Religious right and red state racism

A number of folks have been commenting in the posts below that the uproar over the NFL's Desperate Housewives ad may very well be race-based. Meaning, how dare a black man (football player) touch one of our white women. I don't think this criticism is necessarily off mark.

I remember growing up in Chicago in the late 60s, when I was just a wee lad (very wee, thank you), and I remember it was a big oddity, to say the least, to see an inter-racial couple - it was something you stared at and talked about when you saw it. And even today, I suspect it's still not as common as it should be to see an inter-racial couple walking around - it's still something you might notice when you saw it, though hopefully without the judgment of the past.

With that in mind, is it any surprise that it's the religious right, not known for its tolerance of anybody, who first jumped on this "scandal"? (And the religious right sure has a lot of supporters in Red states that aren't, shall we say, real friendly to black folk - think Alabama and that little segregation-era law they refuse to repeal - do you really think religious-right-friendly Alabamians (or whatever) are comfy with black men taking "our" women?)

Who else is fanning the flames? Rush Limbaugh. Ironically, it was Rush who made his racist little comment last year about black football players, and now he's having it again, this time suggesting that the ad reminded him of the Kobe Bryant case. Now, in that case, a black athlete is accused of raping a white woman. In the case of this ad, a black athlete is seduced by a very clearly willing white woman. I'm sorry, but are we now suggesting that any time black men and white women are "together" on TV it's going to be akin to rape? That to me is racism.

So, I'll leave it to you to decide. Racism, anti-sex (ism), or a legitimate concern about corrupting the morals of innocent football viewers?