Republican-Sanctioned Stereotypes

Many Republicans and conservatives do not seem to know, or appear to not have the faintest clue, as to what is a racially insulting and dehumanizing image. At least they feign ignorance.

It is the same ignorance that was used to claim that there was nothing wrong with usage of the "Black Sambo" or "Chinaman" images of a generation ago. It is the same ignorance that was used to claim there was nothing wrong with using a Mexican bandit - the "Frito Bandito" - to sell Frito Lay's corn chips. And then came the 1960s.

These people that feign ignorance nowadays always seem to work for political campaigns. Unless the topic is sports mascots. For example, the 1960s bypassed the Washington Redskins and Chief Wahoo of the Cleveland Indians. The dehumanization of American Indians, particularly in the sports universe, has been normalized.

That aside, the rest of these operatives seem to work on political campaigns. But they are not ignorant; they know precisely how to tap into deep-seeded fears and how to stir up profound hate.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/11/01-5

The rest of the editorial is good too. Thanks for posting it.
I posted for a while on a message board that had some hard core republicans on it. Finally got sick of it and stopped. The thing I noticed about them was that they constantly said demeaning things yet continually denied they were racist. In fact, they seem to think the only racism in the US is directed toward white people and conservatives. Also, they seem to talk about race incessantly. As in 'so and so is playing the race card'. One moron kept posting that 'the race card is the last resort of liberals'. Or some such idiocy.