A blog written for the self described liberal site PoliticsUSA concludes that Veteran Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki is a victim of racism (photo from Chuck Hagel).
Shinseki was forced to resign Friday after a stinging report from the Inspector General of wait times averaging 115 days at the VA Hospital in Phoenix and a system designed to cover it up.
The main thrust of the argument is that previous VA Secretaries involved in equally scandalous matters were not treated the same way as Shinseki.
That always seems to be the elephant in the room. Is the trigger pulled on people of color faster than on members of the majority? I’ve long suspected that, although those sorts of things are hard to quantify.
It’s easy to call out someone on Twitter who screams that two Indian Americans crowned co-champs of the National Spelling Bee aren’t real Americans.
Subtle sorts of racism are a bit tougher to expose.
Is this an example of that? Personally I don’t sense that it is. I’m disappointed Shinseki, by all accounts an ethical and honest man, had to end his reign as head of the VA this way, but I’m always one to use the word racism cautiously even when the victim of racism might be me.
Read the blog in PoliticsUSA and let me know what you think?
RE: Shinseki, A Victim of Racism: I feel the same way. For someone like Eric Shinseki (person of color, US army war vet, chief of staff of army, secretary of VA, etc), he could not have gotten to those positions of authority without learning how to deal with (ignore) subtle racism. Even if the accusation was undoubtedly true, so what? Someone had to be the scapegoat for the scandal, and both Republicans and Democrats pounced at the opportunity (this year’s mid-term elections, and 2016 presidential election). It was MacArthur who said in his farewell speech, “old soldiers never die, they just fade away”. I think the quote applies here too.