Ambush!

While I appreciate the sentiment in the letter by Edward V. Harris of Hugo, I'm afraid that the editors of the Oklahoman have simply set him up for an ambush. Mr. Harris argues that disparaging remarks about the poor-- that they are simply too lazy, they want "gifts," and so on-- are oftentimes simply veiled racial remarks. 

Mr. Harris concludes his letter by writing, "[m]ost of this anger and resentment is a manifestation of a deeper racial bias and hatred," and there is certainly some truth to that idea. The so-called "southern strategy"-- a plan by the right to win over southern Democrats-- was grounded in racist appeals to southern white men.

In a now-famous interview, Reagan advisor Lee Atwater confessed as much:

Questioner: But the fact is, isn't it, that Reagan does get to the Wallace voter and to the racist side of the Wallace voter by doing away with legal services, by cutting down on food stamps?

Atwater: You start out in 1954 by saying, "Nigger, nigger, nigger." By 1968 you can't say "nigger" — that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced bussing, states' rights and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now [that] you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites. And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me — because obviously sitting around saying, "We want to cut this," is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than "Nigger, nigger."

So, yes, Mr. Harris' claims are at least to some extent grounded in truth. That said, I am pretty sure that the Oklahoman didn't publish this to simply let a concerned citizen of the state express his views. Instead, I'd wager that this is a classic Oklahoman Point/Counterpoint move. In the coming days we can expect a few letters from right-wingers explaining how they're so not racist, have actual black friends, and just hate the poor because they really are lazy. And to that, one might say the Oklahoman doth proest too much, methinks.