You Don't Have to Be a Racist to Practice Racism
ED KILGORE – APRIL 9, 2014, 6:03 AM EDT
Nothing, but nothing, enrages conservatives more than being accused of racism.
Yes, a whole wing of modern conservatism is rooted in the southern white struggle against civil rights. Yes, Republican politicians perpetually appeal to resentment of the beneficiaries of the “welfare state,” commonly (if mistakenly) understood as people of color. Yes, nearly all conservative political actors and writers treat minority grievances as an illegitimate projection of past injustices far past their point of relevance. Yes, in nearly every state where the GOP has the power and incentive to do so, their legislators are systematically seeking to make it harder for minorities to vote. Yes, the tea party movement has a foundational myth that the housing and financial crises which touched off the Great Recession were the product of loans made to uncreditworthy minority folk via the Community Reinvestment Act at the behest of the “black radical” group ACORN. And yes, the centrist technocrat Barack Obama has often been subjected to classic racist stereotypes in day-to-day conservative agitprop, as an alleged beneficiary of affirmative action, as a shiftless vacation-taker, as a boon companion to (and even a husband of) black radicals, and yes, as a Kenyan with a “neocolonial” outlook.
Since we cannot peer into souls and because it is entirely possible to favor conservative policy positions with no racial animus whatsoever, none of this evidence, of course, means that it is accurate to describe any particular individual conservative as a racist. Some Republicans frankly argue that the heavy Democratic voting proclivities of African-Americans, Asian-Americans and (to a somewhat lesser extent) Hispanic-Americans all but force GOPers to promote policies everyone knows have a disproportionate impact on minorities; why shouldn’t Republicans tend to their own bleached constituencies insofar as people of color won’t give their views a fair shake? More popular still is the theory (particularly beloved by the small tribe of African-American conservatives, but also alluded to by big-time figures like Paul Ryan and Rand Paul) that the Right’s deep sympathy for minority Americans requires a fight to “liberate” them from the Democratic Party “plantation,” where they are confined via dependence on government largesse (National Review’s Kevin Williamson has even argued that the welfare state was a conscious successor to Jim Crow).
And so, protestations of pure motives accompany even the most suspect of policies and messages — and intensify the conservative cries of “unfair!” and “race card!” when the r-word is attributed to their words and deeds if not their thoughts. It has reached the point where the very idea of racism — other than the “racism” of liberals playing the “race card” — has been delegitimized on the right.
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Well.....I hate to break it to you, mon ami, but it actually CAN happen; but yes, the fact is, People of Color CAN be individually racist. Is it as common as white racism? No, not by a long shot. But, honestly, for someone to ignore individual racism on the part of someone. or to pass that off as something less than racism just because that person may be in a disadvantaged group(such as Louis Farrakhan for example, who may be considered doubly disadvantaged because he is a PoC and of the Islamic faith), is truly a disservice to all, and not only that, but it also provides cannon fodder for the right-wing, especially Teabagger types(I've seen that happen all too often).
I mean, this isn't a slam on you or anything, so I hope you won't take this the wrong way. But it needed to be said. 
to be an "accidental racist". Now, don't get me wrong, I think Mr. Kilgore does make some good points here, including the fact that non-racists may occasionally end up supporting racist policies, and they may not know that it's racist. All I'm saying is that we do need to be careful if we want to win over voters to our side of the fence.
With that said, there's definitely plenty of food for thought. Thanks DonViejo.