Shorter Republicans: Treason in Defense of Slavery Should Be Honored

One thing about the Joe Wilson outburst is that it's bringing race and the racism Obama facies into the sunlight for all to examine. I don't know that the outcome of this will turn out positive, but it's real interesting in any case.

Certainly, it's giving Republicans every chance they want to defend the Confederate flag and other symbols of treason. We know now that Joe Wilson is a neo-Confederate. He is a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, one of the most racist organizations in the country. He was one of only seven legislators in South Carolina to vow to keep the Confederate flag over the state capitol of that state, a venerable tradition that goes all the way back to 1962.

Attacks on Wilson for his boorish behavior have upset fellow wingnuts. Increasingly, his defenders are also upset that his history as a supporter of treason in defense of slavery have come attack. Take Iowa congressman Steve King. King is really upset because, you know, Obama hates white men. As a white male, I should feel oppressed let me tell you... But anyway, here's King's own words on the matter:

“Instead of marching forward and following the principles of Martin Luther King Jr., [Obama] has set up a political system of delivering political favoritism to minority-serving groups. It divides Americans, and it insults us,” King said.

“There’s been legislation that’s been brought through this House that sets aside benefits for women and minorities. The only people that it excludes are white men,” he added. “Pretty soon, white men are going to notice they are the ones being excluded.”

Yeah, well. Now King's defense of oppressed white men extends to Joe Wilson:

“He is an officer and a gentleman and everyone who knows him knows that…being a son of the South puts you in a different position when it comes to the Confederate flag. It means something entirely different to the people who have ancestors who fought in the Civil War on the south side of the Mason-Dixon line. So I think Maureen Dowd is trying to whip this up and I also know she’s trying to put race into it. I didn’t know what race she was talking about when I first read her line on that.”

A son of the South does put you in a different position when talking about the Confederate flag. Just ask such sons of the South as Martin Luther King, Fred Shuttlesworth, Ralph Abernathy, John Lewis, and, I don't know, every single other black person who grew up there. Not to mention a not tiny group of whites who reject the racism the Confederate flag stands for.

But Wilson, King, and others want a race war. They want power back and they think that stirring up racism is the way to do it. I'm not sure that they won't succeed.

Via Andrea Nill

Freeper Racism Toward Malia Obama

If Boortz was yesterday's racist asshole of the day, the Free Republic people collectively win today.

For the loony right, that Malia Obama wore a peace t-shirt (as if there is something wrong with promoting peace!!!!), opens her up to pure unadulterated racism of the most disgusting and reprehensible variety.

If you really want to read the whole thread, it's here. However, I don't recommend it.

Neil Boortz, Racial Exterminationist

While Noon suggests Treason in Defense of Slavery Yankee as the worst person in the world for his disgusting talk about Ted Kennedy, I'd like to nominate Neil Boortz for the position.

As we reach the 4th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans is not rebuilt, people are still displaced, and parts of the city remain a disaster zone.

And that's OK with some conservatives. Boortz tweeted this today:

Obama wants to rebuild New Orleans. Why? Build it and they will come. They? The debris that Katrina chased out.

Gee, what does Boortz mean by "debris." I just don't know....

It's real disturbing to see the dehumanizing of working-class African Americans. And isn't it just fantastic that leading Republican commentators think of African-Americans as "debris." No doubt he'd use other words in private. If black people are "debris," would Boortz have a problem wiping them out of the nation? Somehow, I think he wouldn't be too upset.

Sotomayor

Knocked off a piece for Global Comment on Sotomayor yesterday. As usual, here's a piece of it and you can read the whole thing there if you'd like.

Sotomayor is 54, from the Bronx, Puerto Rican, a summa cum laude graduate of Princeton and a Yale Law School grad, where she edited the Law Journal. She has also been an adjunct professor of law at New York University and a lecturer at Columbia University. She was the early target of attacks from the right, who called her a bully and implied that she would be an affirmative action choice—because Ivy League schools give out honors designations by gender and choose law review editors because of their skin tone all the time.

Aside from the fact that there’s nothing wrong with going with the one qualified jurist who has a background not currently represented on the Court, Obama’s choice of the judge who had faced the earliest, most pointed racist and sexist critiques from the right and a horrible article in “even the liberal” New Republic is a welcome sign. It shows critics and supporters alike that he’s not afraid of the fight, not afraid to put some political capital behind a judge with a working-class background and impeccable credentials. After the news of recent weeks, with discussions of indefinite detentions and restarting military tribunals, a signal from Obama that he hasn’t forgotten his roots is a move in the right direction.

Of course we can prepare for more racist, sexist Bingo in the upcoming fight. No doubt there will be more hints that Sotomayor isn’t that smart, that she isn’t qualified, that there’s some white guy out there being oppressed by the fact that Obama’s chosen a Latina. Post-Sarah Palin, it could be harder for the GOP to turn around and make the predictable sexist cracks, though, and post-Michael Steele, when at least part of the party seems to realize it has a diversity problem, can they afford to vote against the first Latina nominee to the court?

Dear Republican Party.

Tokenism is not diversity.

Also, New York Times? "Diverse" doesn't mean "brown skinned." Way to be othering. When the Republicans are considering two black men to be party chairman, that's not "diverse" options, that's "Oh shit, we got beat by a black guy, maybe if we get our own black guy some of Them will vote for us too."

This is the thing. Bush had quite a "diverse" cabinet. He had Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, Elaine Chao and Alberto Gonzalez. It didn't make him a friend to people of color.

Alan Keyes ran against Obama once upon a time. It didn't exactly split the black vote down the middle.

More Media Snark

Boy - CNN is making it too easy today, though this time is much more serious. In an election in which racial tensions are running high already, is it really necessary to put up a headline like this? I understand the article's point (that Obama's candidacy could lead to even more African-American votes, and every vote will matter in this election). I don't agree with that point; it's not like African-American votes aren't usually important, nor is it exactly fair to vaguely portray African Americans as people who normally don't turn out to vote, but are doing so for Obama this time, but hey, whatever - I guess you just ran out of white micro-demographics to break down how whatever tiny little fraction of the (white) population will "swing the election.

But for the love of God, if you are going to run such a story, could you at least try to avoid headlines that will scream to the racist and/or nutty, "Don't like the potential new president? Well, if he wins, you can blame the n----s!!!"

Racism and the Construction of Hispano Identity in New Mexico

The recent comments by Bernalillo County, New Mexico, Republican chairman Fernando Cabezade Baca concerning why he thinks Latinos won't vote for Obama are outrageous :

"The truth is that Hispanics came here as conquerors. African-Americans came here as slaves. ... Hispanics consider themselves above blacks. They won't vote for a black president."

They are outrageous. But entirely expected to someone who has spent time in New Mexico. Not all Latinos think this way. But there is a very loud, if rather small, population of upper-class Hispanos who feel very strongly that this is true.

Moreover, these people engage in racism as part of their identity. They identify themselves explicitly as pure-blood Spanish, despite all evidence to the contrary. I taught the History of New Mexico twice as a graduate student. It's a dreadful class for many reasons. But one of the reasons is dealing with these students. There are usually one or two in each class. They very carefully separate themselves from the other, often poorer and at least partially Native American, students. They often insist the Spanish were benevolent rulers, turning conquistadors into heroes and denigrating Native American culture.

I believe that this was a direct response to the arrival of the United States in the 19th century. Business and local elites, seeking to retain their privileges in the face of hostile whites, declared themselves as white. By defining themselves as pure-blooded Spaniards, they could make a claim to whiteness in the late 19th century and thus keeping some grasp on political and economic power, even if they meant as junior partners to people more widely accepted as white at the time. This is not surprising to me. What is more interesting is the tenacity these ideas have. Almost inevitably in northern New Mexico wealthy Hispanics will define themselves this way. They are very proud of the pureblooded Spanish heritage, even if it is almost certainly totally false. They are equally dismissive of other races.

Dude, it's OK to be Mexican! Stop making false claims to a European heritage, particularly in a day and age when these claims do nothing for you politically.

Thus, it is not surprising that a leading Republican Latino in New Mexico would make such a claim about Obama. First, he really believes it. Second, he is racist as are a lot of the people he knows. There are lots of these supposed pure-blooded Spaniards who would never vote for a candidate from another race. They really think they are conquerors, the blacks are slaves, and the Indians are savages. They didn't just think that 100 years ago. They think it today.

New Mexico is a very strange place. Watching race work there was incredibly fascinating. Living there for 8 years gave me lots of exposure but I still don't think I understand all the bizarre subtleties of it. And while there might be some Latino racism that holds down their support for Obama (though the polls suggest this won't happen), it is different from what Cabeza de Baca is saying. He is racist in a very unique upper-class New Mexican way.

Michael Chertoff--You Suck!

As some of you may know, Hurricane Ike is heading straight for Texas. I live far enough inland where I am not worried, though it will probably be a tropical storm still when it hits hear this weekend.

I was just reading about problems with evacuating migrant workers if south Texas needs to be evacuated. The workers are convinced that the Border Patrol will be on the evacuation buses and that they'll be deported. So they are willing to risk the hurricane rather than give up their jobs, families, and homes.

Why don't the immigrants trust the Border Patrol?

Back in May, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the Border Patrol would do nothing to impede an evacuation in the event of a hurricane. But when Hurricane Dolly struck the Rio Grande Valley in late July, no mandatory evacuation was ordered, and as a result the Border Patrol kept its checkpoints open. Agents soon caught a van load of illegal immigrants.

Great job Chertoff! Way to prioritize kicking out hard-working Mexicans and Central Americans over making sure people don't die. But I guess such an lie is not surprising coming from the racist Republican Party.

Sarah Palin: "So Sambo Beat the Bitch"

At least according to this story, that quote was Sarah Palin's response to Obama winning the Democratic nomination. This is a pretty extreme story. The evidence base is not as deep as one might hope and a few people willing to give their names would certainly make the story stronger. But Charley James has put together a not unconvincing case that Palin is a racist and just generally awful person. Given my knowledge of the rural West, these kinds of quotes do not surprise me in the least. Rural westerners can be as virulently racist and sexist as the biggest southern redneck stereotype you can think of. She grew up in this culture and came of power in a political party that has done little to disguise its racism over the last 40 years, particularly on the local level.

Certainly these charges need to be investigated more fully and deserve attention from the larger media.

Via Helmut.

Obama: The Darkey Commie Jew

Let's play a game. It's called "How Many Right-Wing Conspiracy Theories and Stereotypes Can You Use on a Democrat?"

And we have a winner! It's Lisa Schriffen at The Corner. Congratulations!!!!!

Her winning entry speculates on Obama's parents:

But maybe it's not so simple. Obama and I are roughly the same age. I grew up in liberal circles in New York City — a place to which people who wished to rebel against their upbringings had gravitated for generations. And yet, all of my mixed race, black/white classmates throughout my youth, some of whom I am still in contact with, were the product of very culturally specific unions. They were always the offspring of a white mother, (in my circles, she was usually Jewish, but elsewhere not necessarily) and usually a highly educated black father. And how had these two come together at a time when it was neither natural nor easy for such relationships to flourish? Always through politics. No, not the young Republicans. Usually the Communist Youth League. Or maybe a different arm of the CPUSA. But, for a white woman to marry a black man in 1958, or 60, there was almost inevitably a connection to explicit Communist politics. (During the Clinton Administration we were all introduced to then U. of Pennsylvania Professor Lani Guinier — also a half black/half Jewish, red diaper baby.)

Then later:

It was, of course, an explicit tactic of the Communist party to stir up discontent among American blacks, with an eye toward using them as the leading edge of the revolution. To be sure, there was much to be discontented about, for black Americans, prior to the civil-rights revolution. To their credit, of course, most black Americans didn't buy the commie line — and showed more faith in the possibilities of democratic change than in radical politics, and the results on display in Moscow.

Time for some investigative journalism about the Obama family's background, now that his chances of being president have increased so much.

I would tell you to read the whole thing. But don't. You've read too much already.

Do Republicans have no shame? Sorry, that's the easiest question you'll ever be asked.

And the Hypocrite Award of the Day Goes To.....

Rudy Giuliani!!!! Yes, that's right, the failing ex-mayor of New York. Why does Rudy win? He wins the big prize because he has come out in favor of immigrants being forced to learn English....while running ads in Spanish!!!

Awesome. What does the man win? Well, we'll just call it the Abner Louima treatment. Rudy knows plenty about how awesome that is.

The Last Person For Which I Would Erect A Statue

San Diego has erected a statue of Pete Wilson.

Pete Wilson? Why? No doubt it's from wealthy white San Diego residents who really liked knowing that Wilson supported their tax dollars not going to migrant workers without the government really getting in the way of their being able to hire Mexicans to do their work.

Wilson responded to the many protestors by making a true Freudian comment: “Isn't this a great country that anyone can make a perfect horse's ass of himself at any time?” Well Pete, you sure as hell would know.

Via ChicanoNews.net

The Southern Strategy's Last Days

In 1964, upon signing the Civil Rights Act, Lyndon Johnson famously said that he was handing the South to the Republican Party for the next generation. While this has become something of a cliché, the backlash to civil rights did significantly further the Republican dominance in American politics over the last 35 years. Richard Nixon's Southern Strategy proved incredibly successful. Many racist whites left the Democratic Party and it has been hard for Democrats to win nationally since.

This is changing. The Southern Strategy is dead as an effective political tool. It's death knell began even before it started. When Lyndon Johnson reopened America's borders with the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, Asians and Latinos began entering the country. While the Asian flow slowed by the early 1990s, migration from Latin America has continued unabated, as you all know. The political muscles of Latinos began to be flexed in California, when the backlash to Pete Wilson's racist regime turned California into a Democratic bastion.

Of course, Republicans, still trying to capitalize on the racism that served them so well since 1968, have ignored the lessons of California. As Paul Waldman writes at TAPPED, Republicans are going to have to answer for their anti-immigrant race baiting in the general election. Waldman notes how Latinos are already voting predominantly for Democrats. Is there any doubt this will continue in 2008. Republicans can run all the adds in Spanish they want to, but any one who follows politics at all knows where the Republicans stand on Latinos. They don't want them here. They think the United States is a white man's country, and they intend to keep it that way.

That is a losing political strategy. The Republicans are more discredited each and every day. Their foreign policy is a joke. Their economic strategies are questionable at best and are being exposed by the sub-prime mortgage collapse. And their racism is impossible to deny.

The Republicans can continue trying to be the white man's party all they want to. That's great. Given that this nation becomes less white every day, it sounds like the recipe for Democratic dominance to me.

Georgia - the good times keep coming...

Erik usually deals with material on Georgian racism. However, I'd like to add the latest item in the rich "legacy" of Georgia's racism in the wake of this, this, this, and this. Over the weekend, Georgia citizen Newt Gingrich commented that bi-lingualism, particularly Spanish, in the U.S. was the "language of living in a ghetto". I presume that he's not actually referring to a Jewish ghetto in Eastern Europe from World War II, but instead to the poor, inner-city, predominantly African-American neighborhoods in the United States (though I imagine he's spent as much time in the African-American ghettos as he has in the Jewish ghettos of Nazi Europe). Thus, he manages to single-handedly and racistly deride both Spanish and African-American languages and cultures.

Republicans Hate Black People--Exhibit A

Today, the Republican Party again showed that it hates black people.

How?

House Republicans forced a delay on a bill giving Washington D.C. a representative in the House by attempting to repeal the city's ban on handgun ownership.

That was just a tactic though. This quote showed they don't care much about the gun issue at all.
From Texas Republican Lamar Smith: 'Washington, D.C. is not a state, it cannot have a voting member in the House.'

In addition, George W. Bush has threatened to veto the bill, which would also create another House district that would go to Utah until the next census. Because Washington, D.C. is not a state, he says, they have no right to representation in the House.

Yes, it's good to hear from that bastion of constitutionalism, George W. Bush. I'm sure glad he has also made sure that other parts of the Constitution, such as freedom of speech and protection from cruel and unusual punishment, have also been protected.

It's this basic--Washington, D.C. is a majority black city. It is a certain seat for the Democrats. Thus, the Republicans will do everything they can to not allow these people to have equal representation.

It's racism, pure and simple.