“Racism lives in the USA
Look up to what Martin Luther King had to say
I don’t want my kids being brought up this way
Hatred towards each other is not ok”

—“Peaceful World”. John Mellencamp and India.Arie

This song is rolling through my head today. While most of the country is celebrating a significant defeat of racism, I seem to be swimming in a sea of it. It comes from spending time at work with the racist people. They all ended up voting for Obama. But now they are having second thoughts. Here’s what set them off.

Pictures of non-white people celebrating

They are concerned now that ‘those kinds’ of people are going to be allowed to go to the White House. Personally I didn’t realize there was a ban in effect now. They also want a guarantee that they never hear anyone speak of racism again. They think that this election proves that there is no racism here. (Hello? Did you hear yourself make your last point?). So everybody just better shut up now about being discriminated against.

There is one other crazy liberal at work besides me and she was trying to explain the state of the world to them. It wasn’t working. I was staying in another room because I didn’t want to get into a fight. She finally came and found me for backup. She kept rubbing her temples and saying, “I can’t believe it. They are actually going backwards. They voted for him and they are going backwards!” She had to walk away for a while so she didn’t smack someone.