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| James Baskett as the beloved Uncle Remus |
Racism is contemptuous, so by implying that we on the right are racist, the progressive social engineers are declaring us contemptible. It is an insult, but it doesn’t surprise me. The sleazy slimy left has shown over the past 100 years that there are no depths to which it will not sink to advance its dehumanizing agenda.
Ho Hum... Another Charge of "Racist!" Against Those Racist Republicans
DeWayne Wickham at USA Today is the latest lefty to reach for the tattered pack of race cards. His article accusing Republicans of racism towards our president is so exploitative and so completely over the top, I can’t believe I read it in USA Today. It’s more fit for the Daily Kook or the Democratic Underground Sewer.
First, he goes after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell:
“Even then, two years out from the next presidential election, the Alabama-born senator said the top goal of GOP lawmakers to oust Obama.”Get the implication? McConnell was born with a silver slave whip in his hand down in Old Alabamy. He surely owns a flame-ready cross, itching to plant it on the white house lawn and set it ablaze at the drop of a pointy white hat.
He next turns his attention to Majority Leader Cantor, who should be admired for not busting out in laughter at naïve Obama’s tactical blunder blast, “Eric, don’t call my bluff!” Anyway, Wickham insists that Cantor dissed the president all because he's black...
He attacked this first African-American president with a palpable disrespect not only for Obama personally, but also for his esteemed office.Never! Never in the history of the United States has someone been so contemptuous of the president! I guess Wickham was on vacation during the Bush years, when loony lefties compared that president to Hitler, chimpanzees, and klansmen. They even made a movie fantasizing about his assassination. That is palpable disrespect, as well as a disgusting disregard for one’s humanity.
...the House majority leader complained that the president had cut short the meeting and stormed out of the room. "He shoved back and said, 'I'll see you tomorrow' and walked out," Cantor snidely told reporters— as though the president needs his permission to end a White House gathering. (USA Today – DeWayne Wickham)
DeWayne then shamelessly invokes Frederick Douglass in a historical non-sequitur that has nothing to do with the situation at hand. The comments are so ignorant I don't want to stink up this forum with them.
A Congressional Tar Baby
In an unrelated racial incident, my Congressman, Doug Lamborn, used the term “tar baby” when talking about DC negotiations with the President and the Democrats, and the leftwing wackadoos are all over it like stink on a war protester. Here is what Congressman Lamborn said:
"Even if some people say, 'Well, the Republicans should have done this or should have done that,' they will hold the president responsible," Lamborn said. "Now, I don't even want to be associated with him. It's like touching a, a tar baby and you get it . . . you know you're stuck, and you're part of the problem now, and you can't get away."Poor choice of words, but not the personal racial attack some of the nuttier libtards are making it out to be, some going so far as to accuse Lamborn of calling the president a tar baby. No doubt hoping to fan the flames and turn this into a conflagration. Anything to keep hatred’s fires burning.
Fear and smear are all the intellectually bereft left has left
Finally, a lefty commenter at a lefty blog again accused me of opposing Obama because of his race. Instead of flaming her, I simply replied: “Prove it.” Because she can’t. And that is the staunch attitude I’ve been seeing from my fellow tea partiers.
The left has cried “Racist!” one too many times -- the charge has lost its sting
We see such outraged screams for what they really are: The last desperate gasps of a deflated, discredited movement, drained of all but its hatred. The American Left has bankrupted the nation and poisoned our culture, and they won’t go down without expending every last dirty trick in their arsenal of lies and slander.
The Obama presidency is a colossal failure
He’s surpassed the dreaded George Bush in debt racked up, people unemployed, inflation, dollar devalued, taxpayer money given to bankers and corporations, gas prices raised and Pakistanis killed. So why does the left still insist Obama is an improvement over Bush?
He has shown himself to be so woefully unprepared and incapable, he makes Jimmy Carter look good. At this point in the Carter presidency, liberals were already jumping ship, or at least no longer attempting to defend the indefensible. Why not now?
I can only conclude that liberals are only defending President Obama because he is black.
125 comments:
For me, the charge never loses its sting. I'm a guy that does nothing but preach inclusiveness and the basic worth of all human beings, so when someone calls me a racist it cuts me deep.
What's worse is that it stifles debate and opinion, which is what the Democrats are trying to do. They're trying to create a climate of fear for Republicans, so whenever a Republican wants to criticize Obama or any other non-white politician, first they must weigh what they're saying and whether or not it's going to be perceived as racist.
"I can only conclude that liberals are only defending President Obama because he is black."
An interestecting perspective which I had not until now recognized. It is very possible that out of their own feelings of quilt over their own racist feelings, they defend Obama to prove to themselves that they are not really racist.
DeWayne Wickham....what would he say if we reminded him that Allan West would be elected tomorrow by Republicans for the presidency if possible? Not because he's Black but because he shares our stances? How about Herman Cain? Last I looked, he's Black, too. Some racists, huh? How clear an example do Leftists need that it's NOT ABOUT THE COLOR with Republicans?
Then, we get blasted for Strom Thurmond's past when Byrd was a Klan RECRUITER. and on and on.....
good post, SF, but so sad to read. I honestly believe Republicans are OVER racism and the Left's what keeps dragging America back.
In a world, remember that definitions mean everything. "Racist" means not-liberal. That's how you end up with Bill Clinton as black and Clarence Thomas as not-black.
In any event, DeWickham is wrong. Bill Clinton was the first African-American president, at least he was until he was stripped of this status when Hillary dared to oppose the Obama.
The Left - "CPR for the magic negro, STAT!"
What it's like to be a black man in the DNC.
As for me... I prefer Hobbit.. one who lives in Middle Earth...and would prefer to return to that location. Oh, now we are on to being a Terrorist? Waging Jihad? yes...Middle Earth for me.
That column by DeWayne Wickham is, well, something else. And pathetic, really. Imagining the boogie man under the bed, in the closet, all over the place.
Apparently, Wickham writes similarly quite often. His needle must be stuck.
That "tar baby" incident cited in this post reminds me of something that happened several years back when a white councilman used the word "niggardly" in reference to a budget matter and got jumped on like you wouldn't believe. About that incident, which occcurred in 1999:
On January 15, 1999, David Howard, a white aide to Anthony A. Williams, the black mayor of Washington, D.C., used "niggardly" in reference to a budget. This apparently upset one of his black colleagues (identified by Howard as Marshall Brown), who interpreted it as a racial slur and lodged a complaint. As a result, on January 25 Howard tendered his resignation, and Williams accepted it. However, after pressure from the gay community (of which Howard was a member) an internal review into the matter was brought about, and the mayor offered Howard the chance to return to his position as Office of the Public Advocate on February 4. Howard refused but accepted another position with the mayor instead, insisting that he did not feel victimized by the incident. On the contrary, Howard felt that he had learned from the situation. "I used to think it would be great if we could all be colorblind. That's naïve, especially for a white person, because a white person can't afford to be colorblind. They don't have to think about race every day. An African American does."
Wikipedia has a list of several more incidents involving the word "niggardly."
Is this what we've come to? The PERCEPTION that something is racist even what that something is not?
I do agree with your concluding statement, SF.
Speedy G,
One of my favorite films is The Green Mile. Yes, there is a magical Negro in that story.
I guess that makes me a racist. Or not.
"whenever a Republican wants to criticize Obama or any other non-white politician, first they must weigh what they're saying and whether or not it's going to be perceived as racist."
is that such a bad thing? Don't forget, for all the lupine cries you might hear, racism does remain a genuine problem. How much of a burden is it to think about what you say before going ahead and saying it?
I question the motives of some commentators who go ahead and "bravely" express themselves with provocative language which teases the reader with the idea of racism. Frustration with political correctness is imo not enough excuse to abandon its honestly quite laudable intentions.
Some great points about the Bush dehumanizing and leftist hypocrite. However I have seen the same from the right. I've been called a racist by Cain supporters for my opposition to his candidacy.
Don't forget, for all the lupine cries you might hear, racism does remain a genuine problem.
Where? In Djibouti?
It may be a "genuine" problem. But it would be genuinely LESS os the problem in America w/o all the "social justice" hype from the Left.
...or as I like to call it.
PURE UNADULTERATED POLITICAL DEMAGOGUERY.
As Republicans are not one iota "more racist" than Democrats.
Each time a liberal/Democrat/leftist/collectivist/progressive blurts out the charge of "RACIST!" I interpret it as that individual saying "Hello, I'm a complete moron. I engage in absolutely no intellectual activity whatsoever. Instead, I emote and repeat the idiocy that I hear spewed out by other imbeciles in my liberal/Democrat/leftist/collectivist/progressive emo club."
As for the moron in the White House, he's as much white as he is black, for one thing. Second, the reason I want him to fail and ultimately be eradicated from any position in which he has any effect on anything at all is not that he is half non-white, but that he is an incompetent buffoon, a genuinely bad person, and an enemy of everything that is important to decent, intelligent people around the world.
When it comes right down to it, the so-called liberals are merely projecting. They don't have the intelligence or integrity to avoid racist thought (or even realize that "race" itself is a pseudo-scientific concept), so they believe that everybody is as depraved and malicious as they are.
AOW: I remember the various "niggardly" stories, and it always makes me chuckle.
The first time I ever heard that word was my first year in the military. We were playing poker and an Army Spec 4, who is black, used the word. My eyes got real big, and then he and his buddies burst out laughing at me.
Racist, terrorist,,no matter really as these terms, as inflammatory as they may be, do not apply and voters know it.
The more they on the left, to and including the V.P., call hard working and patriotic Americans (who vote) these names they will anger even more.
The anger is partly from the insinuation's of those terms but mainly from the defection of the real issue, the economy and the lefts attack on it and our families.
A change on Carvilles' quote is in order; It's your economy stupid.
It still remains to be explained why there is so much dislike for a president who to any rational mind (i.e. non Libertarian) is centrist at best and often right of center.
The birth certificate, the accusations that he's a Muslim etc. You can reasonably look to racism as a reason but the hatred and the insanity where there for Clinton ... Vince Foster and all that.
What conclusion to draw? The populace is very stupid. Very stupid. A little Fox news and then it's back to American Idol.
Of course there will be the counter that terrible things were said about Chucklenuts as he lied through his teeth to get us into a useless war but I think there was a difference.
The left will leet go of its conspiracy theories when they prove wrong. Take the "black box voting" scandal. Nonsense and it died out on the left. The right's grip is too tenuous to let go.
So, is there racism out there on the right. Of course there is. There's racism everywhere. Are there right wingers who can stand it that a nigra is commander in chief? You bet.
Is it endemic? I don't think so but it distracts us from the real news.
Are right wingers racist? No more than other groups.
Are we in a liquidity trap? Right wingers don't know what it is, won't talk about it and avoid the topic because it's incredibly important and challenges some of their deeply held beliefs about supply side.
Why don't we deal with the important stuff? Actually, we all know why.
AOW stole my thunder, because the silly kerfuffle over the use of niggardly was the first thing that came to mind when I read today's post.
I think we should call it The Aunt Jemima Syndrome.
Does anyone remember Aunt Jemima? She was the spit and image of Mammy from Gone With The Wind -- an immensely appealing, highly moral, dignified-yet-kind-and-loving old soul, who was the most admirable character in GWTW.
Well, Aunt Jemima, whose iconic imagery sold untold millions of boxes of pancake mix and syrup, was declared a stereotype unflattering to blacks, and so her products were literally driven from the marketplace. This destruction included a popular, very attractive chain of Pancake Houses. I wonder how many thousands of jobs were lost because of the machinations of Civil Rights Activists?
Now I ask you, if you were black, would you rather be represented by Mammy as Aunt Jemima or Pearl Bailey as Dolly -- or would you prefer the likes of P. Diddy Coombs and Malik Zulu Shabazz?
If the latter, then there is no hope for you.
It's the same with Uncle Remus, another lovable black character who along with Mammy, Pearl Bailey, Art Tatum, Cab Calloway, and others of their kind probably did more to combat "racism" than all the angry rhetoric from the Dubois contingent, all the Marches on Washington, and all the Draconian "progressive" legislation and attendant threats coming out of Washington, DC combined.
The proscription against the use of "Negroes" or "Colored People" is part of the same syndrome.
"Nigger" is insulting. "Negro" is not.To say that it is insulting is illegitimate and should not be respected. So, I continue to refer to backs as Negroes. If you want to call m a racist or castigate me for being "insensitive" fine. I don't care.
As for Colored People well for Christ's sake, The NAACP stands for The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. How absurd can you get?
~ FreeThinke
It happens Freethinker, remember when the fringe religious right made Procter & Gamble change it's logo because they felt it was satanic?
Is there a difference? Yes, Aunt Jemima was offensive. The P&G logo was only satanic to a deluded mind.
It's in the eye of the beholder but a little reason doesn't hurt.
I take offense at your characterization of the American electorate as "very stupid", mr. ducky. They are "ill informed" and at many times, "deliberately" so. All sides of the political divide are to blame... but the major news outlets, especially so.
@Ducky: It still remains to be explained why there is so much dislike for a president who to any rational mind (i.e. non Libertarian) is centrist at best and often right of center.
The same could be said of both Clinton and Bush. I pretty much agree with your comments.
As to your off-topic comment about liquidity traps, just blow a bigger bubble, right?
What nonsense. Krugman be damned, we are not in a liquidity trap, we are in a state-controlled quagmire.
Please don't hijack this thread with irrelevant nonsense.
again, maybe it's just me, but for anybody to call Republicans racist when most of them wholeheartedly could and would support Cain or West is absurd.
And yes, jez, it is definitely 'a bad thing' because most people are not racist and shouldn't have to watch every word they say for fear of the label of RACIST. Call Obama a 'boy' or use the common expression 'call a spade a space' in a post regarding anything involving Obama and see where a blogger's leftwing trolls will criticize..it's nuts but it's happened.
So, Ducky, are you calling me a racist since I don't like Obama's presidency?
Of course, in your mind that must be the only rational explanation right? Because you see Truth and reality so clearly, for anyone to have a divergent view from your own must mean that they are somehow delusional and/or racist?
The race card is the easiest trump to play.
If conservatives, Tea Partiers, and Republicans want to deal with the "racist" epithet it would be helpful for them to understand why and how this was tarred (no pun intended) on them.
45 years ago, the GOP was still "the Party of Lincoln" for the most part. They were the party of elite industrialists and Western ranchers. Race issues were not of particular concern to them unless and until they effected labor relations, and that was about it.
That's why so many in the GOP were able to vote for the CRA. But as Johnson warned, that vote cost the Democratic party the South, and the GOP decided to fill that vaccuum. Two generations later, the GOP is no longer "the party of Lincoln" by any stretch.
Though powerful elites in big business, banks and agro are still the real power behind the GOP curtain, the voting base and rhetoric have changed. It's not just about low taxes and deregulation and free trade anymore. Now it's about "states rights" and "law and order" and Christian conservatism and so forth.
States rights aside (as the historical racial connotations should be obvious to anyone with at least a fifth grade education), lets first take the "Law and Order" movement that began in the late sixties/early seventies, and came to a draconian peak in the eighties.
When you look at the effects of the "law and order" movement on the minority population, it is appalling - far worse than D'Toqueville's worst obseravtions. And the people see this plainly. They see Wall Street get away with blatant fraud on a massive scale, leading to the worst real estate crisis in our history, without a single, solitary individual held legally accountable as of yet.
Meanwhile, the vast majoity of federal prisoners are black, and mostly drug offenders, let alone the in state, municiple and local prisons and jails.
White people far outnumber blacks and latinos, use and sell just as much drugs, and yet get away with it, partly because of their convenient locations outside the inner-cities, partly they have the resources to hire quality representation, but there can be no doubt that race in and of itself is a major reason. The numbers are simply too disparate.
Take the anti-illegal-immigration movement, the national language movement, the unwillingness to put state money into the inner cities, and the ridiculous reaction to the election of Barack Obama, as if he personally is the cause of all the problems we've had for thirty years now, and THAT IS WHY PEOPLE ACCUSE THE REPUBLICANS AND CONSERVATIVES OF RACISM.
Argue with that, and you can dissaude people of the notion.
JMJ
"Right wingers don't know what it is, won't talk about it and avoid the topic because it's incredibly important and challenges some of their deeply held beliefs about supply side."
Seems like a lot of Right Wingers here are talking about it....
Jersey: It is illogical to argue that the GOP could attract all the racists after voting for Civil Rights.
And I know you are not so naive to think Wall Street is a GOP joint???
Take
1) the anti-illegal-immigration movement,
2)the national language movement,
3) the unwillingness to put state money into the inner cities,
4) and the ridiculous reaction to the election of Barack Obama, as if he personally is the cause of all the problems we've had for thirty years now, and THAT IS WHY PEOPLE ACCUSE THE REPUBLICANS AND CONSERVATIVES OF RACISM.
Argue with that, and you can dissaude people of the notion.
I doubt it, but here goes.
1) ILLEGAL. Need I say more?
2) Practicality. You want to work in this country. You HAVE to learn the language. That language is ENGLISH! Even Eurpopeans, Japanese and Chinese business people NEED to learn it.
3) Republicans live in the suburbs. Why should we be expected to pay for YOUR bridges to nowhere?
4) Barack Obama is a Socialist that hates capitalism sooooo much, he socialized medicine across America.
Done.
...as for proof of #4, look at the Obamessiah's approval numbers on inauguration day v. today.
It's the spending, stupid.
Please note... in all of the above responses, "race" is a feature added into the conversation/ argument by DEMOCRATS seeking to exploit VOTER demographics.
Speedy, it's the way you guys deal with the immigration. It stinks of racism. Did the Minute Men go after the Chicago meat-packing industry? Did they stand watch over Walmarts? Did they patrol rich neighborhoods for undocumented lawncare workers? Did they go after any other illegal immigrant groups?
No. They only tried to stop people from crossing the Mexican border to get jobs that people who contribute to the GOP give them.
Can you see how this looks a little racist???
No? Are you stupid?
As for language, we all know that if you want to succeed in America, you will very much most likely have know English. Why would we make it law? What's the point?
See the racism? No? Again, stupid?
And your third point? Again? Really?
As for Obama and socialism, that really is just plain stupid. No wonder you can't seee the problem.
And Speedy, the reaction of much of the right to Obama's election has stunk to high heaven of racism from the very beginning.
JMJ
btw - I LOVE the way that the Left cries about the inner cities... seeing as they've been DEMOCRATIC political strongholds for nearly two centuries and run COMPLETELY by DEMOCRATS. No wonder they're so run down and dilapidated. All the money sent to the cities went to pay for political patronage.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you wonder why people call conservatives and republicans ractist, just read Speedy here.
Speedy, cities get old a dilapidate. It happens. What killed the cities was WHITE FLIGHT and DEINDUSTRIALIZATION. Genius.
JMJ
No. They only tried to stop people from crossing the Mexican border
Why do criminals rob banks. IT'S WHERE THE MONEY IS!
Can you see how this looks
Lovers "SEE" only what they WANT to SEE! That's why Cupid is BLIND! You're in LOVE with your ideology!
What killed the cities was WHITE FLIGHT and DEINDUSTRIALIZATION.
lol! White flight? Where? In the NORTH? In the West? In the South - possibly. But have you been to the towns in the farm belt? They're DESERTED. In North Dakota, you can STILL Homestead!
And what does De-INDUSTRIALIZATION have to do with RACE????
Zero.
The 3rd wave economy is HERE to stay. It's NOT a racist plot. Just as industrialization was not a racist plot against agriculturalists. As it turned out, it was quite the contrary (even though it FREED THE SLAVES)
Speedy, no. I don't personally think most conservatives and Republicans are racist (though I've seen anecdotally, slightly more seem to be than, say, Democrats). What I'm trying to explain here is why people think so many of you are, and why the GOP comes off as institutionally racist. I'm talking about appearances here.
Take this example:
Often I heard something like these quotes from conservatives and Republicans: "Black people have been duped to vote Democratic," or "Black people vote Democratic because they want handouts." You've probably said things like that yourself.
Can you hear how awful that sounds? They're calling black people lazy idiots. Would you like it if I said your particular ethnic group was a bunch of lazy idiots?
Are you seeing the point here?
JMJ
"And what does De-INDUSTRIALIZATION have to do with RACE????"
Exactly, Speedy. Now, you're starting to get the point. Black people and Democrats did not ruin the cities. Deindustrialization and white flight (racism) did.
Remember, the cities always had problems, long before the black migration to the North (becausae of racism).
JMJ
I find it amazing that this statement got a free pass:
Obama is a “light-skinned” black man “with no Negro dialect unless he wanted to have one,”
The left always have a way to explain away their own racism.
I am starting to think that the "D" after one's name means "Dumbed Down"
I'm talking about appearances here.
And ALL lovers are BLIND!
Can you hear how awful that sounds?
Did I mention that some lovers are DEAF, TOO?
Black people and Democrats did not ruin the cities. Deindustrialization and white flight (racism) did.
I NEVER said they did. Only a RACIST would assume that. As for Democrats ruining the cities, we could argue.
Remember, the cities always had problems, long before the black migration to the North (becausae of racism).
Racism?
Blacks didn't migrate north because of RACISM. The great Mississippi flood of '27 and the DEPRESSION caused the migration.
tHIS IS THE KIND OF RACIST nonsense THAT THE lEFT SPINS.
The Left is SO desperate to win political arguments, that they HAVE to cast themselves as "morally superior" in order to try and win them, because everyone knows, the FACTS don't support them.
CAUSE and EFFECT are sometimes difficult to sort out. Racism was not the CAUSE of the great black migration. Economics was the cause. Because lets face a fact here bluntly. Racism FOLLOWED them on their migration. Red-lining wasn't an invention UNIQUE to the South. It made an appearance in the North AFTER the great migration began (not before). And the racism in the North was in many ways WORSE than that in the South.
...and the "racism" inherent in nativist opposition to immigration was largely an ECONOMIC opposition, as well. For capitalist economics is the GREAT equalizer. For things that are made care NOT for the skin colour of their makers.
@Jack Camwell == So, Ducky, are you calling me a racist since I don't like Obama's presidency?
-------------------------
Probably not. My abject hatred for the man has nothing to do with his race. He's a stinking corporate pimp.
I have no idea how this guy can please anyone.
There was an interesting exchange today. Pat Buchanan was "discussing" something with Al Sharpton (there's a real pair of rogues) and referred to Obummer as "your boy". Well it's all over the blogs of course. So someone uses the vernacular and this crap starts.
Much easier than dealing with issues.
@Farnmer John (aka Speedy Gonsalves) I doubt it, but here goes.
1) ILLEGAL. Need I say more?
-----------
Yes, if you have any honesty you are going to discuss why the migration occurs. You are going to discuss this as a mature adult rather than a fringe right winger who's steamed off because he thinks the illegals are costing him money.
You'd disccuss the dynamics of the issue rather than assuming "Need I say more" or some equally pithy bromide is sufficient.
Yes, if you have any honesty you are going to discuss why the migration occurs.
Because EVERYONE wants to come to live and work in a country full of RACIST Republicans.
1927 - A black couple discussing moving to Chicago from the deep South...
"Honey, we have GOT to get out of this place, the white people here are just sooooo Racist."
"Yes, you are ABSOLUTELY right, let's go up North where there are TWICE as many white people to get AWAY from it."
If you can't see the non-sequitur, no amount of my arguing is going to help you, duckmeister.
Let's see, is the black couple illegal?
You're incoherent, Farmer.
I must have some Mississippi Mud between my ears, duckmeister.
Yes, if you have any honesty you are going to discuss why the migration occurs.
Da levy done broke... and I cain't float like a duck.
why the migration occurs.
How about, because it CAN. If we enforce our borders, it CAN'T?
You a little slow, today, duckman?
Wait! Obama's black?
Shit.
I thought he was just a treasonous commie bastard with ties to Al Qaeda and the Moslem Brotherhood.
People migrate for many reasons. It's not my responsibility to issue different work permits based upon the reasons for their migration, is it?
If there's a disaster in Tijuana, I'm sure Congress can see themselves clear to pass out a few temporary work permits to tide some people over until their homes get re-built (ala New Orleans) but I feel no responsibility for providing Juan with three squares a job, and a permanent resident card every time he feels his old patron on the Baja Hacienda isn't financially appreciative of his native talents. That's HIS country's problem.
...and my country already has enough problems of it's own w/o worrying about the price of Tequila in Merida.
btw - Not only is Obama BLACK, Mustang, but unlike Tiger, so is his WIFE!
Somebody call the club and cancel my golf membership.
It may be all about the color for Demobats, but not for Republicans. We look at the individual's credentials, experience, voting records and one of my main aspects is their view on traditional values, and if they abide and adhere to the Constitution of the United States.
That's what I look for, I could careless what the person looks like, they could be a Ferengi for all I care.
"Blacks didn't migrate north because of RACISM. The great Mississippi flood of '27 and the DEPRESSION caused the migration."
Speedy, rarely have a read a man so blindly ideological. Amazing. The black migration North had nothing to do with racism? Really? You're a loon.
Leticia,
Black people are not stupid and they're not lazy. They are not Republicans because they feel the GOP agenda is against their interests.
The GOP does not have a corner on "values" and the Constitution. Don't kid yourself.
Make the debate on the issues. Don't pretend you guys are any better or worse than the next guy. Isn't there something about that in your Bible? ;)
JMJ
Racism is a requisite of the tea party
I haven't yet read all the comments here. I was too busy nodding to Bastiarian's comment.
I'm sure there are people more idiotic than BD; I just can think of anyone right now.
FreeThinke,
Hey! I remember Aunt Jemima products, but I had forgotten about those pancake houses.
Now I ask you, if you were black, would you rather be represented by Mammy as Aunt Jemima or Pearl Bailey as Dolly -- or would you prefer the likes of P. Diddy Coombs and Malik Zulu Shabazz?
Point well taken.
Decades ago, my grandmother had a live-in maid, Aunt Hattie. She looked so much like Aunt Jemima, albeit of lighter skin-tone, that I, a very young child back then, actually thought that Aunt Hattie was one and same person.
I'd like to think that many Mexicans come to America to bootstrap their education on the subject of individual freedoms but I don't think THAT is why they come.
Leticia,
Black people are not stupid and they're not lazy.
Make the debate on the issues. Don't pretend you guys are any better or worse than the next guy. Isn't there something about that in your Manifesto? Oh wait, in THAT manifesto the proles ARE morally superior than the other guys. ;)
e black migration North had nothing to do with racism? Really? You're a loon.
At least I'm not a duck.
You caught me. Black people left their families and loved ones in the South to get AWAY from the evil racist white people that lived there so that they could go live with a whole bunch MORE (as a % of the population) evil racist white people....
Brilliant! Oh wait, I thought you said that black people weren't stupid or lazy.... is this a trick question?
Speedy, you want to get into this?
Where are you from?
Let's take it from there. I've been around, and I'm pretty well educated - oh, and I spent many years working in international trade.
So, again, where are you from?
Let's have some fun with history.
JMJ
So, again, where are you from?
Planet earth, how about you? Which other planets have you visited? Have you ever left the solar system?
I hate all those illegal aliens that come to our planet and then try and tell us how to run it, don't you?
There ought to be a law....
Oh, wait, I think there IS!
But don't worry... don't ask, don't tell is MY new motto. THAT is the way we enforce our laws around here... so please, feel free to disclose your home planet. We won't deport you, I PROMISE!
btw - As an international trade representative, you don't import any of that loco weed from down south, do you? What are the chances you could set me up with an import license for some of that coca paste that Evo Morales likes to share w/Hugo Chavez?
Well, I think you must be off somewhere powdering your nose... so I guess I'll just have to catch you on the flip side.
Ciao pendejo.
Thanks, AOW.
One of my aunts had a live in "domestic assistant" whose name was Emma. She had her own apartment over the garage -- two beautiful rooms over looking the garden with a nice sunny bathroom between. The place could easily rent for $2,000.00 a month today, and probably dies, since live-in help has gone the way of the dinosaurs.
When I was a small boy Emma was my favorite person in that household. I think she must have been very like your Hattie. Emma must have liked working for my aunt, because she lived there and took care of that house for 20 years. We were all heartbroken when she retired and went out to Montana to live with one of her daughters. The place was never the same after she left, I can tell you that.
Maybe Emma was exploited, and maybe not. Exploited or not, she was very much appreciated. We lived very differently back then, and Emma was part of a way of life that will never return. I do remember that everyone loved Emma and felt she was part of the family. I doubt if anyone ever spoke a harsh word to her in that house. BUT, she had to eat her Christmas dinner in the kitchen breakfast nook. I once asked why Emma didn't come out and sit down with us and enjoy the meal, since she's cooked and served it so beautifully?
I'm ashamed to tell you my elders acted as though I ought to have my mouth washed out with soap for daring even to suggest such a thing. It just wasn't done.
I felt instinctively that that was wrong then, and I still think so. If we hadn't insisted on maintaining irrational artificial barriers like that, we might still be able to enjoy the services of an Emma or a Hattie today.
Ducky insists that Aunt Jemima was "offensive." I don't see it, myself, I wish he'd explain why he feels that way? Of course every so-called liberal I know spouts the same rhetoric -- as though they got their instructions from some kind of Central Command.
Funny, because liberals will insist that all of "us" take orders from Rush Limbaugh, never think for ourselves, and just regurgitate conservative "talking points."
Are both sides mirror images of each other perhaps?
~ FreeThinke
I haven't yet read all the comments here.
Don't waste your time, AoW. Just more of the same from the typical blowhards.
Speedy, if Jersey McJones (which has to be the greatest name on the planet next to Flann McGuire) ONLY knew :-)
Oh Ducky,
I just boned up on the Proctor and Gamble logo fandango. I'd never heard about it till you mentioned it today. You're right; the controversy was the work of deranged, deluded types aided, augmented, abetted ands exaggerated by the predatory, sensation-seeking, anti-Christian media, of course.
The stupidest and most irritating aspect of the whole mess was the way P&G caved under to media pressure and changed their logo -- which looked tantamount to admitting some sort of guilt.
I'd never noticed their logo, but now that I've seen it, I think it was very attractive, but what it had to do with selling toasters , irons and dish soap, I can't imagine.
It's a wonder some group of foolish fanatics never got after the Tishman Building at 666 Fifth Avenue in Manhttan. In my long happy years as a New Yorker there was a well-known restaurant there called The Top of the Sixes. As far as I know, the earth never opened up and swallowed the Tishman Building in a pit of fire and brimstone.
Personally, I am against the very concept of taking "offense" at anything. It's a waste of time and energy.
I'm afraid this business of taking and registering offense to use as a weapon to gain advantage for myriad purposes in any and all circles originated with charges of "anti-Semitism."
If someone calls you an "anti-Semite," you might as well change your name, dye your hair, have your face altered by plastic surgery, move to another state and hope to God no one from your infamous past ever recognizes you. You're DONE. Your life is OVER. You might as well be DEAD.
Sorry but no pressure group ought ever to have that much power.
We are living in an age where the persecuted have become the persecutors.
VICTIMS VICTORIOUS!
Life is just chock full full of ironies, isn't it?
~ FreeThinke
@ AOW: Decades ago, my grandmother had a live-in maid, Aunt Hattie...
Uh oh... Ducky's gonna be all over that one...
@mustang -- I'm sure there are people more idiotic than BD; I just can think of anyone right now.
--
Wait! Obama's black?
Shit.
I thought he was just a treasonous commie bastard with ties to Al Qaeda and the Moslem Brotherhood.
---------------------------
Come on mustang, glass houses, stones and all that.
Silverfiddle, my grandmother was a domestic, cleaned house for the mill owner. Didn't pay well, thank goodness for social security.
My great uncle was the manservant for an old money Brahmin lawyer.
Ducky: So way my grandma. My mom still cleans houses and looks after old people.
I said that because of your sarcastic remarks about "ladies who lunch" and so forth.
Anyone remember the restaurant chain Sambo's? Jersey might, as I recall seeing them in S. Jersey.
The restaurant chain named after owners Sam Battistone and Bo Bohnett was run out of business in the late 70's and early 80's on charges of racism after using characters from the book "The Story of Little Black Sambo" in advertising and promotionals.
Odd thing is the book wasn't racist and predates, although may have given rise to the racial epithet "Sambo".
My dear, Z,
As Ronald Reagan said of liberals, the same might be said of our friend Jersey.
He knows a great deal, but so much of what he knows is not true.
Jersey knows all right. The trouble is he's been "pretty well educated."
"Education is a weapon, whose effect depends on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed."
- Joseph Stalin
"Education rears disciples, imitators, and routinists, not pioneers of new ideas and creative geniuses. The schools are not nurseries of progress and improvement, but conservatories of tradition and unvarying modes of thought."
- Ludwig von Mises
"Without education we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously."
Gilbert Keith Chesterton
Words from the Wise and Points to Ponder, indeed!
~ FreeThinke
WOW Silver, the blowhard liberals really do bump up the comment section with their blathering race-baiting, tone, don't they?
Mark: We like our liberal and independent visitors here. The diversity spices things up!
And what was wrong with Little Black Sambo?
All he did, as I recall, was chase tigers 'round and 'round a tree till they turned into a great big puddle of butter and maple syrup.
That was damned clever of the little pickaninny, I'd say.
And it paints a portrait of someone truly unique.
Where's the negative stereotype in that?
Just another example of using an affectation of hurt feelings to gain leverage enough to push other people around.
May God damn the censorious in our society, as much as He blesses the open-minded and honestly curious.
~ FreeThinke
Ducky,
Were your grandmother and great-uncle as bitter and resentful of the roles they played as servants as you seem to be in recollecting their lot in life?
One of my grandfathers was a lowly janitor for a firm in Wall Street. He never earned more than $20.00 a week, yet he raised eight children in New York City and was eventually able to save enough from his small salary to buy two acres in northern New Jersey and build a good, solid post-Victorian house with a wraparound porch large enough to house the entire family. My grandmother never worked outside her home, so there was only the one wage coming in.
This was only a century ago -- before Progressivism, the Income Tax, the Federal Reserve, The New Deal and Social Security came along to screw things up for a fare-thee-well.
My uncles all graduated from college, and the the girls in the family graduated from high school -- something practically unheard of in those days.
My point?
My grandparents, my great aunts and uncles and the members of my parents' generation were never bitter or resentful about any of the hardships they'd had to endure with the single exception of Franklin Delano Roosevelt whom they always referred to as "That God-damned bastard."
I wonder how people who've had similar experiences and met similar challenges could have such radially different views?
~ FreeThinke
Speedy, next time be a stand up guy and take my argument on.
JMJ
Finntann, I'm not from south Jersey. Screw those guys. I grew up right around NYC.
Silver, thank you. I was only trying to help
JMJ
My mother was from Denville. I just figured if they had them in South Jersey, they probably had them in North Jersey too.
Frethinker, my great uncle tunneled off the Gulag and was with the Red Army in WW II. He was a real soldier not the toy mercenary type we see in Iraq and Afghanistan.
My dad's side is Slavic, my mom's English and they all came up hard scrabble. Tough bastards.
My great aunt didn't have indoor plumbing till the 60's. They got through. They sent their kids to college (not dad, he was a union rigger at the GE engine plant) but one of my uncles was a big shot at Bell Labs. They taught, one aunt was a doctor.
We were on assistance at certain times. My mother died when the family was quite young and it was tough on dad getting help bringing up three young kids. Cost my sister her childhood, really.
So what's it all mean? It means they lived in an age where you could earn a wage and support yourself and a family. Getting harder to do that alone every day.
I have a couple of my dad's old seaman's trunks filled with family memorabilia. I'm proud of my family
>Anyone remember the restaurant chain Sambo's
I always liked their pancakes.
In fact,Freethinker, I have a letter to my grandmother from the local city government hung in my hall.
It reminds her that she is qualified for benefits because her husband was in France in WW I. I have no idea if she took the benefits.
There's the story of her getting arrested in a local restaurant for causing a scene and sitting in when the restaurant refused to serve a black family. She was a tough one.
>I'm pretty well educated
If that is true, please do us the courtesy of making it a bit more evident in your comments. So far, for months on end, your actually words have led to you being consistently been misconstrued as an unthinking and emoting dolt wrapped tightly in intellectual sloth. That's a rather negative image, so I would suggest switching to presentation of arguments based on reality and reason.
>next time be a stand up guy and take my argument on.
Said Mr. Never-provide-a-logical-argument-for-anything-and-disappear-or-change-the-subject-when-your-blabbering-gets-taken-apart.
Ducky,
Thanks for sharing some of your family's history. If they had been my family, I would have been proud of them too.
I'm an odd mixture too. Mayflower on father's side, late-nineteenth-century Italian immigrant on mother's.
I'm proud of my family too -- particularly mother's people who overcame, poverty, prejudice and a language barrier, worked hard and uncomplainingly and gave their children a solid launching pad for upward mobility at not-quite rocket speed.
One of my uncles earned a scholarship to Princeton, and graduated magna cum laude in the early twenties. Not bad for a young man whose parents barely spoke English when he was born. He went on to become a prominent radiologist in New York City, and was renowned both as a physician and a teacher.
I'm afraid they were all too busy overcoming the ethnic stereotyping and bullying from competing immigrant groups on the sidewalks of New York to develop much concern for the plight of the Negro and all that, BUT I was taught to respect all different kinds of people, never to call anyone "names," and to do my best to follow The Golden Rule -- believe it or not.
It's late here, and time to go to bed.
Stay in touch. I appreciate your being real tonight. I've always suspected you've been playing a character part -- but that's probably true of all of to a certain extent.
Stay well.
~ FreeThinke
"And yes, jez, it is definitely 'a bad thing' because most people are not racist and shouldn't have to watch every word they say for fear of the label of RACIST."
1) actually pretty much everybody is capable of being racist from time to time, it's an act of self-delusion to claim otherwise.
2) It would be better if it were for fear of causing unnecessary offence, but the end result of "watching every word [we] say" is one I'm happy to live with, and I urge you to re-evaluate it too.
The trouble with the defence you're offering is that it has the effect of bullying a person who is offended into not saying so. For example, person A calls Obama a boy, doesn't make him a bigot or a racist, it's not that unusual to refer to a male as a boy after all. Person B, however, might be legitimately offended since after all that was a common way for people to refer to their male slaves. Should person B be bullied into keeping his offence to himself? Surely it should be possible for him to report it, and then maybe person A can quite easily get into the habit of not referring to black men as "boys".
Yes, it's a bit of effort, and no, ideally person A shouldn't have to bother, but then person B shouldn't have a recent history of discrimination and slavery from which he is really taking his offence. The world isn't perfect, and I think that PC overall has made quite a lot of improvements.
It helps of course if person B reports it in a reasonable non-sensationalist manner, rather than screaming "racist!" like a contestant on a game-show.
The point is, you don't have to be a bigot to offend someone. But if someone tells you that you've offended them somehow, the best response if frequently not "oh shut up, I know I'm not a bigot, so if you want to call me racist then I don't care." Because that shuts down the IMO perfectly acceptable practice of people gently telling each other what offends them.
Speedy, next time be a stand up guy and take my argument on.
"Where are you from?" is an argument? Who knew?
Free Thinke,
Aunt Hattie never sat down to table with us. In fact, I don't believe that she prepared any meals as long as my mother and aunt were living with my grandmother.
The fact remains that very few who had domestic help in those days ever sat down to table with that help, particularly if the help were "colored."
Anyway, my mother and grandmother insisted on paying Social Security for all their domestic help. And my mother and grandmother were harshly criticized for paying Social Security for "the colored."
When Aunt Hattie later became ill and homeless, my grandmother took her in and tended to her needs (physical and financial) until a relative of Aunt Hattie became available to take her in. Now, my grandmother (b. 1898) certainly never supported civil rights for "the colored," but she didn't treat the help as slaves or animals either.
As you notice, I refer to Hattie as "Aunt Hattie." I think that's some kind of title of respect. We did not refer to other domestic help, "colored" or otherwise, with that title, but I'm not sure why.
btw - I always liked that Sambo story. I can relate, sitting up here in my tree.... ;)
Free Thinke,
Have I mentioned the wonderful novel The Help?
ps - Any of you libbies catch the tar baby, yet? Don't worry.... you will. ;)
I'd rather be a Sambo than some Jersey psycho b*tch...THAT's for sure.
Snookie want some Smoosh smoosh?
btw - jez, you are one offending condescending as all hell, beyotch!
Was that "gentle" enough 4u?
Thanks, AOW. If more had behaved as kindly and responsibly as your family did toward "the help," we might not have had to go through the ugly struggle to achieve "civil rights" that we did -- and are still doing.
I'd love to know more about that novel. I'd never heard of it before, but I'll bet it's fascinating. Maybe a little bit like an American version of Upstairs Downstairs?
I wonder if it's on Amazon.com?
Have a good one.
~ FreeThinke
Free Thinke,
Oh, yes, The Help is available at Amazon, in several editions. I got my copy at the public library after waiting in queue. The audio edition is superb!
The movie version is coming out later this month.
speedy: was it meant to be?
You resent me merely pointing out that racism still exists. I think I'm going to have to consider this your problem, not mine.
A case in point is you lot deciding among yourselves whether "sambo" should or shouldn't be offensive. Racial slurs are forged in the furnace of common usage. The content in the book doesn't matter -- the usage may have changed since publication.
It's very difficult to judge the legitimacy of a third party's offence at an alleged slur. Nigger was not pejorative when first coined, and is in some contexts not a pejorative in recent times. No-one could argue that it isn't a potently offensive slur. How do we know this? At the end of the day, only the offended party can know. It's quite possible that "sambo's" was offensive, regardless of intent.
You resent me merely pointing out that racism still exists.
lol! And what's NOT condescending about THAT? You think that this is my 1st visit to planet "Earth"? When did I hire you as my tutor? If I want to hear your opinion, my little beyotch, I'll GIVE it to you. But until that day, if you want to correct my word selection, you'll just have to "zip it" and call me an *rse-hole behind my back like the rest of the neighborhood gossip housewives.
Nigger, Nigger, Nigger!
Put those words in your pipe and smoke it! I'll be damned the day I need "moral correction" from a Libertine Emily Post on "polite coversation" or etiquette.
speedy, I don't recall correcting your word selection (although please don't mistake that for an endorsement), and I only addressed you after you had addressed me twice. If you don't want to hear my opinion, seems to me the simplest solution lies entirely with you.
Meanwhile, my advice is only relevant to those who share my aspiration to polite conversation. It appears you aspire to the opposite, and for that you require no help from me.
If you don't want to hear my opinion, seems to me the simplest solution lies entirely with you.
Zip it!
A lot of black people are *rse-holes, jez. They don't need YOU to watch their backs. They don't need YOU to protect them and make sure that other people don't say "mean things" about them. They can protect themselves AND they can demand their own respect. JUST as I can, you condescending little TWIT! If there's any racism going on, jez, it comes from your low opinion of their ability to take care of themselves.
Do you think they're stupid children? Then STOP treating them like they need a nanny to prevent the "bad people" from laughing at them. They can take care of themselves, and they can handle the criticisms they're SURE to encounter.
In other words, STIFLE YOUR RACISM, jez. It lies both in the condecension you show me, and in your excessive need to NOT offend their "delicate sensibilities".
Black people have suffered more from your condescending attitude over the past 50 years, than anything Jim Crow ever did to them. The failure of the "Great Society" and destruction of the black family are BOTH testiments to YOUR stupidity.
...but don't just believe me. Come on over to the dark side for a while and have a REAL conversation with some black people. Ask THEM if they think they need YOU to guard their backs.
For the record, I do not use the epithet that Speedy employed three times in one comment post, but this is a free speech blog, so I let it stand.
For the record, Jez the condescending " holier than thou" moralizer felt perfectly free to use the epitaph in the post above mine. His soft-racism is 10x worse than any hard in-your-face racism I might harbor.
Where we live the city is attempting to close down one of the local public housing developments. They are being sued by the federal government on charges of racism.
Funny, but I thought not everyone on the dole was black? Perhaps just when it is convenient?
In the meantime, if you superimpose the crime demographic of our city over the public housing demographic you have a perfect match! I guess the federal government LIKES high crime areas! At least it's predictable. (Perhaps we could build these places around police stations?)
In closing, my federal tax dollars are being used to wage a lawsuit with my local tax dollars. Sigh.
No soft racism outside your imagination speedy. I'm writing for the benefit of people who see the point in trying not to be a dick, so it's natural that you would fail to grasp it.
You can say nigger as much as you want, but don't expect the rest of us not to draw the appropriate conclusions.
No soft racism outside your imagination speedy.
Rules and "good advice" are only applicable to the "other guy", right pin-head?
1) actually pretty much everybody is capable of being racist from time to time, it's an act of self-delusion to claim otherwise.
2) It would be better if it were for fear of causing unnecessary offence, but the end result of "watching every word [we] say" is one I'm happy to live with, and I urge you to re-evaluate it too.
---
You can say nigger as much as you want, but don't expect the rest of us not to draw the appropriate conclusions.
Hypocrite!
I agree with you FJ. Self-righteousness stinks to high heaven. I hate it every bit as much when it comes from censorious "Christians," fanatics on the subjects of abortion, child molestation and homosexuality, and wrist-slapping prudes who take it upon themselves to "correct" the tone and content of posters' styles, etc.
BUT, I have to admit the kid of lofty, nose-sniffing, condescension we get from so-called liberals on matters of race, money and morality is even more irksome.
Hell! A liberal puke I've known for over sixty years -- a hangover from childhood -- has had the unmitigated gall to preach to conservative gays about how "reprehensible" and "morally indefensible" they are for not getting out in the streets in a sequined jockstrap and making a public spectacle out of themselves demanding in a high-pitched whining voice that gays should have the right to marry.
Well God damn it to Hell! If that ain't the height of arrogance, I can't imagine what would be. Telling an "oppressed minority" how it should feel about itself.
CHEESE-US KEEE-RIST!!!
~ FreeThinke
Your lawyer's frantically trying to get you to sit down. There's a difference between your usage and mine in this thread. If you look closely, and screw up your eyes real tight in concentration you might be able to work it out.
Sure, there's a BIG difference. In YOUR mind (and THAT mind only) you are not a "racist" and I am.
Grow up, child. The hard racist fools no one. The soft racist only fools himself.
btw - I find it very noble of you to wish to protect the poor, weak and oppressed.
Unfortunately for you, THAT doesn't describe Black American ADULTS today. And if you think it does... perhaps it's time you re-examined your premises vis a vis YOUR PERSONAL need to take "affirmative" action and condemn ALL negative criticism of system that instead of STRENGTHENING black families, does naught but give them handouts and make them DEPENDENTS upon handouts.
Creating a society with a "bubble" equality through "redistribution" is NOT a society built upon equality at all. It must be built upon ability and equality of opportunity so that INDIVIDUAL EFFORT determines outcome, not some soft-brained bureaucrat. THAT is how you eliminate racism. Bubble redistribution equalities merely PERPETUATE it.
No speedy, there is an objective difference. Look harder, or maybe ask someone with normal critical faculties.
"Objective" difference....
Bwah-ha-ha-ha-ha!
You're right, PT Barnum. One IS born every minute.
Are you sure you don't want a do-over on that last comment?
Note to mr. ducky.
Call the asylum. I've finally found that Ayn Rand "objectivist" fruitcake you've been searching for, and he was in YOUR camp the whole time!
It's a shame these things can't be discussed without an excessive outpouring of bile and cold contempt.
I wonder why?
~ FreeThinke
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