I've passed on blogging about some of the racist blunders that have happened on the right since the election of our first African-American president. I don't think Obama's presidency should be about his race and I realize that the number of conservatives who aren't racist far out-weighs the number who are. I admit that I find it troubling (and got disproportionately angry when I received my first racist email from a friend), but I recognize that it is still a minority opinion and is generally addressed relatively quickly from within.

But yesterday's Fox & Friends' Brian Kilmeade's statement about different "species and ethincs (sic)" marrying is the final straw. There wasn't a back-pedal from Kilmead. There wasn't an apology statement from the network. This wasn't taken out of context or spliced together or anything -- it's just naked, unabashed racism. And it. must. stop.

Yesterday on my facebook page, I posted an article from The Daily Beast about racism in the G.O.P. I thought the blogger wrote a really good piece. A friend of mine responded that cries of racism were just a red herring meant to distract from the real issues. I agree that sometimes this is the case. When Janeane Garofalo goes on Countdown with Keith Olbermann and claims that everyone who participated in a Tea Party was racist, that is using the word simply to distract from the real issue. But when you start talking about calling someone a coon, when you send a picture of a "spook" in place of the president, when you say that our first lady is descended from a gorilla, when you make a cd featuring the song "Barak the Magic Negro," when you say that taxes on rich, white Americans are just forced reparations to poor, black Americans; this needs to be addressed. Firmly. Retreating to the same "it's just a distraction" argument simply looks like you are condoning racism, or are at least afraid to call it what it is. And as much as I'm primarily liberal in my political views, I recognize that the country as a whole is healthier when there are multiple strong parties. I hope that the G.O.P. leadership will speak more boldly about this kind of unmasked racism. Or it's going to be a sad day for all "species" of man.