"Casual racism" in New Albany: Frozen in the tail lights of history, or capable of learning and growing?

On Saturday, in an article about the unexpected relevance of the presidential election in Indiana, the Chicago Tribune revealed that a small business owner in New Albany confided to the newspaper’s visiting reporter a firm, “culturally conservative” intention to vote for John McCain.

Why would this registered Democrat vote for McCain rather than his own party's nominee, Barack Obama?

“Mainly because he's not black.”

Naturally, several of us took the time on Sunday to express our aversion to this sentiment, among them our own Bluegill, whose comments on a Chicagoland blog prompted a record number of weekend visits and page views at NAC.

" ... While the local embarrassment is undeniable, Mr. Ward DOES NOT represent New Albany."

New Albany's famous! We're a disaster area! Instead of Joe the Plumber, we have David the Racist!

I spent much time on Sunday thinking about this most recent manifestation of my city's enduringly antebellum worldview, and in the end, what continues to strike me about the antique (dealer) David Ward’s statement is the matter-of-fact nonchalance with which he offered it. Might the very casualness of the sentiment be the key to why decent, intelligent New Albanians (outnumbered or otherwise) must speak as one against it?

Accordingly, last evening I found this explanation of what I'd been ineffectually groping toward.

Casual Expressions of Racism (at the Booman Tribune blog)

It must be an intoxicating and fearful time to be a black political junkie. I assume this because it appears that Barack Obama is poised to become the next president of the United States, but, at the same time, a political junkie is forced to confront one racist attack after another. Try to read an article about Obama's efforts to win Indiana, and you get subjected to this:

For others, like David Ward, who runs an antique shop with his wife in New Albany, the issue is race. Ward, a registered Democrat, said he will vote for McCain "mainly because he's not black."

Blam!! Out of nowhere, it's like a sock to the stomach. Try to read Sean Quinn's account of his travels in Western Pennsylvania, and you get this:

So a canvasser goes to a woman's door in Washington, Pennsylvania. Knocks. Woman answers. Knocker asks who she's planning to vote for. She isn't sure, has to ask her husband who she's voting for. Husband is off in another room watching some game. Canvasser hears him yell back, "We're votin' for the n***er!" Woman turns back to canvasser, and says brightly and matter of factly: "We're voting for the n***er."

Perhaps this also is the key to understanding why the GOP’s grudging rejection of overt, racist violence at its rallies rings false and disingenuous. It’s remarkably simple for people who view themselves as upstanding, ordinary folk to denounce the racist violence one can see, while tacitly condoning the unchallenged, everyday prejudice that undoubtedly motivates the overtly violent expressions uttered in the relative safety of a crowd.

But make no mistake: Both are repugnant. One reader comment at the Booman Tribune eloquently addresses the prevailing attitude hereabouts in our fabled "heartland." Bold text emphasis is mine.

Re: Casual Expressions of Racism

This is how I feel. I figured out in High School that racism was still alive and well in the country, no matter how many folks kept trying to tell me otherwise. It's pretty damn blatant in most of the "Heartland" once you put yourself in a mindset where you're willing to acknowledge it.

In fact, here in the "heartland" the only folks I know who deny that racism is an issue anymore are all young white conservatives. Those guys are the ones who I see having a traumatic eye-opening experience as they are beginning to realize the underbelly of the party that they never "signed up for".

Maybe it's different on the coasts, but at least in my experience midwestern liberals don't have many delusions about racism being a non-issue in this country. And most of us were expecting this to happen when Obama announced he was running.

A heavily indebted friend of mine once concluded that it he didn’t take the bills out of his mailbox, he wouldn’t be responsible for paying them. He eventually learned that it isn't true, and I'd suggest that the same phenomenon applies to lives unexamined.

As Bluegill recently reminded one youthful conservative reader recently, the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia would be a fine place to start expanding one's horizons about the lingering legacy of the stain of racism on the American social fabric.

Such research into first causes may irrevocably damage a few all too rosy preconceived notions, something the entire city of New Albany might seek to accomplish, too, and that's why the truly instructive part comes now.

Bloggers have taken the lead on a weekend when others are closed. Will New Albany's elected officials, its political leaders, its civic organizations and business community, and it's citizenry respond constructively to what amounts as shame and embarrassment on a national scale, and not just denounce the idiocy of racism and the idiots who perpetuate it, but conduct the life of the city in such a manner as to kill racism at the roots?

Or, do we do what we've always done, and sweep it under an already overcrowded rug?

Will there ever be progress in New Albany if we don't at least try to erase this stain?