Chains, Politics, Racism, & VP Biden

All the political chatter today is about Vice President Biden's remark

"put y'all back in chains"

But let's looks the entire quote in context

“Romney wants to, he said in the first 100 days, he's going to let the big banks once again write their own rules. Unchain Wall Street. They're going to put y’all back in chains,”

To me these look very different when taken in full context.  He was using a metaphor.  A poor one may be, but a metaphor just the same.

Much has been made of the fact that this took place in Danville, Va which is a city that has a population of almost 49% black.  This is what I find offensive.  If he had said this in a city that had a population that is say only 8% black it would have been different?  You can see from the pictures of the event that the crowd was diverse.

What I find so offensive is that what I am hearing in this uproar is that apparently we are supposed to change our language depending on who were are talking to.  Does that mean that I am supposed to create a blog for hispanic readers, another for whites, and yet another for blacks?  That I am supposed to change the language I use for the point I am trying to make depending on the skin color of the reader?  That is really offensive to me.

Is what he said stupid?  Of course it is.  But in full context it wasn't racist.

I do believe that Biden has some preconceived notions of things.  I think many will remember that he once made a comment about Indians and 7-11's.  The fact of the matter is that in the area that I live in you would be hard pressed to find a 7-11 that didn't have employees that are not of Indian descent.  What he said is true, at least in this area of the country.  That may not be true everywhere, but here it is.  So is that racism/bigotry?  No, it isn't.  Maybe it isn't polite to point it out, but that is about political correctness, not racism.

See I am no fan of how everything we say and do in this country has to fit into some preconceived notion of being politically correct.  Who is it that makes these rules?  Because we all know that they are different for different people.  Had Paul Ryan used the same words the likes of Roland Martin would be the first one to screaming and yelling it was indeed racist.  Whereas today he is saying that it isn't.  For once I actually agree with him that it was not a racist statement.

We need to get past all this PC nonsense and realize that using the metaphor of chains has nothing to do with slavery.  It is a commonly used metaphor that covers all kinds of things.  I am sick to death of everything being labeled "offensive" or "racist".  It is no more attractive when it comes from the right then when it comes from the left.

I dare anyone who disagrees with me on this to look me in the eye and tell me honestly that you wouldn't feel that had the exact same scenario happened to a politician you agree with, you wouldn't be defending it and saying it wasn't racist and people were over-reacting.  If you can't do that, then stop playing the same "racist" card that has been played on us for the past four years.

Is VP Biden a gaffe machine?  Oh, yes.  He is not the smartest tool in the shed, that is for sure.  He also has a habit of changing his dialect up a little bit depending on the crowd he is front of.  Which is offensive.  But there is no proof that VP Biden is a racist and that this comment was nothing more than metaphor of a theme that the right has been using for the past two years, of unshackling the private sector.  Could he have used a different word than chain?  Yea maybe.  But why should he have?  At some point we have to get beyond this nonsense and stop equating everything to race and slavery.

Take it away Joe: