Is it is or is it isn't?

 Few former American leaders can so quickly piss off his or her opponents the way former President Jimmy Carter can.

 One doesn’t have to read all the top right-wing blogs or listen to the major reactionary talk radio shows to know that anger is dripping like blood from the Carter-haters today after he stated what many less prominent people have been saying for days. That is, of course, that the behavior behind the “You Lie” outcry of Republican U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina is steeped in racism.

 Now it is no surprise that everyone and their dog who supports Wilson says there is no truth to such a charge. Even President Obama’s press secretary Robert Gibbs says his boss doesn’t agree with Carter’s assessment. We are left to take the Big Man’s word as to whether such a statement from the first African-American president (Obama’s daddy and not Obama himself if you will remember was born in Africa) is sincere, playing politics or are all of the above. Therein is the problem “Bigger than Dallas” as people say down here in Texas unless they live in Houston or Fort Worth.

 Racism is not something one can see like, say, a three-headed chicken. It is not an olfactory sense like whiffing the aroma of a dead mackerel on the beach. Nor is racism to be heard (well, at least the feeling or behavior itself can’t be heard), tasted (except in some rare instances of poisoning) or touched (fill in your own exception.)

 You may call Joe Wilson a racist all you want. One might say that much of the dyspeptic right-wing political actions as of late certainly appear as being spurred by racism, such as keeping the children from watching their president give a speech on staying in school. But the fact is, if Joe Wilson says he isn’t a racist, there is little short of some legal action such as a criminal conviction for a hate crime that will prove it. Ditto for those who screamed that they wanted to save their little innocent darlings from being indoctrinated by Nazi-commie-pinko-homo-freaking-Democrats.

 What makes the charge of racism even more difficult to prove is that save for those who dress like punk-rock icon Henry Rollins, as in his guest gig on FX’s “Sons of Anarchy,” most racists are not going to show outwards signs of racism nor admit their feelings.

 Some racists will jump up and down, shout, knock the crap out of, perhaps even kill you if you dare label them a racists. Why? Because they do not see themselves as such. It’s not nice to be called a racist. It’s kind of taboo.

 On the other hand, if you were raised in a culture in which your parents or grandparents, neighbors and even your society expressed racial prejudice — such as the “White” and “Colored” water fountains and rest rooms I used to see growing up — that doesn’t make you a racist.

 If anyone believed that racial prejudice was going to be quickly dispatched by the election of a black (and half-white) president then perhaps now it is (way, way past) time to come back to reality.

 That there are those in politics who are using the so-called “race card” to their advantage — on both sides — likewise shouldn’t be shocking. That is because the race card is a trick card. It is there when someone says it is there, and it’s not there when someone says it is not.