Tag: Racism

Categories
Criticism Domestic issues Politics The Opinionsphere

How Not To Prove Someone Is Not a Racist

[digg-reddit-me]Mark Krikorian has a post over at National Review’s The Corner defending the leader of an anti-illegal-immigration group called D.A. King and attacking the Southern Poverty Law Center in general, and specifically for labeling the Dustin Inman Society led by King a group that is spreading bigotry.

Now, King named the group after a clear victim of what he seems to call the “invasion” of “brown people” — a boy named Dustin Inman who was killed in a car crashed by an illegal immigrant. (Because legal residents don’t accidentally kill people in car accidents approximately 100 times a day.) A quick Google search reveals that King uses racialized language and seems uncomfortable with Hispanics — he said he said a pro-immigrant march seemed like some Mexican village — which is why his “first act on a safe return home was to take a shower;” and warned darkly of the “invasion” of the “brown people” and of “parasitic ethnic hustlers” who favored amnesty; and he did at least once apply the “illegal aliens” simply to all the Hispanics in various photos. I mean — that’s just what 5 minutes on Google and a few clicks around his own website show — maybe it represents his body of thought and maybe not.

But what I wanted to comment on was this Mark Krikorian post. But instead, let me just re-post a few portions of it, with all bolding done by me…

Just typing “Southern Poverty Law Center” makes me want to scrape off my shoes…

[T]he SPLC includes such targets (including, I’m proud to say, the Center for Immigration Studies) in lists of those “spreading bigotry,” or whatever,…

This happens all the time, but one example that came to my attention was the Dustin Inman Society, a mainstream (and quite effective) anti-illegal-immigration group in Georgia headed by D.A. King… The point is not whether D.A. is a hater (he’s not — I’m not even sure he’s a restrictionist, since he limits himself to illegal immigration, and I’ve never heard so much as an epithet from him, even in private, let alone any Zionist conspiracies or Trilateral Commissions or even longing for the Lost Cause)…

I’ve rarely heard a better defense of someone than Krikorian’s of King: “I haven’t heard the guy slur blacks or Hispanics as most people I know do! Even in private! Isn’t that incredible! And he doesn’t even long for the good old days when Mexicans were in Mexico and blacks were slaves! Or rail against Jews! The guy’s a saint practically!”

But it all makes you wonder a bit about the crowd that Krikorian hangs out with that these things are exceptional — and proof that someone isn’t a racist. And it certainly goes a long way to demonstrate why the Republican Party won’t be winning the Hispanic vote any time soon.

[Image by MikeSchinkel licensed under Creative Commons.]

Categories
Barack Obama Humor Politics The Opinionsphere

Joe Campbell: I’m Not a Sexist Because I Disagree With Angie Harmon

 

[digg-reddit-me]Contra this tirade which the Drudge Report is somewhat inexplicably promoting. (Inexplicable because it seems like such a fluff story of Hollywood conservatives elites.)

Joe Campbell (me) is not afraid to come out and say he doesn’t like how Angie Harmon is insinuating Barack Obama is accusing people of racism — but he’s sick of having to defend himself from being deemed a sexist.

“Here’s my problem with this,” I quote myself, “I’m just going to come out and say it. If I have anything to say against Harmon it’s not because I’m a sexist, it’s because I don’t like what she’s saying and anybody should be able to feel that way, but what I find now is that if you say anything against her you’re called a sexist,” Campbell told a reporter for 2parse.com, the esteemed blog. “But sexism has nothing to do with it, I don’t care what genitalia she has or doesn’t have – or what gender she identifies herself as. I’m just not crazy about what she’s saying. I mean – I understand Obama has been in office for 69 days so it’s hard to understand how he hasn’t accomplished everything he promised he would. He only has about 1,400 days in office. I know he said he’s gonna do that and change and change, so okay … but he’s still got some time. There’s still a recession over here, woman, and you clearly don’t know what you’re talking about when you say that “we’ve got unemployment at an all-time high” (Unless you mean “all-time” since after Reagan was president.) If I’m going to disagree with Angie Harmon, that doesn’t make me a sexist.  It has to do with the fact that she sounds like an uninformed dolt. If I was to disagree with W, that doesn’t make me sexist. It has nothing to do with it, it is ridiculous.”

When asked to provide any examples of the accusations of sexism that provoked this tirade, Campbell finally fell silent. 

Angie Harmon has also neglected to provide any examples of accusations of racism. 

Unfortunately, Matt Drudge has only been promoting one of these stories, so the unfounded allegations of charges of sexism insinuated by Campbell will not gain as large of an audience as the unfounded accusations of Harmon.

Campbell admitted though that the fake umbrage-taking in the media circus was entertaining, even if it detracted from the overall political discourse. “But I get to promote myself!” he said.

[Image courtesy of Bristol Motor Speedway and Dragway licensed under Creative Commons.]

Categories
Election 2008 Obama

Ralph Nader, Racist

Is there any other way to interpret a remark like this:

I mean, first of all, the number one thing that a black American politician aspiring to the presidency should be [doing] is…

No matter how he concludes that sentence, isn’t the very premise already racist?  Can I now decide what issues Ralph Nader should be addressing based on his Lebanese heritage?

For the record, Nader’s complete comment is as follows:

I mean, first of all, the number one thing that a black American politician aspiring to the presidency should be is to candidly describe the plight of the poor, especially in the inner cities and the rural areas, and have a very detailed platform about how the poor is going to be defended by the law, is going to be protected by the law, and is going to be liberated by the law.

To top it all off, Nader then goes on to make racially stereotyping remarks about “whites”.

Continue reading “Ralph Nader, Racist”