Watermelons and Memos

In the future America, perhaps 100 years from now, a media personality's placement of the word "watermelons" in a sentence about a black man might not be objectionable at all. That would be because in America's most ideal future, nobody would be racist anymore and therefore few would recall the horribly racist association between blacks and watermelons except as one of those vague references somewhere in a dusty history book.

But in 2010, racism is alive and well. Just ask Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. He has condemned the actions of some students at the University of California-San Diego who last month held an off-campus event called "Compton Cookout" that mocked Black History Month. Participants defended the event as satire. Protesters on campus called it racism.

So when veteran newsman Dan Rather mentioned watermelons over the weekend in the same breath as President Barack Obama, there was sure to be commotion. Rather made the unfortunate foot-in-mouth remark on The Chris Matthews Show while opining about health care reform and what he deemed Obama's unsuccessful attempts to sell it to the public. Rather said the president "couldn't sell watermelons." While Rather deals with the fallout as to whether his remark was racist or not, Michael Steele, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, might know how Rather feels.

In a long strategic plan for the GOP that outlined how to raise money and oust Democrats this year, the GOP also outlined a campaign of fear. One way: make people afraid of Obama. Here's how: dredge up that old, nasty Photoshop job of Obama in which he's made to look like the Joker -- just like actor Heath Ledger (R.I.P.) in the 2008's "Batman: The Dark Knight."

Forget that the image, which includes the word "Socialism," is tasteless. There are some critics who have accused the RNC, including Steele who is black, of racism for even using the controversial image of Obama in their materials. In effect, critics say, the image is Obama in white face (the opposite of black face), meaning to some that Obama is being portrayed as a black clown trying to act white. The RNC documents aim to campaign on the American imagination by raising terms such as "fear" in order to "save the country from trending toward socialism."

If Rather doesn't immediately apologize for offending people with his poor choice of words -- actually, word -- (and just that), he hasn't done a good job of taking the pulse of the nation, which is unfortunately full of tensions over satire and worn-out expressions, however innocent and small.

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Image: From the Republican National Committee's plans/via Politico

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