Jay Bryant has an interesting analysis of racism in the ranks of the Democratic party.
Carol Mosley Braun is his first example. She is always described as the first African-American woman in the Senate. This is totally accurate. Of course, it would also be accurate to say that she was the first African-American Democrat in the Senate. Nobody ever says that but it's true. The Republicans, not doing much better, have had three African-Americans in the Senate; Hiram Revels, Blanche Kelso Bruce and Edward Brooke. Of course, the majority of African-Americans are Democrats. I think the Democrats are failing to uphold the standards of affirmative action that they require everyone else to live by. They should lead by example. If they applied affirmative action to their own party, and since about a 1/3 of all Democrats are African-American, the Senate Democrats need 12 African-American Senators. They have zero.
As Jay states in the article:
Oh, Democrats will let African-Americans serve in the House of Representatives, but only after carefully carving out black-majority, which is to say segregated, districts for them. Well, you can't expect white Democrats to vote for one of them, can you?So the Democratic Party's policy, throughout the modern, post-World War II era has been to create separate-but-equal congressional districts. Keep blacks in the ghetto – the urban plantation. The handful of African-American Republican members of Congress, by contrast, have come from suburban and rural areas, where they have been, often enthusiastically, supported by Republican voters. Moreover, whenever the Republican Party has attempted to run black candidates in black areas, they lose overwhelmingly, and this pattern holds for other offices, too.
Republicans, regardless of race, will vote for a black candidate - if that candidate is a Republican. Democrats love to play the race card against white Republicans. What Democrats do to black Republicans is even more disturbing.
...Colin Powell is insulted as a "house nigger," California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown's nomination to the Federal bench is filibustered by the same hypocrites who claim Pickering is a racist and even Condoleezza Rice is pilloried for the apostasy of having strayed off the plantation and joined the Republicans.The massahs were Democrats. The whip-toting overseers were Democrats. The Klansmen were Democrats. The filibusterers of the Civil Rights bills in the 1960's were Democrats. The liberals whose welfare-state policies destroyed families in post- Great Society inner cities were Democrats. That such a party gets to claim the allegiance of so many African-American voters is one of the great con jobs of all time.
Indeed.
Hat Tip:No Watermelons Allowed
The Kennedy family ripped Brooke apart, too.
In fact, Brooke were regularly reviled by those folks as an Uncle Tom, a Coon who sucked up to the man, and all the other stuff that Democrats so routinely and vilely say about black Republicans.
I grew up part of my life in Chicago, and part of it in the South, and Chicago to this day is the most racist place I've ever been in America. Even then, it was obvious how the Democratic machine worked: darkies needed to know their place and keep it and, if they did, they'd be fed scraps that the Democratic machine would feed them. Any black who stepped out of line would instantly be called an Uncle Tom and a traitor and a sellout.
Racism is today's Democratic Party's biggest problem--rendered all the more profound for their inability to acknowledge it, and to instead blame hapless Republicans for every bad thing that ever happens.
It's the sickest poison in today's political system, it really is. Democrats' self-righteousness, their shameless willingness to vilely attack any black person who dares to refuse to toe the party line, is truly breathtaking to behold.
"Southern strategy" my ass. Democrats need to clean house on this, they really do. But you can't fix a problem if you don't first acknowledge that it exists.
"...Colin Powell is insulted as a "house nigger,"
Yes, a democrat said that but he was quickly dismissed and beaten down. That's like saying David Duke's views are typical of Southern Republicans. Too harsh? Let's try fucknut Falwell or nutfuck Robertson. How about Bob Jones? All of these nutless wonders all opposed interracial marriage at one point in their adult lives.
That is an incredibly ridiculous view, especially considering Powell strongly supports affirmative action.
Rosemary, which credible democrats hold that opinion? John Edwards, Gephardt, Dean, The Clintons, Kerry, Lieberman, Gore? Hmmm. Didn't think so.
You paint a picture that insinuates that the majority of dems are racists - boo!
You know who rails against Powell - the religious right (what's left of them).
You want to talk about racism, let's talk about the civil rights movement and who opposed it. I don't think any republican wants to go there.
Give me a friggin break. Bush used MLK Jr. day to oppose affirmative action in Michigan. Coincidence? I think not. If Colin Powell and Rice support affirmative action, what the hell?
You want to talk about racism, let's talk about the civil rights movement and who opposed it. I don't think any republican wants to go there.
The filibusterers of the Civil Rights bills in the 1960's were Democrats.
Bush used MLK Jr. day to oppose affirmative action in Michigan.
No, he used MLK day to talk about ending quota based discrimination and the Supreme Court AGREED. They struck down the quota policy at UM. Discrimination policy is not what affirmative action is supposed to be is it?
You wanna tit for tat. Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Maxine Waters - you wanna play the who's got more racist assholes game? Give me a break.
You paint a picture that insinuates that the majority of dems are racists - boo!
I didn't paint it. I just displayed what is there.
Dixiecrats opposed the civil rights act. Geez. It was northern liberal democrats that forced the civil rights issue.
Jackson, Sharpton, Waters??! I said credible. I should have clarified - mainstream dems don't hold the view portrayed.
"Rosemary's World: We distort, you decide."
Rosemary, I'll save you the energy.
"Tim, grow up you immature eel pimp."
Tim,
The problem is that Jackson, Sharpton and Waters are mainstream Democrats....meanwhile, the GOP equivalent of these batshit lunatics is David Duke, completely reviled by the Republican Party even to the point where the GOP actively campaigned for the varied Democrats who ran against him....
Mark, if you think us dems believe that, and you believe it as well, I've got some property on the lunar surface to sell you.
You see Mark, you WANT the public to believe that Sharpton, Waters, and Jackson are mainstream, that way conservatives can point and say, "look at those pathetic race-card-playing democrats!"
Sorry, no sale. Try something else like Bush's new environmental slogan: No Tree Left Behind.
Tim,
Let's add BillCosby to your anti-interracial marrage group; look it up. Sorry I can't remember the issue date, it was an interview in Jet magazine.
Isn't Sharpton running for some office or something????
Isn't Jesse Jackson stumping for Clark?
You might wanna let ol' Wes know that Bill Clinton's confidant and minister pal, Jesse Jackson isn't mainstream...
Isn't Maxine Waters a pretty powerful Congresswoman in the Congressional Black Caucus? Does she not make men like Lieberman kiss her ring?
Pat Robertson ran for office. Does that make him a mainstream republican? Between Jackson and Falwell, I'll take Jackson and Sharpton before I'd side with the wingnut from the right.
But I'll agree, Alan Keyes IS crazy!
But I'll agree, Alan Keyes IS crazy!
Racist!!!!!
Trivia time:
Which political figure obtained the release of American Soldiers captured by the Serbs?
Hint: his initials are J.J.
As a Soldier, he's solid in my book. Newt couldn't release himself from a case of hemerroids.
TIM: "you WANT the public to believe that Sharpton, Waters, and Jackson are mainstream"
I'm a good little republican. But let me assure you that I DON'T want Sharpton to be mainstream. What a horrible nightmare! But, there he is on the DemoPresNomineeDebates as a potential nominee. Republicans weren't the ones that made that freak "mainstream". Heaven forbid! Even if he doesn't get the nomination, it does NO American any good that we are exposed to that man. For the life of me, I can't figure out how he's avoided jail time for fraud.
Trivia time:
Which political figure referred to Jews as hymies and New York as Hymietown?
Hint: his initials are J.J.
You're never gonna admit when you're wrong are you?
(The last trivia question made me spit my coke out. I'll be cleaning my keyboard now.)
Tim:
Oh yeah, the filibusterers of the Civil Rights bills in the 1960's were Democrats.
Robert Byrd(D, WV)led the filibuster. He was no Dixicrat. You know Byrd - he's conscience of the Senate...
Just because you don't like how it looks doesn't mean that I'm wrong.
Read my post slowly. Can you on the merits prove that I'm wrong? No, all you do is say well you guys are worse. That isn't proving me wrong that is DENIAL.
Tim,
Dodge, weave....thats our Democrats; you guys should start up a dodge ball league...Rosemary has hit most of the salient points; you can't escape the fact that while our crazy aunts are kept far, far away from the Party limelight, yours get prime-time speaking slots...how you gonna keep Sharpton from speaking at the convention? Oh, you'll try to push him to 5pm or 11pm...but he'll shout "racism" and you'll cave....
Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad...the Democrats are plain and simple crazy, and entirely out of the mainstream...but given that you're all lunatics, this makes Jesse Jackson part of your mainstream....
this is exactly the kind of name-calling that proves the mainstream has no idea what black politics is all about nor what african american voters are interested in.
you're going to talk about a fillibuster over 35 years ago? you may as well be talking about battles in the korean war.
I admit I have no idea what black politics is all about. How can I? I'm not black. I have no idea what it is to be black. I only know what it is to be an american. I know when something is wrong and when I see it, I say it.
I will not let an attack go unanswered. To do so is admitting defeat. Even if the attack is a 39 year old filibuster or equating the sitting president to a long dead Nazi. I won't let that crap fly. Sorry.
Cobb,
Case in point, there is no "black politics"....a certain segment of the United States population wants very badly for there to be "black politics", because for a disparate collection of white racists, white liberals and black race-hustlers this makes things very swell indeed...for Americans, and Americans who happen to be black in particular, the net effect of this attempt to artificially create what isn't there is bad all around.
There is politics - which is the rough working out among the varied interests of Americans as individuals and groups of how things shall be. A black lawyer in Atlanta has just about zero community of interest with a black unemployed construction worker in Los Angeles - the black lawyer has much more affinity, in politics, with other lawyers and members of the professional class, regardless of race, then he has with people with whom he shares nothing in common other than skin color. Saying there is black politics is just like saying there is Irish politics in the United States...in artificial, hot-house climates where its enforced, there is a thing which may be called Irish politics, but it doesn't help anyone other than a few micks on the make...it doesn't actually exist; I have nothing in common with my fellow Noonans who live in Boston, regardless of the fact that we've got common ancestors buried in a churchyard in Kanturk, Ireland. My interests are united with all men and women who are of middle-class background in the United States...boiled down, when you ask, you'll find that a black man, an asian man, a white man and a Pacific Islander man of my social status have pretty much the same aims and interests vis a vis politics.
Tim,
Let's say the filibuster is irrelevant (except in the case of guys who are still in Congress) AND Nixon's southern strategy is irrelevant. Same time period, right? Now go explain to Democrats that they can't complain about Nixon, OK?
Tim is wrong on the merits of his own argument for many reasons including that Robertson ran but lost, while Jackson and Lee are congresswomen. More importantly, compare Duke and Sharpton. Does anyone believe that Duke would be allowed in the Republican presidential cadidate debates? The very idea is absurd.
But to prove Rosemary's assertions I wouldn't even get into that analysis. Take a more general approach. Democrats have absoilutely no compunction with claiming racism (or sexism) based on disparate representation or results. They make such accusations constantly including of NFL coaches, business CEO's, college students, and (most recently) book reviewers in the NYT.
This analysis is so irrefutable (to Democrats) that we set aside the 14th amendment to the constitution to rectify the underlying issue. How is it that suddenly the same evidence is deemed insufficient for purposes of identifying racism in the Democratic party?
This is why I have pretty much stopped trying to talk to people like Tim; they're so busy chanelling an alternate reality you can't communicate with them, unless you smoke the right weed.
Everything the liberal/Democrats think, say, or do is always right, and they do so for all right-thinking people. They are 100% pure of heart, noble of mein, and without ulterior motive.
Conservative/Republicans, on the other hand, are firmly in league with the forces of evil private corporations, whose master plan it is to force the entire world into environment-raping slavery.
Feh.
i think you're all missing a very basic point. rosemary claims that in order for democrats to fight for equality, they should have quotas on elected office. umm...maybe you didn't know that senators are elected? by people? it's not like democrats are going around handing the spots to people. if a black democrat ran for a senate position in a primary against a white democrat, i don't think anyone could claim to already know what the outcome would be, simply because it wasn't an "all-black" district.
democrats may not have a great track record involving race in the past, but i've certainly been flamed for digging up the uncomfortable past before, so i don't feel guilty flaming you now for it. it doesn't matter if dixiecrats opposed civil rights bills in the 60s, what matters is what party represents black voters, regardless of that representative's color. to insinuate that in order to fight for minority issues one must be themselves a minority, and thus by extension because republicans have more black senators they more accurately represent black voters is preposterous. not that i particularly agree with quota-based affirmative action, but at least democrats are willing to acknowledge that there's a race problem in this country and are trying to do something about it.
meaning-altering typo in my above post: the sentence should read "...what matters is what party represents black voters *today*..."
apologies.
Don't fret, its the same in the UK. The Tories are alledged to be sexist, racist etc. Yet the Tories had the first Jewish PM in the form of Disreali, as well as the first Asian MP (in like the 20s) and of course the first woman PM in the form of Margaret Thatcher. Oh yes and there was that PM born of an American mother...you know the famous one from WWII?
They have women, non-white, gay and other "minority' politicians and have done. Why don't they get credit for it? Because they don't use quotas, enforced candidates or patronising rhetoric to get these people ahead.
"Channeling an alternate reality..."
Now who is smoking the wacky weed. What I stated was that Rosemary's post strongly suggested that Democrats, AS A WHOLE, think of Colin Powell as "a house nigger."
She is about 99.5% wrong! Show me more than three elected people in congress or the senate that have made that statement about Powell. In fact, show me one that has said that on the record. Hmmm...Even if you show me one, you're still 99% wrong.
And don't bring up Waters, Jackson, and Sharpton, because for every one of our lunatics, the GOP has its own. It's the axiom of fringe politics: For every right wing nutjob there is an equal opposite leftwing nutjob. You know, to balance the whole thing.
Casey, your loss dude.
Let us be very clear. My post was about a lot more than Colin Powell. Also, I never said anything about Colin Powell. That was a quote from the article I linked that you didn't read.
When something is indented that way it is a quote.
What is going to be even sweeter is if the GOP nominates and elects a black senator from Georgia and a Hispanic senator from Florida.
"What is going to be even sweeter is if the GOP nominates and elects a black senator from Georgia and a Hispanic senator from Florida."
That sounds like affirmative action to me. I have had it with racism, the "race card", quotas, affirmative action, "if you dare to oppose me on any issue you're a racist!", all of that. We need to talk more about race? We need to _stop_ talking about race! "Kerosine Maxine", David DuKKKe (now anti-Israel), that whole bunch, all the race-demogogues, I've had it with them.
The GOP (led by certain bloggers) properly slapped down Trent Lott when he eulogized Strom Thurmond's segregationist campaign (little did any of us know that it was Thurmond's own Negro daughter that he was barring from swimming pools and restaurants!). They should continue to do so, not use racism _or- reverse-racism for their own purposes.
Mark Noonan has a point about class and region being more salient than race in America. As Jim Goad points out in his "The Redneck Manifesto", poor blacks have more in common with poor whites than with any other group. And I must say that among those commonalities is a certain proneness to bigotry against any other minority perceived to be above them in wealth or intellect, whether that elite be Asians, Jews, or homosexuals. There is a despicable movement now to whip up hatred against homosexuals among black people. I'm against that!
Tyron Garner is against it, too, of course.