"We knew, and we are watching. Sadly." (from DKos)

I haven't seen this posted here yet. (And yes I fully expect this to get unrecc'd)


<snip> to get to the heart of it


"This reflection this morning is in response to the diary on the rec list about the threats to the life of President Obama and the increasingly overwhelmed Secret Service. Some comments to the diary have poo-pooed racism. "Oh it's not cause he's black...it's cause he's a Democrat. Or..Hillary would have gotten just as many...or "remember how they hated Bill".

No. Sorry. Wrong. He's black. The primary source of "birther" rage, and teabagger ire, and wingnuttery, and "go out and get guns and ammo" is being spurred by something we have known all along. Any black man elected to the highest office in this land would unleash a flood, would take the lid off the kettle, and show the rest of you (though many are still in denial) just what we have known for generations.

We are patient. Some of our young folks haven't lived our lives, and they may not see what these older eyes see. But we know they are now learning the lessons. They too will become watchers. Sadly.

Lest I fail to include others, I will make mention of my husband - a Puerto Rican. He asked each morning during the primary "What's the news?" What he was really asking was "Is Obama still alive?". He also knows what it is to be an outsider. Talk to Hispanics about what they "heard" during the Sotomayor hearings. What they "hear" from Lou Dobbs and his ilk. Ask my Native American family and friends. They know. As victims of ethnocide. But they can speak for themselves. Right now I'm speaking as a 62 year old black woman with a long memory."



http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/8/5/762110/-We-knew,-and-we-are-watching.-Sadly.

this all stems from racism.

"moles" included, and I know she speaks the truth.

(Just so you guys know I didn't write this...)

The big question now is....will anyone listen, and if they're listening, will they do anything...

And there many like me...perhaps even the majority.
But racism did not go away in the aftermath of the 50 and 60...it just went underground.
And the way you go underground it to have plausible deniability...I am not a racist but these... (insert race)...blah blah bla.
So what can you do?...they do not violate any law...most of them at least.
What needs to be done is probably above my pay grade...but shining the light on it is essential as is education.

and many corners have been cut since Secret Service became part of the dept of homeland security (lowercase intended).

So says Ronald Kessler on the Daily Show Aug 3. Jon Stewart begged him to say he was joking. Kessler replied that he's speaking out in the hopes that security be restored to its proper level.

It was quite the unfunny moment.

These wingnuts cannot get over the fact that a Black man in our President.

MLK and others I held my breathe yesterday when the television broke in with a special bulletin about Sotomeyer. They always scare me and now more than ever. I hope that the Secret Service is doing their jobs even better than in the past. I pray for him.

I remember, too. And isn't it their whole point? If Obama is another Hitler, he must be eradicated. That's exactly what Rush is calling for. Exactly.

Rush is calling for Obama's assassination, and it's time to quit dancing around that fact.

Any talk show host on either end of the spectrum can and should be able to exercise his right to free speech, BUT this is inciting violence in my view and I believe it meets the legal standard for sedition. The dumbo teabaggers and birthers can rant their ignorant,sore loser nonsense all they want, but it's the right winger media wolves with the microphone like Limpballs, Beck, O'Liely, Hannity,etc.. who are playing with fire. They are stirring emotions of the ignorant with lies- AND THEY KNOW IT. They also know some racist survivalist nutjob will take their words as gospel and try to kill Obama believing he is a patriot saving the country from an evil leader. Of course if , God forbid it happens, they will deny that anything they said stirred the perpetrators to act. But we know better from recent tragic events.

This is not how a civil debate is supposed to take place in a democracy. Misinforming and then inspiring followers to simply disrupt public meetings on health care to shut down debate is not helpful for solving our health care crisis. Worse yet and over the line are these characterizations of Obama as a "Hitler", "Racist", "Not a true American". I demand to see some legal action taken against them- civil suits and criminal complaints for inciting violence and sedition. They need to be taken to task for their irresponsible and dangerous words. This is the equivalent of yelling "FIRE" in a crowded theater. There are limits and we need some action to get these devious, irresponsible and self-promoting windbags to STFU!!!

Any Lawyers out there willing to take this on? PLEASE for the sake of our democracy and the safety of our president.

speak, and be heard. I'd rather this come out into the open. Instead of the pissant members of the media pretending that it doesn't exist. Pretending that this country is so post-racial.

speaking as a 63yr old white woman raised and now living again in the South, I completely agree. In fact, I E-mailed the Southern Poverty Law Center today and asked that they officially designate the Republican Party as a Hate Group and put them on the Center's watch list. As long as the Party's leaders actively condone and promote this stuff, I see no choice other than to have them listed as such.

There's not a day that goes by that I don't hold my breath about the safety of Pres. Obama and his family. It's a terrible feeling, but I can't shake it, and the escalating violence associated with the Town Hall Meetings, as well as other hate crimes that have occurred lately do nothing but intensify my fear.

I don't like where we're headed. It's getting very ugly and very dangerous, and it's going to make the 60's look like a picnic before it's over, unless there's some type of intervention asap.

request.

for the safety of President Obama and his entire family.

dgibby, that was a great idea, emailing the Southern Poverty Law Center.

I'm going to keep that in mind.

R

I'm afraid you are probably right. I, too, shudder every time I see a "Breaking News" bulletin. God help us all if anything happens.

What can we do? How much more open can Obama be? Even if these creeps are kicked out of office, they gather in their little board meetings or think tanks and pour their million$ into anything that can twist and turn his words around. I've never seen anything like it.

I am doing my best to educate those who believe that crap the RWrs spew 24/7. Until they can somehow stop the poison being aired over FOX and RW radio, I don't know how you can stop it. That is where the fires are being lit to inflame.

I am a 72 year old white woman and my heart goes out to you. I, too, have a long memory and don't want any of us to go through those awful years of the JFK, MLK and Bobby deaths. It is scary, for sure.

I've known all along that the many irrational ignorant arguments against our president are based in unexpressed racism. The tea-baggers and birthers have made some of the dumbest assertions I've ever heard. They can't say they hate and fear a black man in power, so they make up crap.

The actions that are normally associated with racism are limited in this day and age (not gone, just limited for instance lynchings) or in other forms institutionalized (racial profiling) but it's still here and the colour of one's skin ends up bringing forth skewed rationales and agendas. I can seriously say, and I've said it before, that the primaries was my crash course into the civil rights movement, while his election brings me into the world of segregation big time. Where it becomes one group versus the other with a touch of the Civil War where it's uneducated country versus some educated peripheries. I don't want to broad brush it, although I know I have---but this is the feeling I am getting. People are scared of, "The Black" and now that it's arrived they don't want it to stay and they don't want him to be successful.

He'll never be right, or good because he'll always be Black.

racism is inaccurate, otherwise Steele would also be getting these threats for being the chosen head of their party.

i bet clarence thomas doesn't get many death threats either.

hence the racist depictions of him. and it's clear his race has added fuel to their insanity. they consider thomas and other black conservatives honorary whites.

Everyone knows that.

Like stay on the reservation or incur the wrath of Rush Limbaugh, like Colin Powell.

He's doing what he's told. That "Boy" knows his place as far as the racists are concerned. But Obama, well, he's being an uppity n****r and they don't like that one bit.

I'm from the south. While I don't agree with them, I know why they see a difference.

A Black Republican President (never really gonna happen) wouldn't have his life threatened by most Conservatives, not by a mile. The fact of it is, they are angry because they didn't get what they wanted in the election and they can't do a thing to change it. Making it about race oversimplifies the problem, we are dealing with people who want one party rule in their favor and are going to dangerous lengths to get it. It's about ideology.

she was scared of his life being threatened, too.

She received threats in the mail during the time he was considering it, actually.

"Both the hate mail and random callers were scary during the time her husband contemplated a presidential run, Alma Powell reveals in the May issue of the Ladies Home Journal.

"You think everybody loves (retired general) Colin Powell," She said. "Everybody doesn't like Colin Powell."

On the urging of others, the highly popular Desert Storm hero considered running for president, but decided against it. Making his announcement last November, Powell downplayed the importance of his wife's fears in his decision making. Though she had acknowledged some reservations, her latest comments are the most detailed admission of how deeply those fears run.

"I don't want to describe the hate mail we've gotten," she said. "... One day I got two letters -- one telling me what a wonderful man I was married to and how much the country needed him; the other said Colin Powell is a scum bag and proceeded to list all his evils.

Some people journeyed across the country, discovered where the Powells live, and showed up on their doorstep. That scared her, even when the callers were fans.

*Her grim conclusion: "A black man running for president is going to be in a dangerous position."*

http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1996/news/9604/11/alma/index.shtml

think otherwise.

Just sayin'

the author is saying, and i totally agree with her, that white americans are finally seeing what we've seen for years.

The Republican party has since Nixon been simply the party of 'white backlash', as the euphemism goes, against civil rights legislation dismantling Jim Crow, and establishing mere formal legal equality of the races. Even the approach to actual equality is something this racist element cannot tolerate or accept.

They think if they find the one or 3 African Americans (Condi, Clarence, Michael, Alan...) who're willing to play in the Minstrel Show, they can pretend they're not as hateful and racist as they are. Black people are okay in their place...but when they get uppity and think they can hold the highest office in the land, well that's just not on, is it?

So yes: it's about racism. Cuz what is more racist than a bunch of old white Xian males dictating the way others should conduct themselves, and screaming in outrage when those second-class citizens have the chutzpah to rise about their designated stations in life?

Many of these people would not have voted for a Black Republican candidate.

The place where I do NOT think race is always as much of an issue is the media. Sure, there are plenty of media figures who are racist. But on a global level, the media uses the racism in this country as a tool. The bottom line with the corporate owned media is about corporate profit and corporate control. If Obama was white, they would be saying many of the same things ... but I'm not sure those things would be getting quite as much traction. For the corporations, racism is the lubricant that smooths the path of their agenda. “Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power” - Mussolini ... corporations don't REALLY care about whatever ethnic or racial hatred they use, as long as there is a racial or ethnic hatred TO use.

Your "never really gonna happen" statement sums it up - fascism needs the divisiveness of racial/ethnic hatred to gain ground and gain traction. So, even if there was a viable minority Republican candidate, I don't think the fascist/corporate powers that be would support that person.

:)
Though we have had the occasional Troll Swarming from time to time (and they usually get thrown back under their bridges REAL quick), it is definitely a safe haven for the people of color here.

and it's worse than ugly, it started with the Palin rallies and has
escalated to what we now have as birthers and health reformist, when
Palin was riling up the crowd some here where making fun and calling
them fringe and lunatics, see how they have gradually moved up on us,
its like drinking a tequila it creeps on you.

The scary thing to me is those that thinks it's just a small group of
people and tends to laugh it off are IMO the sinister and cynical ones
we should pay close attention to because i don't find any of these rage
and anger funny.

I think it's time to call it what it is: an attempt by the party out of power to overthrow the sitting POTUS and his party by ANY MEANS NECESSARY.

They have already managed to shut down the Town Hall Meetings. Many Congressional Democrats have canceled meetings because of death threats and escalating violence. If they can do that in the time the House of Representatives adjourned approximately a week ago, can you imagine what will happen by the time Congress reconvenes in Sept?

Things are deteriorating very rapidly. It is Shock Doctrine in action, and if drastic measures are not taken soon, I fear for this country and all of us. We are on the fast track to a disaster.

For anyone interested, here's a link to my post for a call to action:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6245901&mesg_id=6245901

...he just said what you said on AC360 - he made the connection between the Palin rallies and what's going on now - the ugliness of it all. He didn't go far enough, but he at least went there - where the conversation should go. Make the connection. Now I need to go find Krugman's op-ed - apparently he hit the nail on the head.

this OP is bringing unwanted tears to my eyes, because I feel helpless...
and yet, I too have this premonition that gets stronger each day....
especially when I see our President standing up in front of a crowd....
my mind goes somewhere that I don't want it to go....
It is a very sad thing, because I know that whatever I am thinking,
there are many thinking the exact same thing as we watch. :cry:

to be perfectly honest. as much as i celebrate the exposure of america's fetid racist underbelly, i do believe enough black lives have been sacrificed to that beast. obama will not be sacrificed.

man become President of the United States. I fear most the message it will send to our youth who have been uplifted by this great event in history. I dread the consequences.:cry:

Obama just had more than a white president would. It's not a single factor issue. But yeah, these right wing kooks always have Obama's skin color on their minds whenever they do... whatever it is they do.

Edit: I just read the entire post on KOS. With empathy and compassion from a white male, I sense an unconscious desire to act as if Obama had never been elected, as that fact undermines her long-developed worldview that nothing will ever change. But obviously it has, so she only refers to Obama by name once, and never mentions the fact that a black man is president. Interesting.

that is currently on display. how many racist depictions have there been of obama? what exactly has changed? these people are the same people they always were. they are the people who lynched and murdered, and would now if they could. i think she is saying they are still here, even though a black man was elected president.

but I see her saying, "I told ya so, nothing will ever change," and that's just not true. That's what I see. I think even BLACK older people are having a hard time with change.

We've seen it and we live it everyday. It hasn't changed and our younger generation of males know that only too well. Continue in your denial. It seems to serve you well.

(/sarcasm) Not mentioning that we have a black president (re: the OP) seems like denial to me. Not sure what the "it" is that has not changed. Surely it =/= "anything".

'nothing' has changed and you disagreed. Perhaps I'm giving you more credit than you deserve but what then is 'nothing?'

in America, and accuse ME of being in denial? I respect your feelings, but you need to take another look at what's going on in the world, not just focus on the wingnut fringe and claim "nothing has changed". It's not a matter of opinion; you're just wrong.

Oh, well. Hey, I voted for Obama. You? I'm pretty sure we're "on the same side". Good economic news coming out today... looks good for our guy, and the country as a whole.

(I try to end these discussions on a point of agreement, which is not too hard on DU.)

And this is blowback from a dying breed. They don't understand on an intellectual level that they have already lost this fight because the youth don't see it their way and the youth will outlive them but on a visceral level they get it and they are enraged.
It's the same rage that homophobes are feeling.

I wish they would change quicker but then, maybe the blowback would be worse, I don't know.

still has a VERY long way to go. I judge that on the premise of what I see on this board as well as the events of daily life. You forget that dying breed had offspring whom they indoctrinated with this same generational hate and stupidity. SOME may have come around to a more civil way of thinking but they are far too few.

i certainly feel better because obama is president, but my life hasn't changed much yet, i do believe democrats will make some changes that will change my life for the better. older black people are one of the most loyal group of democratic voters, so i believe we do expect change. i think the point of the article is: it's not just a few racist kooks who oppose meaningful change. that's a message democrats really need to hear.

And would we be called racists when we opposed him on ideology, which we surely would?

Now, I'm not saying there isn't a racial component here, there surely is. But I'm not sure it's the primary component.

Now, please honestly address my hypothetical Alan Keyes scenario. These same batshit crazy lunatic birthers we have running around now would love Alan Keyes, because he's one of them.

Apparently the GOP has withheld support from Alan Keyes in the past.

"In 1992, when he wasn't given a prime speaking spot at the Republican National Convention, Keyes blamed the decision on racism. He ended up speaking twice at the convention, including once in primetime. Because the Republican National Committee withheld financial support for his losing cause, Keyes accused them of racism and complained that in the GOP, "colorblind means that when a colored person walks in, you suddenly go blind." Running for president, Keyes accused the media of "a blackout to keep the black out."

http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/19552

He's attempted to run in 1996, 2000 and 2008. If the GOP base has become more fringe over time, and if Keyes is considered fringe also, why hasn't he won any GOP primaries?

Apparently they don't love him THAT much.

But they see him as unelectable. Kind of like asking if we think Dennis Kucinich is so great, why has he never won a primary? Because too many of us think he could never win.

Now, even if it was strictly an electability concern keeping Alan Keyes from performing in the primaries, would Alan Keyes possibly interpret it as racism? He might.

But what the fuck do I know, I'm just a dumb white guy who gives people too much credit I guess.

I wonder what the freepers think of Keyes? Here's a link to some google search results of FR posts concerning Alan Keyes. http://is.gd/27fgG I haven't looked at all of them of course, but about the worst I've found is some people saying he can't win an election to save his life. A lot of what I saw was pretty complimentary. Links to his videos and articles, too. Somebody called him "crazy Uncle Alan" and a whole bunch of people leaped to his defense. So Alan Keyes seems pretty A-OK to the freepers, despite what Alan Keyes thinks keeps him from being elected.

On edit: Again, I'm not saying that racism doesn't play a part. I just think it's influence is often overstated. The guy at the Palin rally with the monkey? Clearly racist. I think we saw real racism from Senate republicans in the Sotomayor hearings. But to say that all of the right-wing Obama hatred stems from racism is a misguided knee-jerk. They hate all democrats with a violent passion. They hated Clinton. They hate Kennedy. There is no evidence that the right wing Obama hatred stems from racism, and there is evidence that such hatred exists against all democrats. Does it play a role? Yes. Is it the root cause? Certainly not.

The main anger is that he's a Democrat. And these corporate sponsored scripts for any wingnut attending these town hall meetings on health care give them a vent for that anger. And their anger really isn't even against Democrats but the positions they represent as disingenuously defined by super morans like Rush and Hannity. Some are just plain assholes who are angry at the world and conveniently blame it on "the left". Some are actually afraid of a communist takeover by Obama, or that the Big Government will make them die because of rationed out health care. Easily led and scared.

Of course it makes it easier for some to demonize the President for his color, but in a lot of cases it may be something they have to work against, because many may not be overt racists and criticizing Obama may be taken that way. For those it might even be easier to get riled up against a President Edwards or Clinton.

will never happen -

They've shown their true colors and it's whites only.

"A theoretical" Alan Keyes president...

Why would it have to be "theoretical" in the first place? Because the odds of the GOP giving Keyes a national platform, despite his supposed "popularity" with the fringe, are about the same as a snowball in hell. If in fact the GOP WANTED him as badly as they wanted Sarah Palin, they would have invested the same amount of time, money and resources into his past campaigns. There was no way in hell Sarah Palin was going to be elected with McCain, but they threw money at her anyway and let her loose among the lunatic fringe. They groom and support who they want and who they feel best represents their version of "real America," and will do whatever it takes for their candidate to win if they really want it. (Ironically, it's also why Romney didn't get the nod over Palin, either: Too many fundies have problems with Mormons, and Mormons don't completely fit in the GOP's version of "real America" either.) Bigotry and exclusion is too important a strategy in the GOP. Just ask Harold Ford. When he had a lead in the TN senate race, what did the GOP do? The infamous "Harold, call me!" ad. And they continued to run it even after Corker (supposedly) asked the GOP to stop running the ad. Hell, they even use racism against their OWN (see McCain, John and "black baby").

There are TWO 'fringe' groups in the GOP: The 'religious fringe' and the 'racist fringe.' And the 'racist fringe' is in charge. The 'religious fringe' is being used to get fundy votes, and the 'racist fringe' goes along to get along. (Sometimes the fringes cross-polinate.) So if you hear some 'fringe' person saying they like Alan Keyes, odds are they are probably a 'religious fringe' GOPer. He's good at getting the anti-choice crowd motivated. The GOP aren't about to let him leave that post to aspire to something higher when they know he's effective where he is, and the majority of their racist base would never accept him. They've attempted to give Jindal a national platform and look at how badly that went. The republicans of color fit the 'fundy fringe' mold, but can't overcome the 'racist fringe' base. That's not going to change anytime soon, because the GOP base is only doing what they've been encouraged to do since the inception of the "Southern Strategy."

The only reason they supported Keyes in his run for senator against Obama is because Obama is black, and in their racist little minds, a black republican is worth throwing money at if they're going to attempt to defeat a black democrat. You notice Steele didn't win his bid for the senate in Maryland, and Blackwell in Ohio didn't win his bid for governor, either....Lynn Swann in Penna....nope....and J.C. Watts, who was considering running for governor, suddenly had "business and contractual obligations" that he decided he couldn't run. But he's spoken out in the past publicly against the GOP's race problem, as has Keyes and Steele....I'd be willing to guess after that, they had no intentions of supporting him or giving him money for his campaign.

The GOP is very good with lip service and trotting out the minorities during convention time and when the cameras are going, but when it comes right down to it, they won't do the heavy lifting and financial support required for any republican of color to actually WIN a MAJOR election because it goes against their base.

And just as an aside: Why would someone at DU go to great lengths to acknowledge the opinions of a white freeper, in order to minimize the racism complaints of a black person in the GOP? That's pretty telling, if you ask me....

Thanks for helping to prove my point. You now imply that I'm a racist when you don't know a goddamn thing about me. Racism is an easy charge to make, and it's impossible to disprove. You can't prove a negative. The charge is not falsifiable.

It's possible to disagree with a black person without being racist. I mean, I'm allowed to think Clarence Thomas is a colossal douchebag, right? If a black man cuts me off in traffic, and I say "learn to drive, buddy" am I out of line simply because he's black? Does it mean I hate black people or does it mean I hate bad drivers?

A claim is being made here that the primary reason right-wingers are up in arms is because of racism, and this claim does not correspond to clear evidence that they went just as nuts over Bill Clinton. They would freak out over any democrat being elected president.

That being said, racism is real and does exist, but when people declare racism at every time a white person disagrees with a black person, even if said disagreement becomes heated, it's only making it more difficult to address the real cases that really do need addressing.

how much of it is race based.

I've just been listening to CNN Campbell Brown, and the interviewee was saying that part of the anger and shouting and coercion techniques, etc., have to do with authoritarian people, who go along in life getting along with others and the like, suddenly confronted with change and threats to their status quo. Such people react violently sometimes.

That makes sense to me. I know some people like that. Very nice people...until their comfortable status quo is threatened. Then faces get red, hatred spews from their mouths. I'm talkin' little ol' Republican ladies, middle aged very nice diplomatic women.

Don't forget...these are the gun toters (I am one of those, too, though).

There's just no way to know how much of it is racial. For many, I am sure that race has nothing to do with it. People scoffed at me all last year, when I said that Obama had a good shot at winning (America will NEVER vote for a black man for President! my Dem. friends said). I said then that race matters very much to a certain segment, and that segment ain't votin' Democratic anyway.

I say now that I think that many of the death threats are rooted in the severe change that has taken place since the election. They were riding high on Bush's my-way-or-the-highway cowboy way, tax cuts for all, etc. Then suddenly there's a much younger man in charge, he's biracial (he looks different), he's one of them libruls, he's spending $$$ like crazy, taxes are certain to go up (we all know that), and he's anti-gun (that REALLY gets them scared). It's all of those things. It's likely the threats would exist even if Obama were white. The circumstances this year are unlike any we've experienced, so it's hard to know what part his race plays.

Perhaps you haven't noticed, but there's some moron(s) going around on DU unreccing posts the minute they are posted. They especially love to unrec posts like these.

I'm stunned, quite frankly. Especially since quite a few people at DU are uncomfortable with this topic.

I've seen other people say the same thing whenever they've posted something they thought would be unrecced. Would you accuse them of having a "preemptive pity-me" (sic) as well? Or do you only do that on topics like this one?

And if that's the only comment you have to make in this thread, without bothering to contribute something of substance to the discussion, I would have to ask: Who here is the one attempting to seek attention?

:think:

Frankly, I hit the parenthetical comment, closed the thread, then for some reason decided to open it back up and read it.

It is a good, substantive, concern that we should be reading and discussing - and I almost didn't even look at it because it started out like another whine about the unrec feature.

As to your comment about comments other thread-starters making the same comment - this is actually the first thread that started that way that I've even bothered to read because I generally find posts from people whose first concern is whether their thread is going to be recommended or not to be self-absorbed, trivial, poorly written, boring, or otherwise not worth my time, and the threads starting that way quickly degenerate into squabbles about the rec/unrec feature.

Your thread is none of those, and you do yourself and the rest of us on DU a disservice by dragging that controversy into it.

That's your perrogative.

Have a nice day :hi:

most DUers live in the real world. No wonder this OP is massively recced.

Which is why I'm really surprised at the recs it's gotten.

Same fight.

Same thing-

It's surely the mark of a small mind.

No It is NOT the same thing.

"Only thing we quibble with is the heavily weighted responses from Dixie. Cause we are observers and the object of racists in all the corners of our nation, even in the so-called liberal North. Dixie ain't got no lock on hatin' black folks. They are just more open about it."

Wooo, Lord. Speak the TRUTH!!

"We'll keep watching. And listening. And hearing. And hoping. And praying. One by one, two by two...their numbers lessen. But how long will it take before they are gone? Only God/Goddess or future history knows the answer."

I ask that question EVERY SINGLE TIME I look at my little girl. Every time.

This is so rec'able I wish I could do it more than once. Thank you for posting.

They see a president who looks like, and shares the exact same ethnic mix, as they do.

:hug:

and it is an ugly, terrifying view we see.

BTW - I had no idea there was a subgroup on KOS called Black KOS. I gotta go check them out.


Thanks for the link!

but I can't.

I've feared it since he first announced that he was running. I lived through the three assassinations that others have mentioned in this thread. The assassination of JFK occurred when I was in first grade. It's the earliest memory I have of anything related to politics. This was followed by RFK and MLK. My childhood was punctuated by assassinations, so the possibility is not unthinkable to me at all. There are so many crazies out there who are so full of hate. I just hope that the Secret Service are really on their toes.

I suspect that the Secret Service is much more sophisticated these days and has tools and techniques no one dreamed of in the '60s. That thought does give me some comfort.

I'm a middle aged white male, by the way. See, we're not all bad guys. :hi:

I see the SAME TIRED responses to this OP that the author of that diary acknowledged in her post on KOS.

People here are even saying "well look what happened to Bill!" even after she states that IT'S NOT THE SAME THING and every single black person that has posted in this thread has concurred. Why even say something so stupid and devoid of facts and insight?? Was Bill Clinton EVER made to feel that he was not an American?? That he had to prove that he was BORN in this country?? The right-wing had their issues with Bill, but his ethnicity provided him with a cover that Obama will never have.

I really don't know why we bother?? What is the point in trying to discuss things with people who absolutely REFUSE to see daylight??

So without further ado...

"Once in the general election, and safely out of the cloistered world of Republican primary politics, our nominee will want to trot out black faces -- usually black Republicans -- to try to win the black vote. This is insulting when you consider he likely didn't show up at events that were established to reach out to the black community."

And for my Hispanic kinfolk:

"One final note: Watts' unhappiness with the GOP over African-Americans mirrors Mel Martinez's unhappiness with the GOP over Hispanics. Not so friendly to minorities, that Grand Ol' Party."

I think Mel Martinez (the same one who briefly led the RNC just like Steele, lest we forget) saw what was happening with Sotomayor and said 'enough already.'

https://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2007/10/jc-watts-warns-gop-catastrophe-amongst-african-americans

The GOP are more than willing to invest BIG BUCKS in someone like Caribou Barbie because she represents their idea of "real America" - Martinez and Watts, not so much.

there may be naysayers and negative responses, but the conversation must go on. I am an old white woman and I remember the assasinations and the 60's riots. I was in Michigan (Lansing and Detroit) and the air was thick with it. I have felt it through the years and again when I went to the McCain/Palin rallies. There is an extremely uneasy sense about what is going on. For the old white people (the ones yelling the loudest) it stems from ignorance and loss and fear of what they can't possibly understand. I am embarrassed by their ignorance and uncivil behavior and so wish there was something, anything we could do to help these people understand - that America they think they're losing has been gone for a long time and it wasn't the democrats that destroyed it... and it's up to us to make our America strong again.

(sigh) You are absolutely right.

It is just so damn FRUSTRATING to see an OP like this where the first thing the diarist types is "you guys keep saying that Bill went through the same thing but he didn't go through anything like what Obama is going through now" and there are ten posts in this thread from people saying almost verbatim what was debunked in the first damned line of the OP!!

There just seems to be this pig-headed refusal on the part of some, this INSISTENCE that their perspective is the only way in which things are to be viewed. And these people NEVER stop to think "who in the world would have more experience with racism in this country? Me or the black woman who wrote this diary??" Why not just shut up and LISTEN to what the woman is saying??!

Handmade, thank you for your post. I completely agree. Alot of this is due to fear and ignorance. It just infuriates me that alot of the ignorance could be resolved if people would just LISTEN instead of acting like they know every doggone thing. :toast:

"they can't possibly understand" and yet you understand. it's possible for them to understand; they don't want to. that's willful ignorance, not the forgivable kind. and yes racism is alive and well and Obama's candidacy and election have brought it to the surface and it is ugly, ugly, ugly. i deplore it with all my heart. nobody can ever give me a reason for racism that makes sense and yet racists cling to it as if it does.

My point was that the people going to the Town Hall meetings to disrupt them do not have the capacity to understand the truth because they have been exploited by a tremendously effective marketing campaign and the irrational fear has clouded any ability to think things through.

You are correct, if the anti-healthcare people had exposure to the big picture and the 'real' facts they would have the capacity to possibly understand. Racism exists through fear and uncertainty. I look to Maslow's heirarchy of needs and I imagine that the people that work from fear and anger have not been able to get crucial needs taken care of. It is such an important issue that affects all of us and we all have to keep working to make it better.

too!! LOL!! I remember it well, also. I lived in Detroit, back then, right in the thick of the riots. I'll never forget it. Detroit started going down at that point. Especially after that famous remark by Mayor Young. Don't get me wrong. I loved him and many things he did for the city but he shot the CITY in the foot when he made that statement. THAT was the biggest mistake of his career.

nutty even crazier. Even the shooter at the gym yesterday had a diary filled with his hatred for the President. Every morning I pray I don't turn on the tv and get some horrible news. You can't even compare the Bill Clinton's enemies with what is going on now. Never in history would "birthers" be given the time of day prior to this Presidency.

As much as I'd like to believe that our Nation is more enlightened than it was decades ago, I have no doubt that the rage you're seeing is all about racism. Look at the folks who are perpetrating this shit on behalf of the Glenn Becks (known racist), and the insurance industry (not necessarily racist, but willing to use the unstable paranoids to achieve their aims.)

even though it's 2009 the more the things change the more the say the same.

<snip>
The three "r's". Racism, Racists and Reactionaries (or put in Republicans) - same thing.
<snip>

and veiled than it was in the past, which for me makes it even more frightening.

...like it would be ok if they just wanted to kill democrats. it is not worse to want to kill the president than it is to want to kill democrats.

this country is just fucking insane.

Their leaders and Fox News know how to incite them and manipulate them. That's the only way they know how to "lead". That shit needs to stop before someone's hurt.

To quote Bill Maher (paraphrasing) "Not all republicans are racist, but if you are a racist, you're a republican."

I do believe that there are some, although maybe few, republicans out there who care not about Obama's skin color but rather his party affiliation.

I guess what I'm trying to say is let's not paint broadly.

Paraphrased: First you have hate speech, then destruction of property, then violence toward people.

in the 1930s. And this why they rail against 'political correctness'.

instantly recognized the dog whistles at the McCain/Palin rallies, and to be perfectly honest, we heard similar whistles from some on our own side of the aisle, during the primaries. So it's no shock that your o.p. would be met with derision by some here.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=258 :hi:

For some reason, I had NOOO idea that you were black! I've been slipping lately. :blush:

And as for slipping, I've been here for years, and wasn't even aware of AAIG. I've marked it, and plan on becoming a regular. Thanks again.

How much crazier can you get?

That said, there is DEFINITELY a racial component at work now. Even the terminally stupid - be they freepers, teabaggers and birthers or others - are rarely so simple and unidimensional as to be driven by one and one only narrow motivation.

force behind the fear and anger over health care and other issues. They fear the black man wants to control their "America". The believe the only true American is a white one. This fear they have is real and has been ingrained into them. They are hysterical with fear. These not-too bright people are easily manipulated by the scare tactics of the American Taliban. In my heart I know this, because as a white person, I have heard it even from relatives - but not my immediate family - WE were raised to think for ourselves and to know total bullshit when we see or hear it.

In these increasingly violent demonstrations, the fear-driven people (actually seemingly in fear of their lives) are easily distinguishable from the corporate plants. The hysteria is not present in the corporates.

So sad that we have this large population of the insecure and easily misled, egged on by those who only want to get rich off them and us. Sometimes I feel hopeless.

all have some ingrained fears, but we don't all act out in the way we're seeing from the right. Great post.

and you get a rec from me. This white woman from the south knows racism when she sees it. May he and his family be protected from these rabid dogs.

....that he might be assassinated even before the election, and still worries about it. The healthcare "riots" scare me - there is just so much hate being stirred up by the right wingers.

That you're posting this brings to the surface the fact that many Americans are worried too. Let's hope and pray nothing ever happens.

PS - why do you think anyone would possibly unrecommend this post? Wackos out there, I guess!

an old white guy living in one of the most racist sections in the midwest.
I see it almost daily. In the news, the comment sections of the local rag, etc.
It's frightening to say the least. And I think it IS racism more than ideology.
This much hate wouldn't be here if he were white. Sure the repigs would be on them hard, calling names and everything they're doing now. But, it wouldn't be as effective. Obama has a 'foreign' name, he scares the shit out of the redneck racists here because they think they are going to lose something. They don't know what, but change scares them and it happens to be a black man doing it.

RACISM.

"...they think they are going to lose something. They don't know what, but change scares them and it happens to be a black man doing it..." that is my perception to the point.
It is ignorance, fear and anger about the loss of an idea (just an idea- the America they think they are losing has long been gone and it isn't the democrats or people of color that took it away)

Go read the full diary. I grew up in the South where it was common to hear people use the "nigger" and, during the first illegal Bush Gulf war "sand-nigger," up through the time I moved away in the 90's. When the holiday for MLK was passed by congress the favorite joke of the oh so enlightened southerners at the time was "Let's kill four more and take the whole week off."

Sadly, I was guilty of the denial Deoliver47 speaks of. Having lived outside Dixie for the last fifteen years I haven't seen the overt racism, bigotry and stupidity that used to be a daily occurrence. But she's right. It's not just Dixie. Obama won by a nice margin but it wasn't as if it was 80/20.

The racists have far exceeded my expectations in their actions. They have overreacted to a degree I had thought was unimaginable by this time in our country. Sadly, they spent the last eight years supporting an administration that had no interest in their well being. They continue to believe in anything their corrupt and self-serving "leaders" tell them no matter how absurd it may be.

The tea-baggers, the birthers, and the anti-health care movements are all connected and have the same purpose. That purpose is not to oppose policy or have legitimate debate. It's about how to bring down Obama or at the very least make him as unsuccessful as possible. The notion that a black president can do good things for the nation is so offensive to them they must do everything in their power to prevent him from being successful. Sadly, after eight years of the Bush disaster, which they blindly supported, it's going hard to paint Obama as ineffective.

Bill Maher said we're a stupid country. He's absolutely correct. We validate his statement more and more each day.

will not watch a golf tournament on TV when Tiger Woods is playing.

They watched while he was recuperating from his surgery and the players tried to win as much as they could cause THEY KNEW when he got back is would be a wrap!!! Came back, kicked ass and won the Buick Open!! SAY IT AIN'T SO!!!:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

because he is both black and Asian. :rofl:

you really should chime in a lot more often. Excellent post.:hi:

And thanks for your post. :hi:

I also think it's the root reason why these Tea baggers are out in force acting out in violence and disruption at town hall meetings. They don't want this president to be successful at anything. Not because he's a democrat but because he's black. I never saw this level of outrage over health care reform and town hall meetings during the Clinton years.

These bigots are out in force because they don't want President Obama's health care initiative to succeed. They would do anything to see him fall even if it means pulling down the country.

Lyndon Johnson is said to have known that passage of the Civil Rights legislation would give the country over to the Republicans for a generation. It turned out to be an even longer reign of racial backlash.

My own theory about Florida in 2000 was that the Bush family and their more sophisticated henchmen realized that changing demographics were destroying the Nixon-Wallace-Reagan white majority and the only way to regain the White House and to maintain a corporate dominated Congress would be to control the voting process. They succeeded and prolonged right wing power for another eight years, and they managed to rip off several trillion dollars during the their last few years of total control.

As a white man born in 1953 who grew up in Dallas, Texas, I have seen my own view of the racial divide in this country evolve decade by decade. My parents were "liberals" by Texas standards and I complacently looked at myself as an un-racist, not having a clue about how many stupid racist assumptions I had absorbed simply by living in this extremely race conscious country. Getting to know some African Americans provided considerable education, as did reading some of Malcolm X's thoughts on the subject. So I definitely agree with the thoughts expressed by many on this thread that black Americans have a much better handle on how racism operates than do white people.

Yet I also agree that racism is not the only motivation behind the uncivilized acting-out by these Palin supporters, teabaggers and town hall hooligans. I would say that racism provides most of their energy in 2009, and not only because of Barack Obama's ethnicity. Based on my experience with wingnuts in my family and among my old high school friends who still live in Texas, I think the grievance crystallizes in their heads that they are "losing the country." Obama is the biggest symbol of this phenomenon, but their resentment goes far beyond his personality. This is no longer a White Country and that is what pisses them off the most.

There are other elements than race within this plaint that they are "losing the country." Homophobia plays a very large role. So does resentment of women who have attained positions of power. Religion and hostility to abortion are also significant motivations for our strangely behaving fellow citizens who cannot cope with the changes that keep rocking their world.

The one thing I cannot agree with on this thread is the notion that nothing of significance has changed. It led to an unfortunate exchange between posters accusing each other of denial. As far as I am concerned, change is the only constant in the universe and to claim that anything is not changing is a profound mental error. I can respect the fact that people with skin darker than mine will know a hell of a lot more about how racism manifests itself than I do. And if my brothers and sisters of colour tell me that racism is still a daily experience for them, I am not about to disagree. But it does not follow from this that racism is not changing or receding -- as everything under the sun changes with time.

I have to agree with the poster who reminds that Barack won. Surely you cannot say that means nothing. Of course it does not mean that racism is gone. But, dammit, Barack won and that victory means something. And in the broader sense, we are making "progress." I have no quarrel with anyone who is dissatisfied with how well that "progress" is going, but I just can't buy the assertion that none has occurred. I know better, based on my own interactions with people of colour.

And I am troubled by the air of fatalism I detect in the OP and in some of the posts on this thread. The assumption seems to be that racism is some implacable force that will never yield to reason or love. Martin King did not believe that to be so. And I was moved last year by Barack Obama's retort to the Revernd Wright flap -- that he disagreed with the idea that America could not transcend its racial differences.

Sure, Barack is a politician and his intentionally vague pronouncements about things like "hope" are vulnerable to some pointed criticism. But he is our leader now. And I choose to follow him on the road to racial reconciliation.

I do not think it is impossible. What it is, is necessary.

:party:WELCOME TO DU! :toast:

well written, and well thought out response. Dude, I sure as hell hope you're a professional writer, and if not, please let me know where your fist column will appear.:thumbsup:

generational indoctrination of hate and stupidity is not easily subdued. I don't believe you or I will live to see it.:-(

can only have its roots in the lizard-brain reaction of "hate the other", which presents in humans as racism.

and I've been trying to think of what to say. Mostly, the best part, is it's made me THINK. There's not a lot of that going around anymore. Growing up in the segregated South, I learned that most white people weren't only afraid of somebody getting something they "didn't deserve", they didn't want Black folks to get ANYTHING. It has changed, but a lot of people still have that mindset. I battle my own racism everyday, and I think that because I recognize it in myself, I can also see it more readily in others. But coming face-to-face with unrepentant racism at the levels the 'birthers', 'deathers' and 'tea baggers' bring it is a terrible shock.

We are only six months into the Obama presidency, end of any semblance of a honeymoon. Three years and six months to go in his term, and chances are that we will continue to face some of the hardest economic times in decades. Times are tough. And yet, we as a country still haven't come to terms with our racist past and present. We are seeing the beginning of racist reaction to President Obama, not the end of it; as the issues get bigger and the times get tougher, the potential is very real that racist tension will escalate in and out of politics. So what are we gonna do? Pressure the mainstream media to stop reporting on the birther nonsense, pressure our Democratic senators to lean on their Republican colleagues and stop giving this racist crap legitimacy? Or pretend this has nothing to do with race?

DU deniers of racism: look around. Do black and brown people suffer any less from poverty, incarceration, unemployment than they did ten years ago? Are Yale and Harvard full of students of color now? Are Hispanics, Asians, and blacks taking over the U.S. Senate? Are white CEOs an endangered species now?

Or do you see basically the same demographics nearly across the board as you did in 1999 or 1989 - except for the Presidency? We can barely come up with one black senator, one black governor in this country: taxation without representation continues. Why in heaven's name would any thinking person believe there's less racism? Do you really think that equal opportunity exists now, with results like these?

So what is your purpose of denying the settled sociological fact that embedded racism still exists in the United States? Electing Obama was a positive step and we all worked hard to make it happen, but there's no way that this one action, as important as it was, was going to resolve this issue. A huge increase in the number of threats to the president (I think I read 400%) should be proof enough that racism is a clear factor in the sum total of American reactions to this president. It just goes to show, as the cliche says, denial isn't just a river in Egypt. It runs right through the so-called American left, including DU.

I've seen in MONTHS!

Hip hip! Hooray!
Hip hip! Hooray!
Hip hip! Hooray!!!
:party:

. . . to have given it its 232rd rec!

:kick:

;-)

:)

the caller ID showed the call was from Georgia. The woman on the other end spent over five minutes to convince me to vote for McCain/Palin. Her reasons? Not policies but that Obama scared her. She was worried about the country and she'd been reading some "whacked" book about Obama. She kept telling me she didn't trust him, there was something about him--he scared her. I finally had enough, after I attempted to explain de-regulation, our economy and how the * administration lied us into a very costly war, that helped take our economy down. Nope, it all came back to how she was afraid of Obama. So, I finally asked her with sarcasm, "because he's black?" She acted surprised--no, no that's not why she was an ignorant fraidy cat.