Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

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Thursday, March 21, 2013

What The Gobshites* Are Saying on the Intertoobz

I went blog-hopping this morning to see what our conservative/libertarian friends were writing about and came across a couple of posts purporting to be about race, racialists, and racism.  The first one I read begins with definitions on what racism and the term "racist" is, then it devolved into the same old biased, ignorant rant against the president, thereby proving, to me at least, that people of a certain political persuasion haven't the ability to discuss these issues with any sense of their own deep-seated bigotry and biases.  This particular screed continued with a grossly insulting reference to liberals/progressives and the entire African-American community:


"There is simply no other way to explain the concerted effort among progressive communists to keep American blacks poor, ignorant, and dependent upon government for their sense of self-worth."

First off, who are these "progressive communists" who have the legislative power in Washington or in local governments to "...keep American blacks poor, ignorant, and dependent upon government...?"  

The writer shows his crass bigotry toward African-Americans by his gross generalization of an entire group of people.  His lazy statement contains the idea that all American blacks are so poor, so stupid, and so helpless that they haven't the ability to see that progressives/liberals are keeping them that way?  This demeaning premise is probably one of the most racially loaded statements to be read anywhere by anyone, and it is a great insight into exactly why 98% of our African-American citizens reject the Republican Party.  

Hint to GOP:  When you keep telling a huge percentage of our population that they're too stupid to know what's good for them, those same people are not likely to want to join your club.

The GOP believes African-Americans are all helpless moochers who haven't the ability to think for themselves, and that African-Americans stay within the Democratic Party because the Democrats give them "stuff."  The blogger who posted this piece of gobshite, and others who nod their head in smug agreement, can't accept that almost a majority of our African-American brothers and sisters belong to the Democratic Party through their own free will and choosing and that they make that choice with intelligence and by understanding what a good many GOPers secretly believe of them.   

Go read that blogger's statement again and understand how biased and bigoted it is.


The blogger continues this phony examination of racism and racists by launching into the usual Teapublican attack on President Obama, after telling us that African-Americans are too stupid to think for themselves and by quoting some right-wing writer's 2008 biased and inaccurate description of President Obama:


"Dr. Jack Wheeler, who in 2008 wrote: 'Barack Hussein Obama is an eloquently tailored empty suit. He has no resume, no accomplishments, no experience, no original ideas, no understanding of how our economy works, no understanding of how the world works, no balls … nothing, in fact, but abstract, empty rhetoric devoid of substance. 

 'The man has no identity; he is half white, which he rejects. 

The rest of him is mostly Arab, which he hides but is disclosed by his non-African surname and his Arabic first and middle names, proclaiming his Arab parentage to people in Kenya. Only a small part of him is black African from his Luo grandmother, which he pretends he is exclusively. 

 “What he is not, what he is not even a genetic drop of, is ‘African American.’ He is not the descendent of enslaved Africans brought to the Americas chained in slave ships. He hasn’t a single ancestor who was a slave. Instead, his Arab ancestors were slave owners. They were profitable slave-trading Muslims —until the British ended it.” This is the real Barack Obama, who in their infinite wisdom the American people elected —twice." 


 "Was Jack Wheeler a racist, or was he simply making an astute observation? 

Yes. I call this Wheeler person a racist AND excruciatingly stupid.

But wait, because this Wheeler character's body was found somewhere on a trash heap, the writer connects it immediately, with no evidence whatsoever except his galloping biases, to "Chicago politics," code words for Barack Obama, since that's where he and most of his political allies came from:

 "Among a few, then, it was no surprise that Jack Wheeler’s body turned up on a trash heap. Some would describe his murder as his likely comeuppance. Others might call it Chicago politics ... the kind of gangsterism we've come to expect from Eric Holder, who sold guns to Mexican drug gangs in order to make a case against our Second Amendment rights..."


It's impossible to have a discussion with people like the person who quoted this mish-mash of bigotry, innuendo, and lies. They see Mr. Obama as an interloper who has no right to be in the White House.   

No other president has ever been subjected to a continuous assault on his birth, his  heritage, his relatives, and his ancestors.  

There is a reason for this, my friends.  

You figure it out.  

The person who wrote and quoted that pile of feculence certainly can't.



*Gobshites: h/t Charles Pierce

18 comments:

skudrunner said...

Teresa Heinz, Charlize Theron are both African American, BHO is not.

You view wheelers article as being racist instead of stating facts. The leftist attitude is don't speak of race and by not having open dialog nothing will be accomplished. If someone is against Obama, must be that they are racist instead of just believing he is totally incompetent.

How many other nationalities in this country are referred to as xx- American, can't think of any.

Shaw Kenawe said...


"How many other nationalities in this country are referred to as xx- American, can't think of any."

That's because you're biased in your research. Two seconds on Google found this:

Condoleezza Rice born November 14, 1954) is an American political scientist and diplomat. She served as the 66th United States Secretary of State, and was the second person to hold that office in the administration of President George W. Bush. Rice was the first female African-American secretary of state, as well as the second African American (after Colin Powell)..."

Clarence Thomas (born June 23, 1948) is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Succeeding Thurgood Marshall, Thomas is the second African American to serve on the Court.

And I saw an awful lot of "Irish-Americans" parading around in my neighborhood on March 17th, a neighborhood that is mostly "Italian-American."

Mr. Obama is Kenyan/African-American. The continent is Africa, just as our continent is North "America," and we refer to ourselves as "Americans," not "North Americans" even though that is more accurate. Everyone in North, Central, and South America is an "American."

But you just like to nitpick.

Wheeler's article is junk.

LOL Anonymous said...

"West Virginia paper’s anti-LGBT column wants death for ‘n*ggers, spics, kikes and wops’"


nah...they're not all racist...not at all...that's only one guy...



that we found reported...today...

but...all blacks are stupid...that's what they think...

because...they vote for the Dems...






Anonymous said...

The same garbage that SF and his buddies spew, but you let them comment here, and you comment on their blogs. Do you think you will change their minds through reasonable debate? Good luck, you are wasting your time.

Sue said...

43,830 death threats against Barack Obama in his first four years alone, if that doesn't spell RACISM I don't know what does. Surely you don't believe all those threats are because of his policies, or because he's giving all those moochers a free cell phone? Oh wait Reagan and Bush started that cell phone program! Silly me...
The racists are the Rightwing, they are multiplying like sewer rats.

Ducky's here said...

They see Mr. Obama as an interloper who has no right to be in the White House.

----
Agreed. The issue is not so much their racism but their abject fear of losing white male domination.

They see that loss as the supposed deterioration of the country. Equality and equal protection are not strong concepts with the fringe right.

And anyone speaking for those ideas is a threat.

Ducky's here said...

West Virginia racist article

The reader referenced a recent report about how the Lincoln County Board of Education had terminated lesbian teacher Kelli Burns from her job at Guyan Valley Middle School teacher after she accused board officials of forcing students to write complaints that she had tried to “turn them gay.”

“We were really glad to hear that School Board is getting rid of them queers,” the voice mail said. “The next thing is we need to get rid of all the n****rs, the spics, the kikes and the wops.”

“You know even them Catholics, they are wrong as baby eaters,” the reader continued. “We need to clear them people out and have good, white, God fearing Christians and everybody else needs to be put to death for their abominations.”

“We’ll keep Lincoln County white and right. Thank you.”

--------
Doesn't read like a racist Obama voter.

Shaw Kenawe said...



Ducky's here: "The issue is not so much their racism but their abject fear of losing white male domination."

I would call that a kind of racism. White male domination was exactly what was going on in the south in the time of slavery.

Sue: A great many of our friends on the right sometimes deliberately ignore those facts. They believe all liberals call all conservatives/teapublicans "racists" when they criticize President Obama. That's nothing more than an excuse to excuse themselves from charges of racism when the continue to question his birth, his parentage, his ancestors, anything that may reflect on who he is.

He's been a model husband and father, so they can't go after him like they did Clinton, so why not attack his legitimacy to the presidency?

There are enough low-information voters in their crowd to believe the swill they keep shoveling them.

LOL Anon,

Some attack on Mr. Obama's race by some wingnut is in the news almost every week. To my knowledge, no liberals attack Mr. Obama on his race, his parentage, his legitimacy to the presidency.

But they keep denying they're racially motivated?

Right.

Shaw Kenawe said...

Ducky, I answered your previous comment before I saw the subsequent one.

That gobshite [I truly love that word, thank you Charlie Pierce.] who is quoted in the W.Virginia article see no irony in wanting to keep LINCOLN COUNTY WHITE.

Maybe the folks in that county don't allow their citizens book larnin?

skudrunner said...

Do people refer to themselves as Irish-Americans or Greek-Americans or Jewish-Americans, Seldom if ever. Your response is what would be expected. Unless Obama was born in Kenya he is an American.

You stated that Ailes said Obama was lazy therefore Ailes is a racist. If you check your facts. it was Obama who said he was lazy so I guess Obama is a racist.

Les Carpenter said...

Linked at RN USA.

Always On Watch said...

Was Jack Wheeler a racist? I have no idea.

IMO, making observations doesn't necessarily constitute racism.

Also in my view, the complete elimination of racism will never happen. Human beings by their very nature are automatically suspicious of "the other," which can be defined differently. For example, many people are uneasy about and cruel to those who have Aspergers, autism, etc.

What matter is how we TREAT others.

As for the person in West Virginia, well, West Virginia is an entity unto itself -- as is Appalachia. I'll never forget the time that I got lost on the back roads in the mountains of East Tennessee. An old white lady dressed in a homemade feed sack garment came out of her trailer -- gun in hand and tobacco chaw in her mouth -- and her saying to me as she spat tobacco juice, "Y'all ought not to be up here." We were outsiders -- "the other." This event occurred in 2007 or so.

I've also seen prejudice from Northerners when they encounter a person with a Deep South accent. Again, "the other."

Always On Watch said...

Duck,
They see Mr. Obama as an interloper who has no right to be in the White House.

----
Agreed. The issue is not so much their racism but their abject fear of losing white male domination.

They see that loss as the supposed deterioration of the country. Equality and equal protection are not strong concepts with the fringe right.

And anyone speaking for those ideas is a threat.


Really?

Frankly, in my own lifetime, I have seen a sea change in The South with regard to racism. One example: now students read To Kill a Mockingbird as a matter of course. I do recall a time in The South when parents would not their children touch that book!

Always On Watch said...

Anonymous said:

Do you think you will change their minds through reasonable debate? Good luck, you are wasting your time.

Why do we bother to blog at all? It's an exercise in futility, but we continue to type our fingers to the bone. Our 30 seconds of fame, maybe?

Shaw Kenawe said...

AOW: "Was Jack Wheeler a racist? I have no idea.

IMO, making observations doesn't necessarily constitute racism."

Agreed. What was upsetting to read in Wheeler's piece was how it deteriorated into nothing more than a denigration of Mr. Obama's heritage and parentage. What on earth was the purpose of that.

If the conservatives ever want to run Senator Ted Cruz of Texas as president, how will they reconcile the fact that he was born to a foreign father and an American mother? Exactly the same as Mr. Obama but for one thing:

Mr. Obama was born in the United States of America; Mr. Cruz was not.

Of course Cruz can claim US citizenship, because he was born to an American mother. That's a fact. My grandson is an American citizen through his mother even though he was born in Canada to a Canadian father.

But I just wonder if the exact same slurs and suspicions on Mr. Cruz's heritage or parentage will be thrown at him by the right as were thrown at Mr. Obama.

I don't believe that will happen. Why? Because even though both men's fathers are foreign born, Cruz's father is Canadian; Obama's father was Kenyan. I'm sorry to say that's why Cruz won't suffer the same insults that Obama has.

AOW: "Why do we bother to blog at all? It's an exercise in futility, but we continue to type our fingers to the bone. Our 30 seconds of fame, maybe?"

I ask myself that all the time. But the fact that you can come here and so can other conservatives, and we can actually have civil discourse means something to me. We need to see our common humanity first; our differences second.

At least I'm hoping for that.

Always On Watch said...

Shaw,
I just wonder if the exact same slurs and suspicions on Mr. Cruz's heritage or parentage will be thrown at him by the right as were thrown at Mr. Obama.

There was a time when any "other" would have been so vilified. A time of real xenophobia -- probably many of those born around the turn of the 20th Century.

Les Carpenter said...

150 years years ago this nation still had slave states, Today we have our first two term Black American president.

My great grandmother did not have the right to vote, today we have women serving in congress and the senate, as well as secretaries of federal departments. We may see a women president in our lifetime.

Indeed as Shaw said we all need to see our common humanity and understand the universal rights that all possess by virtue of their common humanity.

Always On Watch said...

Les pointed out:

150 years years ago this nation still had slave states, Today we have our first two term Black American president.

It IS astounding, isn't it?

It seems to me that we could dwell more on the progress instead of always bemoaning what faults remain.

Sure, faults should be addressed. But browbeating people will not change their attitudes. Changing attitudes is a process; like grief, it cannot be rushed according to someone else's schedule.