While listening to Dr. Laura’s racist meltdown the other day I was reminded of a recurring episode from my childhood involving my brother. Like all siblings we competed with each other, which inevitably led to physical confrontation. Being two years older and considerably larger, they usually ended with me imposing my physical will on him, and he would run crying to mom.

He’d be screaming all the way that I hurt him, and my response would be, “That didn’t hurt, that didn’t hurt,” all the while telling him to be quiet. Then there was the moment of truth where mom would listen to the facts and make her decision. My brother’s claims and my protestations had precious little to do with her judgment. Unable to appreciate that our tiny house allowed her to hear everything that transpired, we’d both state our cases passionately. Generally her rulings were just, although there was a time or two that she missed. Regardless, neither his claims nor my protests ultimately had much impact on her ruling, but what I learned was I didn’t get to decide whether my actions were hurtful. It begs the question, what the hell makes Dr. Laura believe she gets to decide whether her behavior was racist?

Dr. Laura is a hate filled, homophobic, xenophobic, religious wingnut, titty-baring bitch, and I’m working very hard to be as kind as possible. She’s the spawn of Satan sent to cause immeasurable pain and suffering on the world. That said, let’s look at her actions.

On the radio she goes into a complete meltdown, using a pejorative racial epithet repeatedly, deluded that she was helping a human being of the race she was denigrating. Eleven times in five minutes she used the N-word, rationalizing that since black comedians on HBO and Showtime use it that she should be able to use it, too. Giving her the benefit of the doubt, we’d suggest that she was just trying to open a heretofore off-limits dialogue. The thing is, when it comes to hatred it’s never reasonable to give a person the benefit of the doubt. However there was one thing that I did find amusing in this reprehensible display of ignorance and bigotry.

When the caller, an African-American woman who was obviously timid and self-conscious, finally mustered the courage to confront Dr. Laura, she responded much as I did all those years ago. She exclaimed, “That’s not racist, that’s not racist,” as if it was her decision to make. Just as I’d done all those years ago, she was living with the misconception that ultimately it was her right to determine whether her actions were inappropriate. The difference is that I was only seven years old, and based on the crevices in her face she has to be at least 80, and should know better. The sad truth is, despite being a psychologist, she actually believed that it was her right to decide whether her behavior was hateful and racist. The problem is, we’re seeing that same conduct from the borderline personalities on the right every day.

Look at the teabaggers and you see this dynamic in action all the time. They walk the streets with signs depicting Barack Obama dressed as a tribal African with a bone in his nose, or one that reads “Monkey See, Monkey Spend,” yet they act like none of us are capable of reaching our own conclusions. They protest vociferously any suggestion that they might be racist, xenophobic or homophobic, all the while acting racist, xenophobic and homophobic.

It’s like walking in on your three-year-old who has cookie all over his face and hands, and when you ask him he denies having been in the cookie jar. You know he’s lying, and he knows he’s lying, yet somehow in his tiny, marginally functioning intellect he’s convinced that he’s really telling the truth. The problem is that we have a large number of adults, capable of doing adult damage, who are functioning intellectually and emotionally at the level of a three-year-old. The question becomes, what are we to do about it?

Since I already started this by being less than politically correct a judgmental asshole, I don’t see any sense in ending it any other way. If someone was destroying his life with addictions to alcohol, drugs, gambling or sex, we’d feel compelled to intervene on his behalf. We wouldn’t allow him to careen out of control without throwing him a life preserver. We need to do the same with Dr. Laura and the teabaggers.

I propose a stupidity intervention. It’s time we approach them with our concerns that they are so totally ignorant that we’re worried they might forget to breathe, and that they need to get help. The first thing we’d do is use parental controls on their televisions and lock them out of FOX News, forcing them to get their information from a variety of other sources. The second would be to require them to attend a class about the Constitution of the United States. Finally, and most importantly, we’d demand they spend 10 hours a week as a minority at a gathering of people from another race or ethnic background. I know these are extreme measures, but we live in desperate times.

If you have someone that you’re worried about, please don’t stand by and allow them to slide into the abyss. Confront them and tell them that you really wish they would go for help. It’s the only merciful thing to do.

From Larry Wohlgemuth…

Racism is both a tragic and fascinating human phenomena that, despite the improved liberal tolerances of our new global village, continues to thrive in societies the world over. As RELATIVTY has discussed at length before, East and West, Third or First world, racism is always there; sometimes beneath the surface and sometimes in our faces.

For some, a critical and forthright discussion of race is much more acceptable when it comes from an often maligned and marginalized slice of a society’s minority. But what if you are a member of the majority? What if you a member of a racial group whose history includes ugly acts of racism and prejudice?  Are there boundaries to respect? Are there certain issues too sensitive to approach? 

RELATIVTY Online staff came across the above video of a young American asking these very questions and more. With its history entrenched in slavery, The United States has always been a hotbed of racial tension, ready to burst into flame at any given moment. Watch a rather frank discussion of one man’s perspevtive of such an atmosphere and see if you agree.