after the Voting Rights Acts was passed and seven months after the first black man was elected president, Holder wants to redouble his efforts to harpoon the white
whale.

This is like the Navy and the Marines demanding to keep every World War II ship and 500,000 Marines in the Pacific up to and beyond 1985, so they can chase down the handful of pathetic Imperial
Japanese Army troops still holding out on remote, isolated islands — dressed in coconut husk uniforms, hiding in caves, awaiting orders from the Emperor.

And speaking of the last Japanese holdout, I had hopes for pigment-obsessed Post columnist Courtland Milloy. On November 5, 2008 he wrote, “The young and gifted Obama waged a campaign that
appealed to hearts and souls. By transcending race, he led America to break through its most formidable racial barrier.”

By February Milloy is back blaming whitey; writing about “America’s perverse, systemic and centuries-long efforts to humiliate African men and women and turn them into slaves” and this was in reference
to a movie written, directed and starred in by a black man!

Now the Federal Trade Commission is about to bring the full weight and majesty of the federal government to bear on bloggers who review consumer products.

But before the FTC goes after work-from-home entrepreneurs, I suggest it start closer to home and go after the Obama campaign for “bait and switch.”

Michael R. Shannon is owner of MANDATE: Message, Media & Public Relations, located in Woodbridge.