Over at HuffPo you can watch an MSNBC clip in which Jimmy Carter imputes Joe Wilson’s “liar” outburst (and a lot of the recent anti-Obama fervor) to racism. Carter: “I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Obama is based on the fact that he’s a black man — an African American.”
Carter is a thoughtful man, and a Southerner, and you better believe that he thought long and hard before saying this. And I think he’s right. A lot of commenters, even on this website, are going to come aboard saying, “Racism had nothing to do with it.” But look at Wilson’s political history. The fact is that nobody will admit to being a racist, yet racism still exists. This means that some people are either lying or don’t fathom their own motivations.
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Addendum: From Maureen Dowd’s column today:
The black members of Congress were fed up, after a long, hot summer of sulfurous attitudes toward the first black president. [South Carolina black Congressman James] Clyburn privately pressed Wilson three times last Thursday to apologize for breaking the rules — Wilson’s own wife asked him who the “nut” was who was hollering at the president — but the Republican was getting chesty with his unlikely new role as king of the rowdies.
He was regarded as a hero at the anti-Obama rally in Washington last weekend that featured such classy placards as, with a picture of a lion, “The Zoo has an African and the White House has a Lyin’ African;” “Bury Obamacare with Kennedy;” “We came unarmed (this time)” and “ ‘Cap’ Congress and ‘Trade’ Obama back to Kenya!”
Yes, it’s the “absent referent.”
My pet peeve is when someone starts off with: “I’m not a racist, but…”
I think the worst thing about being a minority is that you never really know if some things happen because of race or if they happen because of a difference of opinion.
Are Joe Wilson and the birthers, tea-baggers, etc. racist? Almost certainly. Does the question matter here? NO. Jimmy Carter and others should be going around explaining how Joe Wilson called Obama a liar when the no-illegal-immigrant section is plain as day. Not only is Joe Wilson wrong, but he apparently hasn’t bothered to READ the legislation he’s supposed to be voting on. That should be the focus here.
Excuse me, but who are you to say what matters? I happen to think it’s important to know whether a large segment of our country goes after our President because he’s black. That has completely different implications from thinking that they oppose him because of policy, or misunderstanding about policy.
I did not mean that racism “doesn’t matter.” It’s very relevant and I often get to experience it first-hand. I just meant that the low-hanging fruit, in this case, is to point out that the wingnuts are the ones whose claims are directly refutable by the evidence in the bill, and who clearly aren’t bothering to read the legislation, just throwing out accusations of socialism and illegal-immigrant pandering. Sorry if my previous post suggested a different attitude.
The argument is not about the actual health reform legislation itself, but rather about what the rest of American law says about extending benefits to citizens but not non-citizens.
Details:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3knq1QLODXc
FWIW, in all likelihood, Joe Wilson was incorrect to call Obama a liar (and it was highly inappropriate in any case), and in my opinion it’s okay to point to latent racism in America, although perhaps not to single it out in this particular case.
Racism is less overt but still present. Is it a co-incidence that death threats against Obama are up 400%, that people are carrying guns to rallys, that notorious anti-immgrationists are most vocal in attacking him? When protesters start shouting about him taking things away from “them”, it’s hard to not wonder if “they” are the whites.
It is worrying. Politics is hard enough without this extra complication. Can racists be brought on board with Obama’s policies or is any attempt at bipartisanship and compromise doomed?
I’m not so sure that racism is less overt. Did you see the news about the Black woman being beaten at Cracker Barrel in broad daylight? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/16/troy-dale-west-man-beats_n_289136.html
I absolutely agree with Carter here: racism is a very, very big part of the equation. But I’m afraid a lot of people, especially in the South, believe something is racist only when you say things like “go back to Africa” or calling names. They don’t believe things like “I want my country back” has a racist undercurrent, or why the President needs to atone for, comment on, or defend, everything some black person or celebrity does that is considered bad. And than being surprised the President thinks Kanye West was a jackass too
I think the whole “I want my country back” has to more to do with fear of change than anything else.
can you recall anything comparable to this during Clinton? Protesters but this crazed and on this scale?
Yes, It is clear from Joe Wilson’s background (on his own web site) that he associates with others who are/were clearly racist.
Is there racism in the US? Just walk around many of the southern states and talk to people. The racism is clearly present. It can also be seen outside the southern states, even in the most progressive (civilized) states.
Agreed.
I hope Obama is watching his own a$$… An awful lot of people would love to ‘off’ him.
This is unprecedented. Its never been this bad.
Here’s the far right’s reaction to Carter talking about racism:
http://thedaleygator.wordpress.com/2009/09/16/jimmy-carter-is-a-jew-hating-retard/
Yes, you read that link right. It indeed says “Jimmy Carter is a Jew-Hating Retard.”
Hey! What happened to that ‘numbnuts’ guy’s post????
Sorry, I deleted it for calling not just one person names, but calling ALL OF US names! That’s not permitted. I’ll let an occasional slur slide, but not a mass one.
Nothing to be sorry about – blog comments need to be policed, man, or you can find yourself with a slum on your hands.
True…
I was just massively deleted and banned on a christian site. Boy do they hate my ass. But I wasn’t abusive… in fact one of them perfunctorily answered ‘Fuck You!” (just like that) to my every response. Like eight or nine times… And I was the one that got banned.
So I am concerned that our side doesn’t stop any of them from expressing themselves unless they really get abusive. In this case it was abusive so I agree with it.
And yet, sometimes it is good to have the evidence of how abusive they are out there hanging for all to see in cyberspace… Plus it invariably provokes more discussion… albeit sometimes more abuse….
Hard to tell where the balance lies.
Here’s the problem with the few real racist voices on the right.
They get listened to by people that don’t know that they’re listening to racists. And these people are not that discerning. They tend to believe what they’re told. They watch Fox News and Glen Beck and listen to Rush. They may not be racists, but they are unfortunately sheep.
So the few racists have a disproprotionate effect on the entire dialogue.
Here we go, another example of spineless Democrats snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. From a BBC article:
Oh. My. God. That’s it, apologize for riling up people with “extreme” actions. Like pushing to get all Americans health coverage so they don’t die.
I can understand if Obama doesn’t want to say anything, one way or the other, about Carter’s assessments about racism. But to make a point to disavow them, and then have your mealy-mouthed spokesman make excuses for the insanity of “critics” by characterizing his boss’s actions as “extreme?”
WTF? This infuriates me. It’s as if the entire Democratic establishment is congenitally masochistic, like they’re getting off on being trounced.
Correction to my previous post: Gibbs said “extraordinary,” not “extreme,” as I wrote. Not as bad, but almost.
Oh, it’s racism for sure… but you can’t do much about a person’s thoughts, especially thoughts about inconsequential differences like ethnicity, creed, nationality, etc. People cling very tightly to their stupid ideas and “breeding them out” is often the only workable solution.
The “race card” instantly gets my dander up anymore, be it played by a politician or an evolutionary biologist (not accusing you of anything btw, My Coyne, other than simply mentioning this hot-button issue). It just seems that when I say something like, “I don’t want the Fed giving money to failed corporations,” the retort jabbed back at me is, “RACIST!”
… no, it’s just, given the opportunity to choose between a growing government and a flat or receding one, I’d take the latter. I disliked Bush group’s flushing away of money AND I am offended at the volume of dollars being burnt up by Obama & co. Hating tax misappropriation isn’t an either-or, “this presidency or that one” endeavor. I get pissed when money is pissed away regardless of who’s doing it.
Mostly I just dislike broad-brush commentary and generalizations-as-rationale. “You hate Obama so you must’ve loved Bush” or “you call yourself a Libertarian so you’re really an Ayn Rand objectivist whacko”. et cetera ad nauseam
You don’t like Obama’s healthcare plan? What, don’t you love the uninsured? POOR PEOPLE HATER!
You don’t like Bush’s bailout of bubble-busting banks? What, doesn’t everybody deserve a home loan?
You don’t think trade unions are immaculate, infallible conceptions of Christ? WINGNUT!
Eh, you see what I’m driving at. Political issues are so polarized that it’s hard to find anybody willing to engage in civil discourse about them. Political talk all usually boils down a bunch of “yeah huh!” “nuh uh!” nonsense.