Republican Racism
Race is an issue that makes Americans very uncomfortable. And to be honest, as someone with skin about as pale as it gets, I feel odd bringing it up sometimes.
But I have also found that the discussions that result when I bring it up, sometimes in blog comments, sometimes privately by email, are always excellent and appreciated by people whose skin contain far more melanin than mine.
To paraphrase a well known black blogger from Brooklyn, commenting on one of my diaries, "I may not agree with everything you say, but I really thank you for bringing these issues up."
One thing that has been blatantly obvious to me at least since the Willie Horton ads, and whict will be blatantly obvious on a large scale if Barack Obama wins the primary nomination, is that the Republican Party is willing and eager to use racism as a tool to win elections. Republican racism can be seen in the fact that Republicans have resisted every effort to extend civil rights in America since the 1960's. There are certainly racist Democrats as well, but for the last 40 years every single piece of civil rights legislation was crafted and enacted by Democrats and largely opposed by Republicans.
I think a defining moment in my realization of the racial and class disparities in America was Katrina.
(Image from Dan Harlow.com)
My response to what I saw then was to focus on the need for under-represented and under served people to take a strong role in the political system, because without such a role, our society treated them like nothing.
Another defining moment in my realization of the racial and class issues in America was during a hotly contested Congressional primary in Brooklyn where race shouldn't have been an issue, but became an issue, and my family was accused of reverse racism because we supported a black candidate...who also was a friend and who was endorsed by Democracy for NYC and many other progressive organizations. This Congressional race led my wife to ask "Why are we only supposed to be color blind during an election," a statement that inspired one of my more passionate articles, I think. I should note that in this case the racism that played out in the primary election was a subtle, muted form of racism among Democrats. So I am not saying racism is uniquely Republican...but when it comes to racism, the Republicans outdo Democrats hands down.
In America, the role of racism in politics is prevalent, particularly in the Republican Party. But the Democratic Party, despite its civil rights leadership, largely allows Republicans to get away with racism. This is a point that comes up in Drew Westen's book The Political Brain, which I will soon be reviewing more generally. To quote Westen:
One of Reagan's first acts as president was to try to defy Federal Law by securing tax exempt status for Bob Jones university despite the fact it practiced racial discrimination (forbidding interracial dating). This reflected a deliberate, conscious decision...And the Supreme Court was not forgiving, ultimately rebuking Reagan in an 8-1 decision. Yet the Republicans have used the same "southern strategy" in every presidential election they have won since 1968, and Democrats have never once made them pay for it.
Reagan, of course, had also opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1965, yet many Americans STILL saw him as basically a "nice guy." Truth is, one on one, Reagan WAS a nice guy, widely recognized as one of the nicest people in California politics in terms of how he treated people right down to the lowliest campaign worker (I get this from someone who was an insider in California politics at one time). But nice guys don't withhold basic rights from entire segments of American society.
But that is exactly what the Republican Party does. They may talk "state's rights" but "state's rights" NEVER was supposed to mean the withholding of Constitutional rights from people with dark skin. What it really boils down to is the use of racism as a tool to win elections. If blacks aren't voting Republican, Republicans don't want blacks to vote. And they go way out of their way to discourage black voting.
Again, from Westen's book:
Since the mid-1960's, the party of Lincoln has desecrated his memory. Republicans have opposed every effort to extend equal rights to anyone who isn't white. They have played the race card in every presidential election they have won since 1968. As long as Democrats don't turn racism into a character issue, Republicans will continue to use it as an instrument of political persuasion.
In 2006 there are two very instructive Senate races: Virginia and Tennessee. In Virginia, the Republican incumbent used a racial slur against a dark-skinned American and it blew up in his face. He lost. Democrats hit him hard for his open racism, and we now have Senator Jim Webb of Virginia instead of the racist Republican incumbent.
In Tennessee, racist Republican candidate Corker and the Republican Party ran an ad that implied his oponent, Henry Ford, jr. (a black) was having sex with white women. In it, they use the phrase, "Harold Ford...He's just not right."
A phrase that sounds suspiciously like "Harold Ford...He's just not white." And the truth is, neurologically our brains will interpret that phrase to mean "white." The pairing of the sex with white women, and the "he's just not white" line was clearly trying to play on the racism many voters might have deep down.
This ad, by the way, was crafted by Karl Rove.
Democrats tried to ignore the racism of the Rove/Corker ads...annd Corker squeaked by to victory, leaving us with a racist representing Tennessee.
If Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee in 2008, and let me say now that he has many of the characteristics that WIN ELECTIONS, we are going to see EXACTLY these kinds of racist ads flooding the airwaves and Democrats had better be willing to stand up UNITED against them, calling them on their racism.
Now let's remember Trent Lott's glowing, gushing, loving speech about Strom Thurmond's 1948 presidential run. Remember, that Trent Lott was the LEADER of the Republican Senate, yet he said that had Strom Thurmond won the presidency in 1948, America wouldn't have the problems it has today.
What was the focus of Thurmond's run for presidency? His central platform was segregation, upholding the "right" of, in his words, "Southern People" to keep "niggers" out of "our theaters...swimming pools...homes and...churches." Trent Lott in 2002 was praising one of the most blatantly racist campaigns for president in the 20th century. (Note: remeber that Thurmond was a "Dixiecrat" who left the Democratic Party BECAUSE of the Democratic fight for Civil Rights, finding the Republican Party more accepting of his racism).
Now let's remember that in election after election, Republicans (including Bush's brother, Jeb) have led efforts to suppress the black and Hispanic votes through out the nation (see, for example, this statement from the NAACP Voter Fund regarding Florida 2000 and Ohio 2004 and this transcript of a DemocracyNow! radio program).
Racist ads, opposition to every piece of civil rights legislation in the last 40 years, use of racial slurs in public, praise of Strom Thurmond's segregationist campaign for president, and voter supprssion focused on minority districts. I mean, THIS IS RACISM folks! Plain and simple. Intentional, widespread racism by the Republican Party. I am in no way saying that every Republican is racist and no Democrats are racist, but the leadership and strategists of the Republican Party see racism as a legitimate tool for winning elections and we as Americans just should not stand for it!
Is America ready for a black (Hispanic, woman, Jewish...) president? Of course it is! But is the Democratic Party ready for the racist (or sexist, if Hillary is our nominee) attacks the Republicans will use to win? I sure as hell hope so!
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Racism | Barking Crazy Right Wingers | Republican Party
Never forget never forgive
Submitted by Agent X (not verified) on 2 August 2007 - 4:00am.
I came upon this blog post while trackbacking from AAPP and I just had to comment.
As a black guy, suffice to say, I see the effects of Republican racist actions every god-damn-day. I could fill this blog with everything they have done and cause a buffer overrun. But, let's just focus with recent history.
You know there's something wrong with a party when they let David Duke be a part of it, AND compound it when he wins a primary and goes on to capture 40% of the vote in a governor's race (In the ever classic 1991 Louisiana race best known as Crook v Racist). But wait, there's more.
Back in 1998, in Jasper Texas, a Mr. Byrd (black man with an arm injury) was dragged to death by 3 white men, including one with white supremacist ties. They were convicted and 2 sentenced to death, but the governor at the time did not sign any hate crimes laws and in fact, opposed such laws. Guess who it was? George W. Bush. But wait, there's more!
Blacks are not the only target. A bigger target is represented by Arabs these days. Just yesterday, presidential candidate Tom Tancredo, who is making his bucks attacking illegals, now is on record (talk radio) as saying that he would "If it is up to me, we are going to explain that an attack on this homeland of that nature would be followed by an attack on the holy sites in Mecca and Medina," This he said he would do in response to a domestic nuclear attack. You don't have to be a military or political expert to know how wrongheaded that statement really is. Unfortunately, statements like this are really common in the Republican party's 2008 candidates.
"I would double Guantanamo" Mitt Romney.
Guiliani has a known racist and Confederate sympathizers in his South Carolina operation, ie. Arthur Ravenel Sr.
Ron Paul talked crap about black male residents of Washington DC, though on the plus side, that is about it for him.
Mike Huckabee is gung-ho for the Iraq War, including stating that opposition to the surge is dangerous. Well, what about all those dead Iraqis that got killed because of the surge?
Duncan Hunter supports the Minutemen project, a project which may not have overt racist components, you can best believe there are covert racists components and agendas present.
Fred Thompson supports the current policies of Free Trade and Globalization, whose effects are literally killing black and brown and Asian people all over the world and a leading cause of illegal immigration. Also a (crappy) Nixon crony.
I could go on and on, but I'm sleepy now.
Thanks for your comment
Submitted by mole333 on 2 August 2007 - 7:17am.
I believe these things need far more coverage and discussion than they have been getting in America these days. I know too many people who feel that racial problems have largely been solved. And I include many of my fellow white liberals in that category, sad to say. I dicussed this in an article in January.
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And a political thread runs through it
Submitted by Margaret Bassett on 2 August 2007 - 10:12pm.
At the end of World War II, there was the obvious issue that if black citizens served honorably, they deserved to be treated as heroes when they returned home. A token effort was made by President Truman by nullifying the most egregious segregation rules in the army. But, on the other hand, the Cold War morphed as a major struggle. For those--and I put myself in the category--who saw no reason why people of color shouldn't have equal rights, a new issue faced us. "Commie" and "nigger lover" often sullied the atmosphere. There was a false logic which some could throw up to us that "real" Americans were true to our traditions and should not be fooling around with trying to change our ways. Another type of experience I had (Forthrightness used to get me in more trouble than it does now.) concerned a setting on the Connecticut shore in a summer home. Several of us were guests of a Wall Street broker who liked to entertain younger people. It was a welcome overture. Somehow I mentioned something about the couple who ran the place for him. They had been most attentive. I really cannot remember
how I expressed myself to them, but it apparently showed a familiarity which bothered the host. I was corrected by murmured words and body language which let me know I had crossed the line of social intercourse.
I would not feel so strongly about many Republicans I know as to say that they are haughty, class ridden, and shallow. However, in the political types, I would say there is that tendency and it is something we should not be surprised at. In CEO, authoritarian management style, people think in lines-of-command terms. As a group, in my view, a president fitting that mold would categorize whole classes of human beings on the corporate chart. And it goes further than just politicians. MSM seemed to have made it clear that "ghetto" or "inner city" or "single parent" tags equivalent to "blacks"--or name the out-group in a particular neighborhood.
But on the social side of these same types there is a need to portray a touch of humanness. Window dressing is the easy way to handle it. Shirley Chisholm was a great campaigner in my opinion, when she used "unbought and unbossed." I think she would have made a great Secretary of Education, Labor, or HHS, but that would never have happened.
Window dressing was the topic where I worked in the 60s. 95% of the employees were African-American. The joke going around was "take a honky to lunch." In Chicago in 1968 that relieved tension.
Last night I watched the PBS story of STAX. It was a wonderful trip back to music with the likes of Otis Redding. Music, they said, was a way to break down barriers between the races when Memphis was still under strict segregation. The musicians stayed in a small studio and changed musical trends, yet when Dr. King was killed on that balcony, they (black and white) were the ones who were there, black and white.
For all I can say about Republicans, I cannot say that Democrats come off too pure either. If you read Taylor Branch's trilogy of the King Years, you would remember that Nelson Rockefeller, who had ties to Spelman College in Atlanta, made overtures to Dr. King for political support. And to come back to the couple at the beach, the man who eventually made the big effort for civil rights legislation turned out to be one many accused of lacking couth. As I grew up I always heard about finding a president who understood the needs of the Common Man. Reagan almost pulled it off. Ike stood in for all of us during a tough time. In the last analysis, presidents and other political leaders need empathy. Studying the organization chart and the return on investment can leave little room for the Common Man, and maybe even a Common Woman if there be such a creature.
I would agree that
I would agree that Republicans are likely to use racism as a vehicle for the 2008 elections. What bothers me, is how they feel so comfortable doing so. Like it's their given right. Like it's no big thing. Water for chocolate or something. Meanwhile, many Americans stand by and accept it as status quo. That bothers me oh so much more.
With the Republicans, I know I get what I pay for. With the American people, I actually pay more and get less sometimes.