Vanity Fair: No, Newt, You're the Racist

[babylonsister]

No, Newt, You're the Racist
by Michael Hogan
May 27, 2009, 4:37 PM


Newt Gingrich isn’t just a jerk, he’s a racist too.

In the heat of the moment (I hope), he today stooped to branding Sonia Sotomayor a “racist” via his Twitter feed. This is a preposterous claim, and it says more about him—and the know-nothing wing of the Republican party he would like to represent—than it does about President Obama’s Supreme Court pick, whose alleged racist crimes were to call herself a “wise Latina” with better judgment than a “white male,” and to not overturn a decision by the city of New Haven to scrap a fire department promotion test accused of disproportionately favoring white (and Hispanic) applicants.

The “wise Latina” remark was taken out of context, and at least one conservative critic, Rod Dreher, now admits he was wrong to make an issue of it. But while the fire department decision may not have been ideal, to say that it makes Sotomayor a racist is flatly absurd. Leaving aside the intricacies of the case, however, I’d like to address the common conservative refrain that proponents of affirmative action are guilty of “reverse racism.”

Now, I’m not one of those people who believes that members of minorities are by definition incapable of being racist. But I do believe that the Republican party’s endless obsession with “reverse racism” is a form of racism itself.

Let’s step back a moment.

Both Republicans and Democrats have long, ugly histories of anti-black prejudice. Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation helped turn Democrats in the South into defenders of slave-holding values.

A century later, Richard M. Nixon minted the Republican Party’s diabolical Southern Strategy, which involved courting racist voters. The strategy was so successful that the Grand Old Party is now thriving in the Deep South—even as it’s failing most everywhere else.

The fact remains, however, that today’s Republican party owes a lot more to Nixon than it does to Lincoln. Racism, which I would define broadly as the belief that some races are inferior to others (and therefore deserve to be subjugated), is still part of the program.

more...

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/politics/2009/05/no-newt-youre-the-racist.html

[Fresh_Start]

1. Are you sure its racism?

They didn't have a lot of problem embracing Alberto....
So its not the hispanic part that bothers them specifically, its the female hispanic that is so disturbing to them.

[babylonsister]

2. Judge by his words. He called the Judge a racist. He's the

former speaker. It's either racist or idiocy, and no, I'm not discounting the latter.

[Fresh_Start]

3. I realize that he said she was a racist

but its strange that he didn't have a problem with Alberto who was also proud of his heritage.

[babylonsister]

4. That (R) behind his name had everything to do with newt staying mum. nt

[Fresh_Start]

5. honestly, I'm not sure that the limit of it

I think Sotomayor is a strong woman....and that in addition to the hispanic heritage is too much.

Another post has a quote "precisely correct right race-gender two-fer" about Sotomayor's advantages....

[BirminghamExaminer]

6. Exactly. She is also being descriminated against for being female...

There is a 9 to 1 ratio of men to women on the Supreme Court. But in the United States, there are more women than men. Old white guys (read the GOP) would like to keep it that way. It's why they are always bemoaning "the good old days..." when there was no chance they could be usurped from their position at the top of the pile.

[Fresh_Start]

7. you've mirrored my thought

its being female on top of being hispanic which was too much to bear.

[nomorenomore08]

8. Because Alberto (and Condi, and Jindal, and now Michael Steele) are among "the good ones," see?

From the GOP's perspective, they're A-OK because they don't complain about racism (least of all their party's own racist tendencies), and their whole function in life is to advance the cause of the rich white conservative guys. Likewise with women like Ann Coulter, who devote a good chunk of their "commentary" to trashing other (usually Democratic) women.

Google "tokenism" and you'll see what I mean...

[burning rain]

10. I'd say Newt's moved by opportunistic desire to "turn the tables" on Democrats.

For conservatives to accuse liberals of racism is a real switcheroo and I'm sure it gives the right a naughty frisson. But whatever Newton's narrowly personal motivations, he is appealing to absurd white racial paranoia: "OMG scary black Obama found a scary Puerto Rican woman judge and OMG they're gonna put all us white folks in camps." These righties may be so wrapped up in the unhappy little world of "the base" that they don't even realize that most Americans see them as shameful.

[justgamma]

9. It wouldn't matter who Obama picked.

If it was anyone left of Scalia, they would find something to complain about. Anything will do. It's convenient for them to use race since they've been pushing their "oh poor me, I'm a threatened white male" to their base for a long time now.

[nomorenomore08]

11. Wow... the comments on this one are insane...

Here the guy writes what I saw as a very reasonable, evenhanded article, and yet 80% of the responses on the Vanity Fair site are essentially people screaming at him - not just misrepresenting what he said, which would be bad enough, but accusing him of the worst possible motives while frantically denying any hint of racist sentiment within themselves.

Maybe they're scared for a reason... :evilgrin: