If you missed Rudy and Sarah at the Republican National Convention feigning disparagement regarding Barack Obama’s years as a “community organizer”, you probably caught one of the ad nauseum replays somewhere in the mainstream media. Comparing her job as a small town mayor with that of community organizer, Sarah Palin belittled Obama.

The mocking tone and message from Giuliani and Palin is not to be taken at face value. It is yet another manufactured distraction from real issues such as helping the lower and middle classes after eight years of helping the rich. Of course, they know that community organizer is just a piece of the Obama resume – a positive piece, at that. They know that Obama’s background and experience include serving as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review, teaching constitutional law, practicing as a civil rights attorney, being elected to and serving in the Illinois state Senate and the U.S. Senate.

The real, under-the-radar message behind deriding the job of community organizer is much more hateful and relates to what “community” is being organized. You can be sure that on the south side of Chicago, Obama was not organizing millionaire CEOs or investment bankers. The implication in the Republican taunts suggests the image of Obama as rabble-rouser trying to stir up the black community. Visions of Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson of years long past are supposed to dance into the people’s minds and strike the fear of Obama into their hearts. It’s time we call the Republican message what it really is – playing the race card.

Democratic Governor David Paterson, New York’s first black governor, agrees with this assessment. According to an Associated Press account, Gov. Paterson stated, “The Republican Party is too smart to call Barack Obama `black’ in a sense that it would be a negative. But you can take something about his life, which I noticed they did at the Republican convention. A community organizer. They kept saying it, they kept laughing like, what does this mean?”

That’s a good question. Posted on KeystoneProgress.org, an open letter to McCain/Palin from community organizers explains, “We work to bring together neighbors in communities across America to solve our common problems and to make life better for our families…We build neighborhood organizations that work for the common good. We teach people to act as part of a community, using their shared American values. We help people recognize the power of living in a democracy, where acting together can effect real changes. Community organizers help to build strong neighborhood institutions, fight against injustice, develop new leaders, create community-based solutions and strengthen existing structures. It is a serious job that requires the trust of our community, because we have real responsibilities that impact the daily lives of our neighbors.”

As you might expect, these community organizers were “appalled” and “insulted” by Republican convention speakers demeaning their work. They have demanded a much-deserved apology from McCain and Palin, but don’t hold your breath. For more, see http://www.iamacommunityorganizer.org/

At ThePennsylvaniaProgressive.com, John Morgan reports on the efforts of a group of community organizers to present a petition to John McCain at a campaign event in Lancaster recently. As Morgan tells us, “Interestingly, there wasn’t a single minority face to be seen among the crowds filing into the field house at Franklin & Marshall College. Community organizers and their supporters held signs outside the event reminding attendees that Ben Franklin, John Adams, Jesus, Cesar Chavez and others were all community organizers.” Are the Republicans disparaging the work that Jesus did?

We must not allow the gutter-dwelling Republicans to bastardize the language and turn the heroic term, community organizer, into subliminal racism.