Race and Politics - Southern Style

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In case some readers may not have noticed, the Republican national Southern strategy is in full swing.  The plan is to play on the fears of white people so they will vote Republican because African-Americans are Democrats and Democratic candidates..  Rachel Maddow did an excellent piece on this last night, but I think missed the salient point.  She spoke of the Republicans stirring the fears of whites about blacks.  I believe the issue is more narrowly aligned.  The fear that Republicans are conjuring is that of blacks taking political control, then behaving as whites did toward them.  Whites, especially white Southerners, remember how African-Americans were treated when whites had exclusive control.  Whites cannot comprehend that African-Americans might behave better than whites did simply because blacks understand their own self-interest necessitates it.  I expect that African-Americans in positions of power will act to further their ability to retain that power which will mean taking care of white and black concerns.  That does not mean that some African-Americans will not act badly.  The problem that confronts us is that blacks and whites really are the same: good, bad and indifferent.