Where is the outrage from the Left?

Originally posted by nixie_nox
reply to post by adifferentbreed

 

Go ahead and walk onto a reservation and use that term. I dare you.

Words that were commonly used to describe a population deragatorily had to be fought to be removed.

Grow up? Your looking for excuses to marginalize a portion of society. Oh the horrors! To not be able to publicly practise racisim.

People who claim that things such as this have never been discriminated against, and need to grow up.

I completely understand where you are coming from. However, the original intent of the "Honest Injun" statement was not intended to be derogatory. I cited a source on that earlier in the thread.

Our nation was once fascinated with the allure and romance of the Old West, Cowboys and Indians (Native Americans). Children and adults alike were inspired by the bravery of the Indians. I always wanted to be Tanto when playing with my brother. That was a different time when sports teams and mascots were named after Indians because of their bravery, cunning and fortitude.

The nation has been waking up over the years to the new reality of it all. It takes time but people are starting to understand. Sadly, we can't change history. We can only move forward.

reply to post by jibeho


Imagine for a moment that you had not read any of the GOP articles/web posting etc about Reid or the comparisons to Lott's statement.

Imagine for a moment that there was not a D or and R following Reid's name.

Set aside the past...Set aside the us/them paradigm...."they" went after Lott..."we" should go after reid...it's hard, but a worthy intellectual excercise.

Read and think about what Reid said in context...Imagine him a Republican when you do it...or imagine him a friend in general conversation.

If you can suspend your political views for just a moment

What is racist about what he said?

The word Negro?...certainly outdated, but racist?...

MLK and many civil rights activists used the word often in the 60's. As the civil rights movement evolved in the 70's more and more people became uncomfortable with it because it sounds like the other N word.

Antiquated? Yes.
Poor choice of a descriptor? Yes
...but racist? In the context of a discussing strategy on how to get the first African American elected? It's a real stretch.

The word African American can be racist if used in a racist context. Racism is about how the word is used.

Answer me this one question...while suspending all political bias...pretending you aren't following rhetorical marching orders from the right or responding to the defenders on the left...

what precisely was racist about what he said?

It was an observation about the primarily white American voters...and an observation that was supported by a couple of hundred years of history as well as research studies on skin tone of minorities and how that effects peoples perceptions.

What was racist about the statement?

Because to me this controversy seems to speak about people's inability to understand what a racist remark is...

Forget all context or reasoned analysis...he said the word "Negro" so he must be a racist....this doesn't seem an intelligent position to take.

IMO this perspective speaks to deep ignorance on the issue and political agenda.

Originally posted by maybereal11
reply to post by jibeho

 

Imagine for a moment that you had not read any of the GOP articles/web posting etc about Reid or the comparisons to Lott's statement.

Imagine for a moment that there was not a D or and R following Reid's name.

Thought exercise for you:

Imagine for a moment that you had not read any of the leftist/liberal articles/web posting etc about Lott or the comparisons to Reid's statement.

Imagine for a moment that there was not a D or and R following Reid's or Lott's name.

Would you be defending Reid as vigorously as you are now?

reply to post by maybereal11


Allow me to repeat something I said in a previous post

Reid spoke in private, from his gut and thus reflected his true feelings/beliefs about Obama, his ethnic background and common stereotypes. Yet, his defenders attempt to rationalize the statement because it was made off the record. Instant mulligan for Reid.

It is the private statements that reflect the true nature of the person. Reid or any politician can turn on the charm when they know they have an audience of potential voters. However, these personal and private comments are what truly defines anyone's character.

Is Reid a racist? Probably not
Is Lott a racist? Probably not

That word that has gotten an awful lot of play lately and is beginning to lose its impact on the average person. The left has been hammering it home since day one of this administration. You know it and I know it. If I called Reid a racist, I was just throwing the Foo Bomb back at the crowd from whence it came.

Reid's comments were highly inappropriate and were derogatory in nature. Much to his surprise, he got busted. End of story. He needs to be held accountable. No democratic mulligans, make believe scenarios or further rationalizations needed.


[edit on 12-1-2010 by jibeho]

reply to post by centurion1211


Really...it's like speaking in binary..

First you mock...then you say I am "vigoursly defending" Reid.

I am not going to waste time going back over my posts pointing out what your GOP tinted glasses fails to see, but I have not vigorously defended Reid, nor do I have an interest in doing so....I simply stated and supported my belief that what he said WAS NOT RACIST....while at the same time pointing out it WAS STUPID.

I don't even like Reid...but I am not going to declare him a racist because I don't like him.

Are you wholey incapable of imagining even for a moment what actual objective thought is?

What he said was not Racist and I think the GOP is trying hard to spin it that way.....and bitching about how Trent Lott got raked over the coals...

who cares? If the GOP believes the Dems were out-of-bounds for how they responded to Lott...what does that make the GOP now? Champions of tactics they claim to deplore?

A game of "nanny, nanny boo-boo, words bounce off me and stick to you" played by folks that are supposed to be old enough to lead our country???

Like Healthcare, terrorism, near economic collapse and two wars isn't enough...the GOP see their opening to make a difference and puonce!!!...on the word "Negro"...and then whine about how Trent Lott got beat up years ago...

That is their contribution to the national discourse at a time like this?

Christ!! What's next? Michael Steele going on Larry King saying how he saw this video where the Presidents Grandmother said he was born in Kenya and he'd like to join Orly Taitz and ALan Keyes on the loony quest?

What F*&^en idiots. Honestly ...It's not like the Democratic Party in DC is a braintrust these days...but in comparison to the GOP and fringe right, they look like geniuses.

What a sad state this country is in....whining idiots...

Note to the GOP:

help fix the country or shut the ef up!!
"NO" is not a political platform...it is what my two year screams when she is having a tantrum.

Two wars, Economic crisis, Terrorist plotting attacks, Healthcare, unemployment, bailouts...

And these are the conservative talking points,,,,

Born in Kenya...Death Panels..microchips..Nazis...Socialism and the word "Negro"

Like I said I am not all that pleased with the Democratic Leadership...but the GOP...god I hope they get better soon or totally implode, until then they are an embarasment.

MLK's niece has this to say about this matter with Reid.

Democratic leaders have defended Reid, as have black activists such as Rev. Al Sharpton, but Dr. Alveda King, the niece of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., views the controversy differently.

“I don’t care who said it,” she told CNSNews.com. “It doesn’t matter to me. It’s still wrong. It’s outrageous to say that we are going to let a man have a position because he is light-skinned and he uses a Negro dialect when it is convenient.

“I think that’s terrible,” she said. “What he’s really saying is, ‘Now we have a White House Negro.’

“A long time ago you had house Negros and field Negros. I don’t think people are seeing it that way,” King said in reference to terminology used during the time of American slavery. “Basically, what he is saying is, if you have light skin and a particular education, we’ll let you in the House. If not, you need to stay in the field. I’m sorry. That’s what I hear.”

cnsnews.com...

I guess we all hear something a little differently.

reply to post by AllexxisF1


I think minorities use racism as a tool to further their political agenda. This is going to end up biting them in the ass.

Taking offense to someone insulting your race is to give credence to the claims that your race is indeed inferior.

For example, if I am a clerk that makes minimum wage and I get into an argument with a wealthy banker and end up calling him a looser, do you think he's going to file a lawsuit with the ACLU over that?

He'll laugh at me.

Why?

Because his personal self-worth is so high that such an insult is meaningless coming from a person of such a lower class.

You don't need to be a rich banker to have that kind of self worth. That self worth comes from the inside.





[edit on 13-1-2010 by mnemeth1]

reply to post by maybereal11


I've been giving a lot of thought to your comments and you're right. The GOP needs to man up and let Reid go. Sinking to the level of the left wing accomplishes nothing.

Turn the other cheek and let the nation see them for who they truly are. Steele should have taken this course from the start.

The double standard is still frustrating but playing the same game serves no purpose other than perpetuating the nonsense. Reid already knows that his ship is sunk. I smell early retirement come FEB.

I think you are the first person to actually get me to rethink my stance on an issue such as this.

reply to post by jibeho


I have been genuinely dissapointed with the DNC and general Democratic political tactics lately...but remain mostly alligned with their claimed principles.

But some of the antics comming from the Democratic Party (DNC) are just inane, and frankly insulting to the american people.

But the GOP is playing along by responding to and often initiating this nonsense.

I have reached a point where I soundly believe the first party that acts like grown-ups, and ceases to employ tactics that assume the American public is more concerned about tabloid news than their mortgage payment, will carry the next Presidential election.

I am a Democrat, but despair everytime I see the GOP make issue of these types of things, because as long as they do...niether DNC or GOP will grow-up and actually move us forward.

Either the GOP rises above it...and by extension forces the Democratic Party to engage and be held accountable ON THE ISSUES....or both parties will play this game indefinetly.

The Dems won't rise above it, because the have no motivation to...they are in power and will remain so until the GOP changes course and finds a voice that resonates with Americans...not just a subset...the far right.

If the GOP gets its act together the Democratic party will have to follow suit to compete and then this country can start to debate real issues again.

FYI - this explains why I don't want Palin to run either...I think it spells clear defeat for the GOP...and an emboldening of the Democratic Party...when they need to be more humble.

Palin resonates very loudly with a small segment of the voters. It doesn't work.

A Palin presidential run will bring out the worst in both parties and it will be two years of non-issue back and forth in the press and the GOP will still lose.



[edit on 13-1-2010 by maybereal11]

reply to post by jibeho


Where is the attention from the right?

Go to any site where we leftists talk to each other. Surprisingly we don't tend to get "outraged" if nobody's getting killed - unlike the right, who gets outraged if they see something blue or notice they have a left hand - but there is a lot of facepalming going on.

'Course, we've had Reid pegged as a useless idiot for years now. So it's really hard to be surprised.

reply to post by mnemeth1


How exactly is a clerk inferior to a rich banker. You are putting to much credibility to wealth. You don't know that that person obtained it modestly, or if their rich families gave them opportunities. Or they scummed their way to the top. They could have bilions of dollars but if they are a raging alcoholic who cheats on their wife and kicks the dog.Tehy are a still a loser.

Is it because some of the wealthy of society implied that making minimum wage makes you inferior makes you feel that way?

You see, the opposite can be true. You can take strong, valuable members of society. And label them and label them until all the other majorities of society believe it. They feel the stereotypes come true. If a black male walks down the street the white yuppies will be watching like hawks to see if he is going to steal a car because of the racial stigmas.For all you know, he is a college student selling books to make money.

And they can be pretty powerful.

Why is it that a male hairdresser is assumed gay?

Why are only flight attendants thought of as women and pilots men?

Yes, people can give to much power to words. But those words gain power in themselves.

As I always say to people who get all bent out of shape about it. It may not be remotely true, but if a nasty rumor started at work that you deal drugs, do you really want that getting around to your boss?

reply to post by jibeho


OK, let me ask a question of my own, as a Centrist... Where the Hell was all of the outrage from the right when Emperor Bush and Darth Cheney were ripping through our money like drunken sailors on shore leave? Where the Hell was the outrage when they decided to invade Iraq because Georgie Boy had 'Daddy Issues'??? (and don't give me that WMD crap!) Where the Hell was the outrage when the Bush Administration made enemy after enemy around the world and made America a dirty word???

It seems to me that all of this postering is PURELY partisan, and has nothing to do with the actual issue, but rather the opportunity to point fingers at the other guy! Since when has any politician not been a pro at sticking his or her foot halfway down their digestive tract???

Personally, I'm sick of both parties... You both reek of hypocracy and ignorance...

Originally posted by JaxonRoberts
reply to post by jibeho

 

OK, let me ask a question of my own, as a Centrist... Where the Hell was all of the outrage from the right when Emperor Bush and Darth Cheney were ripping through our money like drunken sailors on shore leave? Where the Hell was the outrage when they decided to invade Iraq because Georgie Boy had 'Daddy Issues'??? (and don't give me that WMD crap!) Where the Hell was the outrage when the Bush Administration made enemy after enemy around the world and made America a dirty word???

Well, being neither "left-wing" or "right-wing", I know I was not happy with Bush and Cheney, of course, personally, I think Cheney was Palpatine, and then like a willing dupe, Bush, was the ignorant Vader, who became a patsy.

Cheney was the mastermind behind the 9/11 plot, not Bush, and Osama was the convenient middle-man.

The entire thing was an inside job, to not only rob the money in the Treasury, through rattling the money tree through Congress for war, but as well the "Bailout".

I predicted the screwing of America prior to Obama taking office.

Bush and Cheney started the screwing, Obama is the clean-up man.

Political Collusion of a President and Congress in Collapsing America, The Fall of the New Rome

Originally posted by JaxonRoberts
It seems to me that all of this postering is PURELY partisan, and has nothing to do with the actual issue, but rather the opportunity to point fingers at the other guy! Since when has any politician not been a pro at sticking his or her foot halfway down their digestive tract???

Posturing, saber-rattling, smoke and mirrors, BOTH sides do it, I don't give a damn who says what or who blames the other side, both are guilty of it, playing both sides against the middle.

Divide and Conquer : Political Ideology of the Power Elite, Selling The Peace, War Is The Motive

...and...

Truth and Lies of 9/11 : Mike Ruppert, C.I.A. Drug Running, and Your Government

...and...

Obamaland : Cotton Candy, Gumdrops, and Rainbow Dreams, This is the Land of Collusion

Sorry, the "sides", being the citizens, are being played like a cheap fiddle, and Nero has set fire to Rome and it is burning to the ground, and he is laughing maniacally.

Originally posted by JaxonRoberts
Personally, I'm sick of both parties... You both reek of hypocracy and ignorance...

I've never liked either side of the political aisle, the politicians, mind you, the people who cling to party politics, in the middle, the citizens, are being played for fools.

Stop The Stalkers

Read about my fight against stalkers here, since I was six years old.

Left-Wing, Right-Wing, This Turkey, Knows How To Soar Like An Eagle

Become a member of the Bully Pulpit, so you can debate me politically, if you do not choose membership in the Bully Pulpit, you can only read, and not post replies.

Originally posted by jibeho
Where is the outrage over the comments made by "Reid the racist"? 60 minutes ignored it when they were profiling the very book that revealed his statement. The MSM has virtually ignored it. Al Sharpton forgives Reid. Obama forgives Reid. No big deal.

Personally, I see the whole racist issue as a non-issues, a distraction.

Nothing more.

Distract, divide, and conquer.

I've never believed in racism, it is an ignorant person's belief.

The N-Word was taught to me, as a definition of an ignorant person, the Webster's dictionary definition, and it had nothing to do with color, ever to me.

In other words, I believe the person using that word, or any words like that are in fact that ignorant N-Word, and I guarantee not many will agree with me.

That's okay, I stand my ground, my morals, ethics, and beliefs are solid.

Originally posted by jibeho
I have been called a racist countless times in the past year just because I disagree with Obama's policies, agenda and ideologies. I have never made any inflammatory/racist statements to justify the attacks.

[Color=Yellow]Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never harm me.

That means to me, that words only hold power over you, that if you let them.

In other words, never let people use words against you, because then they lower you to their level.

I've never liked Obama, but then again, I've never like Bush, Clinton, or any bastard in office.

J.F.K. was the one and only President I have ever respected, and they killed him.

Because he was behind Martin Luther King Jr., against the Nuclear Arms race, and the corruption within the Federal Reserve, and the Fed is nothing more than a con job, fiat money is worthless.

By killing J.F.K. they showed us we cannot get to that office, by killing M.L.K., they showed us they will not accept anyone who brings harmony, regardless of color, but as well, especially because of color, and they will keep the race war flowing.

By they, I mean the people behind the scenes, the men behind the masks.

Originally posted by jibeho
Trent Lott lost his leadership position for saying far less back in 2002. Obama even called for his resignation back in his Senate days. Simply because Lott praised the career of a fellow ELECTED Congressman.

Congress, starts with three letters, C.O.N., meant to separate citizens, from money.

Originally posted by jibeho
The double standard has been bad since the campaigns and this revelation just makes it appear even worse. If this book was not released, Reid would not have apologized nor would we know about his comments.

The double-standard has always been there, since the inception of America.

Whether anyone read that book, the crap and double-speak is inherent.

Bigots, idiots, and bastards in power, all the same face of a two-sided coin.

A false dichotomy.

Originally posted by jibeho
Funny, the usual defenders of the hypocrisy have been very silent even on ATS. Probably waiting on marching orders from Media Matters. Where is outrage from Janeane Garofalo on this issue? Your fearless leader has been flamed by one of his own.


[edit on 11-1-2010 by jibeho]

[edit on 11-1-2010 by jibeho]

[edit on 11-1-2010 by jibeho]

When we are given only two choices, we have no choices, a false dichotomy.

Ignorance, racism, and bigotry, the underpinnings of power in Washington D.C.

Sex, crimes, rock and roll and drugs, lead by example, and the example is corrupt.

I have never supported the idiots in power, because they are duplicitous.

[edit on 17-1-2010 by SpartanKingLeonidas]