@snood,
snood wrote:
It's hard to have an honest discussion when some here would deny that most if not all the ugly instances of race-baiting in this election have come from the right. How hard does anyone have to think to come up with another nasty "shuckin and jivin", "food stamp president", "magic negro" comment from someone from the right?
Are these folks actually trying to sell that racism against Barack Obama is a non-factor?
Well it is certainly true that most of the Oposition to President Obama, whether it is based on opposition to the policies he advocates, or racism or anything else, is on the political right. That of course is merely a tautology.
There is quite obviously no shortage of seriously disputed policy issues that animates "the right" in this election. It simply isn't any more reasonable or realistic to atrtribute all or most of the opposition to Obama from "the Right" to racism, than it is to assert that most of the support for him from Blacks is based on race. You can't take one without the other. However I have the strong impression (not certainty) that you are implying that the great majority of the support for Obama among Blacks is based on his policies, and not his color. Am I wrong in this?
It's racism either way, and you are asserting that only one group is infected with it. That defies common sense.
It is an observable fact that, on several occasions widely broadcast by the media, and involving large Black audiences, Obams has drifted far from his normal manner of speech into the identifiable patois associated with many Blacks. That is a somewhat strange behavior, one that some might think patronizing. I don't know for sure what the critics referring to shuckin & jiving might have been referring to, but that seems to be a likely possibility.
As to the food stamp bit, it is simply a fact that he has extended the reach of eligibility for and access to this program far more than any other Administration. It is now a subsidy for the middle class as well, and some believe that will be harmful to us in the long run.
Finally I don't think that racisn is a "non-factor" among ANY segment of the electorate , including both pro and anti Obama folks of all colors.. The thoughts and motives of human beings are a complex mixture of rational and irrational judgmnents, beliefs, fears, and preconceptions.
Where we disagree is your insistence that racism is a necessary component among any white person who opposes Obama, while it is not the case for others. That is wrong, offensive and insulting. It is also a bit racist.
Ceili, I make routine trips up to Calgary in my work. There aren't many Blacks there, but there are rapidly increasing numbers of south Asian immigrants. I have heard many offensive comments about them from nice Canadians who probably would never say anything nasty about Blacks. I also recall that while growing up in Detroit the folks across the river in Windsor Ontario behaved more or less the same as the white folks in Michigan in this area. Virtue in this area of life is, as in many othersis, very often merely the absence of temptation or opportunity.
