Rush Limbaugh and race

Freep.com
Posted: July 19, 2010
MIKE THOMPSON ANIMATED CARTOON

The game that radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh plays isn’t new. History is full of individuals who’ve sought to forge a coalition by rallying people against “the other.” What makes Limbaugh different is the lack of consequence and public outcry over his repeated racist remarks. Just this past weekend, Tea Party Express spokesman Mark Williams was punted from the National Tea Party Federation for racist garbage about the NAACP that he posted on his blog. As disgusting as Williams’ comments were, what Williams wrote was no worse than what Limbaugh says on a regular basis. So why does Rush continually get a pass? Why does Limbaugh repeatedly get away with saying things that would get any anyone else fired? Money.

Full Commentary and Video: http://www.freep.com/article/20100719/BLOG2401/100718026/Rush-Limbaugh-and-race

NAACP condemns racism in tea party

Msnbc.com
Political movement members deny bigotry; Palin appalled at accusation
by HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH
updated 7/14/2010 1:17:04 AM ET
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Leaders of the country's largest civil rights organization accused tea party activists on Tuesday of tolerating bigotry and approved a resolution condemning racism within the political movement.
The resolution was adopted during the annual convention in Kansas City of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, spokesman Chris Fleming said. Local tea party organizers disputed claims of racism and called on the NAACP to withdraw the resolution.
Debate was mostly closed to the public, but the final version of the resolution "calls on the tea party and all people of good will to repudiate the racist element and activities within the tea party," said Hilary Shelton, director of the NAACP's Washington bureau.

Full Story: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38234502/ns/politics/

See CNN video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sh5HPJCs3uo

Tea Party Senate Candidate Rand Paul Draws Fire over Civil Rights Criticism

The Afro
Originally published May 23, 2010
by AFRO Staff

The Tea Party supported, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul of Kentucky has come under fire for comments he recently made about segregation and the Civil Rights Act of 1964.During the week of May 17, Paul questioned the federal government’s right to desegregate private businesses under the act decades ago. This had been a part of his campaign platform promoting greater restrictions on the federal government’s reach. He nevertheless later said he would have voted in favor of the Civil Rights Act.“I’m opposed to any form of governmental racism or discrimination or segregation,” he told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow. But he said the question of imposing standards on private businesses was “still a valid discussion.”

Full Story: http://www.afro.com/sections/news/national/story.htm?storyid=1300

Imagine if the Tea Party was Black

San Francisco Sentinel
25 April 2010
By Tim Wise

Let’s play a game, shall we? The name of the game is called “Imagine.” The way it’s played is simple: we’ll envision recent happenings in the news, but then change them up a bit. Instead of envisioning white people as the main actors in the scenes we’ll conjure - the ones who are driving the action - we’ll envision black folks or other people of color instead. The object of the game is to imagine the public reaction to the events or incidents, if the main actors were of color, rather than white. Whoever gains the most insight into the workings of race in America, at the end of the game, wins.
So let’s begin.

Imagine that hundreds of black protesters were to descend upon Washington DC and Northern Virginia, just a few miles from the Capitol and White House, armed with AK-47s, assorted handguns, and ammunition. And imagine that some of these protesters —the black protesters — spoke of the need for political revolution, and possibly even armed conflict in the event that laws they didn’t like were enforced by the government? Would these protester — these black protesters with guns — be seen as brave defenders of the Second Amendment, or would they be viewed by most whites as a danger to the republic? What if they were Arab-Americans?

Full Article: http://www.sanfranciscosentinel.com/?p=70545

The Rage Is Not About Health Care

The New York Times
By FRANK RICH
Published: March 27, 2010

THERE were times when last Sunday’s great G.O.P. health care implosion threatened to bring the thrill back to reality television. On ABC’s “This Week,” a frothing and filibustering Karl Rove all but lost it in a debate with the Obama strategist David Plouffe. A few hours later, the perennially copper-faced Republican leader John Boehner revved up his “Hell no, you can’t!” incantation in the House chamber — instant fodder for a new viral video remixing his rap with will.i.am’s “Yes, we can!” classic from the campaign. Boehner, having previously likened the health care bill to Armageddon, was now so apoplectic you had to wonder if he had just discovered one of its more obscure revenue-generating provisions, a tax on indoor tanning salons.But the laughs evaporated soon enough. There’s nothing entertaining about watching goons hurl venomous slurs at congressmen like the civil rights hero John Lewis and the openly gay Barney Frank. And as the week dragged on, and reports of death threats and vandalism stretched from Arizona to Kansas to upstate New York, the F.B.I. and the local police had to get into the act to protect members of Congress and their families.
How curious that a mob fond of likening President Obama to Hitler knows so little about history that it doesn’t recognize its own small-scale mimicry of Kristallnacht. The weapon of choice for vigilante violence at Congressional offices has been a brick hurled through a window. So far.
No less curious is how disproportionate this red-hot anger is to its proximate cause. The historic Obama-Pelosi health care victory is a big deal, all right, so much so it doesn’t need Joe Biden’s adjective to hype it. But the bill does not erect a huge New Deal-Great Society-style government program. In lieu of a public option, it delivers 32 million newly insured Americans to private insurers. As no less a conservative authority than The Wall Street Journal editorial page observed last week, the bill’s prototype is the health care legislation Mitt Romney signed into law in Massachusetts. It contains what used to be considered Republican ideas.
Yet it’s this bill that inspired G.O.P. congressmen on the House floor to egg on disruptive protesters even as they were being evicted from the gallery by the Capitol Police last Sunday. It’s this bill that prompted a congressman to shout “baby killer” at Bart Stupak, a staunch anti-abortion Democrat. It’s this bill that drove a demonstrator to spit on Emanuel Cleaver, a black representative from Missouri. And it’s this “middle-of-the-road” bill, as Obama accurately calls it, that has incited an unglued firestorm of homicidal rhetoric, from “Kill the bill!” to Sarah Palin’s cry for her followers to “reload.” At least four of the House members hit with death threats or vandalism are among the 20 political targets Palin marks with rifle crosshairs on a map on her Facebook page.

Full Editorial: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/28/opinion/28rich.html?th&emc=th

Whose Country Is It?

The New York Times
By CHARLES M. BLOW
Published: March 26, 2010

The far-right extremists have gone into conniptions.
The bullying, threats, and acts of violence following the passage of health care reform have been shocking, but they’re only the most recent manifestations of an increasing sense of desperation.
It’s an extension of a now-familiar theme: some version of “take our country back.” The problem is that the country romanticized by the far right hasn’t existed for some time, and its ability to deny that fact grows more dim every day. President Obama and what he represents has jolted extremists into the present and forced them to confront the future. And it scares them.
Even the optics must be irritating. A woman (Nancy Pelosi) pushed the health care bill through the House. The bill’s most visible and vocal proponents included a gay man (Barney Frank) and a Jew (Anthony Weiner). And the black man in the White House signed the bill into law. It’s enough to make a good old boy go crazy.
Hence their anger and frustration, which is playing out in ways large and small. There is the current spattering of threats and violence, but there also is the run on guns and the explosive growth of nefarious antigovernment and anti-immigrant groups. In fact, according to a report entitled “Rage on the Right: The Year in Hate and Extremism” recently released by the Southern Poverty Law Center, “nativist extremist” groups that confront and harass suspected immigrants have increased nearly 80 percent since President Obama took office, and antigovernment “patriot” groups more than tripled over that period.

Full Story: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/27/opinion/27blow.html