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| Old white man (left) applauds his executioner. |
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is an award bestowed by the President of the United States and is—along with the comparable Congressional Gold Medal bestowed by an act of U.S. Congress—the highest civilian award in the United States. It recognizes those individuals who have made "an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors".[3] The award is not limited to U.S. citizens and, while it is a civilian award, it can also be awarded to military personnel and worn on the uniform.
Some of the notable awardees this year: Bill Clinton, Sally Ride (posthumously), Loretta Lynn, former University of North Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith, former Republican Indiana Senator Richard Lugar, and Oprah Winfrey.
The medal is given to people across a broad range of disciplines: politicians, musicians, artists, writers, poets, athletes, businesspeople. As noted above, the politics of the recipients don't always match the politics of the person handing them out. But there are obviously incidents where politics are a factor. In his last month as president, George W. Bush bestowed the honor on former Australian Prime Minister John Howard. Howard was notable as being a conservative friend of Bush's and a supporter of the invasion of Iraq but little else.
If you personally don't like Oprah Winfrey because of her politics or her race or whatever your gripe is, that is one thing. But it would be hard to make a case that she didn't qualify according to the "world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors" mentioned above.
I subscribe to the Daily Beast on Facebook. They had an article about some funny tweets that had been put out regarding Oprah getting a medal all related to her famous on show giveaways. What absolutely kills me is the comments given to the post on Facebook. It was nearly 100% racist, hateful, disgusting trolling. I was so embarrassed. Embarrassed to be white. Embarrassed to be a male. Embarrassed to be from the South.
Oprah had already been in the news this week. Represented to be blatantly racist by the U.S. right due to comments she made in an interview for BBC. Discussing whether racism would ever disappear Oprah said that "There are still generations of older people who were born and breed and marinated in that prejudice and racism and they just have to die."
Of course what she meant was that racism might have to die off with this older generation. That it's just too ingrained in older folks and they won't change their minds. She wasn't saying that we need to have some sort of pogrom to take care of the old racists. Of course maybe that's why the death panels were set up? (joking I assure you)
Right wing media picked up on this immediately as you can imagine. I mean her words were easily spinnable for those wanting to spin them. That's inevitable.
But I really do think she's just being naive. I don't think any amount of time will eradicate racism. Every generation has a fresh new flock. You can see ample evidence in the rise of the tea party and the backlash against Obama before he had set foot in the White House.
A really sad incident happened to me in the past year. I have pretty much deleted all the "friends" I had on Facebook who were posting tea party/anti-Obama stuff. There were quite a few of them but I found the blatant racism and ignorance to be insufferable.
I had made friends with a sixteen year old kid in Sacramento, California through working on some online music projects. Really talented kid and seemed nice. He was very privileged, wealthy family, elite private school, all that. One day he posted a meme along the lines of "What does an Obama supporter say? Would you like fries with that." It really broke my heart. Here was a kid who will never have to work at a McDonald's. Hell, in reality he won't have to work until he feels like it. He is totally insulated from that sort of career path. And to so totally lack the empathy of which I thought him capable. I unfriended him and boy did it hurt.
But the point is that here is a young boy being raised with those same feelings that Oprah thinks may dissipate over time. Not some Southern redneck with ties to a KKK past. But, in all likelihood, a future business leader. A decision maker. A hirer and firer. Not in Mississippi or Alabama but in California.
Current political discourse is all about the memes and the trolls. This is the milieu of kids like my former sixteen year old friend. It's what used to be called bumper sticker mentality. Maybe a newer term should be coined? Memetality? At any rate, racism doesn't seem to be abating. Rather it's becoming gentrified. Egalitarian. With a black president it's okay for any conservative from farm to suburb, from midtown to uptown, high end to low end to be just a little racist.
No, Oprah, I'm afraid it's here to stay. But Oprah getting a medal on top of calling for the death of the white race in one week was just a little too much for the nutwingers.
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