Please tell me again how there’s no racism in the Tea Party…
Tag Archives: Racism
Some dare not call it racism
No other President has been treated with the amount of disrespect from his opponents – Congressman unprecedented interruption of State of the Union Address, and so-called “journalist” interrupting address in the Rose Garden – this one has; no other President has ever been asked for his birth certificate nor has any other President been called “boy”, or “man child” etc…
It’s got to be something, let’s look at what might attribute to this disrespect from opponents on the right?
He’s a Democrat!
Nope, that can’t be it we’ve had 16 Presidents who were Democrats and none were ever treated this badly
He’s a Lawyer!
Nope, we’ve had 21 lawyers, and while that certainly could be argued to be reason enough, no other Presidents who were lawyers have been treated like this
He went to Harvard!
Nope, had six of those
He was raised without a father!
Nope, had six of those
He’s a progressive!
Nope, we’ve had nine of those
He’s a man!
They’ve all been men so far – all 44
Well now, what does that leave us?
They hate him because he’s Hawaiian?
Somehow I doubt that’s the problem.
That leaves us with two things different from all the others, his name is Obama, or he’s Black?
Well, either of those things is certainly a first; he’s the first Black President and he’s the first one with a Muslim name – disliking him for either would be considered racism.
GOTP group sends out email with image of President Obama shot through the head
Ah yes, it’s all in fun, an image of the president of the United states with a bullet hole through his head is a barrel of laughs, or at least it is to the Loudoun County, Va., Republican Tea Party (GOTP) Committee.
The message, with the subject line “Halloween 2011,” invited “supporters” to a community parade where “we are going to vanquish the zombies with clear thinking conservative principles and a truckload of Republican candy.” It also features a caricature of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a jack-o-lantern, and cartoons of zombies; the not-so-funny email was swiftly condemned by both conservative and liberal groups today for featuring the image
Interestingly enough the email was first reported by the blog Too Conservative, which said the group had gone “way too far” and should be reported to the U.S. Secret Service.
Mark Sell, chairman of the Loudoun County Republican Committee however disagrees, and attempted to explain away the email as a “light-hearted attempt to inject satire humor into the Halloween holiday.”
“Apparently, some individuals have interpreted an image of Barack Obama that appeared within the email as intending to portray the President as a victim of a violent crime. Nothing could be further from the truth,” Sell said in a statement. “We deeply and sincerely apologize to the President and anyone who viewed the image if that was the impression that was left.”
So, if the image wasn’t meant to show the President as “a victim of a violent crime” then what was it supposed to be portraying, the President as an unfortunate victim of a tragic hunting accident with Dick Cheney?
No one seems to be buying the explanation however, at least with no one with any brains, and the Virginia GOTP Chairman Pat Mullins called the image “disgusting” and condemned its use “in the strongest possible terms.”
“We are in the process of contacting those responsible for the image to demand that they cease using it and immediately issue an apology,” Mullins said.
A Republican National Committee spokesman said the type of imagery in the Loudoun County GOTP email “has no place in politics.”
The Secret Service told ABC News the agency is aware of the incident but offered no further details. No doubt the agents are doubled over with laughter at the “light-hearted attempt to inject satire humor into the Halloween holiday”.
Problem is the Loudon County GOTP Committee has shown its colors, and they are racist all the way through; yes, I said racist. When you show an image of the first Black President with a bullet hole through his head and you’re the GOTP committee of a Virginia county what else is there? It isn’t humorous, it’s vulgar and racist.
Freeman Says Tea Party is Racist?
Morgan Freeman, Oscar-winning actor, film director and aviator has reportedly said exactly what he thinks of the Tea Party. During an interview with British TV he was asked about his opinion regarding the political movement in America, and specifically about his belief that the right wing movement’s anti-Obama stance is rooted in racism.
When asked whether Obama’s presidency has made racism in the United States better or worse, Freeman frankly answered that he believes the President’s time in office has made it worse, as he has become a target of the right’s aggression.
“Their stated policy, publicly stated, is to do whatever it takes to see to it that Obama only serves one term,” the actor said. “What’s, what does that, what underlines that? ‘Screw the country. We’re going to whatever we do to get this black man, we can, we’re going to do whatever we can to get this black man outta here.'”
Freeman further said the group’s rise has shown the hate still lingering in America.
“Well, it just shows the weak, dark, underside of America,” he said. “We’re supposed to be better than that. We really are. That’s, that’s why all those people were in tears when Obama was elected president. “Ah, look at what we are. Look at how, this is America.” You know? And then it just sort of started turning because these people surfaced like stirring up muddy water.”
Now I know the conservative Tea Party members will claim the group’s not racist, but when people perceive a threat then they’re going to label you. Racist signs have been seen at Tea Party rallies, and racial epithets have been screamed at Black members of Congress; and let’s not forget that jocular moment at the convention earlier this summer with the Obama impersonator. If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck.
Funny how during the GOTP debates you don’t see a lot of color in the audience, all you see is a sea of white faces; but that doesn’t mean the GOTP is racist – it just means that only white people feel comfortable there. When the only color to be seen is Hermann Cain then you’ve got a race issue.
Republicans cheer racial humor at conference?
It’s 2011, the 150th anniversary year of the American Civil War, and when in the south the Republican/Tea Party (GOTP) behaves as though it’s still 1861?
At its Republican Leadership Conference, delegates were “entertained” by Reggie Brown, a comedian and Barack Obama impersonator who was cheered and then taken from the stage after he mocked the Republican presidential hopefuls and joked about President Obama’s biracial roots.
Members of the GOTP, the party of “family values”, applauded and cheered when Brown projected lewd photos of former New York Congressman Anthony Weiner. Yeah, so much for portraying yourselves as modern day Puritans; applauding and cheering to naked pictures of a former congressman. So, basically, you have a comedian making fun of the first Black President’s biracial roots, and you cheer what is essentially pornography. What’s next; strippers popping out of a cake?
But of course it was OK for the largely white, conservative, “Christian” crowd to cheer a Black man making fun of a Black President, or to make fun of a Jewish congressman fallen from grace, but the crowd became strangely quiet when Brown turned his “wit” on the GOTP hopefuls looking to make Obama a one-term president. So, making fun of Blacks and Jews is OK, but not white GOTP candidates? This is how the GOTP demonstrates inclusion? I have an idea; maybe for the Republican Convention in 2012 the GOTP should feature white singers in Black face?
Oklahoma GOTP Lawmaker Claims ‘Blacks’ Don’t Work As Hard As White People?
The far-right Republican/Tea Party (GOTP)-controlled Oklahoma House of Representatives passed a proposed constitutional amendment yesterday eliminating Affirmative Action in state government. The so-called “official” GOTP way of thinking for the change is that even though “discrimination exists,” “I don’t think Affirmative Action has been as successful as we like to believe,” the bill’s sponsor, state Representative T.W. Shannon (GOTP), explained. But then extremist right-wing wacko state Representative Sally Kern (GOTP) chimed in with her reasons for ending the system helping minorities advance: “blacks” simply don’t work as hard as whites:
Kern, said minorities earn less than white people because they don’t work as hard and have less initiative.
“We have a high percentage of blacks in prison, and that’s tragic, but are they in prison just because they are black or because they don’t want to study as hard in school? I’ve taught school, and I saw a lot of people of color who didn’t study hard because they said the government would take care of them.”
But she didn’t stop with commenting on why Black-Americans earn less, according to Kern, women earn less than men because “they tend to spend more time at home with their families.”
While Kern has a very long history of making dim-witted statements on the floor of the state house — in the past she’s claimed everything from homosexuality is more dangerous than terrorism to introducing legislation to force teachers to question evolution — her far-right ignorant and bigoted comments reflect a disturbing trend among even mainstream conservatives to blame valuable social safety net programs for creating a culture of dependency or even “slavery.”
“We have heard tonight already that in prison there’s more black people. Yes, there are, and that’s tragic, it’s tragic that our prisons here in Oklahoma, what are they, 99% occupancy? But the other side of the story, perhaps this is something we need to consider: is this just because they are black that they’re in prison or because they don’t want to work hard in school?” Kern asked. “White people oftentimes don’t want to work hard in school, or Asians, oftentimes. A lot of times, that’s what happens. I’ve taught school for twenty years, and I saw a lot of people of color who didn’t want to work as hard, they wanted it given to them. As a matter of fact I had one student who said, ‘I don’t need to study, you know why? Because the government is gonna care of me.’ That’s kind of revealing there. Equal opportunity, not equal results.”
Well isn’t that the standard southern white racist nonsense? I grew up in the south listening to this kind of nonsense almost on a daily basis. My Mom used to make disparaging comments about African-Americans, claiming they would go to work each day – in the federal government – and just sit there knowing they couldn’t be fired. Many times she would use the “N” word, especially when anyone would talk about Dr. Martin Luther King.
But wait, there’s more pearls of wisdom from Miss KKK, “You see, women usually don’t want to work as hard as a man, because, now I mean, now get me, wait a minute, now listen to me, women, hang on, women tend to think a little bit more about their family, wanting to be at home more time, want to have a little more leisure time, that’s all I mean. I’m not saying women don’t work hard. I think women work very hard, so don’t take that the wrong way. But that’s fact as you have to keep in mind, okay? Women like to be willing to have a moderate work life with plenty of time for spouse and children and other things like that, that’s all I meant, okay. They work very hard. But sometimes they aren’t willing to commit all their life to a job like a lot of men do. That’s all I meant by that. All right.”
(Use southern accent here) Why I declare Miss Kern, you’re just as smart as a June bug aren’t you?
Well, actually June bugs are a lot smarter, and I shouldn’t be so quick to throw the poor June bugs under the same bus. Sad truth is, Kern is a symptom of today’s conservatism, and in particular of the far-right political movements like the Tea Party. They’re very predominantly white, so-called Christians, who want to blame everything wrong with America on people of color. Doesn’t matter which color, as long as it isn’t white. Problem with this way of thinking is it’s what most far-right groups do. They blame the ills of society on everyone but their own white population. You know the groups; groups like the KKK, or the Nazis. Yes, I went there. And yes there are people within the Tea Party who are comparable to Nazis. They’ve beaten people up at political events, and carried threatening signs and made threatening statements. Sorry, but if the jack boot fits.
People like Kern don’t love America; at least not an America built on equality, and opportunity. Her views on woman are not all that surprising, especially coming from a conservative. I once coached a girl’s high school softball team, and when I discovered the team’s budget was being used to pay for items on the boy’s baseball team, I objected under Title IX. Very quickly it all hit the fan. The male athletic director – a 1950s style troglodyte – and many male coaches got angry, but what really surprised me was when woman began asking me why I was stirring that pot? They didn’t think it was unreasonable for the girls to have uniforms that were ten years old while the boys got news ones every two or three years; or why the boys had a batting cage and the girls didn’t; or why the boys basketball team got to practice in the gym at the school while the girls had to go to an old gym at the local catholic church. I would look at all of them and say, “Because it’s the law.” It’s because of views like theirs that Title IX was enacted.
This is why when conservatives say, “We have to take our country back”, everyone else needs to start asking them, “Take it back for whom, and to where”? The America they want is one where woman are not paid equally to men, and where you will be forced to carry your baby to term no matter what your reason for wanting – or needing – an abortion may be; it’s an America where Hispanics are all sent to Mexico – not just the illegal ones – but all Hispanics; it’s an America where only good Christian white men occupy the White House, not some uppity black Muslim; it’s an America where there are no Mosques, and where Jews know their place too; it’s an America where only the wealthy make decisions and where the poor work for near starvation wages; it’s an America where health care is available, but only if you can afford it; it’s an America where corporations are considered to be citizens, and control the political landscape. It’s not an America we need to go back to. It’s not an America we should ever want to go back to. It’s not an America any true American should ever want.
Trump Engaging in ‘Retroactive Bigotry’?
Georgetown University Professor Eric Dyson, a prominent African-American academic, said on CBS’ face the Nation last weekend that Donald Trump is engaging in “retroactive bigotry” when he questions President Obama’s intelligence and background and told Republicans to do one of two things, “either embrace Trump or distance themselves.”
So, Trumper is a retroactive racist? Now really, isn’t that going too far? I wouldn’t say he was retroactively being a racist, he is a racist. What else can it be called when no one has ever asked one of our previous presidents to provide a birth certificate? Of course, the other 43 presidents were all white.
“This is racism by inference,” Dyson said. “Skepticism about black intelligence and suspicion about black humanity have gone hand in hand throughout the history of this country in feeding the perception that black people don’t quite measure up.”
Dyson pointed out the obvious concerning the president’s academic accolades, including graduating magna cum laude from Harvard Law School and also being the first African-American to edit the Harvard Law Review.
“The reality is that Barack Obama has been called to account by a man who has nothing near the intellectual credibility or the social standing that the president has,” Dyson said during the interview.
Dyson said, “We (African-Americans) are constantly questioned as to our legitimacy – whether we belong or not – and Barack Obama is our big brother in that case. … An assault on him is an assault on everybody.”
Truth is Trump is now inconsequential; he’s yesterday’s news, and one of the best lines to come out of the result of this past weekend’s seal mission is something President Obama would no doubt love to say, “Sorry it took so long to get you my birth certificate; I was busy killing Bin Laden.” Of course Trump was busy too, he was firing Gary Busey.
Miss Davenport says ‘sorry’ again for racist Obama e-mail; says she fears for her life?
The Right Wing California Republican Tea Party Grandma, who e-mailed a racist “family photo” of President Obama because she thought it was funny, has offered up a second apology.
But, she didn’t deliver it in person at the Orange County Republican Committee Monday night because she said she feared for her life, so, instead, Miss Davenport delivered her second apology through a statement read by fellow racist Tim Whitacre, who has defended Davenport’s e-mail.
Davenport said, “To my fellow Americans and to everyone else who has seen this e-mail I forwarded and was offended by my action, I humbly apologize and ask for your forgiveness of my unwise behavior.”
“I say unwise because at the time I received and forwarded the e-mail, I didn’t stop to think about the historic implications and other examples of how this could be offensive,” she continued. “I would never do anything to intentionally harm or berate others regardless of ethnicity. Everyone who knows me knows that to be true.”
Ok, so, she admits she wasn’t thinking, but that anyone “who knows her” would know she would never “intentionally harm or berate others regardless of ethnicity”. No, Miss Davenport would never “intentionally” send out an email to her fellow GOTP friends, who she thought would also find a picture portraying the President and his parents as apes. Please, we’re not as stupid, nor as naïve, as you might hope. You are a racist. You intentionally forwarded a very offensive email to fellow Republicans and Tea Party (GOTP) enthusiasts who you thought would also find it funny. This wasn’t done accidently, it was done to undermine the President and to belittle his family.
Perhaps if you hadn’t rushed to defend the infamous “watermelon” picture your fellow racist sent out on the eve of the President’s inauguration your failed explanation might bear more fruit. But, alas, you can’t defend someone else’s racism, and then commit your own act of racism and think everyone’s going to buy that you’re not racist.
On Saturday, Miss Davenport told the Orange Country Weekly that she was “sorry if my email offended anyone,” but that she “simply found it amusing regarding the character of Obama and all the questions surrounding his origin of birth.”
“The thought never entered my mind until one or two other people tried to make this about race,” she wrote in her Saturday e-mail, and referred to Obama as being only “half black.”
This second apology made no mention of whether she would remain on the committee, nor did it dissuade those she offended from demanding she resign.
“When we send communications to our fellow elected officials it is a public action that reflects on the sender, the recipient, and this committee,” GOP chairman Scott Baugh, who called the racist e-mail “despicable,” said to the 75 people at Monday night’s meeting.
But of course, not everyone on the Republican committee feels she should step down. Her fellow racist, Mister Whitacre, is ever ready to defend her, “It was a private e-mail from her private house to some private friends,” Whitacre told ABC 7 News in Los Angeles. “She thought she was doing something quietly among some folks that might have found some humor in it as well.”
So, private or covert racism is OK? Are you kidding me Tim? Racism is racism. Doesn’t matter if it was public – which it now is – or private; her position is indefensible, and those who wallow with her in trying to defend it are also racists. Isn’t it funny how Tea Party folks will yell and scream about being painted with the same brush, but where’s Sarah Palin’s outrage? Where’s Michelle Bachmann’s statement about how this was wrong? Their silence says just as much – if not more – than if they were openly defending her.
Driving Miss Davenport, or a Racist Orange County Republican Emails a Picture Depicting President Obama and His Parents As Apes?
Last week a member of the Orange County Republican Party, Marilyn Davenport, who also just happens to be a Southern California Tea Party activist, sent out an email to her fellow conservatives depicting the President of the United States as a monkey with monkey parents, complete with a caption saying, “Now you know why no birth certificate.”
I suppose in the white bread world of Orange County – or in Jefferson Davis’ Administration – this kind of thing is considered funny, but one has to wonder what kind of person would think so.
When asked by reporters if she thought the email was appropriate, Davenport said, “Oh, come on! Everybody who knows me knows that I am not a racist. It was a joke. I have friends who are black. Besides, I only sent it to a few people–mostly people I didn’t think would be upset by it.”
Well Marilyn you got part of it right, you didn’t think. No thinking person would send out this picture and then have the gall to say, “It was a joke. I have friends who are black.”
But not all the Republicans who received the email were amused.
“It’s unbelievable,” an Orange County Republican said. “It’s much more racist than the watermelon email. I can’t believe it was sent out. I’m not an Obama fan but how stupid do you have to be to do this?”
Another Republican said Davenport is “a really, really sweet old lady so I am surprised to hear about this.”
Yeah, she’s a really, really sweet old lady, with (to borrow a phrase from Glenn Beck) a deep seated hatred of black people, but she’s really, really sweet.
The Chairman of the Orange County Republican Party, told the really, really sweet old lady that the email was tasteless; but of course Miss Daisy – er, I mean Davenport said, “You’re not going to make a big deal about this are you? It’s just an Internet joke.”
But Baugh – much to his credit – believes the so-called email joke is a big deal.
“When I saw that email … I thought it was despicable,” he said. “It is dripping with racism and it does not promote the type of message Orange County Republicans want to deliver to the public. I think she should consider stepping down as an elected official.”
And Baugh isn’t alone in his condemnation, Michael J. Schroeder, an Orange County resident and former chairman of the California Republican Party, also said he was disgusted.
“This is a three strikes situation for Marilyn Davenport,” Schroeder said. “She was a passionate defender of former Newport Beach City Councilman Dick Nichols, who stated that he was voting against putting in more grass at Corona del Mar’s beach because, he said, there were already ‘too many Mexicans on the beach.’ She was also on the wrong side of the fence with the Los Alamitos mayor and his White House watermelon patch picture. Now, she has managed to top both of those incidents by comparing African Americans to monkeys. She has disgraced herself and needs to resign. If she doesn’t, the Republican Party must remove her.”
In February 2009, Los Alamitos Mayor Dean Grose, another Orange County Republican, emailed the White House watermelon image and then apologized.
On Saturday afternoon Davenport sent an email to fellow Orange County Republican elected officials, apologizing if anyone was offended by her depicting President Barack Obama as an ape, while simultaneously blasting the “liberal media” for reporting the story.
“I simply found it amusing regarding the character of Obama and all the questions surrounding his origin of birth,” Davenport wrote. “In no way did I even consider the fact he’s half black when I sent out the email. In fact, the thought never entered my mind until one or two other people [Scott Baugh, Orange County GOP boss, and a member of the media] tried to make this about race. . . . I received plenty of emails about George Bush that I didn’t particularly like yet there was no ‘cry’ in the media about them.”
Excuse me? Is this is another case of, “just how stupid do you think we are?” Does Davenport really think average – non-racist – Americans are for one second going to buy her story? She didn’t think anything about race when she depicted the president – who’s black – as a monkey, and his parents as monkeys? Yeah, OK, I’ll buy that, and do you have a bridge to sell me too?
But wait, Miss – I’m not a racist – Davenport wasn’t through defending herself, “That being said, I will NOT resign my central committee position over this matter that the average person knows and agrees is much to do about nothing.”
The average person knows and agrees WHAT?! ARE YOU INSANE?! Were you dropped – repeatedly – as a child? Did you fall out of the dim-wit tree and hit every branch on the way down? You can’t be serious? You actually accept as true that “the average person knows and agrees [this] is much to do about nothing.”? I’m sorry but no one is this thick.
Of course you just knew that where there’s one racist there have to be more, and that some fellow right wing lunatic would rush to defend Davenport. And here he is, white robes flowing and torch in hand, fellow conservative Orange County Republican activist in Santa Ana, Tim Whitacre, “Marilyn Davenport is a staunch, ethical Republican lady. There is nothing unethical about this from a party standpoint because it wasn’t sent out to the party at large with any racist statements and it wasn’t signed as a central committee member. As a private individual, she is just real big on Birther stuff. One of her passions that drives her is the president’s lack of forthrightness about where he was born. Marilyn believes that nobody knows where he was born and so this picture says a thousand words.”
Whitacre continued: “She is not a perfect lady, but she is no racist. She is a gentle person who would feed you, help you, be there for you if you were in trouble. She is known as a pleasant, loving person, and it kills me that she is being attacked by this non-story knowing her mindset.”
She’s a perfect what? I have no doubt Whitacre believes every word of what he’s saying, but look here Tim; a “perfect lady” would never have sent the image. A “perfect racist” would; but a “perfect lady” would never have even thought of it, and would have been extremely offended to have received it. So, please, spare us your right wing Tea Party, birther, rhetoric. Grow up, be a man, and admit this was wrong. There’s nothing “ethical” in what she did, and her actions prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that she is no lady.
As of Sunday evening Orange County Republican Party Chairman Scott Baugh had determined that his group’s bylaws prevented a vote to remove Marilyn Davenport as an elected member, even though she emailed a racist image of President Barack Obama to fellow Tea Baggers and Republicans.
If sending a disgustingly racist image of the President to her fellow members of the GOTP wasn’t enough to have her not just removed, but forcefully removed, one has to ask, what exactly would Davenport have to do that would justify being kicked out of the Orange County Republican Party?
Lawmaker condemns question about shooting the President, Sort Of?
Georgia Representative Paul Broun, yes a Republican, was asked by a constituent at a town hall meeting on Tuesday, “Who’s going to shoot Obama?”
According to one account, which was confirmed by Broun’s office, the congressman didn’t criticize the man for asking the question, instead attempting to deflect with a quip that he understood their frustration with Obama and reminded them that they would have the chance to help elect a new president next year.
Excuse me? A member of the United States House of Representatives, little more than a month since the horrendous murders and attempted assassination of a fellow member of Congress in Tucson, AZ didn’t criticize the man for asking the question? What is wrong with TPGOP members of Congress? How do you not immediately criticize and condemn the man for suggesting such a thing? Or is it just the way they do things in Georgia? It’s just the way they talk about uppity black folks down there?
The Congressman claims he didn’t immediately say anything to the man because he was too stunned by the question and didn’t want to dignify it with a response. Well, at least not until word leaked out to the Athens Banner-Herald that he lacked sufficient manhood – or back bone – to stand up for the President in his home district.
But, why should Congressman Broun have said anything? After all he’s only harshly criticized almost everything the President has done; routinely calling him a socialist and claiming that he feared the President would establish a Gestapo-like security force to impose a Marxist dictatorship.
After the exchange was reported by the paper, Broun quickly issued a statement Friday calling the question “abhorrent.”
“I deeply regret that this incident happened,” he said in his statement. “I condemn all statements — made in sincerity or jest — that threaten or suggest the use of violence against the President of the United States or any other public official. Such rhetoric cannot and will not be tolerated.”
What he really wanted to add was, “Unless it’s said about that uppity Black Muslim socialist who will soon be establishing a Marxist dictatorship with a Gestapo-like security police force throwing good God fearing white men like you and me sir into camps.”
Broun’s office also said he later alerted the Secret Service.
Later, as in days after it happened, because he was just too speechless to comment on a threat to the President of the United States; and, besides, what’s the harm of someone joking about killing that boy anyhow? Eh Doc Broun? It’s all just a little joke.
You, Congressman Broun – if you can be called by the title of “man” – are a disgrace to your office. You’re just another example of the gutless line of TPGOP politicians suckling off their tax payers.
You didn’t say anything Mr. Broun because you’re a spineless little weasel who didn’t want his white Georgian constituents to see him stick up for the Black President.
You’re the worse kind of racist sir, the kind who stands in the crowd and watches while the others put the noose around the victim’s neck, later claiming you were sickened by the whole affair. You didn’t say anything sir because you didn’t want to.
The Liberty Tree 