What is and isn't evidence of racism in attacks against Obama.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

I think that there's sensible way to test for whether a common right-wing attack on Obama is or isn't at least partly motivated by racism. It's nowhere near 100% reliable (in particular, it will give a great many false negatives), but it's a good start.

There have been two white Democratic presidents in the last 40 years. I think that if a type of attack was commonly made on them then it's probably not evidence of racism, just that someone doesn't like Democrats, whereas if it wasn't then there's at least grounds for suspicion that it's motivated by racism.

Thus, calling Obama a socialist is not evidence of racism.
Saying that he's a Muslim is (although only circumstantial evidence).
Saying that he wants to destroy America is not.
Claiming that he was born in another country is.
Attacking his integrity, character and family are not.

And so on...

[Recursion]

1. Bill Clinton was accused of being a Chinese or Russian mole

I honestly don't see much difference between that and the Islamist/Birther insanity.

[Rebubula]

5. Seriously...

...Clinton was accused of rape, grand larceny and treason - and that was even before he was elected.

Hillary was accused of conspiring\covering up the murder of Vince Foster.

The right finding ways to demean and besmirch the Democratic Presidents is nothing new. Constantly saying that any attack against President Obama is racist weak.

[dkf]

2. I accused John McCain of being born in another country, which he was.

Is that racist?

[jdlh8894]

4. Don't know. Are you Purple or Green? n/t

[Lasher]

12. The Canal Zone was a U.S. territory from 1914 to 1999

He was born there in 1936. Just a point of trivia though, since his parents were American citizens, and he would therefore have been a natural born US citizen if he had been born on the moon.

[Yupster]

18. This actually went to the Supreme Court

When Barry Goldwater ran for president. Territories were deemed legal.

[EstimatedProphet]

3. "Thus, calling Obama a socialist is not evidence of racism." I disagree

We have a long-standing tradition in this country of assuming that all blacks are commies.

[Recursion]

6. I doubt anyone has ever called Thomas or Keyes a socialist NT

[blondeatlast]

7. True, but many African-American activists have had that criticism leveled at them. For instance,

Martin Luther King.

[Recursion]

9. Right, but liberals get that regardless of race, conservatives don't

again, regardless of race. I just don't see a race/claims of socialism connection.

[EstimatedProphet]

11. It often doesn't come from liberalism

Liberals get called commies, conservatives get called nazis. Blacks a lot of times get called commies whether they are liberal or not. As a matter of fact, that was one of the tricks that was used in the south in the 20s to keep union organizers from getting a toehold - call them all commies, and link blacks in with unions, and you then scare off poor whites.

[crazyjoe]

8. also, we have a new tradition that if anyone question the actions of blacks,

they are a racist. (unless of course your questioning the actions of a right winger who happens to be black)
as long as we're being honest.....

[jdlh8894]

10. "as long as we're being honest"

IMO, bigotry kicks "racism" in the ass by 1000 times.

[Solomon]

13. Okay. Yet another one of these "it's not racism threads."

Why don't we just agree that whites aren't racist no matter what they say or do if that's what makes you feel better.

I was listening to the right wing crowing all day yesterday about how peaceful and non-racist the rally was and it amused me to hear them bragging that the most wonderful thing about it is all the teapartiers and what not don't even agree with each other on the issues but they can come together.

I wonder what is the glue that makes them come together even though they disagree on the "issues".

Denial is just a river in Eqypt.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

14. We could agree that, or you could try reading the post you replied to instead. N.T.

[Solomon]

16. I beg your pardon but I did read the post. You were the one that

used the term "evidence" of racism. If it walks like a ...

There's plenty of evidence and evidence usually creates a presumption.

Perhaps you should change your term to "proof" of racism rather than "evidence" of racism.

[mmonk]

15. I disagree with part of your assessment.

Calling him a foreign Muslim is directly related to the American right's racism.

[Yupster]

17. I chuckle everytime someone at DU calls Bush "The Chimp"

which has happened thousands of times.

So obviously if Obama were to be called a chimp it would not be racist because "chimp" is an insult that is hurled at presidents, not African-Americans.