Chris Stigall, a Kansas City talk show host, said, "I'm not letting my next-door neighbor talk to my kid alone; I'm sure as hell not letting Barack Obama talk to him alone.-- Some Parents Oppose Obama Speech to Students (NYT)
I'm not saying the latest right-wing hysteria tactic -- demonizing Obama's outreach to school children -- directly parallels the McCain campaign ad below.
I do think it's interesting revisiting the post below, however, which I originally ran six days short of a year ago. Beyond all the "state indoctrination" and even Hitler Youth analogies being propagated by Obama's school chat, I'm wondering how much there is (or is also) a racist meme at play. It's something along the lines of: You can't trust your children alone with this man ... knowing how black men are. Wink, wink.
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From: Sep 09, 2008: McCain Ad Ties Sex With Race
In today's trip to the swamp, the McCain campaign's latest attack video ostensibly targets the Obama's education plan.
... Except, the issue serves as nothing more than a foil to intimate that Obama -- shown in the screen shot with a smarmy grin and his coat looking frumpy -- desires to sexualize the lives of young children. More odious, however, it's also an example of the McCain campaign playing the race card, activating stereotypes of the black man -- seeming to gaze dreamily at something below (or shorter than) him -- as driven by sexual appetite.
(screen shot: McCain for President)
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Seven years after the Washington establishment passed No Child Left Behind, shook hands, patted themselves on the back, and checked education reform off its To Do list, we are facing nothing less than an educational catastrophe, with shockingly high numbers of poor and minority students unable to read at grade level by the fourth grade. To produce education reform that is reform in more than name only, we need to look past our own political backyards at what might lie on the other side of the mountain. What I see on that other side is a single-payer education system. It's simple, sensible and, above all, just.
The latest controversy that has Republicans' panties in a collective snit is President Barack Obama's plan to address the nation's school children Tuesday in...
This time though, it's finally starting to rise in my throat.
"nice people can be racist too"
I should know - my family was.
Why the fuzz now?
Tell THEM to get over it. Tell them to get over their fears of a black man's "bigger" body parts (its a MYTH for chrissakes). Tell them to leave Jews alone--they have been persecuted since the beginning of time. Tell them to leave gays and women alone--we are not weak. Tell them to leave blacks alone--we have been subjugated, segregated and discriminated against for centuries and we're all very tired.
Tell them to leave us alone and ask them why is our pursuit of happiness so much of a threat to them. Ask them why is there an "us and them" in the first place.
If I knew any of the parents who would take their kids out of school because of a presidential address I would call them OUT on their stupidity. No time to be silent.
It is cold, clear racism and it always has been, based upon fear, but the rethugs need euphemisms to salve their consciences, because even they know it is wrong.
They've turned into a bunch of professional rage junkies. If it wasn't this they'd pick something else to throw a collective hissy fit about.