Race Under the Rug

A recent post on MyDD.com called “Hidden Racism” talks about a decision by CBSNews.com to disable the comment feature on stories about Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. Blogger Jerome Armstrong asserts that CBS is employing a double standard that is not being applied to the other candidates to hide the racist comments that are being made about Obama stories. Armstrong argues that instead of hiding these racist views we should be putting a spotlight on the ignorance of such racists, and he advocates “having a place where the sun can shine on these racists, and holding the politicians who cater to them accountable.”

The mere fact that CBSNews.com is receiving this magnitude of incendiary emails in response to stories about Obama tells us that racism is, indeed, a major factor in this presidential race, despite some arguments to the contrary. And preventing everyone from sharing their comments on the CBSNews.com website is only a panacea for a larger problem. Sweeping race under the rug isn’t the solution. By taking the easy way out—canning all comments instead of filtering the “trash” that is coming in—CBS is giving ammunition to these racist factions who would like nothing better than to see all coverage of Obama and his run for the presidency just disappear.

The general consensus of MyDD’s readers on this issue is that this was a bad move for CBS and they are missing out on a golden opportunity to raise awareness about and promote broad discussion about race. One commenter said that “racism is real and it affects the presidential race.” We say invest the manpower, CBS, in moderating the comments on these articles, ban the “loose cannons” who launch derogatory, personal attacks against Obama, and elevate the consciousness of the general public about the realities of race and its role in the 2008 election.