I’m going to start this with a little side comment which you will see fits with the general comment I will make. There are three women I would love to sit down and talk with for at least three hours. When I say talk I mean just talk and pick their brains because they all have given very interesting commentary for the past few years and it has been a joy listening to them. I think just to be able to have an intelligent conversation with one of them, or in a dream universe all of them, would be heaven for me. The three women are Rachel Maddow, Alex Wagner and Melissa Harris-Perry.

Two days ago Herman Cain was interviewed on Lawrence O’Donnell’s MSNBC show and it seems O’Donnell got mixed reactions from the interview. I think wisely he had three black commentators, including Harris-Perry, on his show the next day to give their reaction to the interview. While Harris-Perry was diplomatic she did feel the question about Cain’s involvement, or lack of involvement, in the civil rights struggle, made her uncomfortable. She clearly stated it wasn’t so much the question as it seemed it was an assumption that if you were of a certain age during the time of the civil rights movement you had to be a part of it. Furthermore, the question being asked by O’Donnell probably would not have been a question asked of a white politician of the same time period.

The exchange reminded me of earlier in the week when the discussion on The View went to the rock with the word N**gerhead at the land leased by Rick Perry’s family. Sherri Sheppard had pause when Barbara Walters said the word but not when Whoopi Goldberg said the word. Barbara Walters, world renowned journalist, didn’t seem to grasp what Sheppard had an issue with her saying the word and not Goldberg, even with a number of examples as to why.

It can be hard to explain to people not of ‘the tribe’ some of the tribes ways, and why some things are acceptable and others aren’t.  When I was invited to attend a Seder many years ago, I thought I knew what one was like because I had seen them on TV a few times and I did a little bit of reading on it. As prepared as I was it didn’t prepare me for what a Seder was all about and it after attending a few with the same family and other families in the years since, it would be foolish for me to think I have enough knowledge of one to still know it. I am an outsider and the tradition can vary from family to family, just like any other tradition.

The assumption Harris-Perry pointed out to O’Donnell was that many people, including myself, seem to bring to the table is that every black person in America was at the March on Washington, or protested by sitting at a lunch counter, or registered blacks to vote. Blacks aren’t a monolith, and that goes with voting and actions. Like most movements, the civil rights movement didn’t have all black people directly or even indirectly involved, but the actions of the few were of benefit to the many. From the answer given, Herman Cain didn’t have a good explanation as to why he didn’t participate in the civil rights movement, even though, to be generous, he misrepresented at first if he was even of the age where he would be aware of the events going on. This is where O’Donnell was definitely on point and showed Cain was less than honest in his first response to the question.

From the Huffington Post, here is how Herman Cain answered the question posed by O'Donnell about service in the civil rights movement.

Soon after giving the answer, O'Donnell pointed out Cain was actually in college during 1963 to 1967, at the height of the civil rights movement, not as a child as he made it seem in his book and not a high school student as he clearly said in his response.

My parents are a little older than Cain and because of the perception, I wondered why my parents never did a sit in, didn't go to the March on Washington. If I were to believe the media, as I said, every black person in America was struggling to fight for equality by doing a sit in or doing a march. My parents never did any of that and for many years I wondered why. I never asked them about it, but in the back of my mind it troubled me. A few years ago I took my parents to the airport, and with them was a family friend. For whatever reason, they started talking about 'the old days' and I learned were like the vast majority of black people in America at the time. They faced outright discrimination, such as when my father would return home from the Navy training camp and whenever a bus would stop at a diner my father, dressed in his military clothes just like the white military guys, would have to eat in the back of the diner, eating off paper plates and paper cups, while the white military men could sit inside the diner, eating off of proper plates and cups. My mother went to an integrated school with less than ideal supplies but she was able to graduate and go to college to get a degree. Sometimes just the act of suffering through the pain and barbs with dignity was an act of defiance. Not being subservient was a way of protest.

Knowing that made me feel proud of my parents and made me think differently of how we protest. While I might have some discomfort, as Harris-Perry did, with the posing of the question in a harsh tone to Cain, Cain didn't do well in the way he answered the question. O'Donnell gave Cain the opportunity to bite at the apple again a few times, but Cain never answered the question why. While it might seem I am giving O'Donnell a pass and being too harsh on Cain, later in the interview, when asked about his non-service in the Viet Nam War, Cain easily answered the question with clarity and details, to a point where I felt O'Donnell pushed too hard on the question because Cain had answered it sufficiently in my mind.

In the end, Cain had no reason to question O'Donnell on his involvement in the civil rights movement. Cain brought up the issue in his book and apparently he fudged the truth as to if he could have been involved. When called on this, Cain threw up the race card, to a degree. While O'Donnell might be criticized for his tone of the question, of Cain hadn't lied with his first answer by saying he would have joined the movement if he wasn't so young, then it was proved and confirmed by Cain he was in college at the time, things may have gone different for him.