By Justin Michael Carter

“Just Directa Yo Feetsa to Daddy Green’s Pizza” was the slogan from Bruce Leroy’s pop’s pizza joint in the cult classic The Last Dragon, a movie that’s difficult to watch now without thinking about Herman Cain. Just when Cain, a Black pizza man born and raised in Georgia, vying for the Republican nomination couldn’t get any more ludicrous, he hit the Sunday talk show circuit and told CNN he doesn’t believe racism holds African Americans back. Cain may as well have told CNN he catches bullets with his teeth.The incredulity of Herman Cain’s statement isn’t really significant in itself. After all, harboring the belief that racism doesn’t exist is practically a prerequisite for joining the Republican Party. Blacks face higher unemployment rates, incarceration rates, lower wages, and higher school drop out rates, but to most Republicans these facts represent small hinderances. They are mere inconveniences which don’t actually hold Black people back from moving on up to that deluxe apartment in the sky.

Denying the existence of racism and diminishing its impact is as Republican as Ronald Reagan. For all we know there is an official Republican ceremony during which racism is Santa Claused into mythical territory. Hey the President is Black, right? No, it’s not a surprise that Herman Cain holds such myopic beliefs, but this, coupled with another one of Cain’s recent television appearances, paints a startling portrait of the would be GOP nominee.

Last week, Cain was harshly confronted by MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell for his unwillingness to participate in the Civil Rights Movement. While prepping for his interview, O’Donnell read Cain’s soon-to-be-released book and was shocked that a Black man could be born, raised, and educated in the heart of the Civil Rights Movement without participating in any way. When questioned about this, Cain defended himself by insisting he would have participated in the movement had he been a college student at the time. After being reminded by the MSNBC host that he attended college from 1963-1967 during the height of the movement, Herman Cain asked if O’Donnell expected every Black student from every Black college to be on the front lines. Then, flailing wildly like Zab Judah during the Kostya Tszyu knockout, Herman Cain suggested that maybe he had a sick relative preventing him from participating in the movement. Presumably, this hypothetical relative was sick for the duration of the Civil Rights Movement.

This exchange is remarkable when considering Cain attended the famed Morehouse College, an institution that was most certainly on the front lines during the Civil Rights Movement. In the 1960’s campus politics were so highly charged at Morehouse it would have been nearly impossible to walk to the cafeteria without participating in some protest or another. This was around the time Samuel L. Jackson, another Morehouse alum, famously took the Board of Trustees hostage along with a group of student activists. Morehouse is also the alma mater of MLK, the face of the Civil Rights Movement whose funeral procession walked over three miles from Ebenezer through the city of Atlanta before ending on its campus.

It is truly hard to believe anyone who attended Morehouse in the 1960’s wouldn’t have participated in the Civil Rights Movement in some way. The fact Herman Cain did not participate tells us if nothing else, at least he has remained consistent. Could it be any less difficult to picture a young Herman Cain blindly abstaining from the campus activities of the NAACP, SNCC, and the SCLC back then after seeing him on television foolishly denying the existence of racism now? Cain has undoubtedly benefitted from the sacrifice of Civil Rights soldiers who put their lives on the line for the movement while he sat it out. Denying the existence of the racism they fought so hard to destroy dishonors their memory in the worst possible way because there is so much work yet to be done.

Yet from the sidelines while sipping on Gatorade, Herman Cain apparently ignored all that was transpiring on the field of play then, just as he is ignoring it now. It is one thing to be a conscientious objector, but it’s another thing entirely to get dropped into the middle of a war zone only to run into the corner with your hands covering your ears as the bombs explode all around you. It seems Herman Cain simply waited for the smoke to clear, then denied a war had ever taken place to begin with. This speaks volumes about the man’s character and raises uncertainty about whether he is truly fit to lead. One thing that is certain, no one can call Hermain Cain a sellout because it appears he never truly bought in. Perhaps the sick relative he referenced to Lawrence O’Donnell who prevented him from participating in the Civil Rights Movement was himself.

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