Comments on: THIS WEEK IN G.O.P. OUTREACH

By: Liz

Liz — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:12:01 +0000

J, I feel it's giving Rush et al too much credit to think that they were even remotely familiar with intersectional critical theory, and even if they were, would that not alienate their no-fancy-book-learnin' audience?

By: J. Dryden

J. Dryden — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 18:30:59 +0000

I'm not sure if this ameliorates the insult (probably not), but the term "Magic Negro" didn't originate with the bigots. It's a term that refers to a trend in films of late that portray conflicted white men who are rescued by otherworldly and angelic black men: THE GREEN MILE, THE LEGEND OF BAGGER VANCE, everything in which Morgan Freeman plays God, etc. "Magic Negro" is therefore used to describe a narrative device that seems to be racially enlightened ("Look how awesome this guy is–and he's black!") when it is in fact quite bigoted ("Black people aren't really 'people,' per se, but they sure can help out us human beings, with our problems and our flaws and our personalities, but use of their primitive 'wisdom'.") Hence, the selling of Obama to middle America did, in fact, share some elements of this narrative, though those elements were coincidental and not–as his racist detractors are claiming–an intentional move on the part of his handlers.

Or maybe they're just bigots.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 17:00:32 +0000

I think the burning question is why are these racist hilljacks so open about it? Really, you don't think someone is gonna get you in trouble just because you sent E-mails out? You don't think your knee-jerk, snarky Facebook posts are gonna get picked up by a blog? You don't think your twats are gonna be on the news? Have they learned nothing from Fuzzy Zoeller?????????

By: Liz

Liz — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 16:52:27 +0000

I agree with Ed's Sister above; in my small restaurant we just had to fire an 18-year-old young man who asked our GM why the owner "had to be such a Jew" about us wearing a rather ugly shirt to promote a new product. He did not seem aware of the fact that the owner is actually Jewish, nor that using stereotypes like that in conversation with your boss might be a bad idea regardless of their religious background. We live (and he grew up in) a town that is often thought of a liberal bastion in our state because of the university presence, but at the end of the day we're just small-town Indiana, which is just the rural southern state that migrated north a bit. Now here's a kid who lost his job because of basic standards of decency and critical thought that his community failed to ingrain in him, and that I deeply suspect he will categorize as "pc bullshit."

By: MarilynJean

MarilynJean — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 15:30:28 +0000

Black, female, gay, Asian, Latino, or anyone not old and white and male who consider themselves Republican just baffle me. These days I can't do anything but laugh at these comments. However, I will always prefer Confederate flag-waving, cross-burning white people to the institutionally racists that I encounter in liberal and progressive circles. At least you know what you're dealing with.

By: Ed's Sister

Ed's Sister — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 14:39:35 +0000

While these examples illustrate a very serious problem in the GOP, I believe at the heart of it is that these attitudes are being passed down from generation to generation and in certain areas of the country it is not only acceptable but encouraged. This battle is really fought at the level of schools, churches, community groups, etc. where children and young adults can become aware that what their parents and neighbors say about people is wrong. If you aren't ever exposed to anything else, how can you be expected to think any differently? That's all you know and it is hard to unlearn what you've been told your whole life.
Sad to realize we are still at this place when you think so much progress has been made, but as with most things, education of the young members of society is key.
How to accomplish that, I am not sure.

By: comrade x

comrade x — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 14:37:16 +0000

GOP, meet the dustbin of history.
Nixon's GOP deliberately took these dixiecrats under their wing- talk about the chickens coming home to roost!

By: John

John — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 13:34:55 +0000

It's part of what makes modern American politics so frustrating to people who aren't uneducated twits. The American Right can be so blatently bigotted and seems to get away with it just fine. Nobody reprimands these people in any serious manner. You don't even hear about most of this in any of the major news outlets (despite constant cries from the right about the "liberal bias of the mainstream media").

The sad part is that these people not only have the guts to run for public office, but they get elected and appointed into it with moderate success. The kinds of jokes you've demonstrated here are the kinds of things the trailer trash in the neighborhood two blocks away enjoy. Georgia is a state where it's not uncommon to hear a group guffawing at the latest "oh them silly negroes" joke that's actually decades old but they just got around to hearing. But these people, one imagines, are by and large just uneducated rural bumpkins.

Finding that they've made their way into the upper echelons of government is disturbing, to say the least. And it's funny, because despite obvious evidence like this that racism is still alive and well in America, the right has the gall to decry someone like Reverend Wright as a kook. Sure, his rhetoric is quite unnecessarily aggressive — but by all accounts he is completely justified in calling it the "US of KKKA".

By: D.R.Scott

D.R.Scott — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 13:31:26 +0000

As a pragmatic African-American guy, I see the GOP's ugly, in-your-face racism as a winning strategy for the Democrats. Mind you, I'm not naive enough to think that bigotry doesn't exist anymore, but the Republicans certainly need more than the Angry White Men demographic to win elections these days. Gee, Toto, we're not in Mayberry anymore. As bad as the Democrats are (Hey, guys–you won. Remember?), the party of Limbaugh, Hannity and Coulter are worse and are eagerly spiraling into irrelevancy.