I've been accused of that by white folks several times in my life for pointing out when they are being idiots or stereotyping.

didn't have the guts to say it to people's faces, thankfully for that, or maybe not cuz if they had surely someone woulda punched them in their face (but they certainly said it in person when using the 3rd person constantly inferring that anyone who didn't support obama was racist).

i used to campaign with 1 indian guy, 1 chinese woman and 1 white woman, and i'm of color, and we had all been called racist by maybe april of 2008.

(i take that back, not the chinese woman, now that i recall, i don't remember her mentioning it to me, probably because she didn't partake in politics online, but the others of us were very taken aback and it had been the first time we had ever been accused of it. i was called a self hating black multiple times).

I would not recommend it.

However, I'm a totally WASP male and I grew up in LA in the 50s and 60s and I have no qualms about admitting I learned racism and sexism and all that growing up and I am still unlearning it. I expect to be unlearning that stuff the rest of my life.

And I believe you.

make some so desperate to defend Obama that they would take up calling DUers racist?

They have no basis for a calm, non-incendiary "defense," so instead, wildly thrash about with any accusations they can muster....

When Gov. Patrick and the Feds. were attacked for locking down the city, violating civil rights of the citizens.
IMO it mostly echoes the Paul libertarian anarchy crap.
Gov. Patrick and Barack Obama are the same race.

Which was also funny.

It is what it is...a sign desperation.

Hillary and Obama were dueling. "You racist!" was a common refrain from them back then too, if you were a Hillary supporter.

always resorting to a call of racism does us a disservice during 2012 election.

But labeling "fellow" progressives who found common cause through 2 presidential elections as "racist" smacks to me of a desperation beyond mere false association.

Being pro-2A I'm used to being called a RW shill or spouting NRA talking points but it was amazing to see the speed at which the racism" label was slapped-on. If the pushback is so fast and so severe as to require that level of escalation in order to protect whatever it is they're defending then it says to me this is a tantamount admission as to the seriousness of the charge.

Accusing critics of racism will not serve the defenders' purpose, it will only exaggerate the consequences once the consequences inevitably come do. Those who stood on principle will not be mollified, they will be insulted. They will still demand a full accounting, as they must, and appeals for leniency will likely fall on deaf ears after they were shown nothing but dishonesty and discourtesy.

Worse, those who have always opposed the President will have been given a golden opportunity to grind their axes and any effort to disconnect them from accounting will be brushed away with a mere, "Oh, you always say that."

Those crying racism are doing themselves -- and in fact, all of us -- a tremendous disservice. They should come to their better senses and quickly.

There seems to be something underneath these accusations that I can't help but notice. It also appears to be ever increasing, finding any opportunity to silence and marginalize not just opposing views and positions but valid concerns. It is an air of authoritarianism.

We had no problem seeing this during the Bush regime but some can't now and worse, it has been adopted as a tactic not only to throw at the other side but to keep us in line within our own party "you are either with us, or against us".

There is nothing liberal, or progressive about this attitude and I think it lies at the heart of the nastiness we have been seeing lately.

Perhaps that grants a degree of charitableness that our accusers refuse to return but I believe it is more a matter of fear than authoritarian impulse.

I think they fear -- rightly -- that if the NSA or similar controversy proves true then the Progressive cause will be set on its heels. They are right. It will. But to cover wrongdoing with mantles of false accusations of the worst sort against genuine, sincere critics will only worsen the consequences, as I stated previously.

If any of these controversies proves to be unprecedented and unconstitutional we can either clean our own house and pay for it in the next 2 election cycles or we can resort to nastiness, name-calling and bitter spitefulness and pay for it for the next 2 decades while we tear our own bloc into shreds with endless recriminations.

Which course would the RW want us to take?

People with high levels of authoritarianism fear the Other, so they attack reflexively, they set up power structures and rules, and get insanely aggressive when they get challenged.

When certain events happen, like Snowden, but also Julian Assange, Bradley Manning, Occupy, these authoritarian scumfucks come out of the work and relentlessly spam the board with their bullshit, and feel justified to attack anyone who stands against them.

The "leftist racism" claim is quite a bit older than the rw "recent/current" usage ... It's just it was coming from folks that the left loves to ignore in matters of race.

I refer you to:

1851: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/sojtruth-woman.asp

I've also been accused of hate in the last week. All because I dare hold Obama's feet to the fire, as he asked us to do.

it. Or maybe they're just so paranoid about the next election they think suppressing any criticism will ensure a democratic victory. Either way they are wrong. Obama is strong enough to hear criticism, and in order to have a strong democracy we must have dissidence and accountability.

job is to slam Liberals with what, as Rove said, their 'strongest policies' and try to turn them against them.

I give those doing this the same credence I give Limbaugh.

I had such great hopes for about a month following the 2008 election.

policies, and they won't coming, supposedly anyhow, from the left. Which makes you wonder why they don't find some new tactics to try to silence people.

Obama is responsible for the policies of his administration. Nothing can change that. And some of them are Bush policies, which he himself admitted last week 'I have kept some of Bush's policies'.

It's a desperate last effort to shut people up, and it will work about as well as such efforts ever work.

newsflash: left wingers can be racist and the idea that they can't is imho absurd.

I would like to make a distinction however between legitimate accusations and bogus accusations. Because I'm assuming this is about the people accusing Obama critics here of being racist, which is 100% bogus.

student at the U. of Missouri. My philosophy 101 TA was a Communist and, while he did not openly proselytize the class, he did not hide his ideology from us. At one point, he announced that the CP chapter on campus would be protesting the speech of a South African political dignitary because of South Africa's apartheid policies. Now, I was just a teenager fresh from Missouri's Bible Belt and I barely even knew what South Africa was, much less apartheid. But I like to think I knew right from wrong and so I went to the protest as an interested spectator.

When I arrived at the Student Union, I saw a small group of 8-9 protesters carrying signs that opposed South African apartheid marching in a small circle using a handheld microphone. I clapped and cheered them on but did not join the circle myself, probably because I was only starting to get exposure to progressive thought. (What is interesting and ironic in retrospect is that no one from MU's Black Student Union showed up at this protest at least in an official capacity. As I recall, however, the protesters were mixed race and mixed gender.)

From this episode, I have always understood a core organizing principle of anyone on the left is to be and to stand against racism. You can't be a racist and be on the left. The two cancel one another out and you'd go up in a puff of smoke were you to try to be both at the same time. I have also come to expect that Commies and Socialists (of whom I count myself one) will be at the forefront of social change, at least 20 years ahead of what we call 'liberal thought'.

racist.

here were all these people calling people racist online, you could go to their facebook and look and their "friends", and what a surprise, allllllll white. and they were the ones crying racism the loudest.

when i go into bars in the east village in nyc (young and hip), i am often the only person of color, unless i'm with a friend of color, then it's 2 of us. gee, no one just happen to be hanging out with their friends of color that day? i don't think so. they weren't *all* racist of course, but how the heck did i end up with so many friends of color? so it's not like people of color are not around. hmmm. it's b/c a lot of people see people of color differently and not one of their kind. the same way they see obama's color first and everything else second, which is why they're saying it's all about racism. <- much more likely the racists.

by the color of their Facebook friends?

How fascinating. You should apply for a federal grant to test the accuracy of your technique - I mean, wow. What a breakthrough. You wouldn't even have to meet someone to determine whether or not they are racist. Just scan their friends on Facebook. You'd have to figure out how to account for all the people who prefer not to post photos of themselves, but I'm sure you could figure it out.

Right off the top of my head I can think of Helen Thomas and Jesse "Hymietown" Jackson.

Not in regards to the NSA scandal -

But back in the AA forum onpatrol98 pointed out the obvious-

There is a 'certain' liberal that is only comfortable with us black folk when we are poor, prostate, humbled, ignorant, uneducated, etc. etc.

We see it all of the time in our lives. If this is not you - then you have no worries. No need to say - But I'm not racist.

Also - in order to avoid this being lodge at you - don't post about your black friend in 1973. That will invite ridicule and mockery in the 'shadows' because most black folks learn by the age of say - ohhhhh - 2 or 3 that it is more likely that David Duke with marry a black jewish woman than it would be for this person to EVER admit that they sound like an ignorant dumb fuck.

No seriously - that's what is being used to describe people making these comments (I had a black boyfriend and I hit it 30 years ago) in pms. Dumb fuck. It's appropo.

Twice in one week I'm posting this - If PM's could talk.

"There is a 'certain' liberal that is only comfortable with us black folk when we are poor, prostate, humbled, ignorant, uneducated, etc. etc. "

I'm going to copy and paste that for you again so that you can see what that person wrote.

ETA: changed it from "you" to what "that person" wrote. Dear God have we sunk this far?
t

I said it - and I meant it. Or is this thread for only white folks to add their two cents to? I'm not the only one - onpatrol98 said it first. Check out the African American group. We are here - just hidden in the shadows.


And right back at ya!

Go for it. Feel free to alert.

You alert on me. You didn't like an African American stating their honest feelings.

Just this week someone alluded to me being a 'Nazi' and called me a Good German.


It was very funny. But it shows where people are at lately.

I kind of like free discussion. Please feel free to open up, and I will agree or disagree with you freely based upon whether I agree or not.

I just told a hard truth.

If you can't handle that truth - so be it.

But that specific liberal EXISTS. Whether you like it or not or are upset about it.

Oh this type - they'll smile in your face and take your vote. But when it comes down to dating their daughter. Big old snorty laugh and chuckle.

Now you know - this person exists.

You may do with it what you may.

And when you disagree with them . . . they call you a Nazi aka Good German.

you are trying to churn, but it doesn't carry any water.

You can take that however you like.

By calling me out.

You had no issue with anyone else on this thread? Just me?

And this very thread by sibelian? Really - another one. Mocking the Institution of Racism? And it IS an institution in America.


As long as people (not you ) keep bringing up the race card in mocking threads without admitting WHO PUT IT IN THE DECK OF CARDS IN THE FIRST PLACE then folks have a right to respond in any way they wish.


Because that's been the tone the past few days. Mocking. Light hearted and funny.

Let me tell you something - when I was five I came down to my parents garage at 11 Ashwood Drive in Scottsville NY on a Saturday morning to read scrawled on the walls: Keep America Clean - Kill All the Niggers.

This is 1978 in a suburb of Rochester NY. It remains on my mother's garage today as a reminder of the TRUE FACE of one's neighbors. You are welcome to stop by her home and view it - you can see it through the garage windows.


If one has a story like that (and I have others) - then these "Oh cutesy wootsie but I'm sweet and innocent and racism is funny" threads are NOT funny.

The joke isn't funny anymore DU. It's not funny anymore. So stop.

because you were full of it. And I'd call anyone out for that reason, and have. You clearly aren't familiar with my post history if you think it wasn't directly because of what you posted.

But ONCE again -

I meant it.

It's true.

And you don't know MY history or the history of many of the black folk at DU if you think this thread is FUNNY.

This thread isn't funny.

And neither was MannyGoldsteins.


And if you have NEVER been Black in Liberal Circles - you haven't experienced it. I haaaaaaaaaaave. As did my mixed race parents. And my white husband.


If you REALLY don't think there are (my mother's phrase) Lily White Liberals in this world - then you are naive. I'm sorry. Yep - it's name calling. But you said I'm full of shit. So I'm using naive.

Just because one of them has never showed their TRUE face to you - doesn't mean that they don't exist.

And again - these joking threads are not funny anymore.

I'll be happy to help, but I can't do it while I'm being upbraided for things I never said, did or thought.

Love and Light.

than Thumps and Hisses.

Its our burden.

Figure it out on your own. There's plenty of documentation on it.

Right or wrong, you made the accusation. It's not up to me to prove your point for you.

Number23 already gave reference.

Stick around for more than a year . . . You'll find I don't step and fetch - for anyone.

Saw this gem a number of times (right here on teh DU) as a back handed reference to the POTUS.


But hey, what's wrong with a little righteous "criticism."

I truthfully don't get what the hell he is talking about. I've missed half the NSA and Snowden threads because I trashed the subject lines.

Around 2008, but it was a big ole joke then too.

Denzel's role in Remember The Titians.

Took a picture of the phone doing it again and he still refused to apologize.

ETA

Went to graduate school up north and because of my accent you'd be surprised how many people thought I wear a pillow case on my head every weekend.

It's a new phenomenon. I disagreed with the President on something. Elizabeth Warren is a racist hater, too, BTW.

I wonder what his DU name is?? Just kidding!

nastier here now than it was then. Cant wait for 2016.

Not ever.

Now I'm a racist Nazi whatever because I dared to question what's going on

Good German in a PM!

disruptive this is? That's why I called your shit out. Because it is out on a tangent dialogue.

It's the truth.

Everyone knows what 'Good German' is and is in reference too. Nazis. I took it under consideration and advisement.

There is a way to alert PMs still, isn't there? If someone is calling you that in a PM, you can alert it. I think that goes right to admins.

Personal attacks on myself. I hit back with petulance and sarcasm

I got called a "Muslim piece of fucking shit" in a PM. People say all kinds of stupid stuff. You should alert like I did.

Usually a debate tactic, a way to marginalize.

call them names.

Rule 1 of the Playground Guide to Conflict Resolution.

I equate it to being called a terrorist sympathizer for criticizing Bush**: it's laughable and reflects badly on the source.

This doesn't bother me either. No one will ever silence me.

This time it's full-tilt-boggie-circle-the-wagons-scandal-shutdown mode.

What time is it over there?

The most common is the old RW "reverse racism" accusation. Saying "You hate white people" is just racism by a different meme.

RWers best talent is one for projecting their own failings on others.

Not in real life.

It is a very cynical tactic, just another prod to keep the herd in line.

They are full of shit.
And a good argument can be made that by their false claims of racism, they are racists for disrespecting real victims of racial prejudice.

since i am also black. however, i understand the desperation of the third wayers, since it is increasing clear that they are only differ with republicons in terms of style, not substance.

I said something nice about Hillary Clinton during the '08 primary and another DUer suggested my support of her was because she was white (I actually was a DK supporter, I just happened to say something nice about her).

Before that, if I remember right, someone took exception to my comment that we should NOT "Free Tookie".

My family is biracial, I'm a lifelong leftie, my main volunteer activity is as a board member of an organization for mixed-race people, so how could I possibly be racially biased? (Which isn't the same thing as "being a racist" but is related.) So I took various implicit bias tests from this website at Harvard.

I was AGHAST to learn that white=good, black=bad, and white and black= Americans but Native American= foreigners had gotten embedded in my psyche from early childhood and that shit was still in there regardless of the purity of my conscious thoughts.

Even more creepy was discovering via reading on the subject that this poison seeps into the brains of black people just as much as whites. To the extent that there is such a thing as racial bias among black people, it's more likely to be self-hatred based on lifelong exposure to subliminal anti-black propaganda than anything anti-white. Since all three of my nieces are biracial, the horror of this realization hit very close to home.

but despite having agreed with and been supportive of everything you've said about NSA and all the distracting tactics, I consider my effort to shed some light in this heated thread to have been a waste of time in light of your casual, uninformative, dismissal, and won't discuss race here with anyone again

The griefers who have thrown the word racism out as a divisive tactic vis-a-vis the NSA are enjoying every minute of the I'm not a racist reactive threads. If ProSense and KittyWampus said NSA opponents were all vegans, we'd see a hundred "I eat meat" and "I eat chicken" threads in outraged denials.

I've had to put over a hundred RW trolls on ignore in the past couple of weeks. Their outright demagoguery on race in the past couple of days is almost the most disgusting thing I've seen in 11 years of DU. But the way they have the whole community wrapped around their little fingers reacting to their stupid provocations ultimately outdoes it. Why are all the good people here wasting all of their time reacting to griefers they ought to put on ignore like I do?

There's no getting away from them, please stop feeding them.

where it's irrelevant and a deliberate distraction. Do have a post coming up about the reddest states actually being the whitest, yet the blackest states always getting scapegoated when the trolls start up their regional divisiveness machine.

I wasn't accused of actual racism, but of exhibiting "white privilege" when I said certain comments by Andrew Cuomo and Bob Kerrey in 2008 weren't racist.

Of course, if anyone saw me, they'd realize how ridiculous the white privilege charge would be.

I also remember that when Obama lost the New Hampshire primary, some national columnist speculated about a Bradley effect-- essentially calling a whole bunch of New Hampshire Democrats racists.

It is a diversion (Red Herring) that propagandists use to hijack the discussion
and take the focus off of whatever truth is being exposed.

I laughed at Limbaugh then,
and I laugh at the desperate *****s that tried the same tactic here yesterday.
They deserve each other.

Only right wing white dudes that insisted I hated white people because I'm not a right winger. Other than that, nope.

just one of the many reasons I finally put her on ignore.

I think its mostly white people making the accusations, trying to stir shit up with minorities.

any redneck can hear that dog whistle, and I heard it then, the appeal to racist voters by the Clinton campaign

And I do blame him.

Michelle and the girls were way ahead of him on that front

How many are going to take the issues as personally "accusing me" of racism? The subject comes up and the person changes it to being about how dare you accuse poor little old me of racism?

I'm white and I think I'm not a racist, but I can discuss the subject without taking it personally. I don't think I am being accused of racism personally, but that there may be some issues regarding it.

With the first black president there is going to be a question and there is the concept of black executive syndrome, and I do see that happening, whether consciously or subconsciously - white people need to question themselves rather than take the martyr route.

I thought the comments were about the population at large. At least that is the way I took it.

Folks are taking critical analysis of the world a minority group lives in personally.

By trying to silence that group and tell us we are cray cray for being honest with ourselves and others - it actually does harm to ones relations with that group.

Being honest I told the interviewer that of course I notice gender, age, hair color, skin, color, other physical characteristics of people but I do the best I can at not letting any of that impact how Inview or treat the person. She wrote "admits is a racist" on her form and I wa uninvited. After obtaining letters of recommendtion from a wide groupmof people, they still said no.

I later found out 8 of 10 nurses were uninvited and they ended up airlifting the remainder out of the country witin 6 months after a military coup (Liberia).

were about the population at large.

Republicans.

"Welfare keeps black people down."

Stuff like that.

said above me...

Only on DU.


There's really lots of pathetic irony here.


People here who are supposed to be tolerant..."liberal"... have actually treated me, in some instances, worse than some of the Republicans they so love to accuse of being intolerant, miserable assholes.

I've had RW neighbors for 17 years who have NEVER said some of the things that alleged "liberals" have said to me here.

So. While I don't vote Republican, I refuse to stand by in silence while some so-called "liberals" badmouth everyone on the Right.

The idea was, "The only reason you're supporting him is that he's black."

I don't think any of this was from the Clinton campaign, any more than the accusations directed at Clinton supporters were from the Obama campaign. It's just that each campaign had its True Believers. Their mindset is, "Our candidate is the best, and moreover is so obviously the best that no one could fail to see it. Anyone supporting any other candidate must have some impure motive, something not related to the merits, such as racism."

It was just as miserable then.

Somebody told me I was racist because I voted for Obama.

Once, for calling birthers a bunch of racists.

I still trying to wrap my head around that one. I call birthers racists, and that made me a racists somehow...

Especially when DUrs start parroting the worst slurs against Obama from Alex Jones, Glenn Beckk & Tea Bagger world

But that was a misunderstanding. However, it did make me rethink my additude toward minorities.
However, I have known people who are very liberal and very racist. One person I knew was a Democrat and very liberal on every issue but constantly used a derogatory word to refer to African-Americans. Others I've known were great champions of equal and civil rights as long as they were 'helping the oppressed' masses. But then couldn't handle a minority or woman as an equal or superior.

Ipso facto.

Because you can't support human rights for the Palestinians without being motivated by antisemitism, don't ya know.

In any event, it used to be an effective way to silence people, get them fired, and so on if they spoke up.

I've been accused a few times from people I come in contact with through work; not co-workers but members of the public that I deal with.

When the LGBT community of DU protested having McClurkin speak at the inaugural in '08, we were called a "den of vipers" and compared to the KKK. To this day, there are one or two posters that swear up and down the LGBT community of DU is racist.

Anyone who supported Hillary in the primaries back then was called racist too. This is nothing new. This is just the first time the mainstream of DU has been charged, tried, found guilty of, and forevermore afterward been called racist.

views on marriage, back in the day before he evolved.

It's a long-time tactic of the unconditional anti-war left to smear anybody who disagrees with them as a racist on the premise that you must like the idea of killing brown people. The notion that you might possibly believe that there are legitimate and non-legitimate times and places to use military force is unthinkable....they seem to be confused that there are non-pacifist leftists.

Back in the early 80s I was working with Women Against Violence Against Women. We put together a slide show of images from advertising and pornography - with one remarkably similar to the other aside from the explicit sex in the latter.

There was a black woman who was part of the group and she was upset at having to educate all of the good liberals all of the time. I don't know whether she actually used the word racist, but she properly put us in our place about the need to educate ourselves about the racism we weren't seeing in the images we were processing. That was a lesson I have carried with me since then - it is never the oppressed groups' obligation to educate others. It is a gift when they choose to - but those of us in the majority need to take the responsibility to educate ourselves.

In the areas of my life where I am not the majority (e.g. LGBT), I try to give the gift of education - but there are times I'm just too tired, I've done it too many times on the same issue, or I've just had a bad day. And then I use the alert button.

And I'm black!