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There it is on the front page of Saturday's Times, the latest example of a pattern I'll call "when there isn't a valid argument, just claim racism."
I'm referring to the report of a local sheriff's deputy, Shawn Jackson, who's decided he was passed over for promotion because he's black, so he's suing the sheriff and Hall County.
Forget that he never scored higher than fifth place among deputies competing for promotion to sergeant. Forget that no fewer than two members of the promotion review board were black. Forget competence, or a lack thereof.
Just whine "racism" when you don't get your way. Deputy Jackson, you're probably a nice guy, but you're way out of line.
Enough is enough. It took more than a century to achieve parity for all races in this country. Yet, now we've got this new race card mentality on the part of some who, when they can't win on a level playing field, whimper that they're denied because of skin color. Baloney!
All these frivolous lawsuits manage to accomplish is the undoing of what others worked so hard to achieve: colorblindness. (It didn't help matters when Barack Obama called police "stupid," and mentioned racial profiling, for enforcing law and order with an emotionally out-of-control black professor in Cambridge last year.)
When Deputy Jackson loses his lawsuit based on the facts, I expect our county to recover all our legal fees from the plaintiff. That's my tax money being squandered to defend what doesn't need defending, and in these tough economic times I resent ridiculous lawsuits that waste my money. The money you'll pay, deputy, might have been better spent studying for the next sergeant's exam.
Now I'll wait for the other shoe to fall. Someone will call me racist for daring to speak out against what has become the true new racism: people playing the so-called race card when there isn't a real leg to stand on.
Craig Cook
Gainesville