New Video Appeals to Racists to Unite Against Health Care Reform

By Terry Keleher Dec 08, 2009

Gaining popularity on YouTube is a new video called “I guess I’m a Racist,” by opponents of “a total government take-over of our health care system.” The video depicts a series of mostly white and a few prerequisite people of color acting all confused as they reluctantly admit to their racism for opposing a Black president’s health care plan. The video asserts, “If a person is racist just for opposing Obama’s government health plan, then apparently a lot of people in this country are racist.” Basically, it’s a coded appeal to those who have been called a racist­—and those who can’t fathom the notion that so many people may be racist–to unite against health care reform. There are no production credits at the end of the video so it’s not clear who’s willing to claim it, other than “iwantyourmoneydoc” who posted it. But I’m sure some slick conservative strategists thought they were being cutting-edge clever by coming up with this. At the end, the video asks, “Does the fact that the president is Black really have anything to do with it?” Clearly, the only reason they made this video is because the president is Black and it makes for a great opportunity to use race as a wedge issue. But they want you to think that they’ve transcended race. How do you say, “how white of them?” Sure it’s disturbing. But I must admit that I also found it a tad amusing. I guess I must secretly relish when people who are so racially clueless to think they really “get it” attempt to be ironic but actually just end up exposing their true racism. What do you think?

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