"He is now the second highest ranking Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is a very important committee on the health care issue," Family Research Council head Tony Perkins introduced Congressman Roy Blunt (R-MO) before a crowd of roughly 2,000 at the Family Research Council Action's 2009 Values Voter Summit last Friday. Taking the podium, Blunt repaid the favor, enthusing, "I really appreciate Tony Perkins coming and introducing me himself. He is one of my great friends."
"This is an opportunity for us," Blunt told his predominantly white audience, "this is a time for us to be more of who we should be."
Congressman Blunt then went on to tell an anecdote which suggested that life in Washington, for GOP members today, is comparable to the lot of imperial British agents in India who had to contend with monkeys running amok on a golf course that the colonial occupiers had carved out of the verdant Indian jungle. There was a problem, the Missouri Representative explained; monkeys would come out of the jungle, grab golf balls, and throw them about. Amidst swelling laughter from his audience Roy Blunt narrated,
"I could go into great and long detail about how many things they did to try and eliminate the 'monkey problem.' But they never got it done, so finally this golf course and this golf course only, they passed a rule and the rule was - you have to play the ball where the monkey throws it. [audience laughter swells] And that is the rule in Washington all the time."
It seemed like a direct window into the psyche of the revanchist wing of the GOP; politics is a golf game and unruly Democrat "monkeys" have swarmed out of the jungle to disrupt the play. Since it is impractical to "eliminate" the monkeys, accommodations will have to be made. Republicans will now "play the ball where the monkey throws it."
Blunt's anecdote was all the more risque' for Tony Perkins' past association with elements of the racist right. As described in journalist Max Blumenthal's new book Republican Gomorrah (2009, Nation Books), in 1996 while working as a GOP Senate race campaign manager Perkins paid $82,500 to buy a phone banking list from former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke. Then, in 2002, Perkins spoke at a fundraiser for the Louisiana chapter of the Council of Conservative Citizens, a national white supremacist group. The CofCC "Statement of Principals" states that "We also oppose all efforts to mix the races of mankind, to promote non-white races over the European-American people through so-called 'affirmative action' and similar measures, to destroy or denigrate the European-American heritage, including the heritage of the Southern people, and to force the integration of the races."
As Former President Jimmy Carter recently told NBC news, "I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity against President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man." But in a series of media appearances on Friday, the same day that Roy Blunt told his monkey-golfing anecdote, President Barack Obama sought to steer the national discourse away from the issue of race, telling John King on CNN's "State of the Union,"
"Are there people out there who don't like me because of race? I'm sure there are. That's not the overriding issue here. I think there are people who are anti-government."
Underscoring Obama's assertion, Internet video sites such as YouTube have witnessed over the past year a dramatic rise in the posting of anti-government videos that suggest President Obama is an agent of a purported "New World Order" conspiracy. Many New World Order conspiracy theorists claim that health care reform amounts to a plot to advance world totalitarian rule.
[below: video excerpt of Roy Blunt telling "monkey anecdote" at 2009 Values Voter Summit]
[below: transcript of Roy Blunt's monkey anecdote]
"You know, you can't control everything there is in life that you'd like to control. Supposedly, at the turn of the 19th Century, the end of the 19th Century - the beginning of the 20th Century, there was a group of British occupiers in a very lush, very quiet, very peaceful, very uneventful part of India. And this group of British soldiers who were occupying that part of India decided they'd carve a golf course put of the jungle of India. And there was really not that much else to do.
So for over a year, this was the biggest event, getting this golf course created. And they got the golf course done and almost from the day the first ball was hit on this golf course something happened they didn't anticipate. Monkeys would come running out of the jungle [faint audience laughter] and they'd grab the golf balls. And if it was in the fairway they might throw it in the rough. And [if] it was in the rough they might throw it... they might throw it back at you! And I could go into great and long detail about how many things they did to try and eliminate the 'monkey problem.' But they never got it done, so finally this golf course and this golf course only, they passed a rule and the rule was - you have to play the ball where the monkey throws it. [audience laughter swells] And that is the rule in Washington all the time. You know... [clapping from audience]
You know the world is turned upside down when Al Franken is in the United States Senate and Tom Delay is going on "Dancing With the Stars" - that's when you know that things have changed in ways that you would have never anticipated."
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Back to original question however. I'm still at a loss as to understanding how the most powerful man in the Western World can be victimized by racism.
That being said, there are definitely racial overtones to the term "monkey". It's commonly used by supremacists to refer to minorities, specifically blacks, to refer to their supposed state of evolution, implying inferiority.
In the context of the video, I don't think Blunt intended it to be taken as a racist comment by anyone. However, he and the rest of the opposition party need to be mindful of the euphemisms they spout if they want to avoid this kind of scrutiny.
Doesn't mean he's not a liar and a racist in general, but sometimes a monkey joke is just a monkey joke.
Plus, when comedians can become senators; senators can become comedians.
As he set the joke up as being in British-colonized India - I said to myself, "Uh, oh..."
As clueless as he was about the monkey comparisons - he displayed utter ignorance by harkening back to those days in the first place. (Wonder what Bobby Jindal's take is.)
“When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. It is stupidity rather than courage to refuse to recognize danger when it is close upon you.”
-- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Come on, look at its context and it seems pretty obvious. What are we doing? Taking the word "monkey" uttered from a Republican to describe a political analogy or joke and all of a sudden its about black people? This is so clearly a jab at Democrats/Liberals who (supposedly) control Washington right now.
No.
When they have something substantive AND fact-based to say about policy, then I'll have things to say to and about the GOP on those subjects. But a 19-page alternative budget proposal with no numbers, and just outright lies about health care and climate change don't cut it, and other than that the GOP has had nothing to OFFER for discussion but hate: anti-gay, racist, pro-torture, anti-choice, whatever's handy. We're talking about an atavistic culture in the GOP, which has long ago forfeited any right to the benefit of any doubt.
As in monkey golf course stories, the GOP likes to use exceptions where the health care system works for the uninsured (let market forces prevail), as opposed to the 45 million who can attest to the realities of a failed system.
If GOP representative Roy Blunt does indeed hold racist views, I think we can - and should - challenge him to slough those views off, to do better.
I'm like you, I can't see into his heart. I can strongly suspect some things, but for me, there's a limit to what I can accuse him of, because I just don't know enough to condemn him as strongly as some others are. I will say that watching the video doesn't make quite the same impression as reading the transcript.
I'm with you on hoping that we can come to expect better from Congressman Blunt and from other public figures.
Like Mr. Wilson, I also expect more from politicians, or from anyone whose job is supported by tax dollars.
I also think it's important to call it exactly what it is when we see it/hear it, because it is the only way it will ever end. Ignoring it certainly didn't make it go away.
"No, they traded in their robes for suits, and started working in the political ring."
Yes. David Duke is a perfect example, although there are many more who are not so obvious, such as Joe Wilson.
Thanks for posting. I plan to watch the movie you recommended.
See, here's the thing... We are not "defending Blunt" --what we ARE defending is the right to see a "monkey" as "just a monkey" (bdaved), without necessarily jumping to the conclusion that it is ALWAYS racist in nature when used in a sentence! Of course, only when Republicans use it that is (or if the Clintons had during the primaries)! Talk about Hypocrisy... Jeez. And I'm wondering who made you the 'champion' for the black community on this issue --Incidentally several of whom disagree with this racial assessment.
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I made me the "champion for the black community on this issue". Because I believe racism should be named, and called what it is.
Why does my "championing" of the black community so bother you? A far more interesting question, I think.
Exactly! Well said.
It's totally uncool to pick on the weak because it reveals the oppressors' total lack of worth, and understanding and _acceptance_ of that lack. That's why bigotry is a shameful secret. Unfortunately, the more important fact that it's wrong is not why racists are ashamed to admit they're racists, it's just because of what it says about them being low quality.
If this was Bill Clinton who told this story how many here would see it as racist?
Answer:
That depends if he told it before, during or after the primaries!
There are quite a few on this thread who turned on the Clintons like rabid dogs the second they made 'any possible references' that could be misconstrued as "racist"... Even though the Clintons have LONG been champions for racial, sexual and economic equality.
My point? Perception (and our own prejudices) sometimes overshadow common sense!!!
Is this guy a racist? Probably... But I don't think the telling of a 'true monkey story' that he has been telling years before Obama came to the White House, is suspect enough to call out the dogs! Save it for the "real issues"!!!
Now the blithe acceptance of the "British occupiers" and their 'nuisance' with the golf course... Speaks volumes more to that charge!
http://washingtonindependent.com/53127/and-now-roy-blunt
Sorry, but that is a dangerously misleading statement... and hovering in libel territory.
As I commented on one of your earlier responses, there is a BIG difference between having inferred a meaning that you "think" was "implied vs an outright statement of fact as in "likening our president".
I can't believe that ANYONE doesn't know the list of crude references that have been used to devalue black people.
"Animal" "monkey" are just the tip of the iceberg. THEY know it, THEY grew up hearing them. Blunt knows EXACTLY what he's saying and WHO he's saying it to.
Weren't many black folks in that room, were there?
WERE THERE?
.
all anyone has to do to is watch old Hollywood movies ( especially those involving native children in "location" movies) the term : "you are a mischevious little monkey" and various paraphrasing, was directed at any native peopel that did not submit to colonialism and the "rules"
It is an indication by the dominant race/culture of loe intelligence
which is EXACTLY what Blunt meant.