Serious QOD

Filed in National by on September 8, 2009

What is racism? 

How has the right been able to play into the fears of racism?

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  1. John Young says:

    1) The product of an ill-educated society. 2) Opposing healthy messages like President Obama’s today.

  2. anon says:

    The right has been playing the race card since the 50s. It defines the party.

  3. I think they’ve been successful because of the upward movement of wealth. The rich get richer and everyone else is getting poorer. It’s easy to demagogue and say that it’s immigrants and unworthy, lazy people who are taking our money. People seem more intimidated in criticizing the rich. It’s because the rich have more political power and give a lot of money to politicians.

    I also think it’s human nature to divide ourselves into “tribes.” Conservatives are tapping into the us vs. them part of people’s brains.

  4. Scott P says:

    The GOP sees (and bills) itself as the party of “Real Americans”. Just think back to how many times they (especially Palin) used that phrase during the campaign. What “Real Americans” is for them is a very thinly veiled euphamism for white, lower to middle class, rural Americans. The problem for them is that that demographic, while once large, is getting relatively smaller every year. The country is getting browner and more urban. That disturbs and scares them. Add to that the fact that we now have a President that embodies that change, and you get the nasty, racist, xenophobic (as UI stated) rhetoric of fear we are seeing.

  5. cassandra_m says:

    The flip side of Scott’s comment in the usual fear of The Other. And playing on those anxieties (instead of calling people to get beyond them) has been a key Republican strategy for a very long time. That is the reason why you should run away from any repub talking about Values — until they can stop demonizing whole groups of people for political gain, you are not dealing with people who have a set of values that are particularly worth engaging.

    David Neiwert is doing very interesting reporting on exactly this thing.

  6. The current definition of racism is “disagrees with Obama on anything.”

  7. anonone says:

    The current definition of stupid is “anything Rhymes With Right says.”

    Figures that a person that is for legalizing segregation like Rhymes With Right would come up with such an idiotic and ridiculous “current definition of racism.”

  8. Current definition of dishonest — anything anonone says.

    But let’s be very clear here. Every time any substantial group of Americans have opposed Obama’s agenda, the reaction of the left has been to define the opposition as racist in nature. Hence my choice of definition above.

  9. anonone says:

    An echo chamber of truth is preferable to a free reign of lies like yours.

    “the reaction of the left has been to define the opposition as racist in nature”

    Your claims are flat-out lies and you know it. Show me a group of national progressive elected officials from the left that have “defined” Obama’s opposition “as racist in nature.”

    You can’t because you’re lying to be provocative, as usual.

  10. anon says:

    To suggest the republican party has not been a party that has capitalized on rascism and hate is about as stupid and dishonest as one can be. That doesn’t mean that some of the opposition to Obama are honest ideological differences, but the majority of it simply is not. “Real Americans” sums it up pretty well.

  11. I said nothing about elected officials. But let’s be honest (if you can, anonone) — what is the claim quite common on the Left about a whole host of issues?

    Conservatives going after Van Jones for his extreme history? Racism — they are attacking a black man.

    About opposing the speech? Racism — they don’t want kids to hear a black president.

    About opposing health care reform? Racism — they don’t want black people to have medical insurance.

    About wanting Obama to fail to implement his agenda? Racism — they can’t stand to see a black man succeed.

    About using the same sort of caricature used regarding Bush to caricature Obama (a chimp)? Racism — they are saying black people are monkeys.

    Face it — ther is a loud hue and cry of “RRRRAAAACCCCCIIIISSSSMMMM!!!!” every time conservatives speak against Obama or oppose him on issues.

    Heck, I got a taste of it today at school. In discussing the controversy about the Obama speech with my students today, I was asked who I voted for. I answered the young lady (who was black) honestly — and was immediately asked “Mister, are you some kind of racist?”

    I therefore stand by my assessment — in today’s world, “racism” too often means “opposing Barack Obama and his agenda”.

  12. anonone says:

    That’s all you got? All made-up generalizations with no basis in fact. Your claim “the reaction of the left has been to define the opposition as racist in nature” is a flat-out unsupportable lie. You just proved it.

    Kids say the darndest things.

  13. here’s a few quotes:

    An article in…Thursday’s Washington Post lashed out at the viral Obama-as-the-Joker posters, attacking them as promoting “coded,” “racially charged” images. Staff writer Philip Kennicott smeared the images, which have been showing up in Los Angeles as flat-out bigoted…

    In the August 6 piece, Kennicott provided this incendiary take on the poster campaign: “Obama, like the Joker and like the racial stereotype of the black man, carries within him an unknowable, volatile and dangerous marker of urban violence, which could erupt at any time.” The Post writer did acknowledge that a similar image deriding Bush as the villainous character…But he goes on to spin that this Joker poster is somehow worse:

    Yes, in an image by Drew Friedman published online by Vanity Fair…That drawing at least played into a view of Bush popular among his detractors, that the former president was unpredictable…But the danger many of Obama’s detractors detect is more of calculating, long-standing deception, that he is…secretly marshaling a socialist agenda…

    The Post writer went on to explain why the new image is not a “good poster.”…

    Continuing the argument that the Obama/Joker posters, which feature the word “socialism” underneath, are racist, Kennicott went on to find nefarious meaning in the very use of the iconic Batman character:

    So why the anonymity? Perhaps because the poster is ultimately a racially charged image. By using the “urban” makeup of the Heath Ledger Joker, instead of the urbane makeup of the Jack Nicholson character, the poster connects Obama to something many of his detractors fear but can’t openly discuss. He is black and he is identified with the inner city, a source of political instability…and a lingering bogeyman in political consciousness despite falling crime rates.
    (from newsbusters.org)

  14. And as for the chimp thing — that was the position of virtually every single contributor to DL in a thread on this blog.

  15. cassandra_m says:

    The Washington Post hardly stands in for “the left”. Here is the entire article rather than relying on the self-serving newsbusters excerpt of it.

  16. thanks for the link, it’s even worse in long form.

  17. pandora says:

    What were you thinking telling one of your students – a child for whom you are the authority figure – who you voted for? Why would you bring your politics into the classroom? To this day my kids have no idea who their teachers voted for last November. Seriously, RWR, if this story is true (which I doubt), you need to find another profession. You obviously don’t have the temperament for teaching or handling children.

  18. donviti says:

    keep in mind RWR is fine with Slavery because it gets him the America he wants.

  19. I told one of my HIGH SCHOOL students — at the school where I parked my car every day last fall with my McCain*Palin bumper sticker on it — who I voted for. Just like any number of my colleagues told their students that they voted for Obama — and parked their car on campus with an Obama sticker on the bumper.

    It might surprise you to learn how I handled that teachable moment. I used it as an opportunity to offer some praise for Obama (who I personally respect even if I disagree with him politically). I used it to make the point that in our system of government, that the winner is the president of ALL Americans. I used it to point out that people of goodwill can disagree on political issues and still work together and/or be friends (examples used — Senators Kennedy and Hatch, and my wife and I). Why did I take that approach? Because I teach an age group who will be voting SOON, and I believe it is important to communicate to them those essential lessons of our civic life — something that is part of my curriculum as a social studies teacher.

    And for the record — the story is 100% true.

  20. Donviti — you are a liar. I detest slavery and racism — which is why this descendant of abolitionists, a Union soldier and a Lincoln delegate in 1860 could never, ever, be a Democrat.

  21. pandora says:

    RWR, I thought you said that you’re not teaching social studies this year.

  22. anonone says:

    RWR changes the subject from the lie he just told.

  23. pandora says:

    His tale doesn’t pass the smell test, but I bet it was fun to write.

  24. No — I said I wasn’t teaching World History this year. I currently teach a different class in the department — but desperately want to get back to my World history class.

    And pandora, believe what you want — I know what the truth is and have told it, regardless of what you choose to believe.

  25. Donviti says:

    my apologies RWR. You wanted the all beef sandwich without the beef.

    I was wrong. You were in Favor of Jeffersonian principles but not slavery.

    I detest slavery and racism

    but don’t forget have no problems making HIV jokes. nyuck-nyuck

  26. No, donviti — I want the Quarter Pounder without Cheese.

    And if you believe that slavery was the only thing Thomas Jefferson was about — or even the main thing — then you are woefully ignorant of American history and political philosophy.

  27. And anonone — how’s this one?

    One black congressman, Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.), was quoted last week alleging that opposition to Obama’s healthcare policies was “a bias, a prejudice, an emotional feeling.”

    “Some Americans have not gotten over the fact that Obama is president of the United States. They go to sleep wondering, ‘How did this happen?’ ” Rangel said, according to the New York Post.

    http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-obama-politics7-2009sep07,0,7305762.story?track=rss

    Rangel is as wrong as he is corrupt on that one.

  28. Donviti says:

    I didn’t say anything about that. But if you want puff up your chest and pound on it like you are smarter than me feel free. Sheeps go to heaven, goats go to hell.

  29. And donviti — again you lie. I was pointing out that if I were a scumbag like MJ, I’d make the same sort of comment about his political philosophy being the result of a diseased brain that he had made about mine being the result of a brain tumor (interstingly enough, the very kind that killed Senator Kennedy only 2 weeks later). The point of my comment was to make clear how far beyond the bounds of decency his comment had been, not to make light of a disease that has killed too many good friends and which my best friend has battled successfully for over two decades.

  30. Well, donviti, since you want to make a comment in support of a certain sort of political philosophy into a comment in support of slavery, you either were making such a claim or you were talking out your ass.

    Your more recent comment shows that the latter was the case.

    And why do you have this unhealthy fascination with livestock? 🙂

  31. anonone says:

    How is that “one?” Lame.

    1) “One” does not equal “they” or “the left”

    2) Where did Rangel say it was racism?

  32. shortstuff says:

    I’m so tired of this shit… RWR~ Again, Thank God my kids don’t go to your school district. Remind me when I decide to ever relocate somewhere for another gig that I don’t venture in your area.

    Let’s be honest about things here. Why is the right racist right now? Let’s take a look at the new “code words” for basically the N word. If it’s not racism, than why is Socialist, Fascist, a Nazi all done in the same breath when talking about Obama’s plans for the country? The polarization in the country is 100% driven by the absolute fear in the angry black man and what he will teach our children. Let’s analyze it for what it is. No one on the right has decided to decry any of the terms that have been coined for anything he’s come up with. You’ve got ranking, RANKING Republicans calling him and his plan a Socialist plan… No one has opposed the comparison of Barack to f’n Hitler… Barack and his 4th Reich? WTF? Are you serious? Are you seriously thinking that it’s not a racial issue? What f’n history are you teaching?

  33. shortstuff says:

    For the record, I called my school district to find dout what the decision was and the secretary of the school was very upset at the amount of phone calls they received last week and leading into today calling the President everything from a Nazi to the N word among other things… I thought it was pretty funny when she said, “how can they call him a Nazi and the N word all in the same sentence”? This is from someone who’s worked for the school district for over 25 years. So please, please tell me that’s not racist at all… Please tell me that this had nothing to do with the fact that Barack is black… Please tell me that I’M a racist and I hate white people… Because it has to be that I’m crazy because anything that people call the President isn’t racist, it’s just an opinion because they oppose his plans…

  34. Anonone — the above is exactly the sort of shit I am talking about.

  35. Geezer says:

    Greg: Which of the above, #1 or #2?

    For the record, I think you did right with your teachable moment. But I think you’re wrong to dismiss so easily the sort of comments related in #2 by SS. Such people are out there, and they are ugly. I disagree with some here about how much principled objections to liberalism morph into racism, but it’s disingenuous of you to believe that no closet racists are finding aid and comfort under your umbrella.

  36. What is racism?

    A true and horrendous societal problem that affects all people, whether victim or perpetrator or bystander in many forms, whether direct or by consequence. From violence to isolation to dissatisfactoty treatment, all things that should never be experienced or considered due to one’s color of skin or class, societal, economic, or otherwise.

    Not nearly on the same level, but still bad, is also how this societal ill will be used to contrive benefits for one’s self at the expense of innocent parties. I am NOT saying anyone here has done that, but this manipulation of a terrible fact of this world does carry out.

    What is racism and the manipulation of? Simple: IGNORANCE.

  37. kavips says:

    …. until this thread, I thought race-cism was just a term for the hoopla that invaded Dover twice a season.

  38. Geezer — try both of the immediately preceding comments by shortstuff.

    And will I deny that there are racists in the conservative movement? No, I won’t, because there are. I call them out when i encounter them. But i see at least as many racists and anti-Semites (if not more) on the Left, and they are actually embraced in the name of diversity. Van Jones was one of those, and look at how the Left has howled about his supposed ill-treatment.

  39. anonone says:

    Rhymey wrote:”i see at least as many racists and anti-Semites (if not more) on the Left.”

    Except that he can’t find any of national prominence. And commenters on blogs don’t count.

    Smearing “the left” with unsupported charges of massive racism and anti-semitism doesn’t count as intelligent commentary. In fact, it is dishonest and dumb.