I Have a Nightmare
We really live in a golden age for race-baiting. Back in the day, there was a spectrum of racism of sorts. You knew something racist fell somewhere between Al Jolson in blackface, zip-a-de-doo-dah racism and the move your wallet to your front pocket because you see a black guy walking down the street racism. It was a simpler time.
In the last two years, however, Republicans have been so angry they've had to invent new ways to be racist. No longer can we judge racist sentiment simply by its degree of offensiveness. Now there are multiple varieties of racism which have become almost like an ingredient the cupboard of conservative hate speech that's used to flavor every utterance the way a great Italian chef might finish off a dish with a drizzle of their finest extra virgin olive oil.
You've got the birther crowd with their "Faked the moon landing" racism. Fox News saying Michelle is Barack's "Baby Mamma" which is more of an "Oh my god, you've never really met a black person before have you?" racism. The "Fiscal conservative" / Tea Party "Complain about high taxes while comparing the President to a monkey" racism. The Matt Drudge "Ominously link to a story that incidentally involves people of different races as if to imply there's racial backlash against Caucasians" racism. And the religious extremist "Don't blame me if the Bible says Obama is the anti-Christ" racism.
Then there's Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, who are like the Thomas Edison and Nicola Tesla of racist bullshit. These guys aren't just content to be the "Telling a racist joke, but it's cool because everyone knows I'm not racist" guys. Oh no. They're innovators. They went out there, saw that America elected a black guy, and said "The old ways of being a racist asshole aren't good enough." In the process they've erected multimedia empires, doing for the "Aggrieved white guy cries reverse-discrimination" racism what Henry Ford did for auto manufacturing (or, not to change the subject, anti-Semitism).
Now if the right wing's artisans of racial hatred could only devote this uniquely American spirit of ingenuity into endeavors that don't ... well ... threaten to destroy the social and political fabric of our nation, then we might get somewhere.
Follow Greg Saunders on Twitter: www.twitter.com/waltisfrozen
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What you have to grasp in dealing with Republicans is that they are anti-hero. They kill heroes. They destroy heroes. They do not allow surprise endings. Everything is planned. The order is known. The people play their parts. If it sounds sick it should. They are all part of a club, it's all wink wink. No matters who is right or wrong concervatives come togther against it just to show they can. How can you negotiaite with such people. You can;t. You seperate.
What I find interesting in this movement to kill health Insurance reform is the righties attitudes of don't want no stinking Insurance reform, want desperately to resend medicare, don't give a crap if Americans live or die. We know by FACTS the older population was the group who did not vote for President Obama. Which leaves me wondering, who will be around to vote for a republican in the next election. And why would they vote repub. The attacks have been against women, minorities, elder folks, poor, sick, progressive thinking. Looks like the republican party has shrunk to the uneducated, angry, bigoted, white southern malcontents. We have witnessed how unconcerned these protesters are about their neighbors, friends and fellow Americans without Insurance, which in some cases is a death sentence. WE have gotten an eye full, ear full of the dis-concern for anyone but themselves.
We are watching the death of the republican party, pathetically screaming into oblivion.
Post-modern racism is actually a blend of "classical" racism and xenophobia, which have merged into anti-Obama rhetoric. The birthers want to deligitimize him as a foreigner, an "Indonesian/Kenyan Muslim welfare thug." The classicists do monkey images and "lyin' Africans." The hybrid version creates hateful synergy, driven by white people's terror of hordes of aliens taking over the country under the guidance of a black man. This is the obvously absurd Hitler-Com
Well said TRex86.
I'm starting to become really frightened. I'm worried about the obvious threat (which I won't spell out but I'm sure you know what I fear) but I'm also worried about what would happen - hypothetically speaking - if after seeing all of this, these people found their way back into power. I don't think I could bear it. I've never had much patience with people who say "I'll leave the country!" but the the thought of this crew ever having control of our government again means that I think I'd seriously be looking abroad. It wouldn't feel like an election. It would be an invasion.
I don't know what happened the Republican party. It's been decades in the making and they made bad friends. But they have some kind of psychosis or internal rot. The whole party's turned into a dive.
The core problem: ignorance, insecurity + religion.
The real Republicans (the plutocrats that pull the political party's puppet strings) are angry at themselves. They just witnessed the lost opportunity to complete their take-over, a government of, by and for the wealthy. They have loosed the wild dogs to keep the new administration off balance while they gather themselves. They have no policies and need none. Their objective is the destruction of liberal social programs dating back to the New Deal and Great Society. For good measure they want the income tax repealed.
Their base is a ragtag collection of unhappy people who boil with anger over being left out of the economic growth of the last 35 years but lack the analytical skills and sense of class structure to understand what's happened. Blaming others for our fate is a sign of helplessness. In this case their anger is steered towards the other have-nots. "Let them eat cake" does not do justice to the sadism of the post-modern ruling class. They have what the 18th century french aristocracy lacked, "outsiders" upon whom to set the mob.
Well put; obviously this deluge of labelling results from their frustration with not being able to use the 'N' word in the media anymore. But it makes responding to such people difficult, since the sum of it is, "Obama is whatever we hate!" So if I try to show the irrationality of this by asking them, "well I really dislike seafood, so Obama is seafood?" their answer, shocking though predictable, is "that's right, Obama is seafood, and seafood can't be an American president!" How do we answer such an absurd claim? Simply remarking the obvious, that Obama is not seafood, doesn't really work, because the claim isn't really an assertion but an expression of rage - all they're really saying is "we hate Obama," and they can't really say why they hate Obama, because that would (1) involve use of the prohibited 'N' word, and (2) transfom the discusson away from policy arguments into the problem of racism (the irrationality of which already has been exposed).
It seems that reasonable dscussion with such peope is unavailable; what needs to be done is for our media and our politicians to treat the fringe right as noisy outsiders, dismissing them out of hand until in exhaustion they just go home.
Unfortunately, our media and our politicians both find these cranks easily manipulated, useful, and profitable. Which mean that the complaint of those concerned with having a rational politics must be directed to the media and politicians who frame our public discourse.
The title said he had a nightmare people like him are my nightmare. The worst Racist out there a person that judges and defames others on what they think of skin PC.
Race isn't WHY the right is attacking Obama, it's HOW.
Very good essay. I think we should add another one, which I call postmodern racism (along with a couple of other people). This is the whole category of "I'm not a racist, but..." Postmodern racism has the appearance of a disavowal--"who could be directly racist in times such as this?"--but in form it's still racism. In other words, a cynical or ironic distance towards the racist idea supposedly creates distance. This distance is itself racism.
A good example would be the common contemporary defense: "I was just joking. Can't you take a joke?"
Nightmare is right. I'm so tired of all this anger and conflict, all this opposition for the sake of opposition, which actually works against the best interests of the vast majority of the people who are shouting underinformed slogans and carrying signs that are as inaccurate as they are offensive.
I wish there were a way for all those people to get exactly what they think they want, while the rest of us continue to work on better access to health care, economic recovery - all those horrible "socialist" plots they're protesting.
These people are made as hell and don't know why. I think they fear economic ruin, since you can't make more money if you are retired, and they have decided a black president is somehow the cause of their discontent. They really don't know what they want. They don't want a socialist government, but 'don't touch their medicare'. (Psst, it's a government program, pass it on.)
The sad thing is that no responsible REP has stepped forward and tried to stop the birthers, deathers, and tea baggers from setting the agenda. In fact, with straight faces, they 'agree' with these wingnuts.
Time and again, Obama was asked about whether the tenor of the health care turned nasty because of undercurrents in racism. Former President Jimmy Carter raised the point prominently this week when he said the vitriol was racially motivated.
Not so, Obama said.
"There's been a long-standing debate in this country that is usually that much more fierce during times of transition, or when presidents are trying to bring about big changes," Obama told CNN.
To NBC News, Obama put it this way: "It's an argument that's gone on for the history of this republic, and that is, What's the right role of government? How do we balance freedom with our need to look out for one another? ... This is not a new argument, and it always evokes passions."
Obama said most people across the country are just trying to follow the debate and figure out how proposed changes would help them.
"Now there are some who are, setting aside the issue of race, actually I think are more passionate about the idea of whether government can do anything right," Obama said told ABC News. "And I think that that's probably the biggest driver of some of the vitriol."
It just drives them nuts when there's a Democrat in the White House.
Doesn't matter which Democrat or what color. They'd be throwing a collective hissy fit just the same if it was Hillary.
They think the Executive Branch is theirs by divine mandate and if they don't have it they act like a toddler who's had their favorite toy taken away.
Someone asked is Glen Beck bad for America? The people talk to him call him a "Great American." That is racism at its best that his following is trying to put on Blacks (as if we do not know any better) I am Black and if he is a "Great American" I am embarrassed. How could his own people put up with him? He says his freedom of speech. He forgot, the Constitution was born out of the Bible and The Ten Commandments. That means when he speaks he should be speaking as not to hurt his brother. The forefathers admitted, they made laws that themselves could not uphold. Why, because God was looked upon as the Superior Good. That forced them to do right by writing it. All freedoms are for the up-building, Love Thy Neighbor.
Why do people like Beck want to remove the Ten Commandments and the belief in God? So they could do that which they wanted to do in their own eyes. He forgot, when you hate inside, the outside over through you. Remember, America use to be, when in Rome do as the Romans do. Now anyone comes in this country with their own and they say they are free. I see people wearing masks and we can barely see their eyes. Is that America, do as we do.
Glenn Beck has never wanted the ten commandments removed, just the opposite. He has opposed any form of racism and denounced all forms of violence.
Even today the President once again stressed that he did not feel the opposition for his policies was driven by race, and I agree.
Come on, Billhodges, the President has to say that. He doesn;t want to get bogged down in a racial distraction. However, he is right in one thing, there would be opposition and hate signs if the President were a woman, Jewish, hispanic, or some other different ethnic group. For the REPS, whatever works to excite the ignorant and fearful.
One thing for sure, Blacks do not have to be racist. Others do it for them. We Blacks know all Whites are not Black haters. It is the White establishment from old. The beginning thieves of this nation. They are almost died out but, some still pass on this information:
The movie was “South Pacific.”
Rogers and Hammerstein played this song in the movie called, “You’ve got to be “Carefully Taught.” This is “Prejudice” at its best:
“You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear,
“You’ve got to be taught from year to year.
“It’s got to be drummed in your dear little ear,
“You’ve got to be carefully taught,
“You’ve got to be carefully taught.
“You’ve got to be taught to be afraid,
“Of people, whose eyes are oddly made?
“And people whose skin is a different shade.
“You’ve got to be carefully taught.
“You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late
“Before you are six or seven or eight,
“To hate all the people your relatives hate.
“You’ve got to be carefully taught,
“You’ve got to be carefully taught.
Little do this free country called the “United States of America and the “Land of the Free” wish to say, “that this is the source of racism in our country:”
Fanned. That was perfect.
Indeed.
They want to bring back the America that wasn't Ashamed of its racism.
Once upon a time, America was so proud of itself on this subject that people turned their Lynching Photos into Postcards!
You can see a few examples at: http://www
[Quote] The corpse of Clyde Johnson. August 3, 1935 . Yreka, California.
Gelatin silver print. Real photo postcard. 3.1/2 x 5 3/8 in.
Etched in the negative, "Killer of Jack Daw Aug 3, 1935 vengence in Siskiyou County."
[/Quote]
It's like the line from the old Paul Newman movie "The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean" when the judge is informed that the women of the town would like the Gallows moved off main Street to a location behind the jail:
"What? Move them? As if we were Ashamed?"
Racism has been moved off Main Street and the Tea Baggers just hate being told that they should be Ashamed of their Racism.
I think it's more than racism, although racism is given new life under the nihilism preached and practiced by the right.
I tend to look at things globally ...we have huge numbers of angry men on this planet, and the angriest of them are lashing out at anything and anyone, but more importantly and scarily, they are lashing out at anything different than what they themselves represent.
We see this among the jihadists and the Muslim extremists.
What do they "hate?" The West and all it stands for because it is totally opposite from Islam (at least on the surface, one purports to be sacred, the other secular etc.)
In every instance, ignorance is paraded as a strong belief system, framing "the enemy" in the vilest of terms with endless amount of rationalization.
And then there are the female supoorters like Ms. Bachmann.
I think what gets me the most is the "woe is me I'm a persecuted white guy" racism.
Glen Beck and Rush are supremely guilty of this. They always talk about being "victimized by society."
VICTIMIZED? How many MILLIONS of dollars to they make every year? Please do tell me how society victimizes people by shoveling boatloads of money in their direction and gives them radio shows to talk about it?
These guys literally make me feel ill. And then when people point out their blatantly racist behavior they reply with the ever so intelligent "I know you are but what am I?" response. Which, by some miracle of stupidity ACTUALLY WORKS!
They are geniuses in their utter shamelessness. They truly, truly are.
Ha Ha! Simply Brilliant!
Saying that Barack Obama was really born in Indonesia might be extreme, but it's not racist. Calling Obama the anti-Christ is extreme but it's not racist. Neither is noisily protesting healthcare reform or higher taxes. None of these examples disparage his skin color or imply his race is inferior to theirs. Assuming a racist motivation for these actions by reading their minds doesn't make for a sound argument. And "racist" Rush Limbaugh had his marriage performed by Justice Clarence Thomas. His screen caller James Golden is a black man who's been with him for years. His criticisms of black leaders are aimed at their ideology, not their race. But anyone who actually listens to him knows the truth.
And the truth is, he has found new depths to sink to and new ways to show his racism (to go along with the good old ways he also still uses).
You, as well as your heroes Beck and Limbaugh, should have a very hard time sleeping at night due to the terrible conflict between what you so fervently believe and what you honestly know.
Unless you just don't understand the difference.
Would you consider replacing the word "extreme" in your illogical rant above with the word "wrong"?
Thought not.
you're right. As President Carter showed us, any disagreement with Obama is caused by racism. I opposed healthcare reform in the 90's for the same reason I oppose it now. I support the addition of more troops to Afghanistan because I believe it is a good idea, not because I like Obama.
Does racism exist? of course but it is not all pervasive as Saunders would have us believe. Of the thousands of signs brought to various protests some had without question a racist theme but it is wrong to judge the entire movement by what a few people did. Or should we believe that all of ACORN supports child prostitution based on the actions of a few workers?
What a bunch of bull.
President Carter did NOT show us that any disagreement with Obama is caused by racism. Listen to his words that isn't what he said.
The right embraces their racist fringe. It gives them a safe haven and encourages their voices. That is wrong.
A problem that exists here is that many who are racist are not all that self aware. And there are those who would use the racists for their political interests.
Wow, what a selective memory you have... you seem to have forgotten the noisy protestors with signs of obama with a bone through his nose. You basically glossed over other obvious examples of racism. But true to form, you are quick to try to discredit the entire notion of racism because in your mind, you have discredit a few instances. Here is what's funny about this whole discussion: Some of you non-black brothers have the nerve to think you can decide what is racist and what's not!!! What arrogance! What gives you that right? To me, that's yet ANOTHER example of a racist mentality.
Jep 57, you are extremely naive. You don't understand CODE words in this society where one is not allowed to use the 'N' word. So you say he is not a citizen, or he is the 'ANTI-CHRIST". This isn;t just 'extreme' it leads to hate speech and activates the fringe who ARE racist.
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