Brave New Films and Color of Change have compiled the “best of the worst” video footage of lynch mob-like crowds attending McCain/Palin rallies over the past several weeks, documenting the racism and violent threats.
Color of Change is sending a public letter to their campaign asking them to take responsibility for changing the tone of the rallies they’re putting together, and asking people to rethink their behavior.
Anyone who’s resisted the idea that there are racist McCain supporters out there won’t be able to get past this video. As Ta-nehisi Coates at the Atlantic points out — It’s not just disturbing that this guy is so obviously evil, but it’s further upsetting that the no one in the crowd around him admonishes him for his open racism. The banality of evil, indeed.
I also find it really sad and upsetting that they’re employing one of my favorite childhood book characters to make racist attacks. Poor Curious George.
Ordering a black man to show you respect you is pretty over the top in 2008. I’m sure McCain’s constituency in the South and perhaps right here in Indiana will recognize the terminology from their heyday of sundown towns and lynch mob gatherings, though, and respond accordingly.
There’s only one response to that ad:
Why on earth would Senator Obama respect anyone from the McCain campaign? Sigh. I hate it when anyone demands respect, whether it’s my mom, a cop, a priest, or the McCain campaign. Respect is earned; You’ll get it when you show you deserve it.
I try to treat people courteously, because I want to live in harmony with people, so I don’t have to live on deserted island and make my own clothes and shelter. And there are people of great accomplishment like Kamau Bobb Google that I respect and admire.
It’s not that I disrespect authority — I just don’t believe authority exists. I do what they ask me at work because I get a paycheck. I won’t tolerate being the focus of offensive jokes at work because that’s harassment. I pull over for cops because I want them to come to my house if I need to call 911. I pay taxes because I want my roads paved. I’ll do what other people want if I get something in return that I want. Other than that, anyone telling me what to do is in danger of getting a stick in their eye. I hope Senator Obama feels the same.
Update: In case you haven’t heard yet — at The Value Voter’s Forum, one of the booths was selling ‘Obama Waffles’ with racial stereotypes. Lovely. Apparently before someone realized these were racist and should be pulled from event, Lou Dobbs stopped by and had some racist waffles with his wife.
Oh, and in case you haven’t seen it yet — What Made John Mad Today?
Sometimes people use “respect” to mean “treating someone like a person” and sometimes they use “respect” to mean “treating someone like an authority.” And sometimes people who are used to being treated like an authority say “if you won’t respect me I won’t respect you” and they mean “if you won’t treat me like an authority I won’t treat you like a person” and they think they’re being fair but they aren’t, and it’s not okay.
Which works equally well as “how to tell people they sound homophobic.” (hat tip to Bil).
This nice video is courtesy of Jay Smooth at illdoctrine.com
Shakespeare’s Sister has an ongoing multi-part “Obama Racism Watch” documenting incidents of racism in the media directed at Senator Obama (similar to their multi-part series “Hillary Clinton Sexism Watch” that is at 106 entries and shows no signs of stopping.)
I won’t go into every incident because they cover it much better than I, but I wanted to note some of the stuff that has happened just in the last few days, because it is just beyond my understanding, and I have to say something about it because it’s so – shocking.
Fox News’ “Terrorist Fist Jab”
Apparently, after introducing her husband to the crowd, Michelle and Barack did a “fist bump” as seen below. Now if you know anyone under 25, they’ve done this — it’s a thing that young people do – an alternative to high-fiving, or shaking hands, specifically done by people when they are awesome. I think I’ve probably done it, although I probably shouldn’t. It’s not a black or white thing, it’s just another way the youths of America are expressing themselves because they are cool.
But Fox News host E.D. Hill had this to say about it: “A fist bump? A pound? A terrorist fist jab? The gesture everyone seems to interpret differently.”
I think the only people interpreting this as a “Terrorist Fist Jab” is Fox News. Now it’s not hugely surprising to me that people at Fox would not recognize how awesome people greet one another, because no one at Fox is actually awesome. But how did the word “terrorist” get inserted in there? Really, anything you don’t recognize done by people who aren’t the same color as you is now terrorism? How old are these old farts anyway? And when do we get to shuffle them off to the retirement home?
The “Obama as Curious George” T-Shirts
Kelly Newcom of Ash Flat, AR made these T-shirts of Barack Obama as Curious George. But he specifically claims that the are “not racist” ignoring the years and years of shameful history where people used monkeys as derogatory images depicting African Americans.
The reason the image in the above shirts has a bag over his head is because just recently Marietta, Georgia bar owner Mike Norman got in major copyright infringement trouble for selling this shirt in his bar:
What’s bothersome to me is the huge number of blog posts out there with the titles of “is this a racist image?” as though there’s really some possibility that it isn’t.
FoxNews declares Senator Obama’s wife is his “Baby Mama”
Fox News does it again with this caption they showed yesterday under a picture of Michelle Obama:
For those of you who may not be familiar with the term “Baby Mama” it means a woman who is the mother of your children, but with whom you are not in a relationship. It is a term used somewhat in the African American community, but not widely, and it’s denounced by some African Americans.
But Michelle Obama is MARRIED to Barack and is his wife, not his “baby mama.” Fox using the term seem to be trying to imply that Senator Obama and his wife aren’t married to each other.
On the other hand — Now McCain’s first wife, the one he dumped after she was paralyzed in a car accident and had to learn to walk again — she is McCain’s Baby Mama. As is the first wife of any middle-aged white guy at Fox News.
The Obama Sock Monkey
Apparently, someone actually thinks that this Obama Sock Monkey is a viable product for sale and not a unbelievably racist image. Feel free to contact them and tell them they’re douchebags. I can’t even imagine how someone could create this, let alone mass produce it.
Racism aimed at Senator Obama’s Young Daughters
Even Senator Obama’s young daughters are under attack. Michelle Obama Watch notes that an “artist’ named Yazmany Arboleda in New York produced an “Exhibition” titled “The Assassination of Barack Obama” that was investigated by the New York Police and the Secret Service.
Among the images in this exhibition are a giant picture of Senator Obama’s daughters, Sasha and Malia Obama, under the title “Nappy Headed Hos.”
I don’t even know how to conclude this post, really. I know that racism is, unfortunately, still alive and breathing in the United States, but it still feels like a kick in the stomach to see things like expressed like this so publicly. As if these people actually expect the people around them to nod their head in agreement instead of wanting to kick the crap out of them.
The stats, via Shakesville:
If you were ever in any doubt about the supremacy of White, Protestant Patriarchy in this culture, let’s do a quick review, OK?
232 Years as a Nation
42 Presidents
42 White Presidents
42 White Male Presidents
42 White Male Christian Presidents
41 White Male Protestant Presidents
1 White Male Catholic President (who was assassinated in office)
46 Vice-Presidents
46 White Vice-Presidents
46 White Male Vice-Presidents
46 White Male Christian Vice-Presidents
46 White Male Protestant Vice-Presidents
It’s definitely time for some change.
I’ve been trying to avoid writing about local politics of late, just because the bile and animosity therein was way to much to deal with given my increased workload at my place of employment, and because others do a much better job of saying what I would anyway.
On occasion here, I’ve ranted about Indy Star editorialist Rishawn Biddle, who brought to the paper something less than what was actually necessary to write a good editorial column regularly.
The other day, Rishawn posted a diatribe on the Indy Star’s Expresso blog against Indianapolis City-County council head Monroe Gray, who is being investigated currently for god knows what. It’s hard to figure out in all of the racist bile being slung around. I’m sure someone will helpfully post some racist bile here to explain it.
Anyways, the diatribe was full of racial epithets towards Gray and other black members of local politics. StAllio! has a pretty entertaining reconstruction of the post, which was edited several times, although remnants of the unedited versions still exist. I guess Rishawn thought he got a pass on calling people Coons because he himself is black. Turns out, not so much. He got fired for it, and rightly so.
Schadenfreude, she is so beautiful, but deadly. I should not laugh.
During a panel discussion of the 2008 presidential election on the July 15 edition of NBC’s Meet the Press, syndicated columnist Robert Novak asserted: “Republicans are very pessimistic about 2008. When you talk to them off the record, they don’t see how they can win this thing. And then they think for a minute, and only the Democratic Party, with everything in their favor, would say that, ‘OK, this is the year either to have a woman or an African-American to break precedent, to do things the country has never done before.’ And it gives the Republicans hope.” Neither host Tim Russert nor any of Novak’s fellow panelists, Bloomberg News Washington managing editor Al Hunt, Republican strategist Mike Murphy, and Democratic strategist Bob Shrum — all of whom are, like Novak, white men — commented on or challenged Novak’s assertion. As Media Matters for America documented, the four Sunday-morning talk programs on the broadcast networks, Meet the Press, ABC’s This Week, CBS’ Face the Nation, and Fox Broadcasting Co.’s Fox News Sunday, feature guest lists that are overwhelmingly white and overwhelmingly male.
Yeah, they’re counting on racism and sexism to help them win next year. Nice.
03/12/2022 Update: I had to edit this today to fix the broken links to the 35(!) images that came with this email. I took them out rather than trying to replace the images; too much work for something this malevolent. Also, why is this person still in my friend list?
This is the other racist e-mail that was sent to me by someone I thought was a friend. I got this a week and a half ago, I believe. I’m putting the entire text of the e-mail below the fold because I want to be sure that my friends know, before they see it, that it doesn’t come from me, that I didn’t write it, and that I don’t endorse anything that it says.
I went back and forth about putting this e-mail up, but I think it’s important that people see it and know this kind of stuff is out there being passed around by white supremacists.
If you want to really understand how the welfare system works in America after the welfare reform that happened in the 1990s, read this book:
American Dream: Three Women, Ten Kids, and a Nation’s Drive to End Welfare by Jason DeParle