Jeanine Garafolo on Racism -- Why She is Way off Base
My first response on hearing and then viewing the video clip of Ms. Garofalo on MSNBC last Thursday evening was simply: WOW!
Is this what the Republic is coming to in the 21st Century? Political extremism has gone WILD!
Regular working class and rural, suburban White Americans must feel a bit under assault as of late.
How so you ask? Well, it started in the 2008 primary campaign with off handed comments being made by then candidate Barack Obama about "bitter Americans clinging to their guns and religion", then Senator Clinton started talking about "hardworking white Americans" in Pennsylvania as she desperately needed to carry that state.
Everything was about race in the 2008 Campaign. Former President Bill Clinton was deemed a racist red neck jack asem>s who didn't know when to shut up according to the media, political pundits and many black politicians for his comments during the South Carolina primaries. McCain was deemed a racist simply because he existed and was the GOP standardbearer. Once he picked working class, university of Idaho educated, mother of five Alaska Governor Sara Palin all hell truly broke loose.
I am so sick and tired of RACE. Period. When are we going to get over it? For Real folks. As someone who was an African American studies minor in college, pledged the oldest and most prestigious black women's sorority, was once a loyal card carrying member of the NAACP ( I did not renew my membership after the 2000 election campaign ads that ran against then Gov. George Bush paid for by the NAACP), started a very successful national organization for professional women of color, and I could go and on I am sick of the tearing apart of one set of Americans by their own fellow countrymen.
Yes, I am defending my mostly white (some Tea Party goers were black, Hispanic, etc.) Tea Party attending brethren because enough is enough. On last Thursday's "Countdown," MSNBC's Keith Olbermann and his guest Janeane Garofalo defamed fellow citizens who attended the prior day's Tea Parties with vitriolic contempt. Ms. Garofalo actually called Party-goers "a bunch of teabagging rednecks," adding "this is about hating a black man in the White House. This is racism straight up."
She is wrong and she knows nothing about true racism-having never spent a day of her life being black in America. I do know something about racism as I and millions of other people of color have endured and experienced its ugly insidiousness. It is not a word that should be thrown around lightly or recklessly. If we dare not stand in defense of our fellow citizens right to protest peacefully against our/their government then we are giving into a sneaky form of Tyranny. Race has nothing to do with the hardworking, decent American citizens who simply got sick and tired of being overtaxed and outspent by their government and showed up to do something about it.
That is our solemn duties as Americans. This freedom is what makes us the envy of the world.
I am deeply disappointed in the current dialogue that seems to be developing on the current American horizon. If we don't stop yelling at each other, hurling insults and names, and band together as a nation once again, then those who seek the undoing of their fellow citizens of a different opinion, thought or political stripe had better grasp firmly the old saying "what you gonna do when they come for you?"
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Miss Sophia, I love you.
My final comment. More accurately a question. Every time there is a closure of a facility of health or education in a Black or Brown community, anywhere in America, and the Black or Brown community turns out to protest, where are these "tea bag protesters"? Where have they ever been when our communities were being decimated by one round of budget cuts after another? They were not out there screaming with us, because they were getting all the tax breaks and not ever realizing that among developed nations, no one pays less tax than them. Never has.
What in the name of all that is holy are they protesting now?
Heh. There are closures in Black and Brown communities without any protests at all. Where are the Blacks and Browns in such cases?
Sometimes people just don't turn out -- for any of a number of reasons. It's not rational to infer from something you DON'T know (why they didn't turn out) to a knowledge claim about why they DO turn out once they do -- as if it's racist for them to do so because they didn't turn out when someone two states away lost a neighborhood clinic.
What I'm seeing a lot of in these comments is vague generalizing about people as if such vague generalizing rationally supports specific biases concerning them.
I've got one question. Where in the constitution does it say that any community is owed tax dollars by their fellow citizens? People seem to think that tax money comes out of thin air. But the government does not create value. Any money ( which represents work) that it gives to one group of citizens or community has to be taken from another group or borrowed . And borrowed money has to be re paid at some point so its not "free" either. The unspoken assumption in your comment above seems to be that the money is "owed" and therefore any cuts in spending are unconsciable.
And by the way, so what if we pay less taxes than other industrialized nations? is that supposed to make us feel good about having 36% of our income eaten up by various taxes? Heck, even the church only asks for 10% and thats voluntary!
Ugh. NO, it doesn't state that anywhere in the Constitution, but where is your sense of human decency? We can only be as successful as the least of us. It is in our overall best interest to see that EVERYONE has an (equal) opportunity to succeed. It is in our overall best interest to not intentionally leave people behind. It's nice to rant about your tax dollars, but if you can't see the bigger picture, then why bother to participate in a society? When pool our money together to get more accomplished than we would alone. If entire groups are being left behind, why is it WRONG to assist them via taxes?
So. The primary evidence you have that the tea parties were racist is that the majority of protestors were white. Let me give you an alternative explanation. Black people are so enthralled by having one of their own as president that they aren't willing to criticize him, even when he's wrong. Do you really expect there to be black people protesting Obama's policies when 98% voted for him?
Actually, the primary evidence we have for these rallies being racist are the signs that the demonstrators carried. We did not have to infer anything, it was boldly stated for the world to see. By the way, that generalization you just made about black people, I think there's a word for that. It begins with R and rhymes with bassist.
What do you mean generalization? the after election polling showed that over 90% of blacks voted for obama. thats not racist its just reporting facts
So when was Obama wrong?
Ok. That is a bigoted statement. Sorry to have to call you on it, but there it is.
Look, blacks don't all think with one brain. Had you been paying attention, you would've noticed PLENTY of blacks critcizing him and scrutinizing him even way back in the primaries. I'm black and am not pleased with everything he's done so far (although overall I'm pleased). Are we happy that "one of [our] own" got elected to the highest office in the land? Yes, absolutely. You should be too. It says a lot about this country that it can elect a member of a minority group to lead the country. We should ALL be proud.
But to allude that the ONLY reason that such a high percentage of blacks voted for Obama is because he's black (and for NO other reason) is ridiculous. Check your recent history. Blacks have voted in very large numbers for nearly all democratic candidates. Further, up until 2008, we've exclusively voted for WHITE candidates in general elections.
Well, how do you explain that whites were evenly split voting for or against Obama and blacks voted at a rate over 90%? Whites and blacks were both presented with the same platform. Half of whites didnt like what they saw in the platform. So your claim is that 90% plus of blacks voted for Obama solely because they liked his platform? What if whites had voted AGAINST Obama at a rate of over 90%? Wouldnt the racism charge have been leveled against us in that case?
Also, this isnt scientific, but I live in the Washington DC area which has a large minority population. Naturally there was a lot of celebrating by blacks when Obama won and I'm not begruding them that. It was a watershed moment in US history. However, I overheard and saw many blacks giving high fives to each other and congratulating each other over Obama winning the election. Making comments like its "a new day" and so on and so forth. None of them were exulting because of the social policies obama promised to implement.
While I'm sure not everyone attending the Tea parties could be called racists, there was ample evidence that many were, without a doubt. I drove past the rally in Atlanta as they waited for Sean Hannity. The ugly left signs left no doubt about what they were protesting. And there was plenty more displayed on the Internet and in news coverage around the country. I try listening to Hannity, but can't take more than 15 mins. The vitriol, misinformation, and hypocrisy is OVER THE TOP, led by him and parroted by his followers.
I agree that divisive racemongering is exhausting and counterproductive, but to deny it when we see it is unrealistic.
Name one of these racist signs that you saw.
Ha! Seriously, just google "tea party" and "racism". There's evidence aplenty.
"Obama's Plan = White Slavery" comes to mind.
There's a difference between racist and right-wing. Racism is part of right-wing policies; school vouchers are rooted in the government funding of private academies in the South which were established to help white Southerners subvert school desegregation, for example. (I believe the homeschooling movement has similar roots - read Bruce Bawer, "Stealing Jesus"). But the civil war in the U.S. ultimately began over the taxation of uniforms of slaves. Taxation, not slave liberation. The history of our coutnry has always seen taxation as the catalyst for political conflict. Taxes are what got these protesters fired up and sadly, taxes seem to the only political issue which cause many right-wing Americans to protest in the streets.
There were some racist signs at the teabagging rallies. But taxation and right-wing concerns over the banking industry are Anti-Semitic if anything, rooted in conspiracy theory about the federal reserve channeling US tax money to a secret council of Jews who control the world. (A theory that long predates the nation of Israel). It concerns "international bankers" as Farrakhan has talked about. But this was not purely racist. Janeane Garofalo is usually great, but she's clearly overgeneralized this one.
HOWEVER, while tjhe problem of racism is better than it's ever been in this country, consider Rachel Maddow's recent report about dirty bomb materials found in a white supremicist's home in ME this past Dec.
LMAO
School vouchers would save inner city minorities, but the Democratic party prefers to support the teachers unions and treat Blacks as Toms. Oh yeah -- and disproportionately abort Black children and have the chutzpah to call it a "service" to the Black community.
Fixing the schools in inner cities would also save inner city minorities. It would also help to fix the inner city, which doesn't seem to be a concern of school voucher proponents.
Sophia,
The issue of race in this country is still very raw and touches a painful nerve.
Your conservative compatriots at the tea bagging gatherings helped fuel the "redneck" label because it seems as if they were NOT necessarily protesting taxes so much. Rather, what viewers saw were clearly racists placards and signs that stole the day!
The Democratic party isn't all that, but the GOP is a complete turnoff for what it represents.
Give an example of a "clearly racist" placard, please....
Obama's Plan: White Slavery
http://www
Care to deny that's a racist sign?
Hmm, could it be possible that news reporters at the rallies slanted the coverage and only focused on the extremists in the crowd? I did see video of one CNN reporter being very combative and hostile with one of the protesters she was interviewing. She interupted him repeatedly, would not let him finish his point and when he did finally complete his point she belittled it on camera. Now call me crazy, but I thought reporters were supposed to be neutral in their coverage? If a reporter can be biased enough to belittle a protester on air, then how u can be sure that they didnt decide to slant the entire coverage?
Coulda been..if that were true....bu
I think you're upset that the media didnt catch the less than 2% who actually thought they were going to a tax protest party but ended up at a local KKK rally.....
.......yea Irishman40, I see your point. I had to close my eyes and mind to the other 98% but now I see it!
Race has been and will always be that elephant in the room as long as he's President, so to think that we should just get over it and move forward I find not only irresponsible on your part for suggesting it, but offensive. When this Country is REALLY ready to have a REAL conversation about Race in this Country, it will always be that 800-pound gorilla in the room, that it's presence shouldn't be ignored, but for all the wrong reasons, it always is.
Black Republicans can't even have a real discussion about race within your own party and for those black republicans that I see or hear about on tv aren't shy about attacking President Obama with some real venom.
We elected a Black President, so what does the Republican Party do? Elect a Black Man to head the Republican Party (which I must say has NO respect within the Black Community), President Obama does his first unofficial State of the Union Address, what does the Republican Party do? Has Bobby Jindal to respond right afterwards. So I think you need to tell your party to get over race and move on and just maybe the rest of the Country can probably do the same. But I don't see that happening anytime soon.
Why do people insist on acting like the United States as made very little progress over the past 100 years in race relations? People act like the United States is uniquely EVIL when it comes to race relations when I believe our record is better than most other countries WITH SIZEABLE MINORITY POPULATIONS. Can't we get any credit for the progress already made. An analogy here: if you take the racism that blacks suffered under in the united states at it worst as being a glass 100% full of racism, then the racism suffered by blacks the majority of blacks today (as compared to the era of Jim crow laws, white only fountains, lynchings, etc) is a glass 90% empty today.
Or is it your belief that things are just as bad today or almost as bad as they were back in the 50s and 60s?
You're right. We HAVE made significant progress in terms of race in this country. Considering we're one of the youngest countries around, that's quite a feat. We deserve credit for that. However, smooth does have a point.
Ms. Nelson,
Great post. New world order based on knowledge and skills. Ms. G. is stuck in a very anti-progressive mind set. You will not win hearts and minds by really stupid comments. Don't we want more people on our side? Isn't the President opening dialogue with those country's with whom we have disagreed? Are we learning anything?
I was on my computer reading an article "listening" to KO when GF came on. I was shocked and HAPPY she spoke her mind. My eyes left the computer and I sat in amazement at my TV. I agree with everything that woman said. Period. She said something that most people are/were afraid to say. I watch/listen to these cable shows and the issue of race is something people seem to be afraid to talk about. I still don't know what the tea people were doing. What was accomplished? What was/is the agenda? What happened to supporting our President?
Tanya--Spike Lee said it best when I was on Michael Eric Dyson's show last week--we need to hold the President's feet to the fire--but do so with love. This article is not about President Obama-it is about Ms. G and her outrageous comments about other fellow Americans. I keep saying I like this President I am one in 5 of those GOPers who voted for the man. I just do not and will not always agree with all that he does as I did not Bush, Clinton, Bush I I was too young to remember Reagan or vote yet--so:)
JG spoke about President Obama specifically in her statements on that show. It is about Pres BO. There is nothing wrong with holding the Pres accountable. I have a problem with people being disrespectful of the president for no apparent reason. This President wakes up in the morning and WORKS. He trys to do something for ALL Americans. People need to settle down. We have a presidential election every 4 years.
Ms. Nelson, I would challenge you to show any validity to these protests. Where were the tea parties when Pres. Bush was racking up the deficit? Who screamed "socialists" when Bush redistributed wealth upwards? How many Republicans howled when those huge Bush budgets (minus the wars) were passed? Who was concerned about our children being saddled with debt back then? I agree with Ms. G. Of course that does not apply to every person at the tea parties, but the intent of most is clear. Pres. Obama is still an "other" in their eyes. Born in an"other" country, practicing an"other" religion, supportive of an"other" governing ideology. None of it true, and the leaders of this vitriol knows it. However, in this day and time you CANNOT SAY WHAT THEY WANT TO SAY. Thus the ridiculous labels applied to the President of the United States. Kudos to Ms. G for calling it what it is........
I don't think the protesters were all this or all that. I was fine with people doing demonstrations.
I just think most of the protesters were anti-tax conservatives. They just don't want to be taxed, period. Community consciousness was not one of their priorities.
Then they are years late. Why did they wait so long to protest??? That is, if the real issue
is taxes.
no, the real reason isn't taxation, it's spending..
I guess because this year were the biggest ever? Biggest by a wide margin?
Nah, that couldn't be it...
Citing racism as an argument to explain the frustration of americans who choose to exercise their right to peaceably dissent is nothing but intellectual laziness. Period.
My point exactly. Hell we all know there is RACISM--HELLO and it against more than black people as one blogger noted, it touches us all. period. But that was not today's topic--lest we go there.
Being white and being familiar with rednecks, I'm sure that most everyone at those rallies are racists... though, I agree that it was not the sole reason that they were there... it was only one of many reasons and most likely not the main reason...
I'm afraid we can't just move on beyond race in this country because you as "a person of color" are tired of it any more than we can ignore torture because Peggy Noonan wants to move on and preserve the "mystery" of life in the form of secret torture memos.
I'm pretty sure all the other persons of color don't agree that this is something we can just ignore and it will go away. You're really making a superficial augment about race. The reason many of us think that the Tea Baggers are racist is because Obama has not raised taxes at all, he has cut them, and you and your Tea Bagger buddies were conspicuously silent when it was a white guy running up huge deficits for no apparent reason unlike the crisis we face today. Today we have a deregulated mess of a financial system that needs fixing and even the whack jobs can see that!
Freedom of speech is great ain't it? But it cuts both ways! When you go in public and make asses of yourselves we get to "freely speak" about it don't we? You've got to understand that you don't speak for every aggrieved party in this country who has been mistreated because of race just because you happen to be Black!
Jimbo you are a real piece of work--but alas I respect your right to spew what you do, because yes it cuts both ways. I will continue to tell you and anyone else that attacking men and women who are citizens of the US because they wish to peacefully protest and who happen to be white, working class, or poor is racism and classism at its worst--we as a nation and people are better than that.
"I know it thrills white conservatives to call black people who express their opinions racist, or define what they say as hate speech, while ignoring the racist rantings of Michelle Malkin and Little Green Footballs, but I really fail to see your point about one black man attacking the lack of character of another black man,. much less you not even having the courtesy to ask me why I wrote the piece
Why bother asking questions when you can make up the answers?
But tell me this: why do the vast majority of black Americans hold people like Michael Steele in utter and complete contempt. Why are there no black Republicans in Congress from black areas?
Do not pretend that Steele's opinions doesn't reflect all but the smallest minority of black political thought, because we both know it does.
And it's not liberals, it's the black community. You can pretend it's just us liberals, but you could pretty much walk up to most African-Americans in Boston and ask them what they thought of people like Steele. Their answers would be far less poilite.
Black conservatives are exiled from the black community for one reason: they lack the character to defend that community. Michael Steele had not a word to say when Bob Erlich went to an all-white country club. Why should black people support a man afraid to challenge people on basic decency. "
----Steve Gilliard
The News Blog
I would submit that they DO defend the black community, but have a different idea as to how best do that... They don't like the idea of blacks becoming a welfare class, and I would have to agree.
Loved your thoughts.
AS a working class, WHITE LEFT wing veteran of military service ( who also happens to be a gay man married to another man ) I am gonna make sure my guns are clean and ready for when the right wing white xian jackbooted thugs come for me. See? I have something in common with the teabaggers and the resentful bitter small towners clinging to their religion and their guns (about all the goppers have left them ) who have been continually shafted for a couple of decades yet by the goppers policies which give the rich more money on the backs of working people. Our side can use our 2nd amendment rights ALSO SO now that we have a political point in common , lets all sit in a circle and sing kumbaya
Hmm does anyon here complaining about the rich being given tax break know how much the rich actually pay in taxes each year? Here are some statistics
the bottom 40% (by income) of american workers pay no federal incomes taxes at all (they get back at the end of the year everything they paid the government)
the top 1% earners in the country (the filthy rich). Paid 36% of all federal taxes collected by the federal government. Heres an analogy: If you were to collect a total of $100 from a group of 100 people this statistic shows the following: 40 people (the poor and the working poor) would pay nothing. 59 people (the middle class) would pay $1.08 each. and the last person (repesenting the filthy rich) would pay $36.
Now I ask you. Isnt that last person already paying more than his fair share?
For those of you who question my statistics. They can be found at the following link:
http://www
Yes, but how much of the total pie (wealth) are the "filthy rich" taking in? If it's anything more than 36%, then they aren't paying their fair share.
You're only giving partial statistics.
Sophia I agree with you about Jeanine Garofalo's comments on Obie's show. To call all teabaggers racist is not fair or accurate.
I do not recall anybody saying that ALL teabaggers (still cracks me up - it's the stupidity stupid) were racist. I do think a fair portion were because after all, it was a right wing gathering.
Chica,
Last year you wrote the following at Politico:
"Rhetoric from political leaders fuels voter sensitivity to race and ethnicity, and conservative leaders have not been quiet about Obama’s identity.
Republican Rep. Steve King, for one, has said that Al Qaeda would welcome Obama’s election. “The radical Islamists, the Al Qaeda ... would be dancing in the streets . . . . King suggested that Obama’s middle name, Hussein, would have a special meaning for “radical Islamists.
“His middle name does matter,” King said. “It matters because they read a meaning into that.”
Conservative radio hosts have further inflamed the race question. Shock jock Bill Cunningham famously said at a McCain rally, “We will rip the bark off of Barack Hussein Obama.”
“Sean Hannity’s America” has attacked Michelle Obama’s comments about being “proud of America for the first time,” her writings on feeling “isolated as a black student at Princeton,” Louis Farrakhan’s statement that he supports Obama for president, and controversial sermons by Obama’s pastor, Jeremiah Wright, on black family unity and pride. Hannity categorizes such support as Obama’s “race problem.”
. . .
America is still clearly not comfortable discussing race out in the open, and it becomes more glaring as each day goes by in this historic campaign for president of the United States. "
You, yourself, stated that the GOP has a race problem. But yet Ms. Garafalo is "way off base"? That's called hypocrisy.
The question is: When is the GOP going to get over it?
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