The rise of white rage on cable television.

O'Reilly, Hannity, Olbermann and the rise of white rage on cable television.

"This is the modern face of cable television news: angry, emotional, mouth agape in the midst of some hateful monologue. Oh, and in case you hadn't noticed, the worst purveyors of cable news rage are all white men over 40. The era of the angry white man is officially here."



Who the hell is Cal Thomas and where do I go to kick his @ss??

it's not like 'the angry white male' is new, on tv. these dudes have been angry and raving since the reagan years. that network is what helped 'w' to take the throne as the boy king.

maybe they just 'noticed' because we have a man of color in the white house, so their comments are unmistakably urinary (and intolerant). but the 'rise' they speak of, happened long before now.

but whereas before they had to at least be informed on the issues, now it is a bunch of ranting and raving that is completely devoid of fact and anything resembling news. I don't ever remember a time when someone actually used their television show to rail against "liberal" causes ie the way that Bill O'Reilly railed against the abortion doctor who was eventually killed. This type of thing USED to be unheard of in America.

I was the only kid I knew that loved Phil Donahue back in the day. In my mind, Phil was the grand-daddy of all of this stuff and he never conducted himself the way these people do now.

The fact that Sean Hannity is allowed to get away with the stuff that he gets away with blows my mind. And I know that Keith Olbermann is a hero to many here, but I find him exceedingly annoying and for many of the same reasons that the author of this piece does. Luckily, I live in a country that does not carry MSNBC so I don't have to watch Olbermann, or Rachel Maddow for that matter though I do find her to be extraordinarily knowledgeable about issues. Just don't like the snarky, high school way she presents her information.

I learned, after the fact about O'Reilly's role in Tiller. The fact that he (and they) are still on air, doesn't make sense to me. I'd rather not think about it, as it's just too upsetting to process...

In my world, all american terrorist groups would be "illegal." I don't care how many people stood on "the Bill of Rights" the second amendment or whatever else. I don't understand how a country can allow legal terrorism of women (and men) entering reproductive health clinics. I also don't understand how or why the kkk is allowed to exist "legally" AFTER the crimes they committed pre-civil rights.

In Germany, anything remotely resembling Nazism is "illegal." They learned from their mistakes...why don't we?

I guess that's why they say that "power corrupts." :) We see these things going on and we want them abolished. Unfortunately, their behavior is protected by the law up until a point.

But then where do you draw the line? Representatives of the Catholic Church, which has done some tremendous good in the world, have also been behind some of these very protests at these abortion clinics. How would that type of thing be legislated?

The KKK though, I'm with you. I have no idea how they've been allowed to exist. The first terrorist organization in the US, responsible for unknown numbers of murders, kidnappings, destruction of people's homes etc. and yet they still exist. Bet if they had more than a couple of black folks, Hispanics or Muslims within their membership, the KKK would be merely a mention in a history book let alone a still functioning organization.

This is why I laugh when I look at these people who want Obama to fix everything yesterday. Legislating is tremendously difficult. It's like navigating a minefield blindfolded while simultaneously negotiating with two madmen holding guns to your head and telling you to go in completely opposite directions. You know what you want to happen but you still have to GET there. Getting there is the ONLY thing that matters.

Sorry, my post is a bit rambling but your post really got me thinking. Germany has tried desperately to flee from its history by outlawing things that might even possibly look a little bit Nazi-like. But even that hasn't been tremendously successful. There is a re-emerging neo-Nazi element in Germany as we speak. The more governments try to suppress things, the bigger they tend to become. And trying to suppress the First Amendment and limit people's participation in groups, even abhorrent ones, would probably bite us on the ass worse than not.

...I recalled this (rather dated) thread:

KKK moves on to hating Hispanics
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4224474#4224561

...as if Hispanics were ever a group they loved and adored (or tolerated). :spray:

shows the depth of ignorance of those that live at the top of the racial caste system, and those that don't understand it. The absolutely stupid comments aside, the regular themes of "stop talking about racism, it won't go away if you keep talking about it" or "blacks are just as racist as whites" or "talk like this drives people apart" show up like roaches. The intellectual racist comments of mdavis1959 nicely sum up the willful ignorance and intellectual dishonestly with this statement: "...my six-year old was kissed by a boy of color, but when I was teasing her about marrying him, she said that she could not because he was not white. Please rest assured, Mr. Jefferson, that she did not get this from me or my wife." That may be true, but we live in a society where being white is valued, and not-white is not valued. You and your wife don't have to teach her that, but you both haven't taught her how not to be racist.

:applause: Brewman_Jax, I wish I had said that. That is the problem and solution in one sentence.

I didn't know that 6-year-olds (if the poster's comments are fact) knew of differences in skin color and how that is treated. If that is so, habituation into the racial caste system begins at an age earlier than we believed.

...I thought that was bs.

Generally children of that age seem to learn what they live. If they have exposure, and the adults in their world don't label people based on "color" or "race" the kids won't either. Again, this is generally--there are exceptions.

On edit--here's an example of a teacher utilizing specific "eye colors" as superior...perhaps this could shed some light on how children of this age group learn about racial caste systems:

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/mar/26/local/me-blueeyes26

of that story and feel so fortunate to know it now.

I hope it had a lasting impact on every child that participated in it.

Love this part of your article:

"Race, I learned, permeated everything, and it was OK to say so. I found myself with strong opinions and a circle of outspoken black and Asian friends with whom to share. The world felt bigger, and I felt empowered."

Beautiful.

My niece at 4, and is biracial, called her dad vanilla, her mom chocolate and herself vanilla chocolate. But I agree, as far as the caste system, she had no idea, just relating people to colors.

Now, it wasn't until another niece (also biracial) went beyond this and stated plain as day that Michael Jackson wants to be white because white is better. How on earth did she put this together? His transformation for one thing. We gave her a good gentle talk-down.

It's so important to take the opportunities as they come along to explain how not be a bigot no matter what the subject matter.

...to explain how not be a bigot no matter what the subject matter."

Absolutely. But it's difficult to do when you live in a society that treats race the way a cheating spouse treats his marriage vows. "If I don't talk about it, it'll go away; if I don't remember my history and my past it can't affect my present and future."

Bigotry is the American way. This country was literally FOUNDED on the twin and conflicting principles of religious "freedom" and simultaneous racial oppression and discrimination. And now, bigotry continues towards people of color, towards women, towards overweight people etc. etc. etc. It's gotten better but we still have a long way to go.

What I have found is that during the instances that a member of the family has done so, it was the adults', black and white family members whose emotional agitation about the subject that was the most difficult thing to handle. The kids absorb the information readily. Even come up with their own interpretations.

For instance, in the Michael Jackson case, after all the talking down, my niece said, "besides, if you try to look like somebody else, you end up looking scary." I wish we had come up with something as simple without all the blabber.

Now, as for society as a whole, I'm with you. Bliss_eternal's referenced article about Jane Elliott is an extremely simple example of how self-perception can change a child. She said,"All of a sudden, disabled readers were reading. I thought, 'This is not possible, this is my imagination.' And I watched bright, blue-eyed kids become stupid and frightened and frustrated and angry and resentful and distrustful. It was absolutely the strangest thing I'd ever experienced."

It just amazes me that her little experiment has been around since 1968 and the education system can't employ a similar one in classrooms.

(edited to make sense)

...other teachers have attempted to utilize this experiment over the years. Unfortunately, many parents don't like to see their "children upset" even if it's temporary and to make a point of what it means to 'alienate others based on physical characteristics' like race, ethnicity, sex, etc.

I saw this first hand when the "Yellow Star Experiment" got flack in Florida several years ago. The "Yellow Star Experiment" was similar to Elliot's blue eye experiment (see post #4 in thread below for details and a link).

Many discussions on DU came about because of it. Here's one (referenced in our "Best of DU...?" threads):

Are racism experiments EVER appropriate in public schools?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=823768

Read the entire thread. The responses may surprise you.

If I'm remembering correctly, it was "all well and good" for children (and human beings) to be ostracized based on their race, ethnicity, sex, etc. BUT it was NOT ok for little caucasian children to be exposed to such experiments to make points (or teach them what it's like for others) as it may "hurt their feelings" or "make them feel bad", and was ultimately deemed "abusive."

:eyes:

...wish I was kidding.

BlooInBloo
5. Wow. What a bunch of ineffective wusses Democrats have turned into...
Case in point: Instead of dealing with racism stuff WHEN IT ACTUALLY GETS INCULCATED, they instead prefer to let it get entrenched in a kid's thoughts and feelings for a decade or more and THEN "deal with it.

One has to wonder, given its obvious uselessness of dealing with racism late, if it isn't because the voters don't really want to deal with it at all..."

I'm REALLY starting to think he may be a brother. :rofl:

reading your reply. I'm gonna have to brace myself before I go to the links, that I thank you for.

And the beautiful, simple logic expressed by your niece made me laugh out loud. She sounds like a wonderful, smart little girl with alot of "know" to quote Smokey Robinson at MJ's memorial. :)

But you can tell a a beautiful, cocoa-brown skinned child how gorgeous and beautiful they are until the stars come out. But if that idea is not reinforced, it has the potential to become lost.

My daughter is bi-racial and living in a country where all things blonde are glorified. How do I prepare her for this? She will get all of the love and reinforcement that she needs from her family, especially from her mother. And considering that she is now only 2, I realize that I have plenty of time to worry about this, or so I like to tell myself. :)

But one day, the time will come when she will wonder why more curly-haired, brown babies with big, brown eyes aren't sold at the toy store. And after that, how soon before she's wondering why there are so few women who look like her at her school? In the media? In government?

For some reason "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison is coursing through my brain right now. It's amazing. I spent the first 30+ years of my life doing my own thing and not worrying about what anyone thought about me. Now that I have a child of my own, I spend probably WAAAYY too much time worrying about EVERYTHING, including the impact of racism on my baby. I just can't seem to stop!

It just amazes me that her little experiment has been around since 1968 and the education system can't employ a similar one in classrooms.

I feel exactly the same way.

that you're in Australia and I understand what you mean. I spent a lot of time in my '20s traveling and living in Europe, not many countries, just a few to really get to know. London, fantastic. Paris, okay. Even people in the small towns in France were very kind. But I remember several times running into some biracial people in Belgium, around my age and younger, who I found were intrigued but very, very nervous. Repeatedly making eye contact, then dart away but definitely the message: you make me uncomfortable.

Maybe its me but I've always wondered if they were just not cool on foreigners or whether, in order to fully assimilate, they were trained so well to pretend that their African side did not exist. But I never met one white Belgium old or young who did not treat me with incredible hospitality.

Number23, your love for your baby makes my heart sing and I know you are great mom :hug: I hope that when the time comes, you can make many visits with her to the States. Not that this is Utopia but I just think there's nothing like travel to make one feel a bigger connection to the world, especially when you're growing up a little isolated in another.

(edited to make sense)

Number23, your love for your baby makes my heart sing and I know you are great mom

Thank you, Kind of Blue. Thank you so much.

We have visited the States and we took Bubba once in 2007 when she was a year old. She had her first birthday in her grandmother's house in Georgia. The first of THREE birthday parties she had for her first birthday. :)

And yes, girl. We all know that the States are certainly no utopia, and particularly not when it comes to issues of race but I still take your point. The thing about Australia that frustrates me is that they have every bit the racial diversity that the States have. I have never once stepped foot out of this house without coming across Australians of Indian, Aboriginal, Chinese, Vietnamese, Lebanese etc. descent. And there are a large number of African and Indonesian refugees here as well.

The problem is that the Australian media wants to act as if everyone here is blonde and blue-eyed when that's not even the reality on the ground. My daughter is a bi-racial, bi-cultural little girl. Half African American, half White Australian. I just hope that she is able to recognize how interesting and special that makes her and to not feel in any way "less than" because she doesn't represent the Western standard of beauty that women of color have been beaten over the head with for the last 500 years.

It's so funny talking about my little girl here. I am such a worry wort when it comes to her but I've really tamped it down (believe it or not!!) mainly because every time I called my mother back home with my endless laundry list of worries she would always give a little laugh and say, "welcome to motherhood, baby." :)

was 4 when he told me that he had white cousins and black cousins. I almost told him that all of his cousins are considered black, but decided against it. He wasn't ready for the one drop BS. I asked him where did he get this info, as I have not heard his parents discuss race or color. He said, "I told this to myself". He seemed to be well aware of the difference in color, but he did not seem to give the differences any kind of importance.

He is the product of two light skinned "Creole" parents. All of his cousins on his Father's side are fair skinned biracial and Creole kids. Some of his cousins on his Mother's side are of a darker complexion. Like another poster said, he's simply aware of chocolate and vanilla. He hasn't noticed at this time that people are treated different based on skin color.

How smart kids are? They pick up EVERYTHING, even things you had no idea that they were picking up. Even things you may not have picked up yourself!

He said, "I told this to myself". He seemed to be well aware of the difference in color, but he did not seem to give the differences any kind of importance.

He sounds like a very smart little boy. :)

I tell you, I've learned more from my daughter than I swear she's learned from me. She has taught me so much about endurance, strength (my daughter was born very prematurely) and about patience than I could ever imagine. Considering she'll only be 3 this year, I think she's doing pretty good. :)

My 6 year old niece came home one day saying that black people and white people couldn't get married because it's against the law. Someone fed that to the little girl who fed it to my niece.

Quite frankly, I had to give my 9 year old nephew the "you can't get away with the same crap that your little white friends do so you need to straighten up" talk after his school called my house wanting me to come down because neither of his parents could get there and they couldn't find him. They were about to call the police because he had said he was going to leave. And apparently, walking out of school is now a police matter. The school safety officer, with whom I had quite an enlightening conversation, told me about another boy, a white boy, with similar behavioral problems. She let me know that they have never threatened to call the police on that boy. Needless to say I wasn't all that surprised by her comments.

I understand, as I know the rules are different for people of color. But that's a jarring reality to present to a child. That they can't do what they see the other children (non-ethnic) doing, because the school won't hesitate to call the police.

That was my concern during the Immigration protests in socal, a year or so ago.
I loved seeing the Immigrants protest for rights. But when they tried to carry it over for days, and youth were skipping school to do so, I was concerned for them. So many don't seem to understand how the equation works:

Brown people + protest = LAPD with billy clubs, riot gear & bruised, bloody, brown people. :scared:

But it would be more jarring if he ended up locked in a room at the local precinct as the police are not your friend.

Two lessons that we'd be remiss if we didn't get the lesson through.

Of course, when I mentioned this in a different post I was duly chastised as having done my nephew a disservice.

Your equation is so correct although I have one that's less specific.

Number of black and/or brown people congregating = riot which needs putting down by the police. As if the police ever needed an excuse to come down on brown people for no reason.

....that you were chastised in another thread (re:your nephew). As if any that chastised you could speak w/any authority on the issue. (NOT!...lol)

There was a time when we could rely on the older generation, helping to keep young people in check. I'm not saying that parents didn't have any responsibility. Just that you knew if you were away from your parents, and "acted out" in a way that could get you in trouble--an older person (of color) would step in and check you. That doesn't happen anymore, for a variety of reasons. t's a shame there was no one of color at your nephew's school who may "have his back", if you know what I mean...

I attempted to "give back" as people had always looked out for me that way. One day, I saw some young black men (teens) outside of a store in my community, asking for "donations" for a "charity." :eyes: I knew they were scamming (they didn't have anything identifying them from an organization), and a few questions revealed they weren't legit.

I pulled them aside and told them they needed to pack it up and go home. That if someone called the police, they wouldn't go to some nice "lock up" while their parents were called. I explained they would go straight to county jail (the area had sherrifs not a police dept.). Do you know they got mad at me?! Tried to curse me out for messing up their action.

They were about to call the police because he had said he was going to leave.

Girl, I'm furious just READING this bullsh*t! When the hell did it become a police matter because a 9 year old threatens to leave school??! God, this makes me lose my mind!!

This ties in so much with Blue_tires OP about the need for black, male teachers. This just blows my mind. If you were half as furious as I am now just having read this, it's probably a very good thing you didn't go down to that school.

But I was not a happy camper at all and I let my sister know about the police thing too. My nephew has Asperger's syndrome so we know he has some special needs but the idiots at the Board of Ed (Which may have changed names under Bloomberg's takeover) want to try a "crisis para" I asked my sister when she told me this, "What the hell is a crisis para going to do? Walk with him when he leaves the class? He needs to be learning and he'll miss out when he walks out." My nephew needs a smaller classroom or maybe a residential program until we can get some of his more extreme behaviors under wraps but my sister has to literally sacrifice another school year of partial learning (as he leaves class) in order to show that what they're doing is not working. This really pisses me off because my nephew is really smart but if he gets to Junior high and nothing is fixed he's going to end up in special ed where they won't teach him a damn thing.

He's going for more evaluations so maybe my sister can get him to a more appropriate school setting because public school is not cutting it but she can't afford private school. She's a teacher after all. <sigh>

I'm unfamiliar with that term.

My heart goes out to your nephew and to your sister. A black boy with Asperger's could very possibly have lots of challenges throughout his school career. This cannot be easy for either of them.

So I guess when anything goes wrong the "crisis para" will be there. The paraprofessional (or para for short) being like a teacher's aide but this one will be assigned to a particular student. I don't see how this assists in learning as the paraprofessional is not a teacher nor are they licensed to teach as far as I know. Presumably if this works then there's no need for the private school. Personally, it sounds like a typical bureaucratic stalling tactic designed to get out of paying for the private school which the Board of Ed would be responsible for paying for if it is determined that they can't teach him. Meanwhile another year is wasted. This will be his last year in elementary school and this behavior in junior high school will definitely land him in special ed.

My sister is extremely frustrated because he was in a program and when the court idiotically split custody of the children my nephew went to live with his lazy ass father who couldn't be bothered to get up early to take him to the school so he pulled him out and put him in a Catholic school where he was, unsurprisingly, constantly suspended. By the time she got physical custody of him again last summer it was too late to get him into that program and he's been stuck at this school. I'm hoping that the evaluations that she's taking him to will help get him into a much better program. My sister worked very hard to get him into the program he was in to begin with and it annoys me no end that his father pulled him out because it was inconvenient.

I shared an apartment with my sister for the first two years of his life and I have always been a part of the lives of my nieces and nephew and it would kill me to see him pushed into the educational "ghetto" where they stick black boys they can't be bothered to deal with.

but you both haven't taught her how not to be racist.

Boy, you better just PREACH. Isn't it astounding how many people pretend to not understand how this works?? You don't HAVE to teach a white child to be racist. They live in a racist country along with all of the rest of us. White parents have to battle these forces damn near as hard as the rest of us do.

Every time children walk into a grocery store and see magazine covers full of nothing but blue-eyed blondes they start to figure things out. Every time they turn on the television and see that black people are either non-existent or portrayed almost exclusively as criminals, they start to figure things out. Whether you know it or not; whether you WANT them to or not, they start to figure it all out.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/10/02/self_absorption/

"The Right in this country -- meaning the faction that followed George Bush for the last eight years -- long ago ceased being a movement of political ideas and is driven by two, and only two, extreme emotions: (1) intense, aggressive rage towards their revolving door of enemies, and (2) bottomless self-pity over how unfairly they're being treated. As their imminent defeat looks increasingly likely (potentially on a humiliating scale), these two impulses are in maximum overdrive, feeding off one another in endless self-perpetuation (the more they lose, the more victimized they feel, the more they rage against their enemies who oppress them, etc.).

The Right's rejection by the public can't possibly be due to anything they have done. It can only be due to some extremely vicious enemy that oppresses them uniquely and so very unfairly."

Their primary fear of course, being that Obama will act on the rage of every American of color and "even the score."

At the end of the day, Republicans are literally scarred sh*tless that this country will do to them what they and their ancestors have not hesitated to do to others.

This passage from the article you quoted rang particularly true to me and relevant to this OP:

"Using only undisputed facts, one could write volumes -- and many have -- destroying the self-evidently moronic claim that the media outlets owned by the nation's largest and most powerful corporations are tireless propagandists for a Leftist agenda. But those facts can never and will never penetrate because the two-pronged Right-wing dogma of objective superiority and unique victimhood is a matter of religious faith and deep personal need."

That is probably one of the best articles I've read on the bizarre phenomenon that is white, male, Christian, Republican oppression in America. :) Thanks for that.

...every person of color received a special phone line after Inauguration Day, that connects directly to President Obama that can be dialed day or night to say,"....Dude, hook us up!" and ~~~poof~~~ all of our troubles are over?!

Quote:
Their primary fear of course, being that Obama will act on the rage of every American of color and "even the score."

:eyes:

Bliss, where have you been??

Don't you know since Obama took office, every black person in America has been given a special Soul Patrol Decoder Ring with a special hook up line STRAIGHT to the Black...er, I mean White House??

24-7 access! No issue too small! And in cases of dire need, Michelle's mom will fly to your home with a suitcase full of cash for you to use to fund any special projects aimed at "evening the score" with The Man.

Girl, stop! Someone might see you sharing this, and try to jack one of us to get one. :scared:
...and you know we would get in SO MUCH trouble if someone non-ethnic, got their hands on the special Soul Patrol Decoder Ring.

:hide:

it goes along with "black folks all look/thing/talk the same". In effect, the impression I get is that black folks are like the Star Trek borg: similar in appearance but really different underneath, all in instantaneous communication with each other, agreeing on everything and all that sort of thing.

The upshot is that you supposedly don't need to have a phone line to Obama. You all already know what each other is to do.

It would be really scary, I suppose, if it weren't so fucking stupid.

Again, I haven't heard any detailed explanations that said exactly this - it's just the overall impression I have of how the line of thought (such as it is) is supposed to go.

...as if everyone non-ethnic on du thinks, feels, acts exactly the same. i've yet to see even one event that every non-ethnic person had an identical reaction to.

such a presumption in the other direction would likely create many hurt feelings and offended responses.

Well, then what in the WORLD am we supposed to do with those Obama Power to the People Multi-Purpose Decoder Rings that every black person got November 5, 2008?? :shrug:

Think they'll sell on ebay??

their language loud and clear.

EXCELLENT example of the unhinged stupidity coming out of cable news.

When your Aryan co-workers try to stop you from sounding like a crazy racist fool, you KNOW it's time to time hang it up.

This is disgraceful. Absolutely disgraceful. It also validates her reference to a wise Latina. Meine ficken Fresse...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x337022

You have to see this post from Empowerer. As usual, she NAILS it.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8528569