‘Post racial’? Not quite yet

Glenn Beck had a few of his closest friends out for a little gathering on the National Mall in Washington the other day. They gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial and celebrated faith. Just how many people showed up depends on your perspective, I guess.

CBS News said there were 87,000. The New York Times said "tens of thousands." USA Today gave a rather innocuous non-specific of "huge." NBC News, no promoter of conservative causes, estimated 300,000. The irrepressible U.S. Rep. Michelle Bachmann of Minnesota belied her conservative proclivities and claimed a million were in attendance. Beck himself split it down the middle and says 500,000.

Whatever. It was an impressive turnout. And racial provocateurs like Al Sharpton couldn't have been less pleased.

It seems that Beck had the temerity to schedule this rally on hallowed ground and on a hallowed date. Indeed, he and his friends gathered at this historic spot on August 28 -- 47 years to the day after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech from the same location. Beck says he didn't realize the significance of the date, and took the date made available to him by the National Park Service. After all, how many Americans refer to the King speech as the 8.28.63 speech? I believe him.

The Rev. Sharpton didn't, and raised a stink about the sacrilege of Beck's rally right up to and during the event itself. He claimed Beck was going to kidnap the dream, or something to that effect.

Beck said his only plan was to call our nation back to its faith roots.

Beck did just what he said. Even some of the most hardened liberal commentators like Geraldo Rivera celebrated Beck and the people who came from across the nation to gather in peace and unity.

Why all the hoo-hah over a diverse group of Americans honoring their faith? The Rev. Sharpton couldn't stand the thought of a guy like Beck standing at the same location where Dr. King delivered his transformative speech.

Breaking news! We still have a serious issue with racism in this country. Sadly, there is some race-based controversy in the news every day in this "post-racial" world.

Muslims in New York want to erect a mosque and "community center" in the shadow of Ground Zero. They have every right to do that. But is it the right thing to do? Would it have been right for the Japanese to build a Shinto shrine at Pearl Harbor? Those who support the mosque claim the rights of the Muslims are being denied. I'm not sure how any faith that already has over 300 locations in New York can claim religious or racial intolerance, but it sells newspapers.

Unfortunately, racism is real, and when real racial injustices arise, many tend to be cavalier and shrug their shoulders as if to say, "Here we go again."

Can any rational thinker deny that racism was in play at those polling places in Philadelphia in 2008 when members of the New Black Panther party intimidated white voters? Can you imagine the reaction in the media if white men in white robes had denied access to black folks? I daresay the Bush administration would have acted so quickly their little white masks would have spun right off their heads. As it was, the Eric Holder Department of Justice filibustered for months before finally declining prosecution. A travesty of injustice.

When Andrew Breitbart posted a tampered video of Shirley Sherrod speaking at a NAACP gathering to make it appear she took great joy in declining the assistance of a white farmer in need, conservatives yawned in unison while the Obama administration overreacted and relieved her of her job. In both of these instances, Jew, Gentile, Protestant, Catholic, liberal and conservative should have denounced it.

It seems as though, in today's America, that the very thing that God gave us to hold us together is the very thing that tears us apart. That's our skin.

In politics, we don't care what's true, we want what gives us political relief or short term political gain. Our opinions have motivated us to ignore truth in the name of protecting our political brand.

Politicians and leaders are seduced by the cheer of the crowd to gain more power. Power is a lot more effective with anyone if truth is spoken with it. Yet in today's politics, we're quick to pounce on anything racial to make one side or the other look bad.

As painful as racism is, the truly egregious racist acts will get lost in the 24-hour news cycles because of the Chicken Little effect. When polarizing political figures keep crying "the sky is falling" over their perceived slights, black people don't lose, Hispanics don't lose, Muslims don't lose. America loses.

J.C. Watts (JCWatts01@jcwatts.com) is chairman of J.C. Watts Companies, a business consulting group. He is former chairman of the Republican Conference of the U.S. House, where he served as an Oklahoma representative from 1995 to 2002. He writes twice monthly for the Review-Journal.