Jordan Nicholson: Socialist, Communist, Marxist, Baby-Killing, Poor Sympathizer.

This class is meant to be about Ethnicity and Race, the study of our culture and other cultures and how race and ethnicity effects daily life. I am a liberal. The idea that "liberal" used to be considered a dirty word didn't exactly register with me until recently. With the election of Barack Obama and a sweeping liberal majority, we were meant to believe that our country was headed toward a new era of progressivism and prosperity. Instead, the factions of the far-right that promote dangerous and antiquated ideals have taken over our national dialogue, and hijacked the rhetoric that once was a promotion of peace. I believe that when it comes to race in this country, we have made tremendous strides. However, the election of Barack Obama has proved that we still have a very, very long way to go. Glenn Beck has claimed that the President is "racist," despite the fact that he was raised by his white mother, his white grandparents and spent most of his time in predominately white schools. Rush Limbaugh has offered suggestions of his "militant-blackness," and Sarah Palin publicly supported several candidates in the mid-term elections who don't even believe President Obama is an American citizen (but was rather a citizen of Kenya). The TEA Party has taken this to new extremes. These bands of misinformed or uninformed "patriots" hold rallies and shouting matches meant to convert all of their listeners to the far-right, which is pro-life, pro-God, pro-gun, anti-government, and blatantly inflammatory.

I will never forget where I was on the night of then-Senator Obama's election as our nation's first black President. Covering Democratic headquarters for a local radio station, I was moved to tears by the embrace of an 85-year-old black woman, who had spent her youth and early-adulthood in the South. When it was announced that Barack Obama had won the election, we all jumped up, threw our papers, cracked champagne and congratulated each other. All except Mrs. Taylor took part in these festivities. She was sitting in a chair, crying and was visibly shaken. I asked her what was wrong, and she looked at me and said, "Child, nothing is wrong. This is the happiest moment of my life. Most people say the birth of their child is their happiest day, but I hated myself on that day. I brought my child into a world that hated her before she could speak a word or write her letters. She's almost 50-years-old, and now my grandchildren and her grandchildren will get to grow up knowing they can be President too. I can't expect you to know what that feels like, baby, but just so you know why I'm crying." She gave me a hug and asked her husband, who had been a bus driver in Montgomery, Alabama, to share with me his experiences from the Civil Rights era.

As a radio journalist that evening, it was euphoria. My top-of-the-hour report at eleven o'clock fell right as the announcement was being made, and I got to make it live from the county headquarters. "At eleven o'clock, eastern standard time, America has broken a barrier that has transcended our history. With expected gains on the West Coast, Senator Barack Obama has been elected the 44th President of the United States of America. For the first time in our 232 years as a nation, we have called upon a black man to lead us further into a century that now seems so ripe with promise." My finest moment as a broadcaster.

Nevertheless, in 2011 I'm reminded of the struggles that Republicans went through in the South during reconstruction. In the South, you were expected to be what would come to be called a "Dixiecrat," or a Southern Democrat. Today, liberals are being chastised not by reasonable, moderate political centrists, but by the far-right loons who recently spat on legendary civil rights leader and Georgia Congressman John Lewis. I'm called "baby-killer," "Socialist," "Communist," "Marxist," "Fascist," and everything in-between. Despite the fact that these accusations are completely contradictory, they all have to do with one factor. I support the black guy in the White House. While this is an unfair assessment of many Tea Partiers, I feel as though the reason I've been shouted down at debates and yelled at over the phone is because this group, at its core, is inherently racist. To this, I say "fine!"

I have gay friends, I have transsexual friends, I have bisexual friends, I have Chinese friends, I have Mexican friends, and I have a black President...and I couldn't be happier about that. Those who believe the rich should get richer and the poor should get poorer should go to neighborhoods I've visited, or talk to the children of families that don't have much. If the desire for equality makes me a liberal, than I'm certainly proud to call myself a liberal.

"If by a 'Liberal' they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a 'Liberal.'" -John F. Kennedy