When Barack Obama was campaigning for president in 2008, he and his supporters in the media claimed his election would create a post-racial America.
Far from accomplishing that, the United States appears more racially divided than it has in decades.
I live in a rather upscale community in northern California. Although certainly not as ethnically diverse as nearby Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, it is by no means a homogenous white community.
Successful "minorities" from across the state have chosen to reside in this area for its spectacular climate, top-rated schools, and virtually crime-free neighborhoods.
As such, the region attracts CEOs, business owners, and senior managers from all over the Bay Area as well as professional athletes and musicians.
With that as pretext, my family was at a local diner with friends we've known for about 25 years. The restaurant we were at is a staple in the area serving what best could be described as deli fare. It therefore appeals to all kinds of people for its diverse menu and family-friendly environment.
As the six of us sat eating and laughing, my friend's son mentioned that he'd recently befriended a rapper that lives in his posh gated community.
This led us into an impromptu discussion about the music genre with the three children at the table - aged between 17 and 19 - sharing some lyrics of popular songs to spice up the discussion.
The three parents of course had never heard of any of these tunes, and were just kind of giggling at the content.
My college-aged daughter - fully cognizant of my politics - cited a piece by Young Jeezy called "My President." The lyrics she shared were, "My president is black, my Lambo's blue. And I be goddamned if my rims ain't too."
I foolishly thought "Lambo" meant Lambeau Field. The "kids" giggled and said, "No - Lamborghini."
Oh.
My daughter cautioned me that much of the lyrics in that particular song were far fouler, and that she would not repeat them in public.
At this point in the evening, the dining room we were in had largely cleared out, and I thought we were mostly by ourselves.
Sadly I was mistaken, for from the far corner of the room came a voice saying, "I'd like to hear you say that about a white president."
I looked in the direction of the voice and saw a black gentleman seated in the corner by himself with a laptop on the table.
"Excuse me," I asked politely.
"I'd like to hear you say that about a white president," he reiterated.
"I think you're missing the point, sir," I respectfully said. "We're discussing the lyrics of rap tunes. Nobody at this table wrote those words. A black rapper did."
"So what?" he protested. "It's still offensive."
"Well," I countered, "that might be the case. But all we're doing is discussing lyrics. The color of the President's skin as far as any of us here is concerned is irrelevant. It's the black rapper that seems preoccupied with it."
"Well," he said unsatisfied, "that tells me all I need to know about you."
The look on my wife's face told me I should drop it. As we had already paid our bill, we all just got up and left before things escalated.
I intentionally let everyone leave ahead of me so that I could go talk to the gentleman and try to square things.
I walked up to his table, held my hand out to shake his, and said, "Sir, I just wanted to apologize for the misunderstanding."
He looked at me rather coldly and said, "I just don't think that was an appropriate discussion in public in the year 2012."
"Why?" I asked. "There was nothing vulgar in what we were talking about. We were just discussing lyrics to popular rap tunes intentionally omitting anything that might have been offensive. Are you opposed to rap music?'
"That's besides the point," he said in a derogatory tone. "I don't think you should have been having such a discussion."
"Are you opposed to the rapper's lyrics or just that white people were repeating them?" I asked. He didn't answer.
"If it's the lyrics," I continued, "might I suggest you write the rapper or his record company and lodge your complaint with them?"
He didn't have a comment for this and just glared at me.
"Just remember when you reflect on this that I tried to apologize and you refused to accept it," I said and walked away.
I had a somewhat similar experience at another restaurant two towns down a few months ago.
Though two uncomfortable experiences in as many months certainly don't prove anything, it seems to me everyone in America is walking on eggshells as a result of the left and their media minions' strategy of obtaining votes by playing the race card.
For over four years, the public has been bludgeoned almost 24/7 with claims that virtually everything said by a white Republican is racist.
Try to imagine the impact this has had on America's minorities. After four years of this nonsense, how could any non-white in this country not think white people are racist?
Turn on any ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, NBC, NPR, or PBS newscast in the past twelve months and you were likely to hear a reference to "angry white men." A Google search of the term produced 63 million results!
Let's be clear: Obama, the Democrats, and their loyal media have been intentionally pounding the desk about this for four years, and the strategy helped them win an election last Tuesday.
But at what cost to the nation? And now that they know it's working, are they going to continue employing it to get Obama's agenda passed in his second term?
Consider that despite the election being over, MSNBC's Chris Matthews Wednesday accused Congressman Paul Ryan of racism because he said the word "urban" in relation to a section of voters.
Tim Allen, the star of ABC's Last Man Standing said on NBC's Tonight Show Thursday that when it comes to race, censors "went back to the ‘80s with what we can and cannot say on the network."
At roughly the same time, comedian and filmmaker Mel Brooks coincidentally told ABC's Jimmy Kimmel that his hit movie "Blazing Saddles" couldn't be made today because studios wouldn't tolerate the racial humor.
If this continues, just how divided will we be four years from now? Do America's media members even care, or has Machiavelli completely taken control of them?
Whatever the answer, Martin Luther King Jr. must be wearing out his grave rolling over in shame for the way people are behaving nearly 50 years after his death.
