BCT “news” article – 9/10/12

Below is a detailed critique of portions of this column.

“Is it because he’s black?”

[RWC] This is an amazing piece of work.  As you read the subject article, keep in mind it appeared on the front page of the BCT, in the “news” section.

Let’s do a hypothetical exercise.  What if someone assembled a platform of leftist policies, programs, et cetera with no politician attached and then asked a group of real conservatives if they supported that platform?  Would any of the conservatives support the platform?  No.  Likewise, leftists would never support a conservative platform.

Ideologically, President Obama and conservatives are 180° apart.  Amazingly, though, instead of investigating why less than 100% of Democrats support Mr. Obama, Mr. Washington investigates why conservatives don’t support Mr. Obama.  I wonder when Mr. Washington will investigate “whether race fuels opposition to” minority conservatives.

Please read my paper “Lefty race baiters.”

“The question of whether race fuels opposition to President Barack Obama has become one of the most divisive topics of the election.  It is sowing anger and frustration among conservatives who are labeled racist simply for opposing Obama’s policies and liberals who see no other explanation for such deep dislike of the president.”

[RWC] Keep in mind the same people “who see no other explanation for such deep dislike of the president” are the same people who had/have Bush Derangement Syndrome and demonized Mr. Bush 24/7 throughout his presidency and beyond.  Democrats routinely referred to Mr. Bush as Hitler and let’s also not forget the books, movies, and plays that described the assassination of Mr. Bush.

You may recall all “concerns” about Mr. Obama’s skin color came from Democrats - not the right - during the 2008 Democrat primary.  Heck, a lefty pundit wrote an article entitled “Obama the ‘Magic Negro’.”  And when did the “birther” movement start?  Yep, you guessed it; Hillary Clinton supporters started the birth certificate stuff during the Democrat primary campaign.  Other than as a figment of the left’s imagination, Mr. Obama’s skin color was not an issue during the general election, except perhaps for black voters.  National exit polls indicated 96% of black voters voted for Mr. Obama.  Why isn’t nearly unanimous support of Mr. Obama by black voters “one of the most divisive topics of the election?”

“It is an accusation almost impossible to prove, yet it remains inseparable from the African-American experience.  The idea, which seemed to die in 2008 when Obama became the first black president, is now rearing its head from college campuses to cable TV as the Democratic incumbent faces Mitt Romney, the white Republican challenger.”

[RWC] According to lefty author Toni Morrison, Mr. Obama is not “the first black president.”  In 1998, Ms. Morrison referred to then-President Clinton as “our first black president.  Blacker than any actual black person who could ever be elected in our children’s lifetime.”  For those who care, Ms. Morrison is black.

“Four years after an election that inspired hopes of a post-racial future, there are signs that political passions are dragging us backward.”

[RWC] It didn’t take four years.  Within days of the 2008 election, a local, self-described “surly-progressive” pundit started peddling his position that opposition to Mr. Obama is the result of racism.  A few days before that election you were guilty only of “fear and ignorance” if you didn’t “do the right thing.”  Other examples of the racism smear are here and here.

“‘We’re at a tipping point,’ said Susan Glisson, director of the Institute for Racial Reconciliation at the University of Mississippi.  ‘But I don’t know which way we’re going to tip.’

“Glisson knows that many conservatives disagree with Obama solely because of his policies.  ‘But I am also quite certain that there are others who object to the president because of his race, because they have a fear of blacks that is embedded in our culture,’ she said.”

[RWC] Please, name for me a true conservative who would not object to Mr. Obama’s policies?  If there are any questions, they should be 1) why would a conservative support a leftist president, and 2) why don’t many Democrats support Mr. Obama?

It may come as a shock to Mr. Washington and Ms. Glisson, but not all Democrats voted for Mr. Obama in 2008.  Despite Democrats holding a 2-to-1 voter registration advantage over Republicans in Beaver County, John McCain (50.6%) beat Barack Obama (47.5%) in Beaver County in 2008.  As I mentioned above, shouldn’t these people investigate the reasons why Democrats don’t support Mr. Obama?

“Her conclusion is based on something called ‘implicit bias’_ prejudices that people don’t realize they have.”

[RWC] Translation: White conservatives are racists even if they don’t know it.  That begs the question, what about minority conservatives?

“Studies show that due to longstanding negative stereotypes about African-Americans _ which give such false impressions as most black people are dangerous, unintelligent or prefer welfare to work _ many people harbor anti-black biases yet don’t even know it.  Such unconscious biases, the studies show, are present in people of all backgrounds, not just whites.”

[RWC] “I hate to admit it, but I have reached a stage in my life that if I am walking down a dark street late at night and I see that the person behind me is white, I subconsciously feel relieved.” – Jesse Jackson as quoted by Larry Elder in FrontPageMagazine.com article of September 4, 1999.

“‘Our history has created this unconscious bias,’ said Gail Christopher, vice president of program strategy for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, which has funded research on the subject.  ‘Now we need to create safe places to discuss and educate people about unconscious bias, where we are not blaming and shaming them.’”

[RWC] Translation: Conservatives must be sent to reeducation camps to cleanse them of the racism they don’t know they have.

“Those safe places generally do not include the political arena.

“‘Every time they say, ‘We want our country back,’ I know what that means,’ Susan Bankston, a white Democratic National Convention delegate from Richmond, Texas, said at the gathering last week.”

[RWC] I’m not a fan of the various “take back our country” slogans regardless of who uses them.  Ms. Bankston seems to forget this was a Democrat slogan during both the 2006 and 2008 elections.  Did Ms. Bankston question the slogan then, or is it only an issue when used by the right?

“‘You recognize it when every time the Republicans with their own convention refer to him by his first name, Barack Obama.  He’s President Barack Obama,’ said Patt Sanders, a delegate from Englewood, Calif., who is black.”

[RWC] Seriously?  I wonder if Ms. Sanders got upset when she read this article and found its author referred to “Obama,” not “President Barack Obama.”  And who cares if Ms. Sanders “is black?”  Does Ms. Sanders’ skin color make her statement less or more ridiculous?

“Such logic inspired James Taranto, a conservative Wall Street Journal columnist, to write: ‘Every comment from a Republican can be translated, through a process of free association, to: ‘We don’t like black people.’”

[RWC] This reminded me of a character in the movie Undercover Brother.  Conspiracy Brother (played by Dave Chappelle) routinely goes into a rant because he believes everyday words and phrases (like “good morning”) have racist roots/meanings.  Finally, the title character (played by Eddie Griffin) asks, “Hey, uh, brother.  Can I get a list of the words that trigger these fits?”  The element of truth is what makes this funny.

“At their convention, Republicans made sure to show that the GOP does like black people, showcasing speeches by black and Latino conservatives.  Two attendees who threw peanuts at a black camerawoman while commenting ‘this is what we feed animals’ were swiftly ejected and denounced by GOP organizers.”

[RWC] In case you missed it, the first sentence implied the GOP trotted out token “black and Latino conservatives.”  Among the “token” minorities (not all of whom spoke at the convention) are U.S. Rep. Allen West (R-FL), Governor Bobby Jindal (R-LA), Governor Nikki Haley (R-SC), U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Lynn Swann (former candidate for PA governor), Michael Steele (former Maryland Lt. Governor), Ken Blackwell (former Ohio Sec. of State), Condoleezza Rice (former U.S. Sec. of State and National Security Advisor), U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, U.S. Rep. candidate Mia Love (R-UT), Governor Susana Martinez (R-NM), and on and on.  Heck, the GOP even went the extra mile and had a “token” black Republican National Committee chairman (Michael Steele) for two years.  Are we to believe Democrats appointed/elected these Republicans?

Regarding the CNN camerawoman incident, this doesn’t smell right.  From what I can tell, no one bothered to pursue the story to find out who these people were.  The lefty media especially, and CNN in particular, should have been all over this.  Here’s my guess.  The right was afraid these guys were really Republicans while the left was afraid they were lefty plants.

“On television, MSNBC host Chris Matthews unleashed an emotional rant at Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, accusing Romney of appealing to anti-black bias with welfare ads and a joke about claims that Obama is not an American citizen.”

[RWC] Sure to make Conspiracy Brother (see above) proud, Mr. Matthews and a fellow MSNBCer also claimed mentioning Mr. Obama in connection with “Chicago” (his home) or “golf” (He plays golf.) is “racist” or “racial code.”

“The actor Alec Baldwin simply tweeted: ‘If Obama was white, he’d be up by 17 points.’”

[RWC] To the contrary, if Mr. Obama were white, Hillary Clinton would be President.  If by some miracle a white Barack Obama did get elected, his record would have him down “by 17 points.”  You may recall Mr. Baldwin once called his 11-year-old daughter a “thoughtless little pig.”

“Said former President Bill Clinton in his speech to the Democratic convention: ‘Though I often disagree with Republicans, I actually never learned to hate them the way the far right that now controls their party seems to hate our president and a lot of other Democrats.’”

[RWC] Sure.

“All of this is maddening to people like Dan Joseph, a 33-year-old white conservative from northern Virginia.

“Joseph is too young to remember past GOP appeals to racial bias, such as Richard Nixon’s ‘Southern strategy,’ Ronald Reagan’s ‘welfare queens’ rhetoric and George H.W. Bush’s infamous Willie Horton ad.  He believes Obama should have done more to promote economic growth.”

[RWC] The so-called “southern strategy” idea makes no sense.  What did the Republican Party have to offer racist southern Democrats?  After all, Republicans had/have a far stronger record regarding equal rights for all than do Democrats.  Is there one example of a Nixon/Republican policy that was remotely racist?  Is there any policy opposed by Republicans but supported by Democrats that truly helped minorities?

Do you know what else the mythological “southern strategy” did?  It conveniently allowed Democrats to claim the “bad” Democrats had moved to the Republican Party and thus cleansed the Democrat party of its racism.

Democrats planted the idea the so-called “southern strategy” was race-based because they refused to admit why they lost the 1968 presidential election.  Democrats claim that Mr. Nixon’s – and Barry Goldwater’s before him – endorsement for states’ rights was a signal of support – or “code words” – for racism and segregation.  Lyndon Johnson declined to run, and Hubert Humphrey lost, because Americans lost confidence that Democrats could successfully prosecute the Vietnam War and get the United States out.  It was that simple.

Mr. Reagan’s “welfare queens” comments had nothing to do with race and Mr. Washington knows it.

Regarding the “infamous Willie Horton ad,” Mr. Washington probably would not like us to know Al Gore initially brought up this issue, not Mr. Bush.  Mr. Gore used the issue against Michael Dukakis during the 1988 Democrat primary, though he apparently didn’t mention Mr. Horton by name.  In case you don’t know, Willie Horton was a convicted murderer serving a life sentence in a Massachusetts prison without possibility of parole.  Incredibly, Mr. Horton was released on weekend furlough and did not return (surprise, surprise).  About 10 months later, Mr. Horton raped a Maryland woman twice and beat and knifed her fiancé.  Mr. Dukakis was Massachusetts governor at the time and supported (but did not initiate) the furlough program.  That said, Mr. Dukakis vetoed a bill that would have excluded first-degree murderers from the furlough program.  The reason this topic came up was Mr. Dukakis tried to run on his experience in the justice system and he mentioned the furlough program as a positive.

“Yet Joseph is often called a racist when he discusses politics.  This inspired him to film a satirical video, ‘Bob is a Racist’ (http://bit.ly/SrvPAW), which lays bare the frustration of many conservatives.”

[RWC] As with Undercover Brother, the video works because of the element of truth.  A few years ago, someone took offense at a collections office being described as a “black hole” for traffic tickets.

“‘Things have changed a lot since the 1980s,’ Joseph, a video journalist for a conservative media group, said in an interview.  ‘I don’t think food stamps equals blacks.  We don’t want people to be on food stamps, black or white.’

“So how many conservatives are truly biased against black people?  ‘I don’t know,’ Joseph said.  ‘But it’s hard to figure out when one side is assuming that it’s everywhere.’”

[RWC] “So how many [leftists] are truly biased against black people?”  I’m not a betting guy, but I’d bet leftists “biased against black people” greatly outnumber conservatives.

“It’s not everywhere, acknowledges Courtland Milloy, a black columnist for The Washington Post.  In a recent dispatch, Milloy described a widespread belief among some black Washingtonians that Republicans are using race against Obama.”

[RWC] Note the lack of examples.

“‘But there unquestionably is racism in some of the opposition,’ Milloy said in an interview.  ‘And it should not just be up to black people to identify it and have to deal with it.  This is an American problem.  It’s not just a black problem.’

“That can be difficult for folks who don’t see a problem.  Joseph, for one, doesn’t buy the foundational idea of unconscious bias, that America remains afflicted by a racist past.  ‘You get in the real world, and I just don’t see it,’ he said.

“For him, the bottom line is simple: ‘I know I’m not a racist, and the conservatives I know aren’t racist.’

“The perils of potential offense can be everywhere.  Glisson, director of the racial reconciliation institute, recalls a recent meeting with an unfamiliar group of people, including some African-Americans, and telling them about a good location for a professional retreat.

“Then Glisson, who is white, mentioned that the location had excellent fried chicken.

“She immediately sensed a change in the atmosphere: ‘They didn’t know that I love fried chicken.’  It’s a common occurrence: a statement that can be interpreted either way.

“Evan Woodson, a black student at Oklahoma State University, often hears other black people call something racist that he sees as benign: ‘People seriously act as if whitey is still out to get them in 2012 in Stillwater, Okla.  I don’t think that’s the case anymore.’

“Woodson does believe that the legacies of slavery and Jim Crow still create disadvantages for African-Americans.  But when it comes to politics, he sees racial transgressions from both parties, such as Vice President Joe Biden telling black people that Republicans ‘want to put y’all back in chains.’

“‘No matter how you cut it, politicians constantly seem to be accusing the other party of racism,’ Woodson said, and that prevents people from having honest conversations about actual racism.  ‘People can’t identify real racism anymore.  They’re lost in all the race-baiting.’

“Even when racism was a raw fact of American life, it wasn’t always easy to identify.  ‘Something is holding me back / I wonder, is it because I’m black?’  Syl Johnson sang in the haunting 1970 soul classic, ‘Is It Because I’m Black?’ (http://bit.ly/QpEmx7).

“In an interview, Johnson, now 76, said his song was inspired by a twisted saga of land stolen from his family in 1930s Mississippi.  He said the song remains relevant today because, he believes, Obama’s blackness is indeed holding him back.

“And yet: ‘Everyone that’s white ain’t no bigot,’ Johnson said.  ‘Otherwise Obama never woulda become president.’”

[RWC] Keep this in mind.  If Mr. Obama loses, it can’t be blamed on conservatives because we didn’t vote for him in 2008.  If Mr. Obama loses, it will be because people who voted for him in 2008 did not vote for him in 2012.  Does that make them racists?