Do we at DU call this administration on its racism enough?

[senseandsensibility]

This administration is blatantly, disgustingly racist. It's "in your face" racist. I know it. You know it. But we don't seem to mention it very often. We should be screaming from the rooftops!! The media will never even hint at it if we don't become very explicit in our criticism. It needs to be spoon fed to the public.

I have my own infuriating examples of the * administration's racism. Their use of high-profile sell-outs like Condi and Colin as window dressing particularly galls me. Fortunately, most black people, I think, see them for what they are.

But that's just the tip of the iceberg. Let's make a list, and when we see it all on one page, let's use it for inspiration!

What example of * racism would you like to share?

[laura888]

1. spreading the idea that there is no difference between...

...9/11 hijackers and Iraqis. It encourages a racist type of thinking, that all brown-skinned people who live in the middle east are terrorists.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

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[candy]

3. How long have you been in the USA?

[Name removed]

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[The Backlash Cometh]

7. And how can you reach that conclusion, when Bush announced

loud and clear that he was planning to give immunity to illegal Mexican aliens?

[Name removed]

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[The Backlash Cometh]

15. Actually, Bush and his buddies would love to exploit illegal aliens.

Cheap labor means bigger profits for the jefe. I can't say I know what Kerry's position is on illegal aliens. In fact, I don't think the Democrats have come out and stated one. Immigration policy is pretty established in this country, and my guess is a real illegal alien who has the capability of finding his way to the internet, can also use the search engines and verify whatever some fellows downtown may have told him.

[gollygee]

16. This smells funny to me

if you're an illegal alien, you don't vote. How many people do you know and have influence over who vote?

This sounds like a freeper suggestion that Dems hang around and lie to people, or even pay them money, to get them to vote for Dems.

[The Backlash Cometh]

19. Shhh... go away. I'm having fun ferreting him out.

[gollygee]

22. Sorry!

Didn't mean to spoil your fun!

[The Backlash Cometh]

25. LOL

:-)

Go ahead and give an alert. He's taking too long to respond. I was going to give him points for having an English-Spanish dictionary handy, but I don't think he's going to get them.

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. Who wants to place bets this one has never been to

Guadalajara?

Before I get a little too flippant, define the parameters of "here."

[Solly Mack]

6. I wondered the same thing. "here"

[Name removed]

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[The Backlash Cometh]

11. Well, I've never seen a spell checker that was able to differentiate

between homonyms. Mighty fine spell checker you have there. You might want to try marketing it.

[Name removed]

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[The Backlash Cometh]

18. Tu manera de poner juntas las palabras gramaticas no es

consistente con alguien que sabe el espanol como primer lenguaje.

[FizzFuzz]

26. lol!--looks like you ferreted pretty damn good!

I love that coup de grace...using fluent Spanish.
Maybe he no comprende? (I don't know Spanish, FTR)

[senseandsensibility]

30. Hey! I actually understood that!

I've been trying to learn Spanish for a year by watching novelas on TV, and I think it's working!

[The Backlash Cometh]

31. LOL!

I really wish American t.v. series would understand the definition of commitment. Good stories have a beginning, a middle and an end.

[senseandsensibility]

33. Exactly!

Are you a fan of the novelas too?

[The Backlash Cometh]

35. Fond memories of my youth.

Sat with my grandmother, my mom or the maids to watch it every night. But it's soo long ago. Most people won't remember Simplemente Maria and Pinina.

[senseandsensibility]

36. You should try

Amor Real, the one running on Univision currently. Corny and probably not at all historically accurate, but gripping nonetheless. :-)

[Name removed]

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[babylonsister]

12. Perhaps you should check out WHO

was primarily disenfranchised in Ohio? Which voting precincts, etc.?

[gollygee]

14. You don't remember much about his primary campaign

when he was running against John McCain, do you?

[bliss_eternal]

17. Let's see where should I start...

How about when he was campaigning for office he seemed to need to 'bring ethnic minorities' on stage with him as if to say "look I'm not a racist." That's a red flag for me, whenever someone needs to say look how many 'black, asian, mexican, gay' whatever friends I have-- something isn't right there.

How about the fact that during the debates when Kerry spoke of the inequalities that still exist in this country for ethnic minorities, women, etc. shrub didn't have a damned thing to say?

How about his scripted comments from the other day from the C-span covered meeting about social security? His comments about black men dying sooner than other men? The fact that he so obviously didn't have a clue what the hell he was talking about and was very uncomfortable even discussing it?

The fact that he has no problem at all bombing the hell out of a country that is primarily populated with 'brown people?'

The fact that he and his administration have mad it clear that they don't give a damn about anyone under a certain earning bracket? Who does that affect? Let's think about that for a moment?

[mtnsnake]

20. You don't have to look any further than all the racists who voted for Bush

and that's probably more than half the morons who voted for the puke.

[SmokingJacket]

21. I agree with you. However...

people are VERY sensitive about racism. Accusing the Bushes of it -- while IMHO very fair -- will polarize people even more. I think that's why a lot of people stay away from the issue.

Making more specific accusations -- say, pointing out the fact that blacks were disproportionately challenged at polling places -- is probably a better tactic.

(What really disgusts me is the out-and-out racism of their talking head/hate radio/hate journalist mouthpieces! They're doing the dirty work for Bush, who gets to have Rice and Powell around to shield him from accusations of racism.)

[Name removed]

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[SmokingJacket]

28. Not that I'm worried about winning an election at the moment.

:eyes:

[FizzFuzz]

24. might be a productive angle to use, to force some attention.

I kind of think that there are only two kinds of scandal that will register with the media enough for them to actually do their journalistic duty and get out their media megaphones. They have to be spectacular enough to register in the minds of blinded and hypnotized masses of News-fo-tainment gulping people.

The first is a sex scandal, but only one involving salacious details and involving the very top leaders (preferably with
each other. Stained clothing in custody would be best of all). hmm, however, this happened to Dil dO'Reilly, and it hasn't dented his career, so maybe I'm missing something. It only works against Democrats? Hmmmm, gotta think more......

Well, anyway, on to my next thought-jumble:

<WARNING! COMPLETELY UNRESEARCHED SPECULATION AHEAD. PLEASE PROCEED WITH A GRAIN OF SALT. WHACK ME (gently please) IF I'VE MADE STUPID ASSUMPTIONS>
The second is evidence of racism, preferably violent and only perpetrated by top leaders against Black People--and, it can't be sexual against a woman, because that would open the event to operatives blaming it on her, and then everything would be lost!

I know this sounds like I'm skating on thin ice, but IMHO, the Civil Rights movement and MLK, plus the national walking on eggshells in the late 70's, 80's and 90's were the general population struggling to come to terms with black people demanding to be seen as people, and with adopting some respect (or at least some political correctness. Or in the case of die-hard bigots, being forced to hide their hate, until now, when they gained permission to openly hate provided by our current admin).

This change was only focused on WHITE people's need to change their thinking towards BLACK people (specifically men, but that's a speculation for another day). Therefore, not much work was done on realizing that Civil Rights means EVERYONE's Civil Rights. Other groups than black men have not achieved personhood yet, in the mass consciousness. So, harm done to them does not engender much outrage.

********
OK, that was my off-the-cuff theorizing, from my limited perspective. No expertise involved at all--am I way far off?

[jackson]

27. There are MANY examples of the Bush administration's racism.

Just this week, during a "town hall" meeting on Jan. 11 in Washington, D.C., before an audience of many African Americans, Bush made some condescending and stereotypical, if not outright racist, remarks. The comments came a few days before Martin Luther King Day, no less.

In outlining his plan to rob the Social Security trust fund to reward wealthy Wall Street campaign contributors with billions in new fees and investment funds, Bush said that "a personal savings account….will compound over time and grow over time; a personal savings account……can't be used to bet on the lottery, or a dice game, or the track."

So Bush thinks all African Americans – or “negroes,” as his kind calls them in private, if not to their faces - waste their money on dice games and the betting tracks, huh?

At another point, Bush made a reference to how blacks should like the change to Social Security since African American males die sooner than other groups and they can pass their accounts to their kids. He also said "the system is inherently unfair to a certain group of people. And that needs to be fixed."

But Bush’s fix is not to help provide better education, training and jobs to blacks, or allow more African Americans to have health insurance. His solution to the problem is "personal savings accounts." How out of touch can he be?

A transcript of Bush’s remarks is at http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050111/dctu050_
1.html

I was alterted to this by Jon Stewart of the Daily Show.

There are many more examples. I wrote a column for alternet on the subject in 2003 - it's still online at http://www.alternet.org/story/14918

I also wrote a chapter on the subject in the book, Big Bush Lies, released last summer. So this is a racist administration - they try to paint a good image but underneath they are jim crow racists and homophobic.

[senseandsensibility]

29. Wow! An author!

I'm sorry, but I'm not familiar with your work. We have many distinguished people on DU! I was going to welcome you to DU, but I saw that you've been a member since 2002! Please post more often! I'm going to go check out your work at alternet.

Do you happen to remember all the faux paux that * made last year around MLK's birthday? They were really alarmingly crude and plentiful, as I recall. I think he uses such occasions to send messages to his base.

[MisterP]

34. the "I can't wait to hang it" comment with the MLK painting was in '02, I

recall

[senseandsensibility]

39. Oh! I haven't even heard about that one!

Please share! I was thinking about the time he visited MLK's birthplace on his b-day for a fundraiser, and didn't even mark the occasion although he was right there. I may have some details wrong.

[MisterP]

40. I remember! I remember the monkey trotting to the grave, fumbling with the

wreath, and getting booed. Then running off to some Klansman's Brunch or whatever.
The year before, Banana Breath had received a painting of King and, in front of Coretta, said, "I can't wait to hang it."

[SmokingJacket]

32. Great essay! nt

[ErinGoBraghLess]

37. Racism on daily basis

I have a tough question and an uncomfortable admission. If I am walking down the street at night in the city and there is a group of young black men walking toward me wearing something like Raiders jackets, I have been known to cross to the other side. I am a white woman. I have always felt strange about doing this because I dearly want to believe these young men are decent, but I can't get it out of my head that they may hassle me. Is it what I've seen on TV? The way I was raised? Is it racist for me to do this? How much risk do I need to take to prove I'm a good liberal? Do I have a valid concern about rape or other crime? I'd be interested in hearing everyone's perspective.

On an unrelated note -- you know what irks me? So many politicians in D.C. speak of their love of diversity and all races. Yet how many of these people live in gated communities and send their kids to private schools? I think we need to hold our own leaders to a higher standard. If the Dem leadership is a bunch of rich privileged folk, how can we expect them to lead on this issue?

[rucky]

38. Let's talk about the elephant in the living room instead:

We do not "pull the race card" because the Democratic party is in no position to do so. Sorry, but I keep score not just through the rhetoric, but through who each party picks as their leaders.

The RW has done a great job to diffuse that accusation through Rice, Powell & Gonzalez: You and I both know it's a sham, but the Dems haven't really made any moves to counter the GOP's diversity of leadership. In fact, we've gone the opposite direction, in that every time a person of color stands up to take a leadership role in the party, they are ignored by the white males who run the party.

This is my greatest disappointment with the Democrate - to the point that when people ask me if I'm still a Democrat, I tell them that I support the Congressional Black Caucus.