I was glad to see John Stossel, in this blog entry, examine the issue of whether President Obama’s critics are racist. This is a tough issue, for it is the most serious of accusations. It is like being accused of rape. The innocent man accused of rape still suffers enormous damage to his reputation. To falsely accuse someone of something so heinous is, in itself, a hateful thing. 

But so is racism. So is rape. And how can you not speak out if you think you are rightly accusing someone? 

I have been a critic of the president’s policies here on this website and elsewhere, but I know that I am not a racist. For anyone to imply that I might be – even if that person is a comic like Janeane Garofalo (who has said, of tea-party goers, “This is about hating a black man in the White House. This is racism straight up.”) – is terribly insulting. 

Then again, I cannot deny that, every now and then, I, too, catch a whiff of the stench of racism in the tone of some of Obama’s critics. It’s hard to define or pinpoint. And it’s easy to be paranoid about word choice and tone if you, like me, wish we were already living in a time when no one – no one – is judged on the color of his or her skin but instead by the content of their character. 

The disgusting jokes that circulated on email before the election make it impossible for me to say that a racial bias does not exist against our president. But I suspect that this anonymous comment on Mr. Stossel’s article is true: “There are probably at most 5% that don’t like the fact that Obama is black. The rest of the protestors are angry at an out of control government. The anger didn’t start with Obama, but couple his insane spending with a horrible economy and there you go.” 

It also strikes me that there were probably at least five percent of George W. Bush’s critics who didn’t like him because he was from Texas and had a cowboy cadence. There is always going to be a percentage of people who think that southerners are stupid. This is also bigotry and it is also wrong. 

I hope that more conservatives like Mr. Stossel and his thoughtful commenter will continue to address the “racist” charge. Because racism must be called out. But the label of racist must not be abused.

Jean Card has been a professional writer in Washington, D.C. for more than a dozen years.  Today, she is freelance writing and consulting, full-time. Jean is a native of Vermont and a graduate of Middlebury College. She lives and writes in Alexandria, VA with her husband and two rather poorly-behaved cats.