"Articulate" (#323, Topic A)

A couple of days ago, a presidential candidate, in throwing his hat into the Democratic-party- primary ring, commented, when asked by a reporter, that a fellow presidential candidate (#310) was "the first African-American who is clean, articulate". The comment was intended to be a praise (certainly, it was not meant to bring about any controversy) , but the media took it differently, accusing this newest presidential candidate with tinges of racism. This brings back an issue that has been on my mind for, by now, 20+ years. It was 1985; I was interviewed by the World Bank Group for a position, and talked to quite a few staff members in the process. At that time, I was in the academia for over 30 years and a tenured full professor for over 20, with dozens of papers and 8 books under my belt. After I joined WB, I somehow got to read some of the notes written by people I talked to. One said that I was "articulate." While a lot has taken place over the 20+ years, and while my memory has been deteriorating by the day, somehow, this word left a strong impression with me -- I always thought it was a strange word, but I could not put my fingers on why I thought it this way -- until now, until I read the various commentaries by the punditry on this current event. It is racism -- subtle, yes; almost unnoticeable, yes; probably unintended, yes. Yes, yes, yes. Still, it is racism. The implication is that you -- I -- being not a WASP, cannot be expected to speak the WASP language in complete sentences, let alone in grammatically correct sentences. When you -- I -- prove to be beyond this normal expectation, the only adjective that comes to a WASP's mind is articulate. So, this 20+ year-old puzzle is solved. Q.E.D. Thank you, senator from a state in which I have an oceanfront condo for 30+ years.