From Rev. Wright to the Sherrod Affair
I’ve been incommunicado on vacation during the Shirley Sherrod matter, and just reentered the depressing world of the 24-hour news cycle. Before the latest spat, I wrote a column last week that racial relations had soured. So I wasn’t surprised when I was catching up today on last week’s furor.
Here are some random suggestions to outraged liberals how to cool off the right-wing talk radio/Fox News/ Andrew Breitbart nexus: simply advise the administration not to talk about racial identity being essential rather than incidental to one’s essence. Does anyone grasp that this obsession with racial identity in an increasingly multiracial society is outright insanity, both politically and culturally? It is not as if we should be so bored with war, recession, national security leaks, and a world on the brink to turn to race relations.
Let me go back a few months, and elaborate how we got here in just 18 months to national hysteria that now breaks out at any given moment over any given otherwise minor incident.
1) Rev. Wright Was No Niebuhr. No one put a gun to Rev. Wright’s head when he went off on Italians, Jews, and whites in a spate of 19th-century racial quackery. What was unusual about the Wright buffoonery was not just his street-corner venom (a 7 on the Farrakhan and old Al Sharpton scale), but two little remarked on phenomena. One, the Trinity Church congregation in the video background seemed to give him a standing ovation at his most hateful moments — and it shocked America that such a villain could find so many willing listeners. And in both his book, The Audacity of Hope, and in the pre-public discovery of Wright, the would-be president of the United States had seemed to think Wright was not only a spiritual font, but some sort of modernist philosopher, an undiscovered Chicago Niebuhr of sorts. That was the issue — that the hateful Wright was winning audiences and influential devotees and well may have continued to do so before his exposure — not just the Hannity/Beck hype every night.
2) Van Jones Is Always Back. He popped up as perennial victim to piggyback on the Sherrod matter in the New York Times. We have had a few months of peace from Jones, and it could hardly continue. He has now evolved into a bespectacled Ivy-League version of Al Sharpton. Please spare us the wounded fawn routine about how his truther signature misrepresented his views and how he was Becked over his once overtly stated communist sympathies. Van Jones was not a victim of racial demagoguery, but a political embarrassment for the sort of student lounge bombast that this middle-class opportunist had previously found conducive to his career. Suggesting that whites have a greater propensity for steering poison into the black community, or declaring that only white kids shoot up schools, was a sort of shtick that had in the past won attention. Jones’ ensuing problem was the well known paradox of controversy getting you to the notice of an administration while ensuring you can’t really serve. How odd that a veritable racialist like Jones has now achieved a sort of iconic status through public humiliation that was never possible by virtue of anything of importance he actually accomplished.
3) From “Cowards” to “Wise Latina” — We Get it Already. Had Eric Holder not accused the nation of being cowards, had the president not appealed to voters in a recent video on the basis of race, had the president not intervened to stereotype the police in a minor matter at Harvard, had the Supreme Court justice not suggested racial background can make a better judge, had both the attorney general and the president not implied, before reading the bill, that 70% of Arizonans were intent on racially stereotyping, we would not quite be where we are — in which a bankrupt country in the middle of two wars is obsessed over the NAACP calling the tea party veritable racists and the dropping of charges against a fringe crack-pot group like the New Black Panther Party.
I say “quite,” because Mr. Obama’s campaign itself had always been characterized by one too many racial Macaca moments to suggest that the media image of a healer was quite right — from Rev. Wright, to typical white person, to the clingers of Pennsylvania, to Michelle’s various editorials on a downright mean country to never been before proud, etc. I realize to review this well-trodden ground is to earn a bullseye on the left-wing NY-DC list or its successor to come, but the truth is that the administration deliberately gambled that by playing identity politics they could galvanize the base vote (it worked when over 95% of African-Americans voted along racial lines) without offending centrist devotees. But they did not quite comprehend the ugly nature of the genie they had unleashed. And now we are reduced to suicidal calls from the left to appoint more administration officials solely on the basis of race, and to become even more overt in racial referencing.
4) Been There, Done That. The white independent voter is not hooked on Rush, Hannity, or Beck, and he is leaving Obama in droves (well over 50% now disapprove of Obama). Why? We are now in relationship to 2008, as 1938 was once to 1929 — lots of programs, still no jobs. The debt not just bothers, but embarrasses, us all. The reset button “he did it” foreign policy is unseemly, like the perpetual error-prone shortstop who complains about the pebbles on the playing field left from yesterday’s game. Independents, without any help from Beck, Drudge, and Hannity, are tired of the play of the race card for wanting the federal immigration law to apply to everyone regardless of race. The voters are tired of a nonstop 2008 campaign mode in which the president keeps demonizing everyone from surgeons to wealthy people, while asking these various groups to pay more taxes to fund various redistributive plans — in pursuit of an agenda (stimulus, more taxes, amnesty, cap and trade) that polls about 45% (and this from a president who in 2005-6 ridiculed Bush for pushing Social Security reform in the face of negative polls).
And all that said, independent white voters, many of whom voted for Obama, sense that something like Van Jones, or “cowards,” or the Prof. Gates matter, or the recent Sherrod non-story, or “wise Latina” will turn up about every three weeks from now on out. They suspect that it will, not just because the staffers at Fox will find it or even hype it, but because there will always with this administration be something to find. Just as the left was always able to dig up some over-zealous Christian evangelical in the Bush administration (because there were apparently a lot of them), so too the right will find a lot of racial promoters because, quite simply, there are a lot of them in this administration.
Ms. Sherrod was done a disservice in having her comments edited in a fashion that did not represent what she was trying to say. Yes, but it is also not a wise thing to go before the NAACP to offer a confessional about how one has evolved from seeing oppression in terms of white culpability, to understanding it in terms of the culpability of those “who have.” In other words, the role of minor federal agricultural officials is not confessionals to lobbying organizations about the unfairness of present American culture. One is free to do it, but one is almost asking to be quoted out of context in doing so. (The antithesis would be something like a border-dwelling federal official, who had lost a relative to Mexican smugglers, speaking before a zealous close-the-borders, mostly white group about how he came to no longer see the problem in terms of brown people, but now largely in terms of poor people, white and brown alike. Now that would be an insane thing to do, and a Republican administration, battling selectively edited videos on the Daily Kos and Huffington Post, would have fired him).
5) Homeopathy. So here we are. After lighting a tactical burn, the administration is panicked how easily the racial flames fed on the dry grass to reach firestorm stage. Instead of calling for water, they seem overwhelmed by the conflagration. So now we hear calls for more black appointments and more talk of race, as if more of the pernicious disease of racial identity will cure the disease rather than the medicine of just shutting up, fixing the economy, winning the war, and curbing spending.
If you can pull up my earlier posts you will discover I have said that Obama-Mao is all about “getting even with Whitey!” and nothing more. Sure, one can hide the game plan with mellifluous language, bait and switch tactics, even listen to the singer Joe Tex warn against “the left hand knowing what the right hand is doing” for warning, yet we still have Obama-Mao’s Praetorian Guard, known as the American media offering cover and immediate protections services.
Maybe the femininization of our educational system, our politics, and our religions does have consequences that few citizens ever contemplated, or desired.
Stereotypes exist for many valid reasons, even when many don’t like such realities.
Whitey is masculine: Color really is secondary…even Freud would agree with this!
Its only RACIST to call a RACIST a RACIST when the one doing the calling is WHITE and the one being called RACIST is BLACK. When the roles are reversed its the WHITE guy who has to PROVE he is NOT a RACIST no such implication is made of the BLACK guy.
You must know the RULE now ONLY WHITEY can be RACIST.
Just ask Obambi America’s MOST Racial President.
I see it opposite your view–
Obamao is all about MAO, not racism.
Race and racialist focus is a tool for leftists, a way to bring an entire voting block into their unthinking control, and it works. 95% of blacks vote Democrat without thinking about it. It is entirely emotional, after generations were taught a simplistic and defeatist version of history. Democrats started the KKK, Democrats filibustered the Civil Rights Act, Democrats keep the system lubricated that keeps American black people at subsistence level income with NO dreams and NO future and no tolerance for thinking outside their tiny airless box. If the well-being of a race of people meant ANYTHING to leftists, they would do things differently. But this is no different than Arabs keeping Palestinians at permanent ‘victim’ status rather than actually helping them, which Arab/Muslim nations could easily have done over the past sixty years. It is a way of assuring that political tension leans a certain way. It is an abandonment of humane or even human responsibility for fellow men.
No, racial tension is in the leftists’ best interest, so they keep it that way. At the expense of American black people. “getting even with whitey” is what they want black folks to think about. As for our ‘dear leaders’, it’s all about power and wealth, who takes it from whom, and who redistributes how much of it to whom else. Statism. Full government control, with government becoming the ‘haves’ and everyone else being ‘have-nots’.
It’s not that ‘whitey is masculine’. It’s that whitey is the present-day possessor of the wealth, and good commies go after it like fleas to camels.
Sherrods’ children are named Kenyatta and Russia. Son, Kenyatta, named after famous Kenyan communist leader, “father of modern Kenya” meaning father of SOCIALIST Kenya. Daughter named Russia, not an African name, no, but a nod to the greatness of the Soviet Union. She was born in 1967. Height of Soviet power.
Remember, Obama’s parents MET in a college Russian language class in 1960. Obama was just down in Kenya in 2008, meddling in their elections on behalf of the COMMUNIST candidate. I don’t know if he was born there (heh) but Kenya certainly figures prominently in this regime’s politics past and present. Jomo Kenyatta was mixed up in the same Mau Mau rebellion politics that led to Obama’s grandfather’s mistreatment at the hands of the Brits… which led to the Churchill bust being sent back to England on O-day 1.
To beat a dead horse: what you say ONLY if ANY information given by Obama and his purveyors about his past history, personal and political, can be believed. As he has been shown to have lied, that’s lied not mis-spoke,again and again about so many subjects since his ascent to the national stage, why should he be given the benefit of the doubt about his personal history. It is fashionable in psychology/sociology that each can become what he./she wants to be. No proof needed, only acceptance of the person’s presentations. We accept that politicians do lie, that politicians do commit crimes, and that politicians are unfaithful to the US Constitution they are bound to uphold and defend, but isn’t Obama’s short public history somewhat extra-ordinary even within this group ?
“Whitey” is the bogeyman, the ghost in Hamlet, that evil lurking in the shadows. Obama-Mao is so smart, his intelligence is off the scale: Ask those who worship at his feet to verify this belief.
Or is he merely a “basket weaver” who attempts to create very intricate vessels; entertaining, perhaps pretty on the outside, certainly magnetic in some ways, yet empty within until or unless someone else decides to use what Obama-Mao has put forth; whereupon we will discover if his constructs are strong enough to hold what is placed inside.
What about those women in the second half of the sixties (going forward) who became “liberated” and demonstrated via their choices just how truly “free” they were? That was all about what? That little skinny offspring with the dark skinned foreign Kenyan man lost his Daddy early, got shifted around to other “male” role models, didn’t he?
All these games Obama-Mao loves to play, with words, with ideas, even with that basketball, are directed toward what end?
No, this man-child with the toothy smile rages inside his very being, his weavings are designed to protect him and to misdirect outsiders when he needs it, while for some he–like most malignant narcissists, mirror back for those who need to follow “I’m the one you’ve been waiting for” in life.
“Buyer beware” seems to fit nicely as Obama-Mao hunts Whitey!
“Race and racialist focus is a tool for leftists, a way to bring an entire voting block into their unthinking control, and it works. 95% of blacks vote Democrat without thinking about it.”
And let’s be clear — it was just as wrong when Democrats used the same tool to manipulate poor whites in the South.
Closer, but still not right.
Obama and his cabal are all about power and control, not Marxism and not racism.
As it so happens, Marxism and racism are both convenient weapons to snooker the rubes. Marxism works better with the greedy cellar dwellers and racism works better with the Rev Wright crowd, but they are both just tools of conquest. And of course, there can be no doubt that Obama is a communist (and probably a controlled communist) and certainly a virulent racist as well. We know about dozens or even hundreds of incidents that prove it, so there must be thousands or tens of thousands. This guy has got the disease bad, and he ain’t taking no pills for it.
And now we’ve been educated about the third one tool….the Ruling Class. That’s how they have sucked in the “journalists”, the “intellectuals” and the loathsome politicians. Codevilla has taught us that it’s the third shell.
But what I have a hard time understanding is why bright and articulate people like vdh, michael medved, and many other play right along. As the good doctor practices his oh-so-reasonableness, the country inches every day closer to the abyss. He does a good job of identifying and cataloging the atrocities, but you know what, if you don’t label them with shiny stickers that say ATROCITIES, then even a lot of the good people in this forum will continue to tool right along, patting themselves on the back for their cleverness, and vowing to do something about it someday…..as the racist/marxist/rulingclass coalition digs the knife ever deeper into our backs.
Dave, you have given a very good rundown on the strategy, which is what this is. Hope others can understand what you have said. There is no compassion in this strategy yet the victims seem to believe that they are special and will be taken care of. Yeah, just like the fatted calf is taken care of for the slaughter.
There is nothing about Obamas’ history that is believable. Obamas’ mother was 1 when she became pregnant- from her affair with a married African.
She was 17.
Sorry for not reviewing the post.
(1) I suspect that most Americans, watching one of Rev. Wright’s theatrical, posturing racist diatribes–to say nothing of the euphoric, lunatic response of his congregation–were initially stunned, but quickly asked themselves “What are you–black Americans–doing? You’ve won the civil rights war. Racists are no longer welcome among decent people and haven’t been for decades. We’re more than OK with that. We want to judge others by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin, we expect that everyone wants to do that, just like Dr. King dreamed. Don’t you know that you’re shooting yourself, and an entire people, in the foot?” Mr. Obama did not help himself when, during an interview with Bill O’Rielly, he admitted attending Wright’s services at least 500 times yet denied that he had any idea that Wright was, well, what Wright is. And the wheels of the Obama bus went thumpity thump.
Here’s an idea.
How about white America wondering “what THOSE Black Americans were doing”. Unless of course, Wright’s congregation had about 36,000,000 people in it.
I love my country, but there is one thing that drives me crazy about it. That is the propensity of Whites to make EVERY Black somehow responsible for anything ANY black does or says. It’s one of the reasons that the Jones, Obamas and Sherrods feel free to say what they do. Because any reply to what they say always ends up as an attack on Blacks as a group, and thus blacks end up being forced to defend them, because they are defending themselves.
Not to mention that many of the charges and accusations, make no sense. For example, there are constant complaints that the media hid and covered up almost all of Obama’s past and associations. Then the charge is made that 96% of Blacks voting for him is somehow “racist”. All other things being equal(and it was because, as you note, the media made sure of it), why is it strange that blacks voted for, what in effect was, the “favorite son”? BTW, I keep hearing that 96% figure, yet no one is ever able to tell me where it comes from.
Like the Gates incident, the Naacp incident is an example of Obama’s inexperience. The “street corner black nationalist” rant, that might have worked on a small scale in the inner city, simply does not translate to the national stage. And Obama is too lacking in experience to judge. In addition, Obama has no actual experience with the life as an African American in the US. It’s like he read a book about it once upon a time, and is trying to use that as a guide
Dear Mike Giles:
I suspect that people understand, when we’re talking about “black americans” or “white americans” that we’re not including every single member of that respective group, but more or less referring to tendencies or trends among members of those groups (such as most blacks voting for black candidates and/or democrats). The context of my original post was specifically in reference to the black members of Rev. Wright’s congregation and their blatant apparent racialism as compared to the lack of same among other blacks. Do we really need to spell such distinctions out in carefully parsed language, or can we make some reasonable assumptions? Attacking blacks as a group? No. Commenting on reasonable observations of behavior? Yes.
As to blacks voting for a “favorite son,” indeed that is a problem. Imagine whites announcing that they were voting for for a white candidate because he was white. Our history of racial conflict does allow all to be pleased that a black man was elected as proof positive that a perceived barrier has been, once and for all, breached, but that moment has passed and we’re left with the reality that we’ve elected the wrong black man, at least to some degree because he was a black man. One can hope that no racial group will vote based primarily on racial identification, and one can hope that to whatever degree blacks did in the last election, the racial necessity for that kind of voting has passed and we will make such future decisions on criteria such as experience, dedication to America and Americans, and fidelity to the Constitution.
I know – Lets start the “National Association for the Advancement of White People”.
Oh, but that would be……
Never mind.
If Obama wins a second term, I have no doubt there will be the need for the NAAWP. The longer he and the race baiters stay in power, the more divide there will be.
How about the NAAabcWP..
The National Association for the Advancement of Anybody But Colored People…
Affirmative action in the favor of whitie..
The N triple A BCWP POWER!!
Silly I realize, but the whole situation with our present administration is scary. Not that the past couple have been any better. Why do we get such pitiful people running for office..It’ like voting for the devil or..the devil.
We vote them in office because we forget what made us strong and we just like the lies they tell us. Man has never liked the constraints of being righteous although that has been the only path to real prosperity. We do not choose righteous leaders through unrighteous motives. If we, as a nation, had been righteous neither McCain nor Obama would have been running for the president but we would have chosen someone who could deliver. But that means we would have to reject the something for nothing lottery mentality. We reject the rich but desire the riches. That is not consistent.
political correctness has already dispatched the quaint throwback term “Colored People”. I propose we properly rename the NAACP with the correct social term for black folks– African Americans.
This, of course, would make it the NAAAA.
A useful acronym for conservative responses to anything they propose.
What say you? NAAAAAAAAAAAAAA…
OK. But then they would complain that we were ……
“Colored People” is a term of art. It means, not Black people, but rather mulattos.
I live in a very integrated neighborhood. Apartments and houses. Almost 50/50 black and white. The apartments are kept up well and the houses and lawns look nice.
Like wishing more moderate Muslims would stand up and praise this country, I wish more blacks would call in to the talk radio station and say that this country is a great place to live.
But like Muslims they incur wrath from their own who would call them oreos or uncle toms. And it’s obvious that I’m not speaking about straw men.
Perhaps if African-Americans would be properly educated and so forth they would’ve learned that “Uncle Tom” in Stowe’s great book, was a black man who was beaten and killed because he helped black slaves to escape!!
It is a badge of honor, unlike the many blacks who adopt arab names, which I find amusing, simply because the arabs were the ones who sold blacks into slavery and are still practicing it today.
Yeah, and Robin Hood did not steal from the rich. He re-appropriated back to the citizens what the evil taxman took. Robin Hood took from the State and gave to the people that were paying too high taxes.
The tragic situation we find now is that the administration will not change. That would be admitting they were wrong. They do not listen, nor will they as long as they are power.
Lip service is all they will give to the economy, the debt, the creditors, the two wars, the ever-widening chasm between DC and the rest of us, and the illegal-immigration solutions staring them straight in the face.
I still don’t believe the 2010 elections will curb them. I think that when the dems lose big it will only inflame the current rhetoric, racial or socialist or otherwise, and will exercise the socialists/communists to attempt further destructive legislation or worse–executive orders.
They have an agenda. If people can’t see that by now then we have lost the war and our country as it was originally founded or envisioned. These people are not morons, they are poison. Mr. Hanson, please don’t cut them anymore slack.
All hell will brake lose with a Republican house. It moderated Clinton but it will energize the left and radicalize Obama further. Unfunding Obamacare will make them scream bloody murder.
They’re always screaming bloody murder.
And … so … ?
As far as I can see, Obama’s healthcare program will provide free 21st Century medical care to the gunshot wounds of gangbangers and drug pushers, while those citizens will be putting NOTHING back into the pot to help me control my diabetes.
So, again, do I really care if gangbangers, drug pushers, Black Panthers, and women looking for their umpty-teenth free abortion scream bloody murder?
The trauma care will only be extended to the casualties of “red on red” violence.
Those that engage civilians will only need the services of the Coroner.
Good marksmanship saves money!
That would be a good thing in the long run. The radical Left only gets as far as it does with independents and moderates by hiding its real beliefs and policies. That is partly why Obama was elected. The American public is now seeing all too clearly what the LEft is really about. It is belatedly waking to the corruption of the media and the contempt the elite class has for ordinary Americans. Let them scream their hearts out and show the voters what they are really about.
There is no criticism of the violence of the Left where the Left controls the country. But when the law against evil doing is invoked the Left rises up with angry accusation.
I agree.
If there is a Republican/independent majority, all shortcomings of what Obama has had pushed through…will land on their head.
And we know the Republicans, they won’t stand up for us on that point…run and hide seems to be their strategy.
Dems = screming voices that never shut up, right or wrong
Repubs = weak knees, period
As a European I’m puzzled about the continuous sensitivity of the US about race. Yes there is a history, but so do other nations have one.
Can anyone imagine China, Russia or India vote anyone both one of their ethnic selves. Can we expect a European prime minister to emerge with the ‘unique background’ as the current President of the US has.
The US is the most multi ethnic society in the world and it actually does function very well.
No shame needed here but a proud self awareness that demonstrate others how do live in such a society
When our government stops discriminating on the basis of race, the our citizens can finish the job. Until then, some animals are better than others.
We need Lenny Bruce yelling ‘ni&&er’ until people just die of boredom with it.
We need to just call all lefties ‘racist’ as a form of greeting, until the damn word wears out.
- …I’m puzzled about the continuous sensitivity of the US about race.
So are many Americans.
- The US is the most multi ethnic society in the world and it actually does function very well.
This should be telling the majority of Americans something, but it’s not. As I’ve just noted elsewhere, the constant focus on race has one purpose: to create a sense of having been institutionally victimized in a world where that victimization is no longer occurring. BHO and numerous others are ample proof of that if nothing else.
That erroneous sense of victimization – and the manufactured rage that comes with it – has been pounded into minorities through decades of the left exploiting blacks in order to leverage the black community as a voting bloc and, using that, further the collectivist agenda.
The same was done to women via “feminism” and ERA, to gays/lesbians via “diversity” and the AIDS issue, to blue collar workers via Unions and the “Evil Corporation” meme, to latinos via the immigration issue, to the young via corruption of academia, and to any other minority the left can isolate demographically in such a way as to implement their divide-and-conquer, Cloward-Piven, Alinskyite strategy and tactics.
Race is only an issue in the U.S. to the extent that collectivists can use it to exploit social groups and, thus, elicit their support. That this support has been largely self-defeating has been masked almost entirely by a complicit media. The issue – and the way the left has manipulated it – has come into focus because New Media is not so complicit. Breitbart’s recent report – which was immediately distorted through NAACCCP and White House “Damage Control” – is a great example. It won’t be the last.
True, but unnecessarily concrete-bound and complex as analyses go.
The point of the focus on race from the Left is twofold:
1. To provide themselves with an army of cannon-fodder, towards the overaching goal of
2. To de-individualize America.
Individualism was and remains the only antidote to racism (as racism is a species of collectivism); as such, the Left seeks to destroy it, to return us to the insoluble ethnic collectives of Europe. (With due respect to tvb, Europe remains deeply racist/collectivist underneath in a way that America is not (yet).
Shirley Sherrod is not an innocent victim of a slime job. She did admit that the white farmer was initially provided with her second best efforts. Did this place him in extra danger of losing his farm? Was this also the very first time Mrs. Sherrod gave a white person inadequate assistance. In the same 43 minute video—Sherrod casually talked about her conversion to class warfare ideology! We are now finding out that her husband Charles is a total race card whack job. Please note that Shirley Sherrod has virtually disappeared. Obama and his people are afraid of her big mouth. She can cause enormous damage to the Democrats in the November elections. The high likelihood is that she will retire—and be given a huge financial “settlement” for her alleged grief.
I have a few questions. Did Sherrod speak before the NAACP as an official of the Dept of Agriculture or as a private personage? If as an official, were her salary and expenses for travel/hotel/meals/etc paid by the government, id est, us? If as an official, what was her mission for the speech, what was its exact purpose with respect to the government? Does the Dept. of Agriculture routinely send government-defined minority employees to speak about race/ethnicity experiences? If so, exactly what is this supposed to do for the interests of the Dept of Ag.?
She is most certainly not innocent. She took part in a lawsuit against the government for discriminating against black farmers. That discrimination took place while she was discriminating against white farmers. Irony or Hypocrisy? You decide.
and, to add more injury to white folks, in the video as she is describing how she didn’t put her efforts into helping the white farmers, the audience snickered with delight. i am quite sure anything so vividly showing black racism targeting whites (about which we are all too well aware)must have put stains on the administration’s underwear. not to mention the boxers of those who have given themselves highly rewarding compensation as defenders of illusionary white racism.
to be perfectly candid, i believe we were much better off in every possible way when closets were stuffed with hidden skeletons and unrevealed secrets. i have had it with videos and field reports.
I was willing to cut her some slack until she came out this week and declared that Breitbart wanted a return to the days of slavery.
This racist b#tch needs to fade into the obscurity she has so richly earned.
“This racist b#tch needs to fade into the obscurity she has so richly earned.”
We do not want Shirley Sherrod “to fade into the obscurity.” She should become a household name! The American people need to know what Shirley and Charles Sharrod have been doing for the last some forty years. Obama is obviously frightened. She has kept her mouth shut publicly since late last week. There is probably an excellent reason for this silence.
That Sherrod is preaching class warfare does not make her a Marxist. I would look to black liberation theology which is a revolutionary doctrine ending in the conquest of “white supremacy” in favor of the latest variant of Pan-Africanism or Third Worldism. I wrote about it here: http://clarespark.com/2010/07/18/white-elite-enabling-of-black-power/. See especially the postscript that analyzes the propaganda message of Sherrod’s speech before the NAACP. No one else put it exactly this way.
Quote: “… her husband Charles is a total race card whack job.” I tried to look up that photo I saw of their kids in the Left Angeles Times, but it isn’t on http://www.latimes.com, so you’ll have to trust me that this America-loving, post-racial, woman named her son Kenyatta (the Kenyan revolutionary) and her daughter, Russia.
Maybe the revolution woln’t be televised, but this is one family that’s revolting together.
The picture you might be thinking of is here:
http://projects.ajc.com/gallery/view/metro/sherrod-usda-072210/
No more whitewash for Sherrod. She said that opposition to ObamaCare(tm) is because he is black. That is racist or stupid or both. Does she not realize we fought HillaryCare(tm) and also oppose RomneyCare(tm)? Stupid racist. No whitewash.
Unfortunately, the Homeopath-in-Chief and his fellow quacks don’t care for your brand of medicine good doctor Hanson. I would be happy if this administration followed just 1 of your 4 Rx’s, preferably “just shutting up”.
Indeed, what is the middle- or lower-class white person to think when he hears an administration official say that stimulus money must not go to “White construction workers” – the message being sent is that racial profiling and discrimination is perfectly fine, as long as it’s in the service of the “Correct” direction.
Is the entire white race to be written off as non-participants in the grand new society that Obama is ushering in?
With the administration Having showed its cards so many times over, the drop in approval ratings is easy to anticipate, even as polls tell us that “most” voters still “personally approve” of the president, or whatever the latest nothing-to-see-here data can be manipulated to say.
I’d love it if the administration would change course in this manner, but its members seem incapable of doing so, and why not? They truly believed – and still believe in – Wright’s sermons, no matter how much the mainstream media tries to portray it otherwise.
Spot-on as usual, sir.
Regarding the Cry of Racist from, well, Racists…
Our society has gone Pell-mell with “You-are-the-racist, not me!” warfare assertions, ever the liberals’ war cry against any soul on earth daring to not be a gerbil-brained fellow liberal.
Pell-mell is a word based on the French word “mesler”, to meddle. As River Thames says in the introduction to the movie “Serenity”, “we (the evil utopian Alliance government) meddle” with a people’s spirit, soul and body (she says minds)… and “we haven’t the right.” River was right.
Sadly, ours is a world almost gone berserk with the explosive nonsense of anyone who doesn’t worship the liberal/progressive group-death-wish is a “RACIST!” Now, “Berserkers” were Norse warriors who reportedly fought in a “nearly uncontrollable trance-like fury.” They were ravenous men who looted, plundered and murdered indiscriminately by supposedly working themselves into a rage before battle, with — of course — the possible assistance of drugs.
Similarly, an Amok-runner of Maysia/Indonesia would similarly escape the world by taking a Jihadist sort of vow against common villagers and “go Postal” against all innocents, killing whomever until killed themselves.
So then, what is happening with this Pell-mell, berserk, amoksterism of logic-void “Cry-me-a-river-of-racism”? Postmodern elites and their sycophant adherents have waged 150 years of war against logic, against self-correction, against the reality of inalienable rights, especially against the God-spirit above all of us (whom they must hate and deny), and significantly — the profound notion that our very spirit of life is an adventurous, lovable and merry thing indeed! We must love like the Ancient Mariner — everything and everybody, not hate like that old accuser, the Devil!!! But the liberals say the most intelligent thing to do is: “CRY RACIST!”
Finally, consider that In old times, Amok-runners were beaten to death on the spot.
In today’s world, we must have patience to allow logic-jihadist-proggie amoksters to self-destruct. This doesn’t seem fair, but it is. They cannot do anything but self-destruct. Nobody does it better. Have patience!
The trick to surviving is just that. We VDH followers know he and we are right. So, we’ll calmly stand back and let the suicidal: just do it. We shall do what we must: survive. They shall do what they must: commit suicide.
I think Darwin called it the survival of the fittest, but liberals don’t take it that way, do they. Freedom wins, statists lose. Reagan was right. Isn’t it GREAT to have history on the side of all that’s truly, truly good!
“So here we are. After lighting a tactical burn, the administration is panicked how easily the racial flames fed on the dry grass to reach firestorm stage. Instead of calling for water, they seem overwhelmed by the conflagration.”
I don’t believe they will be overwhelmed by the conflagration Dr. Hanson, they will simply say there is no fire but if there is, George Bush started it. They will simply dance away uncharred.
And “the american people” will bow down and believe, and vote for The One again so as not to be called racist.
And the fire may burn for another six and a half long years Doctor Hanson, unless “Someone” grabs a hose and puts it out. Not a Senator, not a Congressman or Congresswoman and surely not another Governor, (President in training).
A patriot who believes in the Constitutional Republic that we once were and is not willing to see it die as he or she pursues greater wealth and power
I’ll bet you could get it done. If only you would run for President in 2012, mayble you could light a fire of your own.
Welcome back.
WHO are the “American People”. Last I looked, they were the most disparate national group of any nation in the West. But looked at statistically they are “white” people.
That interested parties / persons who call themselves “liberals/ democrats”, for power grab, have chosen to portray them through educational and propaganda machinery as evil, “racist”, vile as no other national people on earth is clear unreality, insanity. That there have been times in which “non-white” groups were discriminated against in law is no secret. It does however seem to be secret to these “liberals” and their students that the American People made valiant efforts, even to the point of dying in the hundreds of thousands to amend this fault. Yet THEY, the “white” Americans are to continuously bow to those who require constant mea culpa, who “make allowances” for other nations that even today practice the evils, AND WORSE, decried by these critics of the “white” American population.
Time for the “white Americans” to get off their knees, stop apologising for being “white”, recognize all the reasons to be proud to be American, White American, if that is what they are. Maybe then ALL Americans can be, can once more become, what they are first and foremost: AMERICANS: THE exceptional population in the history of the world. Not clones of some “superior” European or other identity. And when and if they declare their INDEPENDENCE from the self-appointed “liberal” masters in politics, establishment media / Hollywood and “elite” educational institutions, become truly the American People.
Dr. Hanson:
Well said indeed. May I add a few additional thoughts?
(1) I suspect that most Americans, watching one of Rev. Wright’s theatrical, posturing racist diatribes–to say nothing of the euphoric, lunatic response of his congregation–were initially stunned, but quickly asked themselves “What are you–black Americans–doing? You’ve won the civil rights war. Racists are no longer welcome among decent people and haven’t been for decades. We’re more than OK with that. We want to judge others by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin, we expect that everyone wants to do that, just like Dr. King dreamed. Don’t you know that you’re shooting yourself, and an entire people, in the foot?” Mr. Obama did not help himself when, during an interview with Bill O’Rielly, he admitted attending Wright’s services at least 500 times yet denied that he had any idea that Wright was, well, what Wright is. And the wheels of the Obama bus went thumpity thump.
(2) Van Jones is exactly like Mr. Obama: A man famous for being famous, well known for being well known, a man whose accomplishments are as ephemeral as his employment record. However, the absolute devotion of both men to socialist/marxist ideology is rock solid and well documented, not least by their own words and writings. In a rational presidential administration, adults would tell even a committed radical like Mr. Obama that it would be insanity to even consider hiring someone like Jones. However, they are all, in every way that matters, just like Mr. Obama. There are some people who have superficially impressive paper credentials, but there are few or no adults. Oh they were present in the Clinton Administration too. Recall the female defense department functionary complaining that those darned Marines were just too aggressive and something would have to be done about that. But the Clintons were politically pragmatic leftists so such comments were far more under wraps than those of Obama true believers who cannot understand in advance that such thinking does not please most Americans. Van Jones? Thumpity thump. But there will be many more, and the wheels keep turning.
(3) Cowards? By the thinking of Mr. Holder and those like him, of course. Cowardly because most of America isn’t fixated on racial grievance mongering, nor are they prone to think of such things or speak of such things as those in the Obama Administration routinely do. Mr. Holder has made it clear that he is a black Attorney General rather than an AG who happens to be black. Most Americans don’t like that at all. Most Americans are long past that kind of thinking. They’re too practical, too hard working, too optimistic. “Wise Latina?” Most Americans recoiled because they knew instinctively that a wise Latina–a wise anybody–would never think such a thing, let alone say it. And they also realized that it is irrelevant. What matters in a Supreme Court Justice is experience, knowledge, and an unswerving devotion to the Constitution, regardless of the political consequences of a given decision. Most Americans know that this is commonly found in the judicial nominations of Republican presidents and virtually never found in the nominations of Democrat presidents. The Sotomayor debacle was a gratuitous reminder of the narcissism and of the disdain the self-appointed elite hold for most Americans. All of the rest and far, far more to come are merely an indication of how very far the expectations of the American people of their president in particular, and of all public servants in general, have fallen. Statements and actions that not many years ago would have brought legitimate howls of outrage and demands for resignation or impeachment now merely provoke a disgusted shake of the head and a muttered “Geez. What next?” So egregious are they, so many are they, so outlandish and insane are they that we are numbed.
(4) See #1. Thumptity thump. Ooops! Pull her back on the bus. Who is next to go thumpity thump for embarrassing The One (to the very limited degree that he is capable of embarrassment)?
(5) What outrages most Americans is unthinking, destructive radicalism. Hire more blacks and minorities? What?! Hire qualified, competent and capable people for real jobs, not made up jobs–who gives a boatload of dead rodents what color or gender they are–and let them do the job, whatever the job is. This adherence to the PIO Loop (be practical, industrious and optimistic) will stand any politician from either side of the political spectrum in good stead. They ignore the fundamental nature of Americans and America at their peril. The wheels of America’s bus are more painful and long lasting that those of the campaign bus of any politician. Thumpity thump indeed, in about 100 days.
I’d say you summed it up nearly as well as Dr. Hanson.
As to your second point, the main reason the behavior of the people in the Obama white house seems to be so nearly like that of the Clinton White house staff is that in many cases, they are the same people, from Hillary Clinton, Rahm Emanuel, and Eric Holder on down.
I don’t know whether The One mistakenly believed that this bunch would bring useful experience to his reign, or if it was a way to placate the Clintonite wing of the DNC, but from all indications the staffing of this administration consisted mainly of Miss Hillary pulling out her cell and starting down her speed-dial list.
Which is something people who say “I wish Hillary had won, instead” should consider- very carefully. Because the results might not have been noticeably different.
clear ether
eon
“Racists are no longer welcome among decent people and haven’t been for decades.”
Ahhh, but it is open white-skinned racists who are no longer tolerated.
Black racists are not only tolerated, but celebrated and given awards and cheered.
That was the point of Breitbart’s posting of the Sherrod video, the reaction of the NAACP audience to her tale of discriminating against a white man.
Think back also to Kanye West’s notorious:
“George Bush doesn’t care about black people!”
statement.
Mr, West’s career did not noticeably suffer for this totally unjustified slur.
Consider also that Eric Holder’s Justice Department gave the New Black Panther Party thugs a pass for conduct that, had it been done by berobed Klansmen, would have had DoJ bringing in the SWAT helicopter gunship and cattle cars full of armed agents in ninja gear.
We are having that “discussion about race” that Holder was babbling about.
And we are pointing out some very ugly truths that everyone has always known, but that no-one spoke much about.
Namely, that racism and discrimination is not, and never has been, a peculiar institution confined only to the Caucasian race.
“They ignore the fundamental nature of Americans and America at their peril. The wheels of America’s bus are more painful and long lasting that those of the campaign bus of any politician. Thumpity thump indeed, in about 100 days.”
Sir, you are indeed a writer who possesses great talent and skill. I’d bet you’d have no trouble selling ice boxes to Eskimos.
A problem for me is that sometimes I get the impression that in addition to being an excelllent writer, you are playing the part of a herder or sheep. Your optimism in the face of the troubles we face as a nation rings hollow somehow. Almost as though you were a advocating for a decaying political system using optimism as a tool.
When did you last consider the nature of the “American People” to whom you refer? From my vantage point they are not the same people they were 30 or 40 years ago and I don’t believe they posess the same values, cohesion, belief in the greatness of American and the can-do attitude of previous generations of Americans.
The current generation of “Americans” to a large extent is ignorant of the very meaning of “America”, believing it to be simply a place where peope can go and receive a government check and a bunch of stuff paid for by their neighbor, without blood, sweat or tears on the part of anyone.
And the notion that the outcome of the November elections will somehow be a curative for our problems boggles the imagination. When you replace one gang of professional politicians with another, what has been accomplished when they are all power mad thieves?
No, mikemcdaniel, there is a larger point. You and other serious folks could better serve by beginning the process of examining ways that this broken nation might be fixed if it’s still possible to fix it.
The question remains, who could possibly provide the leadership necessary to lead the real “American People” out of this Marxist influenced mess that we find ourselves in?
It’s time to start naming names and pressing for proposed solutions. Wishing does not always make things come out right. November might provide a balm to soothe the savage beast but it will not be a cure for the terrible disease from which this nation suffers.
America needs a leader with the courage to take on the establishment in a seek, find and destroy operation in the name of the “American People”. One who agrees that serving as banker to the world while printing money to make it possible is a fools errand and cannot be allowed to continue. Better reality now than a far worse alternative a little further down the road.
It’s reset time for a nation headed in the wrong direction.
Dear CGW:
Thanks for you kind comments. I agree that should control of at least one house of Congress be wrested from those who would destroy us in November, that is but a necessary first step. I agree too that we need leadership, practical, rational, focused like a laser on our very specific problems, leadership. Who will that be? Hard to tell at the moment, but history shows us that when America needs that kind of leadership, we find it. I remain optimistic about America’s future and about the nature of Americans.
I’m optimistic because much of the conventional wisdom is wrong. Most of our public schools are not failing, nor are they filled with idiot Marxists who live only to indoctrinate students. In fact, most schools are filled with hard working, dedicated teachers who do their best. These are not the people in the news. The best and brightest are fighting in Afghanistan, Iraq and countless other places around the globe, and they are all, every man and woman (and that’s important–that we have a new generation of female warriors) volunteers. We hear about their daily heroism and sacrifice only when a bomb goes off (in a war?!). The polls indicate that most Americans like Obama but hate virtually everything he has done. And even so, I suspect those polls reflect that Americans really want to like their leaders. They want them to be honest, hard working, practical, moral, worthy of respect. So when say, 65%, approve of Obama personally, I suspect most of those don’t really approve of him, but would like to.
Yes, I’d like to see 89% of Americans against Obamacare and against everything else he stands for, no matter their political leanings. But I suspect that when the time comes, enough Americans will arise and do what’s right. As a people, we tend to be willing to put up with a great deal of stupidity and waste in government because we’re smart enough to know that Democracy demands that we live with our mistakes for a given term. But American patience, historically, is not limitless, and American anger and retribution, historically, is without limit when provoked.
Yes, ACORN is still out there, just better hidden, and the vote fraud in November and in 2012 will reach proportions never before seen, but most Americans know that, and knowing is the first, absolutely necessary step to combatting it. Yes, the MSM is a wholly owned subsidiary of the far left, but most Americans know that. Yes, the current Republican leadership is ineffective and prone to snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, but most Americans know that. And above all, most Americans remain practical, hard working and optimistic people. For enough of them, I suspect, their BS threshold has been reached and exceeded. Those numbers will only grow as November, and 2012 approach. Indeed, we must become angry and work against those who would destroy democracy, particularly those within our own borders, but most Americans–or at least enough-are with us. More than enough will be with us when it counts. If I’m wrong, we–and the cause of freedom for which our founders were willing to risk their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor–are truly, doomed.
I’d bet you’d have no trouble selling ice boxes to Eskimos.
CGW, you do the writer an injustice. Now that they have generators, and/or power grids, all Eskimos own “iceboxes.” Pretty easy sell; except they call them refrigerators now.
But I agree with your applause about the quality of MikeMcDaniels comments.
From post racial to most racial in a very short time. I don’t get why Holder said that Americans were a nation cowards for not discussing race. I think that not discussing race as a factor of everyday life means it’s over and people have moved on successfully.
Well thought out, reasoned missive. What I take away from your comments is that Obama used the race card as a way to garner votes to get elected and now it has gotten out of hand, so that he has to overly apply the breaks to any precieved “white” prejudice or run the risk of losing even more of the white independent vote that got him into office. If that is what you are saying then I must disagree.
Obama has been a racist from day one. He also bought into Rev. Wright’s message of hating the opressive white America. He is a socialist at best, if not an outright communist. He will do or say ANYTHING to get elected. No one has to make up these things; not Fox or Beck or anyone else. He is exactly as he appears and the sad thing is that all of this was there to be seen had the people that voted for him had only looked. He didn’t try very hard to hide anything about these hateful, racist beliefs. People that voted for him didn’t want to see the real Obama. Let’s hope that we can turn this mess into a “teaching moment” for those that take the responsibility of voting lightly.
“Cowards”, Mr Holder? Turns out the only cowards here work in Obama’s White House. Afraid there might be a racist in the woodpile, they shot from the hip and hit themselves in the foot.
Shirley Sherrod said it best: “he’s [Obama's] not someone who has experienced some of the things I’ve experienced through life, being a person of color.” So, in other words, President Obama is not – as it turns out – a credible voice for the black experience, and his lack of any meaningful management experience leads to his staff acting stupidly.
Putting fuel on the fire: Emboldened by the course this conversation on race is taking, Senator James Webb (D), calls for changes in affirmative action. A bit off-script for the Obamaphiles, but how’s that for a profile in courage Mr Holder?
TLM
It’s not that they were ‘afraid there may be racists’.. it’s that they were trying to prevent inquiries into Shirley and Charles Sherrod’s past.. into which taxpayers have sunk many millions of vanished dollars, and during which Charles and Shirley indulged themselves in a lifetime of communist rhetoric, allegiances and actions, including naming their own kids after an African communist revolutionary and the Soviet Union itself.
Son is named Kenyatta, after Jomo Kenyatta. Daughter is, literally, named Russia.
These people ARE obama, ARE wright, ARE the black lib.theol. movement, ARE the American communist movement, ARE the radical left. Charles Sherrod used to work with Bill Ayers!
Obama fired her not because of ‘racism’ but to HIDE her. And she has not spoken on TV since day 3, and missed all the weekend shows. They talked ABOUT her but not TO her… a blackout, you might say.
I don’t disagree with what you are saying. Most here understand there is little philosophical difference between Obama, Wright and the Sherrods. If you understand that, you don’t need to go through the convoluted story of how she was fired. You know that Team Obama was scared sh*tless of what was coming next. Her bit part in that conversation on race was gonna’ look real bad. They needed to shut her up quickly and did so.
For the people out there who are still ignorant of Obama & Sherrod’s socialist/black theology leanings, the “Shirley is a racist” meme doesn’t help. Better for them that she’s portrayed as a daughter of the Jim Crow South who was unfairly and incompetently fired by Obama’s staff. They rushed to judgement on a race issue. Again.
For the people who voted for a black man to be president, just to say they did, remind them that blacks like Shirley Sherrod think Obama is really not a good example of the true black experience. She said as much publicly.
So, if Obama is an incompetent executive, unable to effectively manage racial issues, and a faux African-American to boot, just what good is he?
Nope, not hooked on Rush, Hannity or Beck. Hooked on Savage and Bill Cooper. Savage’s ban from the UK and Cooper’s death should have sites like this up in arms – odd that these aren’t things that see more light.
Blogger and WordPress offer blogs for free.
Go sign up for one and bring the message to the masses yourself.
I listen to Michael Savage every day and agree with most of his views . I think the reason why Fox News and the other conservative talk show hosts have not picked up on his ban is because Savage trashes them (although he seems to be defending Fox lately) on a daily basis. He loathes Mark Levin, Rush, O’Reilly, Hannity et al and states his opinion loudly. If he had supported his fellow conservative radio hosts instead of trashing them, he might have been shown some support.
TG,
I would like to think that some of the bigger issues wouldn’t stop others from doing what’s right, regardless of one’s being ‘trashed’. If a talk radio host is banned from a country, then isn’t that an egregious block of free speech? What if Hannity was banned from Britain – would Savage pretend it isn’t happening because Sean Hannity patently ignores Savage’s very presence? I don’t think so. Lastly, the Conservative party used to abhor nation building and follow the founders prescient advice about staying out of foreign wars. The current group is cheering on our trillion dollar fiat dollar war machine “so we don’t have to fight them over here”. Only the Too Bigs win in that system. Savage follows the original Conservative dictums of minding one’s own business. It reminds me of how Ron Paul was ambushed during the 08 debates – the ‘rah rah war’ “conservatives” are sheeple for the same forces that the brain dead lemming liberals are on the left.
Well-written column on recent racial exhaustion.
I was suprised you didn’t mention James Webb’s recent WSJ piece on “Diversity and the Myth of White Priviledge.” With a few PC exceptions, Webb echoes your criticisms of race-based preferences.
I guess it’s nice to know a U.S. Senator is a fan of your blog.
With all due respect [as little or great as one chooses to give] I tend to discount Senator Webb’s piece “Diversity and the Myth of White Privilege”, as have others. Senator Webb won election by less than 1/2 of 1% of the vote in 2006. He has, from January 2009 up until a couple of weeks ago, been a reliable minion of Buraq Hussein Obama; supporting his every initiative regardless of the feelings of Virginians. He will have noted that a) the recent special elections [including in his state of Virginia] have not been indicative that cleaving to Obama is a route to political longevity, and b) that he will be running for re-election in 2012 and will be tied to Obama’s popularity whether he wants to or not. A reasonable evaluation of the paths to political survival would indicate that creating some daylight between himself and Buraq would be a good thing for him. I view this article as a first and relatively benign attempt to create a record of distance between himself and our Racialist-in-Chief. I tend to believe his actual legislative actions over his non-binding words; as I do with every politician. Your mileage may, of course, vary.
Subotai Bahadur
With Obama it’s race, race, race, all the time and every time. And it’s not going to change, not ever, because Obama deeply believes that a)playing the race card got him elected and helps promote his Presidency, and b)and playing the race card insulates him from the real and growing criticism of his failing policies.
Identity politics, whether the identities are based upon racial, cultural, religious, social class, language or any interest group are always divisive, always raise barriers, always take away personal freedoms and always limit opportunity.
It is a measure of how unconcerned this White House is about the well being of the USA that it relentlessly pursues identity politics. Don’t they know where “Balkanization” leads?
Sane governments treat all their citizens equally. They do not cook up different treatments for different identities. But what government of which country in the 21st century does not practice identity politics? Another disastrous home run for progressivism.
The 24 hour news cycle vs. the remaining 3 months until the electorate renders it’s verdict.
In other words, can democrat party recover from the most visceral of damage they’ve done to themselves? Especially when the race card bluff has been the modus operandi of both the admin and congress, and the news media as well, all during health care legislation and anything else pursued by the admin at congressional level. From the beginning.
So, how to drop the easy weapon most casually and frequently and favorably used complete with the lick-spittle of the leftist media all over it? This was a one trick pony anyway, complete with the predicated “post-racial” denial/lie/ruse/…. difficult, in fact impossible for this admin, indeed for demogogue-macRat party to abandon, and it’s already too late anyway.
The admin, flattered itself on how deftly and “sound-byte” was their application of this singular tactic- class warfare became race war, at least politically speaking. But Sherrod was far too explicit, demonstarting 1) how one adopts the philosophy wholesale, 2) how one implements it farther down the food chain (in this case, from the position of Agriculture dept. grunt) and, 3) the spoils system used to perpetuate it.
Hits too close to home for the overwhelming majority of the electorate.
So long, (it) was not nice to know you.
the race card racket/hustle/shakedown/protection racket/bluff is not so new anymore, what is new is that Sherrod exposed, to the light of day, the innards of the workings of that process- not pretty…
add to that the exposure of the fact that the goal of it all is to process us all, into sausages by use of that system.
Bon Appetite.
Dr.Hanson
This is completely off topic but several years ago Pope Benedict created a media stir when he quoted from the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Palaiologos “Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.”
At the time, there was no English translation of Twenty-six Dialogues with a Persian from Greek into English. Has anyone done that translation since then? I am not saying that such a work would be a best seller, but it seems likely that it would have more interest among the general public than most of the translations of 14th century Greek Byzantine literature that your fellow classics professors might consider working on.
It keeps all of us talking about race, not health care, not stimulus, not millions of jobs lost.No time to mention massive, unsustainable debt, we’re too busy proving ourselves “un-racist” to persons depending on us to be racists for their very existence. They’re playing Chess, we’re playing Checkers, reacting to every scurrilous charge. And Victor is helping them.
“…having her comments edited…”
Why do you lie?
The video was NOT edited. It was a subset of the full talk. IOW, what most people call a “clip”. Edited implies the video was manipulated, when it reality it was not.
So VDH, when did you end up being a Journolista? The above statement is certainly Journolist approved.
Dr. Hanson:
“Ms. Sherrod was done a disservice in having her comments edited in a fashion that did not represent what she was trying to say.”
This is not the case. Ms. Sherrod’s views were quite accurately represented by the excerpt, as was the views of the NAACP audience,(which was the entire point of Breitbart’s piece…maybe you should read his post that accompanied the video), and Ms, Sherrod’s statements since she was exposed have done nothing to dispel the initial impression she gave that she is a bitter woman who doesn’t like white people, and who is not above using race to advance herself.
I’ve decided to lend a hand with the NAACP’s public relations.
After all, “colored people” is so denigrating, so retro, and really doesn’t belong in the modern race discussion. Everyone knows the politically acceptable words are “African Americans”.
So, I propose the name change to– N double A double A. The National Association for the Advancement of African Americans.
It has useful acronymic value as well. Whenever they make a proposal, we can now just say their name as a word.
NAAAA.
As an English friend of mine would say, “Brill[iant]“! Thanks.
Americans are sick and tired of all this racial rhetoric! Obama, the loyal member of Rev. Wright’s Church of Bigotry has brought this down on us along with his disastrous plan to “change” America. Politicians do not need to think that we, the people who pay their salaries, pay for all the perks such as free haircuts, free drycleaning and heaven knows what else, are going to sit by and let some Far Left Nut Case ruin this country. As things stand, it will take a while to right the wrongs but we can do it. The whole thing, combined with seeing pictures of the brave Black Panthers standing around with big sticks in their hands is just about more than most of us can tolerate.
Joe:
“…but we can do it.”
Who? How? Where? When?
Other than fumes, what else does the left have in the tank but the exploitation of victimhood? It must be clear by now that Obama’s long-term strategy is a return to tribalism. Only by stitching together a black-brown coalition can the left hope to compete in the future. If it sows the seeds of a terrible racial divisiveness, so be it.
Racism is a major tactic for Obama and the Obama gang. It is also a key perspective. Obama has always used race in his life; his wife Michelle is deeply hostile to both America and whites.
Obama has always used race to insulate him from criticism and to advance his career – from the time he was a young boy, through college, through Harvard, through his ‘community organizer’ days. It’s a basic, essential component of Obama’s tactics of controlling other people.
And control people he must – Obama has long ago removed himself from direct interaction with people and events and insulated himself from accountability by misinforming others, manipulating them..and using race as a shield and climbing rope. These tactics are not going to change.
I predict that race will be used more and more as the criticism of Obama increases. Obama has trapped himself. He’s used misinformation (lies) and manipulation to get into office, to get ‘his’ policies through Congress. Now – he’s facing criticism of both his policies and his process.
Obama can’t handle criticism because it means, psychologically, that he feels he’s losing control of other people. So..he uses race. You criticize him, according to Obama, because you are ignorant or biased. Politically and/or racially biased.
White people are therefore going to be more and more attacked by the Obama administration as ‘racist’; this is a tactic to reject valid criticism of Obama’s policies and procedures.
Obama is thus retreating to his ‘racist’ base: blacks and hispanics. This does a great disservice to both groups and he shouldn’t count on their support. He’s counting on them to see the world in a racist manner! That’s insulting to them.
There’s something else to consider in Obama’s psyche, and his need to control people. That’s his rejection of Congress, or The People. Obama rejects Congress as the voice and Power of The People. That’s because he cannot deal with other people having power. Psychologically he cannot handle such a situation. Since Obama’s first day, he has sought to reduce the power of Congress. These include his utter rejection of the requirement to read and debate bills; Obama insisted on Congress passing His bills..without reading or debate.
Now, Obama is going to throw Congress ‘under the bus’ in the November elections. That is, Congress will take the criticism from the people while Obama removes himself yet further and further from accountability.
I predict that Obama’s rejection of Congress, and by extension, the will of the people, will increase – and his accusations of racism and his attempt to protect himself within the shield of race – will increase. I don’t think that Americans realize how pathological the man is…and how his actions are actually, a continuous attack against Americans and the Constitution.
Can you cite ONE time when Obama has said, “they are against me because I am black.”?
Hi D-White.
Is this fevered blathering or what?
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Politics/story?id=5495348&page=1
Love that Jefferson Airplane.
Hmm, can you cite ONE time where Obama denounced any of the hundreds of media flacks, pols, pundits etc who’ve made that claim. Did he publicly disagree with the NAACP resolution calling Tea Partiers racists? As the president, if you stand by while your supporters and sycophants call millions of your fellow Americans racists, guess what that makes you?
BTW, Dwitless, are YOU willing to say here and now that it’s an outright lie that the majority of people who are against Obama feel that way because he’s black? It’s a yes/no question, so no dodging. The anti-Obama faction
Using those exact words, no. Here are two examples from the 2008 campaign trail which use similar wordings. From Jacksonville Florida, June 2008. LA Times:
From Missouri July 2008. WaPo:
There are claims that Obama made similar statements three times that day, but I have not gone through the separate videos. [Rolla, Springfield, Union, Lebanon are among the Missouri towns Obama visited around that time.]
No, Obama isn’t really pulling back from the fire, just feinting a pull back.
He will orchestrate the cold race war of the campaign into a hot one in order to get his bolshi base onto the streets this long hot summer.
Then the Demogoguic Party will drum up a red-hot race war going into the 2012 elections. This is standard Alinsky (and Marcuse) radical methodology stolen from the Bolsheviks.
Excellent post, Mr. Hanson, as I’ve come to expect. It’s delightful to read inspired prose, even when it discusses something that makes me want to weep in disgust.
My one comment, knowing that I agree wholeheartedly with all you’ve written, is this. The President is incapable of shedding his white-arab-negro identity–all he does, says, believes, and thinks about is based on this amalgam of self-loathing.
He is immature and pitiable (on my more adult-days).
Kathy L. wrote: (about Obama)
He is immature and pitiable (on my more adult-days).
I would agree.
It must be extremely stressful/conflicting to hate “Whitey” so profoundly especially when you are “half-Whitey” yourself.
Yes, Mr. half white president, we understand you grew up in a mixed cultural background, choosing. consistently, profoundly sinister companions…
Bob
Voters are coming to realize they voted for a cute little snake that has grown into an Anaconda with a voracious appetite, that likes only one color meat.
And the snake has determined himself to be a protected, endangered, specie.
When will he devour enough to kill himself?
“like the perpetual error-prone shortstop who complains about the pebbles on the playing field left from yesterday’s game.” Except “the owners” insisted on putting in a guy who throws like a girl because EVERYONE in scouting told them what a potentially great arm he had. Fools meet with folly every time.
The sad and dangerous thing about race in America these days is that calling someone with whom you disagree a racist works! Witness McCain’s campaign, in which he so muted any legitimate criticism of Obama to avoid appearing “racist.” To be called racist these days is equivalent to being called a heretic or witch in the middle ages, a communist in the 50′s or a pedophile. It is a great way to suppress debate. Racism has come to mean any criticism of Obama.
This country is fast becoming a balkanized mess, with “oppressed” racial-ethnic identity groups competing to loot an ever shrinking treasury to stick it to “the man”, never mind the inevitable future economic collapse that will impoverish their kids. And not one opposition politician will fight this, because they want votes and/or are afraid of being called racist.
You’re right about the balkanized mess.
A black ex-friend of mine is no longer speaking to me. This apparently pro-life, Christian person labelled me “racist” when I pointed out that Obama’s advocacy for partial birth abortion and his vote against the bill to medically treat the tiny (half-dead) victims, who survive such abortions, was against everything that Christian, pro-life people believe. I also politely registered my negative opinion about Obama’s comments that the white police officer had “acted stupidly”. I pointed out that one of his colleagues, a black, female police officer, had corroborated that Officer Crowley—the one who “acted stupidly”—was not at all racist. The now ex-friend left in a huff and hasn’t spoken to me since.
My subsequent, charitable appeals to this person’s intelligence, good will (I thought), and Christian faith made no difference. Nor did my sending the video of the most attractive, intelligent, black, female police officer, who was supporting Officer Crowley. She said she’d voted for Obama, but wouldn’t next time. As far as my ex-friend was concerned, good will and facts be damned.
I’ve wiped the dust off my feet on this one. But my ex-friend’s juvenile behaviour doesn’t bode well for social cohesion, does it?
No great loss, lookout.
Sounds like your (ex) friend is more ideologue than friend.
We need to say that we are complaining about his “white half’s policies.”
Lookout,
Sorry about the loss of someone you considered a friend. We are all being polarized on the issues; friends are breaking with one another over the surprise of unshared values. We are having to make new alliances (hard in my older age) — often with people whose personalities are not such a good fit, but whose values are.
I notice that when I discover that someone is as worried as I am over the direction of the country, I practically clutch them to my breast!
RE: …..independent white voters…. sense that something like Van Jones, or “cowards,” or the Prof. Gates matter, or the recent Sherrod non-story, or “wise Latina” will turn up about every three weeks from now on out…
What’s funny, and not elaborated as much but so fundamental to the Sherod story, is that, “independent voters” non-withstanding, the reason the administration and the NAACP covered themselves in disgrace by forcing Ms. Sherod over to the side of the road to resign at metaphorical gunpoint, out of fear of Glen Beck!… is because THEY themselves believe the the administration is infested top to bottom with such racialists. They were perfectly prepared to believe Breitbarts spin on Sherod because they KNOW that such people are all over Team Obama… their crime then is not to think that way, but rather to get caught at it, which is politically undesireable.
So Dr. Hanson is right about that. It’s just rather funny to see Obama and the NAACP agree with him.
“Ms. Sherrod was done a disservice in having her comments edited in a fashion that did not represent what she was trying to say.”
She certainly was. The left would never do that, just ask Rush. They would never all get on board to spread an outright lie like saying Fox did the edit and played it over and over till she got fired. Never, never would they do that!
http://johnnydollar.us/files/100725fhwir.php
Some people live to be offended.
This describes most of the leftists who are running things today. And they are given sickening assistance by normal people who still, apparently, feel compelled to defend and explain themselves, when they actually didn’t do anything particularly horrible.
Some people just live to be offended.
That’s the left in a nutshell. And they are helped by normal people who still feel compelled to explain and defend themselves, even though they haven’t done anything to deserve the perpetual censure.
And isn’t it ironic that it was “progressive” Eleanor Roosevelt who said, “No one can make you feel bad without your consent.”
And now we are reduced to suicidal calls from the left to appoint more administration officials solely on the basis of race, and to become even more overt in racial referencing.
Reportedly, racial and gender guidelines/quotas are built into the new so called financial reform legislation, signed by this president last week.
Shocking to me, that allegedly cleaning up the financial scene should involve directives about affirmative action hires. (Weren’t Sotomayor & both Obamas helped along by AA ?)
Even though Brietbart’s original tape was an edited version, his actions came after a solid week (or more) of the NAACP doing its lying, phony “racist tea party” dance.
So which is the worst offense ?
Shirley Sherrod has advised “her people” to get a job within the federal bureaucracy where they can never be fired. Boy, that’ll lift ‘em up, eh ?
Sherrod’s firing agent (“pull over and resign right now”) mentioned the prospect of getting “Becked” to Shirley, to be avoided at all costs.
At least that part was funny.
“There is (a) class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs — partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs. … There is a certain class of race-problem solvers who don’t want the patient to get well, because as long as the disease holds out they have not only an easy means of making a living, but also an easy medium through which to make themselves prominent before the public.”
– Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery
(1856-1915)
I can think of any number real time race hustlers/race baiters who fit ole Booker’s parameters, most notably, of course, jesse, al, even barack.
You can expand that notion to every Leftist on the planet who is personally invested that “things” can never (ever) improve for any racial or “identity” group.
The entire Leftist shtick relies on it. Identified groups of people, from blacks, to women, to hispanics, whomever, should be mightily offended at being used this way, at the condescension.
With due respect to the very fine VDH, I’m not willing to give any slack to Shirley Sherrod. E.g., Putting aside her comments about the white farmer, I believe that this (altogether ungrammatical) statement in Sherrod’s speech (about healthcare) is at least race baiting, if not racist: “Now, we endured eight years of the Bush’s [sic] and we didn’t do the stuff these Republicans are doing because you have a black President.”
Dr. Hanson does acknowledge Shirley Sherrod’s socialist leanings when he writes, “. . . it is also not a wise thing to go before the NAACP to offer a confessional about how one has evolved from seeing oppression in terms of white culpability, to understanding it in terms of the culpability of those ‘who have.’”
This woman appears to be an affirmative action lefty with a huge chip on her shoulder. Check out her husband, Charlie. He sounds like he’s been worshipping at the Rev. Wright’s church too: “We must stop the white man and his Uncle Toms from stealing the election.” And that’s just for a start.
The name of Shirley and Charlie’s daughter, born at the height of the Cold War? Russia. Yikes.
“Does anyone grasp that this obsession with racial identity in an increasingly multiracial society is outright insanity, both politically and culturally?”
No, but it’s also racism, which is defined as “discrimination or prejudice based on race”. Simply put, “multi-culturalists” are racists by virtue of letting skin pigmentation determine what they believe to be the correct course of action. By being overly conscious of race they themselves are racist. Those who want race to play a role are the racists, not those who strive for a color-blind society. Ironically, the former are the group most likely to resort to accusations of racism. In psychology I believe this is referred to as projection.
What is sad is that millions of white voters willfully ignored Obama’s past and present – his 20 years stay in Wright’s church and claiming he never heard that from wright what the “right wing media dug up, was such a blatant lie that a 5 year old could recognize, and then Michelle’s comment of America being a down right mean country and she had not been proud of it until now, only these factors alone should been enough not to vote for him. But the “white guilt” over the past played such a strong part that all this was ignored and now we all are paying the price.
It’s all Iowan’s fault – had he not won the primary there, he would have been history!!!
With quote source being Rush Limbaugh, NAALCP! A study of the origins of that association is revealing and to be reviled. It wasn’t started by the Negro community! There is not one recorded endorcement by the NAACP for any conservative person of color. They stood silent when Justic Thomas was subjected to what amounted to a “lynching” of his character. The NAACP should insert the “L” into their logo. For it is the National Association for the Advancement of LIBERAL people of color. They have hitched their wagon to the horse that for generations was instrumental in keeping them in slavery, when the south was defeated that horse instituted JimCrow, Segregation and a host of other vile laws to keep the decendents of the slaves in finacial bondage to the horse. The only problem it wasn’t a horse they hitched the wagon to………….it was a “Jackass”, appropriate logo of the party Democrat.
“Ms. Sherrod was done a disservice…”
Hardly. Ms. Sherrod is a communist, a racist, a professional parasite on the body politic, and was being rewarded by her Dem pals with a job at the USDA for: being a failed farmer (despite being subsidized by the taxpayers of America), for suing the people of America (because they didn’t give her enough handouts), for spending forty years working for racist organizations, and for helping people avoid paying their debts.
She hasn’t been done any disservice.
Hmmm, VDH and I agree on this part of the whole deal. Maybe you and goy will have better luck convincing him, than you did convincing me, but there is somewhat of a common sense response here, but you and goy are not taking it.
“…there is somewhat of a common sense response here…”
So D-White, move on up the comments and bring on a ”common sense response”.
Dwight
Can you cite ONE time when Obama has said, “they are against me because I am black.”?
July 27, 2010 – 1:36 pm
D-White, are you stuck on the center of the picket fence? Ouch! Bareback no less! Nixon is bringing a crane. Opportunity!
And Lather came foam from his tongue…
It’s only overly elegant pundits, such as Charles Krauthammer, who had the temerity to dub Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s acolyte our first “post-racial” presidential candidate.
Wrong!
Everything about Barry Soweto is racial–from his African Arab name to his views on bringing low White, not Black, America.
Smirk on, Barry!
By the time Americans catch on, you will have picked every white capitalist pocket in the country.
Mr. Hansen , your comment that, ” Ms. Sherrod was done a disservice in having her comments edited in a fashion that did not represent what she was trying to say. ” is pure nonsense and leads me to believe that you never watched her full remarks. You will find the link below.
Sherrod is a bigot pure and simple and the rush to exonerate Sherrod demonstrates how far from fairness our society has fallen.
When she opens her remarks she points out there are plenty of job openings at the USDA and then she laments that ” There are no people of color to fill these jobs “. Is that the hiring position we should expect from government employees?
When she accuses white Republicans of racism with her statement that, ” We didn’t do the the stuff these Republicans are doing because we have a black President. ” , does that not reveal bigots mindset?
When she complains that that ” Less than 20 of the 129 employees are people of color ” who work for her in her department is that not bigotry?
When she complains that part of a black owned farm, which was legally sold, was sold to a white person by stating , ” They got a white man lined up to buy it. ” , is that the kind of person we want paid with federal dollars?
Sherrod seems to do nothing better than speaking out of both sides of her mouth.
While claiming she has learned from her mistakes and moved beyond her racist tendencies the plain truth is that her statements reek of bias.
She has no business being paid with with my tax dollars or yours.
And you sir, should do your homework before jumping on a bandwagon without legs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9NcCa_KjXk
Or wheels.
I would ignore surly Shirley at this point. I don’t condone what she says about Fox, Breitbart, politics etc. But, she’s entitled to her opinion and her 15 minutes of fame are about over.
Keep the focus on her excerpted statements in that speech to the NAACP. They were taken out of context, she was labeled a racist, summarily fired, and denounced by the NAACP — all before being given a chance to defend herself. Not for the first time, both the NAACP and the Obama White House foolishly jumped to conclusions about someone being a racist. Each of them supposedly represents some sort of divine infallible authority on race issues. That they continue to screw up in this regard just means people will eventually ignore them as well. Obama and the NAACP are squandering whatever credibility they once had on race issues. That’s the take home message from the Sherrod affair.
NAACP=Normally anti-american commie punks. Have you heard Shirley Sherrods hubby? Sounds awfully racist to me. His former Org became the original Black panthers? Funny, but Stokely Carmichael and Huey Lewis sounded awfully racist to me(but at least, unlike the NBP, they didnt use moslem names). Jeremiah Wright(anyone blasphemizing God doesnt deserve the title of a real man of God) is a racist, has anyone followed to see how more racial hatred is being spewed by his sucessor, Otis Wright(referred to as the “hip-hop” pastor)? Let me see how many white orgs preach such vitriol-The Hibernians? The Elks? The Eagles? The Knights of Columbus, perhaps? Nope-none of the above. Seems to me all the racial hatred is being a bit one -sided here and its not caucasians doing it.
Good one, Mr. Vader.
When half the nation has as its main political position identity politics, and it is celebrated far and wide in education institutions and the MSM……this is what you get.
Multiculturalism and identity politics are the road to massive violence, they have already divided the West, unable to defend itself from mass immigration illegal invaders and deal with basic issues of governance and economics. Paralyzed, weak, divided and ready to be conquered by those who want some wealth redistributive justice.
There is going to be a reckoning in Western European lands, and the minorities better watch out how they procede, if they know whats good for them.
Here is Professor Swain, to spell it out for you…
White Nationalism: A Symposium
By: Jamie Glazov
FrontPageMagazine.com | Friday, January 10, 2003
http://97.74.65.51/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=20346
Carol M. Swain, a professor of law and political science at Vanderbilt University, has just published her latest book, The New White Nationalism in America: Its Challenge to Integration. She argues that white nationalism is on the rise and offers many suggestions for defusing its appeal. Among other things, she recommends that her fellow African-Americans desist from supporting affirmative action and slavery reparations.
Is the end of race-based affirmative action a constructive step toward creating a better racial climate in America? If so, what does this mean for the current national black leadership and what direction its activism needs to take?
To discuss these and other questions connected to The Rise of White Nationalism and How to Defuse its Appeal, Frontpage Symposium has invited Carol Swain, the author of the book in question, Peter Brimelow, the editor of VDARE.COM and author of Alien Nation: Common Sense About America’s Immigration Disaster; Ron Walters, a Distinguished Leadership Scholar and Professor of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland, whose book White Nationalism, Black Interests. Conservative Public Policy and the Black Community will be published by Wayne State University Press in July 2003; and Jared Taylor, the editor of American Renaissance.
(1) How does white nationalism differ from old style white supremacy?
Swain: The new white nationalism is a reactionary movement led by well-educated, financially secure white intellectuals who have given up on integration. Its leaders have studied the mistakes of the Left and the far Right. To recruit more effectively among ordinary Americans some groups and individuals have dropped the offensive language and the regalia of the older racist right and instead they have updated and repackaged their messages of hate.
White nationalists are encouraging white Americans to adopt the interest group politics of racial and ethnic minorities. In making their case to ordinary white Americans, the leaders of the new white nationalism have appropriated the language of the left. Multiculturalism argues that all groups ought to be able to organize to celebrate their unique heritage, contributions to the world and genetic makeup. White nationalists argue that if identity politics is good for minorities, then it must also be good for whites. Civil rights rhetoric tells us that discrimination on account of race; gender or national origin is unconstitutional.
White nationalist leaders point out that white Americans are discriminated against by governmental policies, and that this is unfair and un-American. Whites should, therefore, band together to protect themselves from insensitive and illegal governmental policies. The old style white supremacy was kept in place by violence, intimidation, and the institutional mechanisms of the state. The primary goal of the new white nationalism is the preservation of white European culture and values. White nationalism, therefore, is a separatist movement, non-violent on its face, but retaining ties and linkages to more extremist groups that openly endorse ethnic cleansing.
(2) Given our national emphasis on multiculturalism and identity politics, isn’t it reasonable for white Americans to want to join the celebration of group pride and group self-determination?
Swain: White identity politics may well be the next logical stage for identity politics in America. As long as racial and ethnic minorities push separatist agendas, we can expect white Americans, especially as they decline as a percentage of the population, to begin to behave like self-interested minorities.
White nationalists push identity politics as a way for disorganized whites to fight public and private initiatives said to favor minorities at the expense of more deserving white Americans. I firmly believe we have carried identity politics too far in this country. We need to stress our shared American values and move away from the hyphenated identities that divide Americans, while providing a compelling justification for whites to move in the same direction.
Swain: We need a collective move away from identity politics. White nationalism is the baby that multiculturalism birthed. Our national interests as Americans are ill-served by racial double standards and the single-minded focus on racial politics. Hopefully, we can rise to a higher level.
Swain: Many whites, especially younger ones, would disagree with Dr. Walter’s assessment. What they see are racial double standards that place them at a disadvantage. Why don’t we try to collectively move away from overt racial politics and focus on forging an American national identity? As long as racial and ethnic minorities push for identity politics, many whites will want to join.
(3) Do white nationalist leaders champion some legitimate grievances that are not being addressed satisfactorily by mainstream political leaders?
Swain: Unfortunately, white nationalists leaders are exploiting some legitimate grievances and fears that trouble many Americans. These worries include concerns about racial preferences, liberal immigration policies, black-on-white violent crime rates, and job losses due to globalization and other shocks to the economy. In their search for votes, leaders of the major political parties have seemly abandoned addressing some of these grievances that resonate with ordinary, non-racist Americans.
Swain: I would gladly exchange racial preferences for race neutral social welfare programs and more aggressive programs to fight discrimination. Affirmative action, as currently practised does little to help the poor and liberal immigration policies clearly harms Americans with low skills and low levels of education. Unfortunately, it will take a racial crisis before the government does anything about the situation. These grievances are already being voiced by the white nationalists leadership and others who see an injustice.
Swain: Keep in mind that the IQ gap between the races has decreased from 15 points to about 10. Experts suspect that the remaining differences are due to environmental factors such as nutrition. Unfortunately, much racism remains in American society. I would gladly exchange all existing racial preference programs for a stronger set of measures to detect and combat hidden discrimination and for more aggressive programs designed to help all disadvantaged Americans improve their lots in life.
All in all, what we have in place today benefits elites of all races and it fails to meet the basic needs of most disadvantaged Americans. We cannot sustain racial preferences in a society as diverse as we are becoming and not expect unrest and turmoil. We need non-discrimination, outreach to the disadvantaged, and a more equitable systems for distributing opportunities.
Swain: I believe that we are increasingly at risk of unprecedented levels of racial conflict and turmoil because of conditions coming together at this point in history. These conditions include the continuing influx into the country of non-white immigrants and the prospect that America in the not-too-distant future will cease to be a white majority nation. Many Americans are worried about liberal immigration policies, the decline in high paying, low-skill industrial jobs, and globalization.
Census Bureau data show that all Americans have experienced a loss in real wages and that non-Hispanic whites have had the sharpest increase in poverty. Also, certain social, political, and economic conditions can spur rises in hate crimes against disfavored groups. I see a devil’s brew for future racial and social unrest. White nationalists stand ready to exploit the frustrations of ordinary white Americans. Another powerful source of future conflict comes from the rising expectations and demands of racial minorities for a greater share of the nation’s wealth and political power.
Swain: Well thank you. I would like to summarize by saying that we should strive to promote an American national identity. Although we can never be totally color-blind as a society, we can adopt race neutral public policies. What we have in place today are a set of policies that pit different groups of Americans against each other. As a multiracial, multiethnic society, America has defied the odds for other countries because we are a nation where the majority of people profess to be God fearing individuals, who believe in a common creator, and a brotherhood of man. Racial preference programs are at odds with core Christian principles of universalism that stress the role of the autonomous individual, equal to every other human being in the eyes of God.
No body believes another hustler like a hustler.
Shirley Sherrod works on a program that is giving money to black farmers because of some past grievance? Now under closer examination there are a possible 86,000 claims in this program when there are only 35,000 or so black farmers?
No wonder she disappears very quickly.
The idiot administrations efforts “to get whitey” and right the past wrongs gets itself into hot water? Oh my.
I’m tired of paying for these continually bad decisions. We can’t fix stupid. But, we can fire stupid. We should do so in the fall. Don’t forget RHINO’s are in season too. (NO LIMITS)
HEY ————– 13 million dollars, that we know of !!!!!!!!!!!
Multiculturalism and identity politics are the road to massive violence, they have already divided the West, unable to defend itself from mass immigration illegal invaders and deal with basic issues of governance and economics. Paralyzed, weak, divided and ready to be conquered by those who want some wealth redistributive justice.
There is going to be a reckoning in Western European lands, and the minorities better watch out how they procede, if they know whats good for them.
Here is Professor Swain, to spell it out for you…
White Nationalism: A Symposium
By: Jamie Glazov
FrontPageMagazine.com | Friday, January 10, 2003
Carol M. Swain, a professor of law and political science at Vanderbilt University, has just published her latest book, The New White Nationalism in America: Its Challenge to Integration. She argues that white nationalism is on the rise and offers many suggestions for defusing its appeal. Among other things, she recommends that her fellow African-Americans desist from supporting affirmative action and slavery reparations.
Is the end of race-based affirmative action a constructive step toward creating a better racial climate in America? If so, what does this mean for the current national black leadership and what direction its activism needs to take?
To discuss these and other questions connected to The Rise of White Nationalism and How to Defuse its Appeal, Frontpage Symposium has invited Carol Swain, the author of the book in question, Peter Brimelow, the editor of VDARE.COM and author of Alien Nation: Common Sense About America’s Immigration Disaster; Ron Walters, a Distinguished Leadership Scholar and Professor of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland, whose book White Nationalism, Black Interests. Conservative Public Policy and the Black Community will be published by Wayne State University Press in July 2003; and Jared Taylor, the editor of American Renaissance.
(1) How does white nationalism differ from old style white supremacy?
Swain: The new white nationalism is a reactionary movement led by well-educated, financially secure white intellectuals who have given up on integration. Its leaders have studied the mistakes of the Left and the far Right. To recruit more effectively among ordinary Americans some groups and individuals have dropped the offensive language and the regalia of the older racist right and instead they have updated and repackaged their messages of hate.
White nationalists are encouraging white Americans to adopt the interest group politics of racial and ethnic minorities. In making their case to ordinary white Americans, the leaders of the new white nationalism have appropriated the language of the left. Multiculturalism argues that all groups ought to be able to organize to celebrate their unique heritage, contributions to the world and genetic makeup. White nationalists argue that if identity politics is good for minorities, then it must also be good for whites. Civil rights rhetoric tells us that discrimination on account of race; gender or national origin is unconstitutional.
White nationalist leaders point out that white Americans are discriminated against by governmental policies, and that this is unfair and un-American. Whites should, therefore, band together to protect themselves from insensitive and illegal governmental policies. The old style white supremacy was kept in place by violence, intimidation, and the institutional mechanisms of the state. The primary goal of the new white nationalism is the preservation of white European culture and values. White nationalism, therefore, is a separatist movement, non-violent on its face, but retaining ties and linkages to more extremist groups that openly endorse ethnic cleansing.
(2) Given our national emphasis on multiculturalism and identity politics, isn’t it reasonable for white Americans to want to join the celebration of group pride and group self-determination?
Swain: White identity politics may well be the next logical stage for identity politics in America. As long as racial and ethnic minorities push separatist agendas, we can expect white Americans, especially as they decline as a percentage of the population, to begin to behave like self-interested minorities.
White nationalists push identity politics as a way for disorganized whites to fight public and private initiatives said to favor minorities at the expense of more deserving white Americans. I firmly believe we have carried identity politics too far in this country. We need to stress our shared American values and move away from the hyphenated identities that divide Americans, while providing a compelling justification for whites to move in the same direction.
Swain: We need a collective move away from identity politics. White nationalism is the baby that multiculturalism birthed. Our national interests as Americans are ill-served by racial double standards and the single-minded focus on racial politics. Hopefully, we can rise to a higher level.
Swain: Many whites, especially younger ones, would disagree with Dr. Walter’s assessment. What they see are racial double standards that place them at a disadvantage. Why don’t we try to collectively move away from overt racial politics and focus on forging an American national identity? As long as racial and ethnic minorities push for identity politics, many whites will want to join.
(3) Do white nationalist leaders champion some legitimate grievances that are not being addressed satisfactorily by mainstream political leaders?
Swain: Unfortunately, white nationalists leaders are exploiting some legitimate grievances and fears that trouble many Americans. These worries include concerns about racial preferences, liberal immigration policies, black-on-white violent crime rates, and job losses due to globalization and other shocks to the economy. In their search for votes, leaders of the major political parties have seemly abandoned addressing some of these grievances that resonate with ordinary, non-racist Americans.
Swain: I would gladly exchange racial preferences for race neutral social welfare programs and more aggressive programs to fight discrimination. Affirmative action, as currently practised does little to help the poor and liberal immigration policies clearly harms Americans with low skills and low levels of education. Unfortunately, it will take a racial crisis before the government does anything about the situation. These grievances are already being voiced by the white nationalists leadership and others who see an injustice.
Swain: Keep in mind that the IQ gap between the races has decreased from 15 points to about 10. Experts suspect that the remaining differences are due to environmental factors such as nutrition. Unfortunately, much racism remains in American society. I would gladly exchange all existing racial preference programs for a stronger set of measures to detect and combat hidden discrimination and for more aggressive programs designed to help all disadvantaged Americans improve their lots in life.
All in all, what we have in place today benefits elites of all races and it fails to meet the basic needs of most disadvantaged Americans. We cannot sustain racial preferences in a society as diverse as we are becoming and not expect unrest and turmoil. We need non-discrimination, outreach to the disadvantaged, and a more equitable systems for distributing opportunities.
Swain: I believe that we are increasingly at risk of unprecedented levels of racial conflict and turmoil because of conditions coming together at this point in history. These conditions include the continuing influx into the country of non-white immigrants and the prospect that America in the not-too-distant future will cease to be a white majority nation. Many Americans are worried about liberal immigration policies, the decline in high paying, low-skill industrial jobs, and globalization.
Census Bureau data show that all Americans have experienced a loss in real wages and that non-Hispanic whites have had the sharpest increase in poverty. Also, certain social, political, and economic conditions can spur rises in hate crimes against disfavored groups. I see a devil’s brew for future racial and social unrest. White nationalists stand ready to exploit the frustrations of ordinary white Americans. Another powerful source of future conflict comes from the rising expectations and demands of racial minorities for a greater share of the nation’s wealth and political power.
Swain: Well thank you. I would like to summarize by saying that we should strive to promote an American national identity. Although we can never be totally color-blind as a society, we can adopt race neutral public policies. What we have in place today are a set of policies that pit different groups of Americans against each other. As a multiracial, multiethnic society, America has defied the odds for other countries because we are a nation where the majority of people profess to be God fearing individuals, who believe in a common creator, and a brotherhood of man. Racial preference programs are at odds with core Christian principles of universalism that stress the role of the autonomous individual, equal to every other human being in the eyes of God.
I keep asking myself – has the world gone mad? The time and energy expended on this story is so disheartening. Let there be no mistake, racism is alive and well in today’s society, not just in American society, not just against blacks, not just against Muslims and certainly not just against liberals. Racism is part of human history and will always be thus.
As a white male Jew, I have certainly experienced racism first hand. It’s actually my belief that the Jewish race has not only survived extreme racism throughout history, but in fact prospered because of it. We have always been told by our fathers that we as a people have to work harder, be smarter than all others in order to survive. I believe Shirley and “her people” should pass this message on to their young ones much like my father did to me. This could go a long way in improving their lot
The trouble’s we are having here in the USA are being perpetuated by race baiters. People in the media like Keith Olberman, Chris Mathews, Ed Shultz and my very favorite Rachel Maddow are the worst. It’s hard to tell if these lunatics really believe what they are saying in their heart of hearts or are they furthering their careers by pandering to the like of ole Shirley. No matter what the answer, they are full of hatred as well as full of BS. We need our people to get down to the business of making this country whole again. Our economy has to be the number one priority. Screw the elite, the academic, the left wing liberal who insist on telling us how to live our lives and who will be instrumental in changing our way of life for the worse.
To this end I would like to propose a day in the near future, that could be promoted to vent our frustrations on mass. Taking from a scene in Network where the character Played by Peter Finch calls to his audience
I want everyone to get up right now, go to your window, stick you head out the window and yell at the top of your lungs “I’M MADDER THAN HELL AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANY MORE”
I propose this be done to support the upcoming elections. Is there anyone out there who will help me get the ball rolling?
OLD JEW:
That ball is square and it simply won’t roll. Getting it moving would require work and it’s much easier to just say “wait until November”, most commenters believing that that’s all it will take to fix the broken political system and the nation.
“Not going to take it anymore”? Good luck in exiting the maze.
Yes you certainly have experienced racism..and its what has kept Jews
alive as a religion for 2000 years. Its positive for Jews to have
a cultural and racial and religious identity. Its positive to have an
entire country, Israel, committed to preserving that identity and passing
laws to prevent intermarriage, and the migration of non JEws. But every
other country especially white countries ( who largely support Israel)
must committ cultural and racial suicide in the name of “diversity”
Can you explain the contradictions. No, wait, dont other. You cant.
People in the media like Keith Olberman, Chris Mathews, Ed Shultz and my very favorite Rachel Maddow are the worst. It’s hard to tell if these lunatics really believe what they are saying in their heart of hearts or are they furthering their careers by pandering to the like of ole Shirley
I always assumed it was both. Even Howard Beale wanted attention.
Van and Shirley probably attended the same meetings – she’s as much a Marxist as he is and a racist to boot.
http://www.newsrealblog.com/2010/07/27/communist-van-jones-whines-about-those-that-wronged-him/
“But they did not quite comprehend the ugly nature of the genie they had unleashed.”
Reminds me of….the Sorcerer’s Apprentice.
An Old Jew:
I have always found Jewish racism to be the epitome of ignorance. After all, are Ethiopian Jews the same race as Polish Jews? Are Chinese Jews have the same ancestry as French Jews.
The whole idea of “Jewish blood” or being 1/4 Jewish because your grandmother converted is bizarre. You are a man who happens to worship a loving and benevolent God.
Elroy, You haven’t been doing your homework.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/israel/familycohanim.html
Israel is a Western European style democracy because of Western
European Jews. Ashkenazi Israels success depends on this. The Jews
know this..and make no apologies. Only brainwashed whites think
cultural disintergration is noble. Its a suicide cult.
Jewish racial and cultural identity and fanatical defense of it has kept the Jewish
religion alive for 2000 years. It built Israel. Only “progressive” whites
take pride in losing their power and culture in the name of “diversity”..but then
thats what the whole “diversity” program is about..finding millions of useful
idiots to parrot the slogans until America is a third world garbage can. Oh wait.
Its already happened.
Remember, Republican guilt is always previous. The Democrats are only at fault because of…Republicans. And when Democrats cannot blame up because they are at the top, they can only blame down. Which is why we are all “cowards” and “act stupidly” and… and… and…
I think the whole NAACP/Sherrod affair must be scaring the crap out of the administration because the race game they so dearly love to play is spiraling out their control. Obama sowed the wind of racial discord and reaps the whirlwind. And we’re all caught up in it.
Dear Mr. Buckley: We now understand exactly what you were talking about. Please send help.
Anybody got a Boston phone book?
Our economy has to be the number one priority. Screw the elite, the academic, the left wing liberal who insist on telling us how to live our lives and who will be instrumental in changing our way of life for the worse.
To this end I would like to propose a day in the near future, that could be promoted to vent our frustrations on mass
The Sherrods. Profiles in Black Racism?
“Finally, we must stop the white man and his uncle toms from stealing our election.”
Those aren’t exactly the words of a racial healer, someone committed to effecting a reconciliation between the races, someone like Shirley Sherrod who was recently denounced as a racist, fired by her boss, Tom Vilsack at the USDA, and lambasted by Barack Obama and the NAACP, who then received apologies and accolades from Tom Vilsack, Barack Obama, and the NAACP.
Not at all! Those weren’t the words of Ms. Sherrod expressing as they do an unresolved antipathy toward whitey and toward subservient blacks, those uncle toms defined by the Urban Dictionary as ”black people [who] try to convince other black people that working, education, living well, and setting a good example for their children is selling out.”
No way would Shirley Sherrod the healer use such racially-charged language.
Those are the words of her husband, Charles Sherrod, founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, better known as SNCC.
See this undated video of Mr. Sherrod which Moonbattery.com classifies as one of its “Profiles in Racism:” http://tiny.cc/e8zsw
Far be it from me to suggest that Mr. Sherrod is in any way a racist or that, Gawd forbid, his wife Shirley in any way shares his sentiments.
Then, again, she too was a member of SNCC back in the 1960’s when it was a major player in the Civil Rights movement. Both Shirley and hubby Chuckie continued their membership in SNCC even after black supremacist Stokely Carmichael, later Kwame Ture, took over the reins and converted SNCC into a militant, black power gang along with fellow black racist, H. Rap Brown. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1808)
What everyone is overlooking or willfully ignoring is that Jeremiah Wright’s Black Liberation Theory is nothing but the Christian version of Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam. Both are 60′s marxist radicals constructions prey on religious minorities to get their support for communism by veneering it in the trappings of religion with a heaping dose of hating whitey and Jews thrown in. One Muslim, one Christian, same vile dogma.
And Barack Hussein Obama “baptized” his children into this vile organization and donated tons of money for its advancement. The left in their stupidity elected a man from a known racist and anti-semite organization.
Barack Obama = David Duke.
Elroy,
The Jewish race came from one male and one female. That being said, the racism perpetuated upon the Jews, labeled by men and women from all parts of the human race from the beginning of time, proceed without comparison. It is not merely the epitome of ignorance it is a standard of evil and wrong doing that all people who feel that they are persecuted, should compare themselves to.
My point is -I’m still madder than hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore
Great article Dr. Hanson. But as much as this racial thing may be a political strategy, especially after his April video stating “blacks, latinos, women and younger voters” to form the push from 2008, it is also the overall political strategy that is Obama.
Obama started out as a community organizer, the very essence of we vs. them rather than “what can I do to help and/or work with someone to get this fixed” mentality. This is where he perfected the demagoging of an opponent. The entire essence of this arguement is to portray oneself as a victim against something for which you have no control over.
Second, and this is what frightens me most, is that thru-out Barack’s life he has never been around long enough in a position to actually take responsibility for the outcome of his decisions (hence nearly 200 “present” votes). A couple of years working at Ayers’ foundation, a semester taling law, a couple of years there as state senator, a very brief period as a US Senator, Obama has never stayed around long enough to absorb any criticism for anything he’s done. From elite prep to Harvard to Chicago politics, Obama has probably never been challenged on anything he’s said or voted for.
He’s had the majority behind him wanting to raise the sales tax from 6% to 8% or the vast majority behind him calling for raising it to 7% (figuratively speaking). This is what concerns me the most. He’s always been the popular guy with friends who support his ideas or positions because he’s always hung out with the crowd that has supported his ideas or positions. It can be quite jarring to go from standing in front of 1.8M on election nite to probably not even half that in 18 months. And I doubt that he would draw that many if not for counter protesters. Just take a look at the recent Carnahan event and the discounting of tickets. There is a reason why he’s skipping the BSA Jamboree and heading to the View today. Two years ago he would have done the BSA in the summer of 2008, his call for “blacks, latinos, women and young voters” is what he only has at this poiint. Which brings me to my final thought.
The Obama machine oversold this guy to themselves. In believing in Obama the “fighter” (part one above) and having moved always within the same circle of like minded people (part two above) they have convinced him and themselves that by merely speaking he can change people’s minds because by the time the results had come in from position “A” he was gone. Talking about doing more with less and not raising sales taxfrom 6% to 8% but rather 7% neglects the fact that you’re raising it nearly 16%. So getting everyone to agree, that yes 7% is much better than 8% and shows fiscal discipline and the ability to compromise and get people to work together is an illusion.
Any articulate and prepared CEO can sell his plan to the company or board of directors. It’s during the actual implementation and results that may not go according to plan that you have to start to shift or moderate your position or action(s) as events dictate. Many say that’s because Obama’s rigid ideology, which is true. But it’s also because he’s never had to. My concern is this guy, as the shrinking circle of approval gets tighter around him, goes all Nixon paranoid on us. Having overexposed Obama in the last 18 months, his advisers determine that he must be pulled in, he goes out to challenge everyone every so often and then retreats to familiar surroundings a cast members. The cool demeanor that Matthews and the Journolist folks fell in love with is just really the guy who’s that way when he’s in his own environment with the folks who think and act like he does. When out of that cocoon, the guy cannot speak, think on his feet nor exhibit those qualities because he’s never had to, nor chosen to. Any challenge to him is viewed as a personal attacke because whether he was editor of the Harvad Law Review, a community organizer, at Ayers’ foundation, or a US Senator, he was always assumed to be the guy in charge and thus the smartest. And when something you’ve advocated goes south and you no longer have the predisposition of being assumed to be the smartest guy in the room, it is quite humbling. Many of us experience this early in life rather it be “not the best player on the court” or not the best candidate for a job opening or being a spurrned lover. I don’t think Obama has had that experience yet. And at this stage in his life, it will come as quite a shock. . not only to him but to his handlers.
If the Obama administration panics over Shirley Sherrod and completly botches the matter, how will it handle something like the Cuban missle crisis.
BHO is no JFK.
BHO is no GWB.
Obama looks more and more like Jimmy Carter but the stakes are much higher now with little room for error.
I think most of the current discussion of race and affirmative action is being done in a very narrow fashion, the same way the Civil War is presented as purely a war about slavery.
The big picture of the Civil War is as part of a transition from an agricultural society to an industrial society. What we have now is a transition from an industrial society to a digital/information society.
Let’s divide US into conservatives and progressives. Conservatives did their part in obstructing the flow and creation of new ideas (Bible thumping, creationism, etc). I may be mistaken but those efforts are largely defeated now. Personally, I do not feel being obstructed by whatever conservatives do in this country as it comes to intellectual discovery. So let’s talk about progressives. Have you noticed their habit of cutting off discussions by accusations of “racism” and “bigotry”? Can we honestly discuss anything related to blacks or females in this country? Does that remind you of the Catholic Church in Middle Ages? How about Stalin trials? How about McCarthy era? If one does not want to be burned at stake, one better watch out.
Progressives were useful when they defeated the Bible thumping crowd. However, they are reactionary now despite their rhetoric. We got liberated by a White Knight who does not want to leave our castle voluntarily.
A case can be made of progressives creating intellectual slaves who work for them by block voting (first blacks, then women). The main tool of enslavement is affirmative action.
Any freed intellectual slave (conservative blacks, conservative women) are hounded mercilessly by owners of intellectual plantations with the help of intellectual Uncle Toms (members of the Journolist fit here perfectly).
It is time to create an intellectual abolition movement and start an intellectual underground to help free those enslaved. Let them work in digital/information jobs instead of picking cotton for progressives. Let them do independent thinking instead of regurgitating group-think of their masters.
“So now we hear calls for more black appointments and more talk of race, as if more of the pernicious disease of racial identity will cure the disease rather than the medicine of just shutting up, fixing the economy, winning the war, and curbing spending.”
Except that with their policies they can’t fix the economy, win the war, or curb spending, and they won’t shut up, so what does that leave them? Every card left in their deck is a race card.
Robert Winkler Burke: “Sadly, ours is a world almost gone berserk with the explosive nonsense of anyone who doesn’t worship the liberal/progressive group-death-wish is a “RACIST!” Now, “Berserkers” were Norse warriors who reportedly fought in a “nearly uncontrollable trance-like fury.” They were ravenous men who looted, plundered and murdered indiscriminately by supposedly working themselves into a rage before battle, with — of course — the possible assistance of drugs.”
Don’t forget the raping and pillaging, my ancestors knew how to throw a party!:D
Obama? Shut-up? NAH
Wrong Again Hanson.
You condemn “racial identity” as no answer to “racial identity” politcs.
How many blacks are listening?
How many hispanics are listening?
How many muslims?
This is what Diversity really means.. endless conflict leading to national
disintergration. And how was it kept in line in the past..? By a 85% white
majority that had a very clear racial identity. Within that system every
small minority flourished. Blacks lived far better than black Africans
and hispanics did everything they could to find entrance into the USA and to that racial tyranny of whites.
Well thats all over..and now we have centuries of chaos to look forward to.
Centuries. Because demographic change is permanent. Now..get busy figuring out
how you are going to bring stability or prosperity in the nightmare
created when the country lost its cohesion in the name of “diversity”
Trillion dollar deficits, two disastrous wars, and a failed economic policy that led to a net zero job growth this past decade are not mere “pebbles” on yesterday’s field. More accurately, the long-term problem is Obama (and the rest of us, for that matter) are still playing on yesterday’s field – using yesterday’s energy, operating under yesterday’s economic assumptions, and so forth. America is so nostalgic about its own past that it forgot to lead, and so others have long taken up the torch. America must rekindle its innovative experience, and government must play a strong role. After all, how do you think we stumbled upon a coast-to-coast interstate highway system? Or before, during the push westward, followed soon after by the railroads – how, without massive government investment? Conservatives decry the “nanny state,” and yet they affirm its usefulness time and again as they cut taxes, while refusing to pay for said cuts by dismantling the hated entitlement institutions. And now, you all pretend its all Obama’s fault – Obama and his black and brown friends. These problems are as old as Obama himself. Now, you pretend it is the weakest and poorest among us that created all ghis country’s problems – not the powerful – and you sit confused when there are those that postulate that you may be racist.