January 11, 2008 11:26 PM UTC

Brad Jones= Racist

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• by: WinstonSmith

( – promoted by Colorado Pols)

In case some of you missed it, you should check out the Colorado Media Matters story about Brad Jones entitled, “KFKA guest host Brad Jones on new Colorado Senate President Groff: “I guess we should congratulate him that he’s black.””

http://colorado.mediamatters.o…

Brad uses a well worn ploy of right-wing racists–namely he tries to convince us just how “not” racist he is by saying that race doesn’t matter to him at all. This is a common argument for conservatives who want to eliminate affirmative action. The idea is that if we are truly a color-blind nation, we shouldn’t be taking race into account at all.

The problem is, Brad used the argument in the wrong context. If Groff was the 3rd, or even 2nd Black Senate President, Brad he might have a point (namely why would we even be talking about the fact he is Black). But he is the 1st. That tends to indicate that racism has been prevailing in Colorado until relatively recently.

For someone that supposedly doesn’t consider race a factor, he sure spends a lot of time discussing it. His tirade about the difference between the term “Black” and “African-American” is quite telling in my opinion. Only someone who spends a lot of time thinking about race would even consider the things he was talking about. It kind of reminds me of the homophobic male who spends a bunch of time talking about his perceived notions of other males sexual preference. It means that he is thinking about it more than others.

Another concern is that he thinks this is somehow “reverse discrimination.” Because, according to Brad, if a White male was chosen as Senate President, he wouldn’t make the front page. Brad seems to missing an obvious point. Namely, if it was the FIRST White male ever chosen as Senate President, it would be a newsworthy story.

The point here is that Brad Jones is clearly a racist. Anyone that doesn’t understand the value of a “front-page” discussion of Groff’s leadership position has obvious issues with race. Racism has not been eliminated in the United States and it would be damaging to turn a blind eye to its existence. Triumphant stories like this show that we are beginning to move on. But with people like Brad Jones around, the process is likely to take longer than it would if we all had open and honest discussions about the past.