Dear Ben Stein,

It seems as if every election season some conservative think-tank dusts you off and drags you out before the lights and cameras to have you drone on about one thing or another. Usually, your prattling has something to do with industry, the economy or the Republican Party in one way, shape or form. Respectfully, most of the time you speak there are thousands, if not millions, of Americans who would take your words as gospel. Your skins are considerable as a former speech writer for presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, as well as a prolific writer of over 28 books, an acclaimed public speaker, and conservative go-to guy on the economy. Lest I forget your role in the cult classic slacker film “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”, a role that still tickles me to muffled giggles almost 30 years after I first saw the film with my older brother back in 1986. 

The first time I voted was in the 1992 election that brought President Bill Clinton to power. Since that time I have had a voracious appetite for political discourse from both sides of the aisle. I’m probably one of the only non-Republican Black guys to regular watch FOX News. I do so because I would like to hear both sides of the story. You have been wrong in the past, as was the case when you repeatedly underestimated the subprime mortgage crisis on television and in print throughout 2007, retracting your words when the bottom fell out of the market months later. You’re clearly a smart man who has made a handsome living for himself, but you are not beyond reproach.

On November 3, the news first broke regarding your outrageous claim that President Barack Obama was the most racist president in the history of the United States. It immediately smelled of rotten election season sensationalism. It’s not like you don’t know your statements are hyperbole at best, and a blatant lie at worst. However, I would be remiss if I didn’t run down a little bit of history for you, history that such a stalwart American as yourself is certainly already aware of.

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, William Harrison, John Tyler, Ulysses S. Grant and several other early presidents were all slave owners. As far as American racism goes, there’s nothing more racist than participating in a commerce based on the subjugation of an entire race of people. But that’s too easy for you. Surely you, a graduate of an esteemed Ivy League institution, are aware of that.

Theodore Roosevelt, the man who coined the phrase “Walk softly but carry a big stick”, was pro-eugenics. I’ll explain what that means since you’re pretending to not know what racism truly. It is the practice of improving the genetic quality of the human race by eliminating the ability of certain races to reproduce or outright exterminating them when their numbers become too great.

President Woodrow Wilson allowed legislation to be passed that made interracial marriage illegal in Washington D.C.  Jesse Owens, the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games four-time gold medal winner, wasn’t even invited to the White House by President Franklin Roosevelt following his triumphant return to the United States; yet each of his white teammates received an invite. Hell, even Adolf Hitler shook Owens’ hand. There were other presidents within your lifespan who were considered racist to a greater or lesser extent than the aforementioned individuals. However, nobody was as flagrant and outwardly disrespectful a racist as your homeboy, Ol’ Tricky Dick! Richard Nixon was vehemently opposed to any social programs “because blacks were genetically inferior to whites”. Yes, that’s a direct quote!

As a matter of fact, his cabinet was filled with racists. White House advisor John Erlichman was notorious for calling African Americans sexual degenerates with no family values. Nixon himself was recorded as using “nigger” and “jigaboo” liberally in the White House. For minorities Nixon was arguably the most dangerous Republican of all time because his policies laid the groundwork for the current conservative mindset both from a national security and civil rights perspective.

What's frustrating is that I know you know this. I know you know all of this to be absolute fact. Yet you let this garbage spill from your mouth like a school girl spreading rumors on a mall escalator. 

The fact that you are well aware of the racist pedigree of the man you served yet find enough darkness in your essence to utter these lies is more than a shame. No knock warrants, stop and frisk and imprisonment of suspects indefinitely without trial are all provisions that have obliterated the men of many Black and Hispanic communities over the years, and were all Nixon’s babies. Knowing this, you say that President Barack Obama is the most racist president this nation has ever known? Based on what? You say Obama and the Democrats have tried to convince America that "Republicans have policies against black people". Well, there's no need for convincing. They absolutely do. What type of revisionist crap is this? Also, what exactly has the President said or done that leads you to say that? You didn't mention a particular policy or statement. Just saying stuff to play to the lowest common denominator in the Republican Party-ignorant, poor, white Southerners. How's about a dose of truth? We'll drop these videos of your former employer here.

 

 

Part of me would like to say these things to your face, but I'll pass; your breath must wreak of cow dung as your words are nothing but excreta and you know it. 

One would think the fact that Nixon also had some very inflammatory things to say about Jews as well would have made you exude less vigor in protecting his legacy seeing as though you are Jewish. Clearly one would have thought incorrectly. With all due respect, you’re the worst kind of American. Peddling lies to blind your constituency for votes and favor? Elevating your standing by working for a man who you knew was not only a racist but an anti-Semite, yet, you claim that President Obama is the most racist president in the history of the American Man? You’re the lowest kind of low. Clearly, there’s no bottom for you. 

Reruns of “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” will never be the same for me again.

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