Racism we're supposed to ignore

Looks like racism is still alive and well in Mississippi. Sure, it's the kind of racism that the PC crowd would prefer not to discuss or even acknowledge. But I'm one who believes that racism is racism, I see no need to ask what color the victim is before deciding how I feel about it.

Using the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the government has alleged that [Noxubee County, Miss. Democratic Party Chairman Ike] Brown and local elections officials discriminated against whites. It is the first time the Justice Department has ever claimed that whites suffered discrimination in voting because of race.

[...]

The Justice Department says Brown and local elections officials disenfranchised whites — challenging their voting status, rejecting their absentee ballots and telling voters to choose candidates according to race.

Brown says he has merely tried to keep white Republicans from voting in Democratic primaries.

Fair enough, Brown's side of the story is plausible. But the article makes it pretty clear that Brown is an unabashed racist, making his claim suspicious at best.

The Justice Department would not comment, but county prosecutor Ricky Walker is a potential witness for the government. Walker was surprised when Brown recruited a black candidate who didn't even live in the county to run against him. Walker, after all, is a Democrat.

"Mr. Brown seems to favor black candidates," Walker said. "He's always encouraged blacks to vote strictly for the black candidates."

[...]

He says some local white Democrats aren't "true" Democrats.

"We support the black candidates because we're sure they're going to vote in the liberal interest," Brown said.

Ah yes, the last refuge of bigots: [insert name of individual or subgroup] is not a "real" or "authentic" [insert name of group] because they don't agree with the speaker's idea of how members of that group should think or act. It's hard to imagine anything more racist/sexist/etc. than the notion that there is some "correct" or required position for an individual to take on any issue. The intended effect of that kind of hard bigotry is to deny freedom of thought to whole segments of the population. Pointing out the moral bankruptcy of such arguments will be a consistent theme of mine.