Radio hosts are some of the last true catalysts of unsweetened honesty, so naturally they bear the burden of filtering that honesty as it comes in through their phone lines and leaves their studio rooms on its way back out into society.
I won’t whine. I understand the unusual bind that it puts us in to be feminists and yet defend Eminem’s right to refer to women as whores and bitches. I also gladly accept the grain of salt that comes with turning hot button issues into tactless humor for the sake of breaking tension.
But I have also spent three months watching my culture turn some ugly shades of Union blue and Confederate gray. Furthermore, under the Palin/Bachmann spell of With Us Or Against Us, I have been summarily relegated to anti-American radicalist by some of my contemporaries for speaking my angst about government, law, and national integrity.
Women are the loudest speakers about issues of feminist flavor. We habitually restrict debate about our gender-related issues to female participants out of the recurring fear that we will be dismissed. If I cannot bring Sarah Palin down a peg or two by calling bullshit on her ulterior motives (as well as her mothering skills) without being shot down by conservatives as an antagonist firebrand, then why take my call in the first place?
Most engaging in the discussion were the points made about the role of race in this very intense election. No caucasian in their right mind would dare attempt a monologue on the topic; to approach the issue safely almost always requires a co-host from another cultural community for balance and counterpoint. Evidently the observations of a white female are too risky to air to a mixed audience for fear that I may be interpreted as patronizing, despite the clear message of my complaint: I am ashamed and afraid of my fair-skinned peers for what I have experienced this year.
I will not delve into the tedium. I will relate the hilarious ice breaker that caused my call to end rather abruptly. I was followed by at least a dozen or so opinionated locals who not only laughed with me, they could scarcely let the host argue his way out of the corner he had painted himself into.
After confirmation spread of the RNC’s use of robo-calling to directly imply a connection between Barack Obama and Osama Bin Laden, and after reviewing Palin’s remarks about who he “pals around” with, it was clear to me that white America was being given subtle permission to indulge their phobia … just this once.
The last name. That was the clincher. Too many people were put off by the foreign sound of it and the subliminal rhyme of the still-at-large al Qaeda leader. Barry might easily have circumvented much of this by adapting his last name to O’Bamaugh.
This country is not completely without its sense of humor.
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