ABC's Jake Tapper falls for RW race-baiting
actually I saw this important point made here at DU yesterday, but here it is as a whole blog post at FDL.
It reminds me of the people proving Obama is not a Muslim. Ok, but it's important to point out that there's nothing wrong with being a Muslim, which they usually don't say.
http://my.firedoglake.com/scarecrow/2012/03/09/abcs-jake-tapper-falls-for-right-wing-race-baiting-on-derrick-bell/
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Tapper compliments the paid shills at the conservative Heritage Foundation for checking whether this black radical mentor aka distinguished Harvard Professor ever visited the Obama White House. And sure enough, the visitor logs do show someone with the name Derrick A. Bell visiting the White House in January 2010. OMG! A respected member of the Harvard faculty visiting the White House! We told you so! Obama invites black radicals to the White House!
But Jake Tapper wants to rise above this. He reports that the birthdates dont match and so it was probably someone else named Derrick Bell. Whew!
There are two problems with the Heritage post. One: it excludes some details from the visitors logs. There are 28 columns on the publicly released records, the Heritage blog lists seven. The data they omit includes a description of what the visit was for: in this case, for both visits: TOURS. A White House tour not MEETING or APPOINTMENT. . . .
But Bell surely could have taken a tour or two and then met with President Obama, right? Sure, its possible and I asked the White House about it. The answer from a White House official: this was not the same Derrick A. Bell. He had a different birthday than the late law professor, whose birthday was November 6, 1930. That would seem to undermine the significance of this visit.
So, this would be an important story if we found out a black professor from Harvard whose views on increasing faculty diversity Obama once defended actually met with Obama? Then the right would be vindicated? Uh, no.
Earth to Jake: You fell for the con. Just about any black (or white) person writing honestly about Americas black/white experience is going to be called controversial by someone, and if he/she is at all sympathetic to the plight of black people in America, the right is going to label them radical.
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