The Race Card Game
Over the last few months, I’ve noticed how race has been rearing its head in the presidential campaign. The race card is being played, but it’s not by Republicans.
What has been fascinating is that the people who are playing the card are Obama supporters and the media. On more than one occasion people have asserted that something that has been said or shown by a Republican has been racist. On other occasions, it has been said that if Obama loses the election, the only reason will be because of racism.
It would be foolish in the extreme to say that race won’t play a factor in the upcoming presidential elections. There will be some who won’t vote for Obama because he is black. That is sad and also sickening, but that’s a fact. My problem with some of the accusations is that there is this assumption of racism for every criticsm of Obama. The latest op-ed piece by the Associated Press is the latest example. The writer believes that Sarah Palin’s charge of the Illinois Senator having terrorist pals carries a racist tinge.
Here’s the reasoning:
Palin’s words avoid repulsing voters with overt racism. But is there another subtext for creating the false image of a black presidential nominee “palling around” with terrorists while assuring a predominantly white audience that he doesn’t see their America?
In a post-Sept. 11 America, terrorists are envisioned as dark-skinned radical Muslims, not the homegrown anarchists of Ayers’ day 40 years ago. With Obama a relative unknown when he began his campaign, the Internet hummed with false e-mails about ties to radical Islam of a foreign-born candidate.
Whether intended or not by the McCain campaign, portraying Obama as “not like us” is another potential appeal to racism. It suggests that the Hawaiian-born Christian is, at heart, un-American.
Now, I have never understood the whole “Obama is a Muslim” smear. (Why do I care if he was a Muslim?) That said, the writer basically takes this charge and creates a whole story out of it. Terrorists are thought of dark-skinned. Obama is dark-skinned. Terrorists are Muslims and Obama could be a secret Muslim and Muslims are terrorists. Obama was born in Hawaii, which is a strange place, which makes him a foreigner, who are scary people, who could Muslims who are all terrorists.
Palin could simply be saying, however crudely, that Obama has chosen some bad friends. That might be throwing mud, but that doesn’t make it racist.
I’m not saying that politicians haven’t talked in code about race. But I think one would have to do a lot of twisting of logic to believe that what Palin said was racist.
Listen, I’m an African American and I’ve been subjected to some racist taunts. I’ve had people call me the “N-word” and not in that “I’m hanging with my peeps” sort of way.
This whole thing of crying racism when anyone says anything critical of Obama is dangerous. What happens if, as it is looking likely, that he gets elected? He will have to deal with some very harsh criticism then. Will people people cry “racism” then? Is this going to be way to deflect any serious concerns about governing?
Racism is still alive and well, unfortunately. But diversity is on the march and winning. The fact that Obama has a serious chance of winning the highest office in the land proves that.
But Mr. Obama and his supporters (and the media as well) need to get a grip. Not every charge against them is racist. There are not white hoods under every rock. The road to equality means also being able to accept criticism as a person and use the race card all the times.
In the end, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar and sometimes criticism is just criticism.
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11 Responses to “The Race Card Game”
Racist.
Sorry, just being sarcastic. It's habitual.
Do you think there is anything of substance in Palin's attacks on Obama?
Do you think, for example, that Obama is out there “palling around with terrorists”?
Does what the actual Republican candidate has to say dwindle into insignificance compared to some editorial published by the AP?
“Obama supporters,” are of course free to say whatever they'd like. And of course, no where near any kind of majority, or even significant numbers of them them, have made any such claim. But most importantly, neither has Obama or his campaign. If the player hasn't played the card, well I guess it's not on the table, eh?
But to say “The race card is being played, but it’s not by Republicans,” is on its face ridiculous. In just one example, here's an official in the Republican Party (the treasurer of Virginia's Buchanan County Republican Party and the the county's representative on McCain's Virginia leadership team), playing what I believe easily qualifies as “the race card”:
http://www.latimes.com/media/acrobat/2008-10/42…
Read it, and weep for America.
“Now, I have never understood the whole “Obama is a Muslim” smear.”
The whole point of the “Obama is a Muslim” smear is to cast Obama as foreign and black in a way that, sadly, is acceptable in America.
That said, I'm not sure if the “palling around with terrorists” charge is invoking brown-skinned Muslims since everybody knows that the person involved here is a white guy. So, while some people are explicitly using race to scare voters about Obama (like the Buchanan County, VA official) Palin is not doing that here.
Interestingly enough, Palin's descent into character assassination just opened up the door for the Keating Five to make an appearance. We've heard virtually nothing about the Keating Five until now, and with the financial crisis hittin, it's a perfect opportunity for Obama.
The point of “Obama=muslim” is to let racist people safely hang their hat on something. Rather than being overt in their racism, they can now simply say “He's a Muslim.” or “He's a terrorist.” as justification for their own prejudice.
Now, if you say, “I won't vote for Obama because he's inexperienced or untested.” by all means, go for that.
Think of it this way, if McCain was running for president in 1608 instead of 2008 (bear with me) what's a quick and easy way to slander him? I can call him a Jew, a Shylock, a witch, whatever. These accusations have no basis in fact whatsoever, but the point of slander is that hopefully, some of it sticks.
You're shitting me right?
The Economic Crisis was caused by the C.R.A. is just another way of saying that N**gers are at the source of this crisis, as is the blaming of ACORN for having registered unqualified voters and having gone to bat and gotten a few billions of Mortgages for poor people over the last twenty years is just another polite way of saying N**ger. n**ger, n**ger and uppity n**ger.
Bottom line: If Palin hadn't been so unprincipled (and perhaps ignorant) as to have made the “palling around with terrorists” comment in the first place, there wouldn't be any discussion about the extent to which her remark was rascist. Her disrespect for Obama is sufficiently uncontrolled I'm not sure her comment deserves to be parsed. How much deconstruction (and defense) should character assassination deserve? It's enough for me to know she's gone around the bend.
Here's why what Palin said is race-baiting: Speaking to an all-white audience (because that is the inherent nature of a Republican rally for an ultra-conservative woman from Alaska) she claims that “Barack Obama does not see America as you and I do”. I don't care who you are, what race you are, or where you are from, a comment like that is meant to divide. Palin is trying to create a wedge between Obama and the white people she is talking to. When the AP concludes that this attack is racially tinged, that is based on how the audience hearing what they've been told takes it. Let's not be naive, the crowds that come out to see Palin consist of white people who for the most part are wholly uncomfortable with a black president, and Palin represents everything that makes them comfortable again, including accusing the black candidate of palling around with terrorists. You're African-American, so am I, and I take much offense to this ignorant woman's comments. We have different sensibilities, but this characterization of Palin's remarks does NOT reflect a knee-jerk tendency to call any criticism of Obama racist. Attack his policies, not his person. When he's president, no one will be questioning his patriotism or his views, they'll only be questioning his actions, and those attacks will be completely legitimate. But this kind of crap isn't. For someone who doesn't know the first thing about national politics, it's only par for the course since she can't speak about anything of substance. She just told one of her admirers Bill Kristol that she wants Rev Wright on the table. Yeah, this from a woman who had hands laid on her to extol demons, or something. This woman wants to fight an all-out culture war for the presidency for the next month. No qualifications, no knowledge of issues, no reason to be Vice President, except that she is white, average, and governed a rural state. Her basic argument is this, “Ok, our opponent has all the right policies, you like him, he's smart, you think he might make a pretty good president, but c'mon, he's black and his past is full of questionable associations. I may not know much, as president I would probably make George Bush look like the second coming, but I'm white, I'm pro-life, and I'm pretty. Voting for me frees you of the burden of voting for a black man, so c'mon take the low road and vote your prejudice.”
That is the unforgivable truth that no one wants to speak.
You are correct. It is the Left that is raising the issue of racism, mainly fictitiously.
This week's Economist has a great multi-page treatment of McCain v. Obama and it includes the issue of race in its proper (not US leftst idiotic) context. The plain truth is, as tthat publication notes, many people will vote for Obama _because_ of his race (black and white voters alike), some will vote against Obama because of his race even if they won't admit it — and many, many of us won't care at all about the subject. (Other than be annoyed at bogus “racism” charges against anyone who votes for McCain instead of Obama, that is. That's the scummy version of lefty “preemptive” political tactics that in fact backfire.)
DLS, once again you show you don't understand the issue. Your need to mischaracterize demonstrates this.
Spence — not only are you wrong once again, but you're choosing to select phrases almost at random. TRY AGAIN.
Unlike others, I refuse to see “racism” where none actually exists. Despite what you may believe, that is not wrong or a crime.