Tonight I heard a couple left-of-center pundits on MSNBC's The Ed Show accuse Santorum of being intentionally racist and that his comment in the clip below was evidence of an agenda harbored by some conservative elements.
IMHO that's nonsense. Racist, yes, but evidence of an agenda? No.
What it was, was surreptitious ignorance.
Racism is often so subtle, so incipient, those affected by it don't realize it; and I use the word surreptitious because the ignorance submerses itself, like a neurosis (maybe exactly so), and refuses acknowledgement.
Rarely do racists know they are racist. Mr Santorum is a victim of his class, his station, his color, his family, his wealth, and every person and idea that ever nudged his path one way or the other.
He may indeed have nothing but goodwill toward all men of all colors, but his language, and hence the collective pieces that make Rick Santorum Rick Santorum, unfortunately include enough poorly formed mores that these words were formed by his brain and allowed to leave his mouth.
Is he a bad man? I doubt that very much. Could it have been a linguistic slip because he was recently discussing Black Americans in the context of welfare? Possibly. But it shows an allowance for insensitive wording that shouldn't be tolerated, least of all in public office.
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