Archive for the 'Race' category

My Personal Experience With Republicans and Racism

Aug 01 2008 Published by under Barack Obama, Candidates, Democrats, Elections, John McCain, Political Parties, Politics, Race, Republicans, Society

With all the discussion of “Republican racism” taking place as a result of Obama’s claim that McCain’s “risky” adjective is based on looks, I thought I’d weigh in. I have been involved in GOP politics for 15 years, and in that time I have never – not once – been involved in a discussion of an opposing candidates race and how to exploit it.

Now the corollary to that is the number of election cycles in that time where I have seen Democrats throw out the racism charge as a way of shoring up their support. On that metric, the Democrats are batting .1000.

I cannot speak to what the GOP may have done in the 70s and 80s because I wasn’t there. I can, however, safely say that every conversation I have had about race in campaigns since 1994 was either a) how the Democrats were exploiting race at our candidates expense and b) how we write copy, produce ads, and develop messages with the specific goal of not providing an opening that let’s them do that.

From everything I have seen, the GOP is obsessively concerned with “not” using race as an issue. That’s not to say that the random nut doesn’t do something stupid, but there will always be examples of nuts saying and doing stupid things. That does not equate to the sustained campaign of racism the Democrats allege.

All of the evidence I have seen of systemic abuse of race comes from the other side, and their attempts to exploit “racism” not “race” for political gain.

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When Charges of Racism Go Too Far

Apr 24 2008 Published by under Craziness, Miscellany, Race, Society

I’m heading to a lunch time meeting today and jumped in the back of a cab. The driver of said cab is clearly agitated. We begin chatting and he quickly explains the reason for his consternation. It seems he’s the target of accusations of racial discrimination.

While doing his rounds one afternoon, he passes a single black woman standing on the side of the road and stops to pick up two white guys. The woman, apparently upset that she was passed over for a ride, notes his cab number and contacts the DC cab commission to file a formal complaint.

“It’s not my fault,” he tells me. “The DC cab fare structure allows me to charge more money for more passengers, even if I’m going to the same place. If I take two, three, four, five passengers to the exact same spot, I make more money. I didn’t pick her up because she was alone, not because she was black. Now I’m accused of being a racist.”

He’s right. The allegation is on the books. He has been labeled a racist by his accuser simply because of the economics of transporting two passengers.

Now, here’s the best part of the story. The accused racist… the cab driver who refused to pick up this black woman…. Well, he’s black, too.

Welcome to racism in America.

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Don Imus Back On the Air?

Oct 03 2007 Published by under Business, Craziness, Marketing, Pop Culture, Race, Radio, Self-Promotion, Stuck On Stupid

Drudge is reporting it, and I have to say I’m not surprised. Don Imus is considering a return to radio on a competitor station to the one he got bounced from last spring. The only question now is whether the PC elite in this country will ratchet up the pressure to keep this hire from happening.

When Imus made his now infamous “nappy headed hos” comment last April, the outcry for his removal was incredible. Unable to withstand the pressure, CBS bailed on the host. Without a show, he also lost his simulcast deal on MSNBC.

If Citadel Broadcasting hires the disgraced jock, I’ll be amazed. If this story doesn’t spark more racial tension, I could wake up tomorrow sewn to the floor and not be more surprised.

It seems unlikely, to say that least, that our “forgive and forget” society will let the guy back on the air after only a couple of months gone. It just seems that 6 months isn’t quite enough time to renounce racism and misogyny.

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Joe Biden’s Racism?

Jan 31 2007 Published by under Candidates, Craziness, Democrats, News Media, Politics, Race

Courtesy of Drudge is this report from the New York Observer quoting Joe Biden on Barack Obama.

Mr. Biden is equally skeptical—albeit in a slightly more backhanded way—about Mr. Obama. “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” he said. “I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”

Oh, so I guess Jesse Jackson was dirty and inarticulate. Honestly, did he just refer to an African-American leader (he is, for better or worse) as unclean?

To be fair, Biden could have said worse. Last year he amazed people by telling an Indian-American “In Delaware… you can’t go into a 7-11 or Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent.”

I guess Biden’s speechwriter didn’t give him the draft that referred to Jackson as a ‘dirty house ni**er’, the Indian-Americans as ‘dots not feathers’ and asked if the Hispanics in attendance ‘had finished mowing his lawn’ yet.

Seriously, if this guy was a Republican, you’d be able to hear the Democrats screaming if you were halfway around the world. This jackass, however, keeps getting a pass. What is the likelihood that Matt Stoller will post on the racism of Joe Biden?

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Racism & Education

Dec 06 2006 Published by under Race, Society, Supreme Court

The LA Times has an interesting editorial running today. It poses a question I find fascinating – is racism in the pursuit of a noble goal any less nefarious than racism in pursuit of a ignoble goal?

Taking account of race to bring children of different backgrounds together is fundamentally different from using race to keep those children apart.

Is it? I don’t know that I agree.

At the heart of the arguments Monday are simple racial quotas. If a neighborhood has a population that is 60% Caucasian and 40% minority, but the school age population (say 2000 kids) is 80% Caucasian and 20% minority, under the existing laws, the district can force the parents of 400 children to ship their kids to a school some distance away.

Never mind the fact that these parents have paid property taxes to the local district to build and maintain that school (which I think is the bigger issue that should be fixed), and ignore the fact that forced integration denies kids the simple joy of attending school with their friends, the use of racial quotas in such a solution serves no purpose that is inherent to the needs of the child.

The arguments made in favor of this practice by educators and administrators (that I have seen) have nothing to do with education or a right to it. The arguments they make are limited to their beliefs in social engineering. They feel the kids should be exposed, by force if necessary, to diversity or, at the very least, a school population that reflects the make up of their neighborhood.

It is really a specious argument.

The larger problem with our educational system is the method by which we fund it. If an argument is made to fund schools through a mechanism other than property taxes – so the value of a neighborhood’s homes does not relegate the children to less than equal educational opportunities – I will get behind it. I do not feel my child deserves a better education simply because my economic circumstances allow me to buy a more expensive home.

I am also opposed to racism in any form and oppose any solution that relies on racial percentages. Racism, in any form, seeks to lift one group up by keeping another down. That is true regardless of the goal and the good intentions of the oppressor.

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