Herman Cain accused of 'sexually suggestive behaviour'

Hard to believe that a Democrat would attack Cain now with such information when such accusations would be better employed a few weeks before a general election. If past is prelude, it is more likely that this information is being leaked/released by a Republican faction that wants to cut off Cain at the knees. Whenever one sees such stuff the standard metric is first to examine the folks mostly likely to gain; which are either the Romney camp or the Rove faction.

Just wait until the general election. I have it from good sources that the RNC is sitting on a blockbuster about Obama. Something about his national origins and not having a US birth certificate.

And you think that after 4 years of this BS it will fly among voters?

[He's] in this presidential race because he deflects the racism that is inherent in the Republican party, the conservative movement, the Tea Party certainly. [In] the last 30 years the Republican party has been moving more and more to the right, but also race-baiting more. Gay-baiting more. Religion-baiting more...

But, Herman Cain, I feel like, is being paid by somebody to be involved and to run for president so that you go like ‘I love that, that can’t be racist. He’s a black guy, a black guy asking for Obama being impeached.’ Or ‘it’s a black guy whose anti-Muslim. It’s a black guy who is a Tea Party guy.’”

He’s a businessman. Who ever pays him. And there may be a touch of Stockholm syndrome. There may be a touch of Stockholm syndrome in there because anytime I see a person of color or a female in the Republican party or the conservative movement or the Tea Party, I wonder how they could be trying to curry with the oppressors. Is it Stockholm syndrome or does somebody pay them?

I have no idea if they’re nuts or they are opportunists or if they enjoy the attention or the money. Whatever it is. I would say the same thing for any female involved in conservative politics or the conservative movement or any kind of fundamentalist movement. If you’re supportive of it and involved in it or enthusiastic about it — is it Stockholm syndrome? Is it a self-loathing issue?”

Janeane Garofalo appearing on Keith Olberman's new show.

Instead, Herman Cain’s shtick is a version of race minstrelsy where he performs “authentic negritude” as wish fulfillment for White Conservative fantasies. Like the fountain at Lourdes, Cain in his designated role as black Conservative mascot, absolves the White racial reactionaries at CPAC of their sins. This is a refined performance that Black Conservatives have perfected over many decades and centuries of practice.

Let’s consider the routine. First, Cain enters the stage to Motown music. Then Cain feigns swimming after rolling up his sleeves to show them his black skin and how he is a hardworking negro (not like those other ones). Cain bellows in a preacher affected voice and channels the folksy negro down home accent of his late grandpappy. In the money shot, Cain gives the obligatory “black folks who are not Republicans are on the plantation” speech to the joyous applause of his White benefactors. And he doubles down by legitimating any opposition to President Barack Obama as virtuous and patriotic regardless of the bigoted well-springs from which it may flow.

In total, CPAC is a carnival and a roadshow for reactionary Conservatives. It is only fitting that in the great tradition of the freak show, the human zoo, the boardwalk, and the great midway world’s fairs of the 19th and 20th centuries, that there is a Borneo man, a Venus Hottentot or a tribe of cannibals from deepest darkest Africa or Papua New Guinea on display. For CPAC and the White Conservative imagination, Herman Cain and his black and brown kin are that featured attraction.

We always need a monkey in the window, for he/she reminds us of our humanity while simultaneously reinforcing a sense of our own superiority. Sadly, there are always folks who are willing to play that role because it pays so well.

Chauncey DeVega - Alternet

I think he needs to get off the symbolic crack pipe...

Cornel West on Herman Cain

Well, you know, it’s very hard to comment on somebody who is so denied intelligence and certainly someone who is as denied a view of history such as he reveals. He knows very little. Because he happened to have had good fortune, because he happened to have had a moment when he broke through – the moment someone blinked – does not make him the authority on the plight of people of color.”

The Republican party, the tea party, all those forces to the extreme right have consistently tried to come up with representations for what they call black, what they call the real Negroes. They’re heroes for some people. But for a lot of us, they’re not. Herman Cain is just the latest incarnation of what is totally false for the needs of our community and the needs of our nation. I think he’s a bad apple. And people should look at his hole card. He’s not what he says he is.

Harry Belafonte

I left the Democratic plantation a long time ago.

Herman Cain in response to Harry Belafonte's comments.

You can talk all about authentically more black…Old man river, (Sharpton sang out) That’s what they walk away with: A guy singing and saying what the right wing wants to hear.”

Al Sharpton on Herman Cain

It makes the hair on my neck stand up. The larger issue that a lot of people have, and I certainly have, is that he uses a certain kind of minstrelsy to play to white audiences. Referencing negative stereotypes in order to get heard to a white audience in the 21st century is really a problem.

Take “shucky ducky.”

It’s a nonsensical thing, down-home Southern black vernacular. It’s coded as a black vernacular and it’s uneducated black vernacular, so I find it really interesting that he would reference that, seeing as he is not that.”

Ulli K. Ryder, Brown University.

“One of the things about Herman Cain is, I think that he makes that white Republican base of the party feel okay, feel like they are not racist because they can like this guy. I think he giving that base a free pass. And I think they like him because they think he’s a black man who knows his place. I know that’s harsh, but that’s how it sure seems to me.”

Karen Finney MSNBC

Herman Cain grew up in Atlanta, Georgia with loving parents and little else. His father worked three jobs—as a janitor, a barber and a chauffeur—and his mother was a domestic worker. Even though these jobs required hard work and little glamour, his parents knew this life was better than the dirt farms upon which they grew up. They also knew that this hard work was the key to achieving their American Dreams.

The second dream was realized when Herman graduated from Morehouse College with a degree in mathematics in 1967. His brother, Thurman, would go on to graduate from Morris Brown College.

Inspired by the work ethic and character of his parents, Herman continued his education by earning his Master’s degree in computer science from Purdue University while working full-time developing fire control systems for ships and fighter planes for the Department of the Navy.

http://www.hermancain.com/about

You as usual take all on the left as some kind of monolith.

You tend to take me as not really left, agreeable sort, when I'm further out there than you might get. You just can't comprehend that a lefty could see things in a nuanced way.

Haven't read your quotes from famous people yet.

All successful black conservatives are a threat to the left as they give lie to the left-wing trope that all concervatives are racist. To preserve this favored attack line, they need to paint the black conservative as an Uncle Tom or House N*gger.