Jimmy Carter has nothing to lose, which is why you can believe he’s being sincere. In a nation where racial tensions have yet to be addressed in their entirety, few credible speakers have the balls to call a foul when one is due, so when distrust ran rampant and decorum degraded into childish name calling in response to the nation electing its first black president, no reasonable voices rose to the occasion. Yesterday, former president Carter called it what it was: fear of a black president.
While political extremists can be shameless in their manipulation of constituency, upholding of double standard and outright disrespect for our legislative system, even they stop short of outright saying they oppose a president due to his race. So, the latent resentment festers and boils - and will continue to do so, because Carter’s well intentioned expose has sparked a discussion that will likely degenerate into the same spit-balling across the aisle that we always see.
