• http://greatdayinmaine.blogspot.com leesavee

    You know, Jon, having grown up in Memphis (like your beautiful wife), I grew up seeing a good bit of racism around me. I don’t say that to be disparaging about Memphis — I’m just saying that was my experience growing up there in the 70s and 80s.

    Until the last year, I didn’t realize how pervasive racism was…and not just because of the candidacy and presidency of Barack Obama. My husband and I are in the process of adopting two children from Ethiopia, and we are white. People’s reactions to that have been occasionally astonishing. Every once in a while, I will be surprised in a very good way, but more often, I am disheartened, disappointed, and distressed. Fortunately, the disheartening reactions have come from people who are not a constant presence in our lives. I’m very glad that people are talking about this. If we ignore the problem, it will persist or get worse. Thank you for bringing it up.

    I’ve also discovered that most people REALLY need a geography lesson about Africa.

  • http://elevendreams.wordpress.com elevendreams

    Yes. And here’s the brilliant Maureen Dowd’s take on it: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/opinion/13dowd.html?_r=2

  • http://www.blessourhearts.blogspot.com Ms. Moon

    I don’t usually respond to a post with a link to what I’ve written, but I wrote this:
    http://blessourhearts.blogspot.com/2009/09/what-color-is-elephant-in-room.html
    Sunday before last and it is pertinent.
    Yes. I think it is racism, pure and simple.

    • http://blurbomat.com blurb

      Thanks for sharing! Great post.

    • Le Fiffre

      @Ms Moon:

      You’re right on and I loved the post. Thank you.

      PS: Mother Church of the Batshit Crazy looks delightful.

  • http://palliedavis.blogspot.com psavoie

    I totally believe that it is about race; not just Obama’s race but that his health care seeks to cover everyone, including racial minorities (gasp!).

  • http://www.blessourhearts.blogspot.com Ms. Moon

    And then there’s this one- http://blessourhearts.blogspot.com/2009/09/im-scared-im-serious.html

    and

    http://blessourhearts.blogspot.com/2009/08/who-are-these-people.html

    We out here in the nowhereville of America are asking questions. And we find they are answered by this:

    Damn prejudiced sons-a-bitches.

    Bring racism out into the light. Let if shrivel in the direct heat of she sun. Let’s not pretend we are what we are not.

  • jlobster

    Aside from the fact that I love Tim Wise* (friend him on Facebook for all his updates), a friend of mine from college put it succinctly:

    “You know the difference between capitalism and socialism? Socialism is just like capitalism, but with a black president.”

    * Especially because he is so on-the-money that the likes of Lou Dobbs and Rush Limbaugh feel it necessary to call him out by name.

    • http://www.playamind.blogspot.com vegas710

      That joke was great, I have to share that!

  • VA District 8

    Don Lemon says, “many of them [TEA party participants] who are there do [have crazy thoughts].” Out of curiosity, what is the quantifiable number for “many?” DC police estimated that between 600,000 – 750,000 people attended the TEA Party on September 12, how many of those protesters are racists? How many of the signs were racist? Let’s differentiate between polemical political signs and racist signs, they are not the same. It is possible to disagree about issues and not be racist. Were some of the people at the protest racist? Undoubtedly there were some, however as a participant, racism was not apparent and the VAST majority of the people were peaceful and the spirit of the protest highlighted this.

    Of course, that’s not what the media showed, watching CNN, MSNBC or other cable networks it would seem that it was a gathering of radical right-wingers. Yet, there were no violent angry mobs. Even if these people hoisted opinionated signs how is that different than many of the protests against GW Bush while he was president? GW was often compared to Hitler, how many times did Olbermann call him a liar or a fascist? Why, effigies were made of his likeness. Of course, if people use the same terminology about Obama it is categorically racist. The inherent protests against Obama calling him a socialist or putting Joker makeup on his face are no different, the variant is the people protesting and the issues being raised. Undoubtedly some of the talk show hosts or conservative pundits do make racial remarks, however Tim Wise appearing on CNN and stating that “white racial resentment is what they’re trying to whip up” is wrong. Some of us simply do not support Obama’s policies, it is not based on racism and shame on Tim Wise for projecting that onto people who simply disagree with him.

    As for Joe Wilson, what a disgraceful act, especially if the undertones are racist, however assumptions aren’t always correct. I am a conservative and I may disagree with Obama on almost every issue, but he is still my president and I will always respect him and the office. Wilson was one out of 535 Congressman who caused a scene, hopefully the rest of our officials have more restraint.

    Interesting post, keep up the discussion!

    • http://blurbomat.com blurb

      You are misinformed. DC Police estimate between 60,000 and 70,000 at the 9/12 demonstration in DC. Also, the organization(s) involved is/are shady:

      You need to watch the video here.

      Townhall.com features this slideshow (and also uses these words “Tens of thousands of protesters…” to open this piece.

      I’d start defining crazy with someone who doesn’t live in reality. Like maybe Matt Kibbe (read here).

      Reforming healthcare is NOT the same as warrantless wiretaps, lying (and denying) about weapons of mass destruction as well as a link from Al Queda in Iraq (pre-2003 invastion) and revealing the identity of a CIA operative. Those are truly disgraceful acts. Those warrant outrage. Reforming healthcare? The rhetoric is off the charts. And it’s dangerous. The lies are dangerous. Time to stop the lies. Let’s start by being honest about how many people were there in DC on 9/12.

  • VA District 8

    Blurb, I concede the numbers to you. It’s not my intention to exaggerate the number and therefore spread lies (I did a quick google search and saw the 600,000 – 750,000 figure several times) although it appears there is still debate about the actual number of protesters. Anyway, I was there. I rode the metro in to Federal Triangle, the air conditioning on my train wasn’t working and it was jam packed and I hadn’t experienced a WMATA ride that bad since the Billy Joel/Elton John concert in July. It was a sight and an experience. You and I disagree on a lot, that much is apparent, but my point is that the vast majority of protesters weren’t racist, they weren’t hateful, they weren’t spewing right-wing nonsense (yes, I think a lot of it is nonsense) they were simply protesting policies with which they disagree.

    As for your post above, I agree with you about the disgraceful acts, the lying about WMDs started at the DIA level, the question is “by whose directive?” The Plame scandal wasn’t just disgraceful it was terribly illegal, unfortunately not everyone involved has been appropriately punished. If Al Qaeda in Iraq didn’t exist before 2003 they sure do now, they even identify ::themselves:: as AQI. As for healthcare, I think this is in response to the vast growth of the US government, which Bush started, and some of us libertarians simply want the federal government to decrease and not expand. It’s just a shame that racist, partisan vitrole gets in the way of real debate.

    Again, thanks for the discussion.

    • http://www.playamind.blogspot.com vegas710

      If this is true, VA, you HAVE to stop letting the crazies speak for you. It might help if you didn’t show up at rallies led by them.

  • bobsbs

    From the LA Times today: “I don’t remember anyone ever bringing a gun to President Clinton’s meetings.”

    http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-values-voter20-2009sep20,0,5435043,full.story

  • http://empressofdirt.blogspot.com empressofdirt

    On the topic of health care reform: I was just watching an episode of the Daily Show from last week. President Clinton was the guest. He said that Americans spend 16.5% of their income on health care (which, of course, leaves millions without coverage). He also said in Canada (where I live) the amount is 10% and this is for universal health care. Those are powerful numbers for those arguing that universal care will cause much deeper debt in the U.S. Cleaning up the system and caring for all Americans sounds like a good plan from here.

    On the topic of racism: I’m not sure if I can say this in an articulate manner, but I felt like much of the congratulatory behaviour during Obama’s inauguration smacked of racism. The right wing seemed to direct all praise toward, Wow, look what this *black* man has achieved, instead of, Yes, this is a great step for all of America but also, holy shit, this guy is bright and brilliant. The only good things said (by the losing side) were directed at overcoming racial barriers. I’m not sure if I’m expressing it clearly but it sure irked me then and it irks me now to see the illogical opposition to health care reforms: obviously profit-makers are protecting what they love best.

    I really enjoy your writing.