I've talked about this before and, as expected, it's been met with derisive snorts and even outright denials. Take the recent chants of "Kill the Bill, nigger" that were heard as Reps John Lewis, Jim Clyburn, and Emanuel Cleaver headed into the Capitol last week to vote on the health care bill. I am told now that Lewis, Clyburn and Cleaver are all liars and it didn't actually happen. Never mind the scores of reports from witnesses in the crowd as well the confirmation from Capital Police. The Tea Party activists are not racist. To say otherwise...well...I think you can guess how the Cult views this transgression.
Leonard Pitts Jr., writing for McClatchy News Services, sums it up best.
So it turns out that, contrary to what I argued in this space a few weeks back, racism is not "a major component" of the so-called tea party movement. I am informed of this by dozens of tea party activists indignant and insulted that I would even suggest such a thing.
In other news tea party protesters called John Lewis a "nigger" the other day in the shadow of the U.S. Capitol.
So, don't believe your lyin' eyes/ears. This jibes with the rest of their bullshit. Of course, Lewis has faced this sort of denial before in his life as Pitts notes.
He faced it in Nashville in 1960 when he was locked inside a whites-only fast-food restaurant and gassed by a fumigation machine for ordering a hamburger.
He faced it in Birmingham in 1961 when a group of Freedom Riders was attacked and he was knocked unconscious for riding a Greyhound bus.
Most famously, he faced it on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma 45 years ago this month when his skull was fractured by Alabama state troopers who charged a group of demonstrators seeking their right to vote.
Bring this up to a member of the Cult and be prepared to be met with an onslaught of anger and hate combined with a whiny-squeal-like-a-pig tone in their voices. To discuss historical facts of this nature are anathema to them...especially if there are any racial overtones. Why? Well, that's simple.
There is no racism in our country. And if you teach it in school then you are race monger, leftist who is encouraging social justice which are code words for communism and fascism.
Tea party leaders have spent much of the last few days spinning the incident, deflecting renewed suggestions that their stated fears — socialism, communism, liberalism — are just proxies for the one fear most of them no longer dare speak. Some even faxed the McClatchy news bureau in Washington to suggest, without offering a shred of evidence, that the episode was sparked by Democratic plants within the crowd.
Really? Wow...
Amy Kremer, coordinator of the Tea Party Express, went on Fox News to dismiss what she called an "isolated" incident. Your first instinct may be to cede the benefit of the doubt on that one. It seems unfair to tar nine reasonable people with the hateful behavior of one lunatic.
So, Kremer admits it DID happen. Hmm...
Given how often tea party leaders have been forced to disavow hateful signs and slogans and even the presence of organized white supremacist groups in their midst, is it really fair to use the word "isolated"?
Is there not a rottenness here? And is not the unwillingness to call that rottenness by name part and parcel of the reason it endures?
Yes, Leonard, there is a rottenness and that's why it does endure. It endures for the same reason why it endured so many years after the Civil War...because people aren't owning their responsibility for it. I have no problem admitting that I am horribly biased against Muslim men. It is a form of bigotry that I will probably struggle with my entire life. I may be a flawed person in many ways but at least I have the sack to admit that I do, indeed, have a problem. The Cult, of course, will never admit their obvious bias. Admitting Fault=End of all that is Holy.
I'll let Pitts close this one out.
Often we tell ourselves lies to spare ourselves truths. Had you asked them, the people who locked John Lewis inside that restaurant, the ones who mauled him at that bus station and smashed him down on that bridge, would not have said they acted from a rottenness within.
No, like the ones who called him "nigger" half a century later, they would have told you they were good people fighting for principle, trying to save this country from the liberals, the socialists and the communists.
They would not have said they were racists. Racists never do.
9 comments:
Weren't there cameras and microphones in the vicinity of all this? I even read that Jesse Jackson Jr walked into that same building on the same day with a camera in his hand filming everything. Surely you must have video or audio proof of all of this.
My dad and brothers-in-law have been participating in Tea Party stuff for a long time now. They got started before it was the Tea Party, back when illegal immigration was the big deal. Many of the same people who were clamoring for illegals to be deported (and worse) have jumped on the Tea Party bandwagon.
My dad is a closet racist. He becomes angry when it is suggested, but his history suggests otherwise. When I was a kid he had an abiding interest in Nazi Germany, and he voted for George Wallace in '68. When my sister married a Hispanic man she met in the Army Reserve he disowned her, refusing to speak to her for more than twelve years. He disowned another daughter when she visited the first (though he has since relented on that -- he would be completely alone had he continued down that path). During the illegal immigration debate from a few years back he went on and on about how "they" are dirty and diseased, using anchor babies to gain entry into the country. He came to despise Bush and McCain in the same breath as Ted Kennedy for their support for immigration reform. He still uses Reagan-era racist code ("welfare queen"). He subscribes to the birther conspiracy theories, even though his own father was a foreigner and the circumstances of his birth are identical to Obama's (my father's birth certificate is far more questionable than Obama's: county name spelled wrong, turned in a year after the birth, certain areas left mysteriously blank).
One brother-in-law makes sniggering racist jokes. The other has attended anti-immigration rallies and complains bitterly about Somalis and Muslims in his neighborhood.
On the other hand, I doubt any of them have lynched anyone, or beaten up hispanics, or spat on black politicians, or chanted racist slogans in public. So by some lights they're not racist.
Their racism is more of a tribalism. On the one hand they complain about lazy welfare queens driving big cars, and then launch into a diatribe about how Mexicans are stealing our jobs (though for decades white Americans have refused to take those jobs as hotel maids, migrant farm workers, etc.).
They fear losing political and economic power and are lashing out at those who they see as the threat, though the real threat lies elsewhere. Illegals can't "steal" our jobs, employers are committing crimes by exploiting illegals, paying them substandard wages and forcing them to work under horrible conditions. Which is why white Americans aren't taking those jobs.
But they can't get too exercised about the employers, because they have met the enemy, and he is us: rich white guys hire illegals to do their gardening and maintain their pools, small business owners (motels, farms, restaurants) have hired illegals by the millions, as have big corporations (meat packing, roofing and construction, janitorial firms subcontracting to Walmart).
Why is the hatred directed against the victims of exploitative employers, rather than the exploiters themselves? Part of the answer simply has to be racism. Another part is that they've given up hope for real change. They don't think they can beat the big guys, so they take their anger out on the easy target.
Some in the Tea Party are starting to see the light: they are mad about the bailout, and huge executive bonuses. But I'll wager that Fox News, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and all the other rich white fatcats will somehow deflect that anger and try to torpedo any attempt at financial reforms.
(continued...)
The truth is, we are all racists, to some degree. Anyone who denies it is lying. It's human nature to distrust the unknown and unfamiliar. It is hardwired into us; it's an important survival mechanism to recognize the normal pattern and be wary of anything that doesn't fit that pattern.
The real question is whether we overcome our innate prejudices when we make decisions, form opinions and interact with others. Many people will say, "I'm not racist because I have a (black, Jewish, Muslim, white) friend." All that says is that they've found some common bond with one individual and integrated that person into their concept of "normal." Perhaps they share an interest in a sport, or music, or online computer gaming.
As long as people unconditionally lump members of some other group (by race, religion, political affiliation, economic status, etc.), they are prejudging others and are at a minimum engaging in tribalism.
Until you admit this and examine how it colors your thinking, you'll be subconsciously led by your prejudices.
We are all racists. I notice it all the time whenever I travel over to the West or South side of town. My instant reaction is to peg the black person walking towards me as being a criminal. I suppose I could blame society or the media but at the end of the day I just need to change my thinking. I'm 36 and I haven't figured out how to do that yet. Jeez :(
>There is no racism in our country. And if you teach it in school then you are race monger, leftist who is encouraging social justice which are code words for communism and fascism.
Why do you persist in arguing with caricatures of righties that you make up? Are you dishonest, or is it just easier to punch out strawmen? There is racism in our country, and likely always will be. The relevant questions, when it comes to racism and politics, is:
a. Is racism a significant barrier to advancement of people?
b. If a is true, can the political process do anything to solve a?
My answer, from a rightie standpoint, would be that a is no longer true, or at least far less true than it used to be.
Further, b is very unlikely to be possible, given that you can't change people's hearts and minds simply by making a law. (Despite fervent leftie wishes to the contrary.) In fact, I would argue that the political process is very likely to make things worse.
Suffice it to say that rightie beliefs are likely varied on this issue, but it isn't nearly as simple as the "durrr, there is no racisms anywhere" meme you so moronically embrace.
The truth is, we are all racists, to some degree. Anyone who denies it is lying. It's human nature to distrust the unknown and unfamiliar.
That isn't racism per se. Chris Rock is known for saying something along these lines about when he is standing at an ATM - and he isn't talking about being worried about white frat boys.
I have ancestry on one side of the family that fought for the Confederacy though they owned no slaves. On the other side, ancestors that fought for the Union and to end slavery. I owe no one anything today for what happened 150 years or more ago. I have no more regard for white trash than for black trash, and no less for a successful black than for a successful white.
If you still have demons that haunt you, too bad - but don't assume that I suffer from the same malady. I notice a similar issue about guns - people who believe that they themselves could not be trusted with a gun assume that NO ONE can be trusted with one. The word you are thinking of is "projection".
Oh and M you still aren't talking about the bill - just about the losers. What is it - you identify with them or something?
None of you could find a link to video or audio evidence of your charges?
I don't normally comment here anymore, but I felt that this should be shared with his fans. He has already declared this to be ridiculous, and yet I haven't attributed anything to him that you can't find in the archives here or at TSM:
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What I have learned about racism from Markadelphia:
1. If a white conservative says anything unpleasant about a nonwhite liberal, it's racism. And thus it is front page news and should be shouted from the housetops. This remains true no matter whether it was both completely justified and has nothing to do with race at all (Joe Wilson calling someone a liar when he caught him in a lie), has no slightest bit of independent evidence to back up the accusation (racist remarks at Congressmen, despite an offer of $10,000 for such evidence), or even if it was proven to be a complete and utter fabrication (the census worker "murdered because of hatred of a black President", the "armed white racist" at an Arizona town hall meeting.)
2. Liberals are never racist, or if they are it's not important enough to matter. This holds true even if there is unequivocal evidence of them refusing to obey the law when it conflicts with their racial preferences (Sonia Sotomayor, Eric Holder, ACORN) or fabricating from whole cloth an accusation for the specific purpose of fomenting racial hatred (the census worker "murdered because of hatred of a black President", the "armed white racist" at an Arizona town hall meeting.)
3. If it is at all possible for it to be taken as an epithet, it is racist for a white conservative to call a nonwhite liberal something, even if their friends, supporters and allies call them that, and even if they refer to themselves by the same label. Thus it is okay for Van Jones to call himself a communist, but it is racist for a white conservative to call him one. It is okay for Al Sharpton to call Obama a socialist, but it is racist for a white conservative to call him one.
4. If the liberal in question is white (or if remarks about "playing the race card" make it unadvisable), substitute "hate speech" or "fearmongering" for "racism" and all else remains the same. Thus for William Ayers to call himself a communist is courageous, but for a conservative to call him one is hate speech. For Barack Obama to call himself a supporter of single-payer is good, but for a conservative to call him a supporter of single-payer is fearmongering.
5. Racism in liberals, assuming you can get an admission of its existence at all, is unimportant because "everyone is racist". However, while "everyone is racist" is sufficient excuse for any liberal, even at the highest levels of government, it is not sufficient excuse for a random allegedly conservative voice in a crowd that cannot even be verified as other than purely fictional.
6. If a conservative sees racism in a liberal and calls it what it is, that is a "Rovian tactic". In other words, it is an indictment of the conservative, not the racist. (I bet you got some serious warm fuzzies when you thought that one up, Mark.)
Thank you, Mark. I think I can say with complete honesty and sincerity that I don't think I would have learned these things from anyone else I know.
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Addendum/Errata:
Mark himself has corrected me on this, and I would like to acknowledge the correction:
2a. It is not true that liberals are never racist. For one thing, see #5, "everyone is racist". But more specifically, the Democrat Party has a longer and deeper history of racism... up until 1964, when all the racists in the Democrat Party magically (*poof!*) became Republicans.
Sorry rld, you lose. In this digital age you would have thought that someone would have some audio evidence.
That list is awesome GOF, especially #4, #5 and #6.
Now then - I'm curous to know what Mark, blk, sara, elizabeth, jeff c, dick nixon and truthgirl think of Obama opening up areas of our coastline for offshore drilling. Can I get your thoughts on the policy without going to the usual Bash the GOP rhetoric we have already heard 6742 times? I've already read what several of you have already typed up on the subject in past discussions so be honest now.
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