"To the Congressional Black Caucus,
I am writing this letter to request that you all write letters of reference for me. The letter should list all the wonderful things I have done for Negroes over the course of my career. In light of my campaign for re-election in Nevada, please mention all I have done for diversity on the Las Vegas strip.
I need as many letters as I can get from as many Negroes as I can, light-skinned, dark-skinned, it doesn't matter. Please be sure and use standard English and avoid any use of Negro dialect.
Your best friend,
Harry Reid"
cc:
President Obama
Jesse Jackson
NAACP
Henry Louis Gates
Al Sharpton
Julian Bond
Donna Brazile
14 comments:
I ask you though, Gary, and I realize that this was the thing that got me to be less than polite last time (I'll try better, I promise) but what's worse?
1. What Harry Reid said behind closed doors.
2. Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck saying that Obama's health care reform is "reparations".
Which one is an ignorant comment and which one is a statement that's intended to exploit the racial divide that still exists in this country? What's worse?
Lance,
Is this the straw man you are talking about?
As for Reparations, I agree that is a emotionaly-charged term used that way. I am guessing it was a inopportune way to argue that it is part of a program of income redistribution, but I don't know. There is a difference. Limbaugh and Beck are private citizens albeit on the radio and TV. Reid is a powerful government leader who is presently running our lives.
Is ther reparations remark an exercise in free speech or really an effort to explot the racial divide? I am against reparations; I wrote a post on it a couple of years back. Am I trying to exploit the racial divide?
I think Limbaugh and Beck are racists, and Harry Reid is an old man from the old school, he hasn't learned how to say the truth in an uncoated manner. Or is there any doubt were Obama darker skinned and had a "negro" dialect, he would never even have been considered in the racist society that calls the shots?
This hypocrisy is driving me nuts, it's a nonsubject and a tempest in a tea pot.
Gary, I'm against them too, unless we can figure out some way to travel back in time and give them to the actual former slaves. That's not my point. The point is that there's no reason to equate health care reform with reparations unless you're trying to exploit the racial divide. Why else would they say that? Simply saying you're against reparations is something else entirely.
If Bill Maher or some other liberal said the same thing to further their pet cause, I think that you'd be all over it.
Ingrid,
I don't really think Reid is racist. I just decry the hypocrisy that when a conservative says something, it's racist. When a Dem says it, it's "time to move on".
And for the record, I don't think Beck and Limbaugh are racists either. They just have the courage to say politically incorrect things.
Gary, would you at least concede this:
Let's say that I'm a white guy (stay with me here) who has serious issues with black people. I don't belong to the KKK or any white supremecist group, but I don't exactly trust black people and I wouldn't want any of my relatives to date one.
Then I listen to Limbaugh or Beck talk about how health care reform is "reparations". What is my reaction to that? What is it about that word that would immediately get me to react in a negative way?
Limbaugh and Beck both have listeners who fit this criteria. (No, I'm not talking about you - but I know people like this - too many, in fact.) They know exactly what they're doing when they say something like that. If that's not racist, then I don't know what is.
Lance,
I suspect the latter, that you don't know what racism is.
First of all, you make a typical liberal assumption that Beck and Limbaugh have listeners who are racists. Their listenership is conservative and that has nothing to do with racism. Are you saying that Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews' listerners could never be racists? How about anti-Semitism? Does it come from the left or the right?
My readership is- with a few exceptions like you- conservative. I don't recall one comment I have received that I would construe as being anti-black. What you seem to be saying is that a racist would find confirmation of his or her negative attitudes toward blacks by listening to Limbaugh or Beck- or me for that matter criticizing reparations or affirmative action or the obvious double standard that the Reid episode has illustrated. In other words, you think that racists are only to be found on the right.
Or what do you mean cause I don't get it.
Lance,
Bill Maher is always a serious contender for jerk of the year.
Limbaugh and Beck are not racists nor are they stupid. As for which side has the most racists,which side has the most anti-Semites? (I think the left has more at this point in time.)
You have no empirical eveidence about conservatives being racists just as I have no empirical evidence about most anti-semites being on the left.
As for equating health care reform with reparations being racist, I think that's a stretch. It's possible, but you are too quick to say 2+2 equals 4. I know that sounds reeeeal stupid, but your 2 may actually be a zero.
I'll stand by what I said - unless you or anybody else can explain some sort of logical correlation between health care and reparations.
As for liberal anti-Semites, I've known a few conservative ones in my day. If you're accusing everybody who's not knee-jerk, pro-Israel of being an anti-Semite, then maybe you have something there.
I do know that there are a lot of conservatives - the ones of the fundamentalist Christian type which I know you are not one - who pretend to be friends to Jewish people and Israel, but it's all because they want the Jews to fulfill some supposed Biblical prophecy that will bring about the end of the world. They act like their friends but believe that they'll all burn in hell for not accepting Christ - which is kind of messed up if you ask me.
Think I'm being crazy? Don't ask me - ask them for yourself. They'll tell you the same thing.
I think the correlation that is being made is that this govt health care plan is a means of income distribution. I'm not sure I agree, but I think that's the point.
No, I don't accuse everyone who is not pro-Israel of being anti-Semites, but note how they condemn Israel for things that they ignore on the Arab side.
The whole Israel-Palestine conflict in my view is not so much about land as it is about religion.
As for why Christians support Israel that depends on a lot of factors. I don't support Israel because of some biblical prophecy. I support them because I think they have a right to exist and defend themselves and because I consider their enemies to be our enemies as well. I think Israel is on the front line of terror.
I think the correlation that is being made is that this govt health care plan is a means of income distribution. I'm not sure I agree, but I think that's the point.
Then why not say that? Why use a word that has such obvious racial connotations to it (especially considering that the President is black)?
And I understand your reasons for supporting Israel. I don't think that I'm really against Israel myself, I just don't always think that their actions are the best ones to take - even for their own sake. That's another conversation though.
Like I said, it's not all conservatives who have that extremist religious motivation, but they do make up a significant part of the pro-Israel side.
I said it because I think that is the reasoning Limbaugh and Beck are using. And it goes beyond the black-white issue.
The reason most conservatives support Israel is not out of religion. It's not with me. It's because we feel Israel has a right to exist and defend itself against terrorists. We recognize the threat that Israel is facing is ultimately the same threat we all face. Meanwhile the FAR left is on the side of the Palestinians. The alliance is clear both here and in Europe.
Gary, I'm not asking why YOU didn't just say that, I'm asking why Limbaugh and Beck would say "reparations" when they meant something that has nothing to do with that. Why would they say "reparations" - a word with obvious racial undertones to it?
I suspect you know, and you'd be able to see exactly what I was talking about if Bill Maher said it.
"Gary, I'm not asking why YOU didn't just say that, I'm asking why Limbaugh and Beck would say "reparations" when they meant something that has nothing to do with that."
Lance, Maybe you should write to them and ask them directly. I am not their spokesperson. I tried to take a guess as to what they meant, but you don't accept it-so ask them yourself.
But if a Dem had said that, the story would not have had any legs.
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