Comments on: Life imitates . . . my blog?! UPDATED

By: Gringo

Gringo — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 02:56:57 +0000

Ms. Harris-Perry, Courtesy of Mike Dev:
Just fifty years ago, nearly all white Democrats in the US South shifted parties rather than continuing to affiliate with the party of civil rights. No one can prove that this decision was made on the basis of racial bias, but the historical trend is so clear as to require mental gymnastics to imagine this was a choice not motivated by race.

The best refutation of her claims that I know of is an article titled The Myth of the Racist Republicans. The first inroads of the Republican Party were in the peripheral south, such as Virginia, in the Eisenhower years.Republicans were competitive in Presidential elections in the peripheral South from 1952 onward- before Brown Vs. Board of Education and the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Northern migrants to the South were more likely to be Republican than those born in the South.

In sum, the GOP’s Southern electorate was not rural, nativist, less educated, afraid of change, or concentrated in the most stagnant parts of the Deep South. It was disproportionately suburban, middle-class, educated, younger, non-native-Southern, and concentrated in the growth-points that were, so to speak, the least “Southern” parts of the South. This is a very strange way to reincarnate George Wallace’s movement.

As the South became less racist, it also became more Republican.

Only in the 1980s did more white Southerners self-identify as Republicans than as Democrats, and only in the mid-1990s did Republicans win most Southern House seats and become competitive in most state legislatures. So if the GOP’s strength in the South only recently reached its zenith, and if its appeal were primarily racial in nature, then the white Southern electorate (or at least most of it) would have to be as racist as ever. But surely one of the most important events in Southern political history is the long-term decline of racism among whites.

For those who consider the South to be unchanging and unanimously racist, consider this. The article points out that Billy Graham, the South’s most famous pastor, was openly integrationist.

“Before the Supreme Court’s [Brown v. Board] decision of 1954, the southern Presbyterians. . . and, shortly after the decision, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) overwhelmingly passed resolutions supporting desegregation and calling on all to comply with it peacefully. . . . By 1958 all SBC seminaries accepted black applicants.”
Things are not as black and white as many assume.
Ms. Harris-Perry needs to learn some history.

More at the link.
http://www.claremont.org/publications/crb/id.928/article_detail.asp

By: Mike Devx

Mike Devx — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 02:12:30 +0000

I want to highlight a paragraph from the full Melissa Harris-Perry link. It’s really instructive in explaining why they persist in playing the race card:
—–
In a nation with the racial history of the United States I am baffled by the idea that non-racism would be the presumption and that it is racial bias which must be proved beyond reasonable doubt. More than 100 years of philosophical, psychological and sociological research that begins, at least, with the work of W.E.B. Du Bois has mapped the deeply entrenched realities of racial bias on the American consciousness. If anything, racial bias, not racial innocence is the better presumption when approaching American political decision-making. Just fifty years ago, nearly all white Democrats in the US South shifted parties rather than continuing to affiliate with the party of civil rights. No one can prove that this decision was made on the basis of racial bias, but the historical trend is so clear as to require mental gymnastics to imagine this was a choice not motivated by race.
—–

As you can see, she is convinced that all opinions that people hold (that are counter to her own enlightened ones of course!) should be assumed to be racially motivated. While this is not a charge of a crime, it is still a charge, and you assumed guilty by Ms. Harris-Perry unless you can prove your innocence. Nice one, Ms. Harris-Perry.

On the party-switching, all I can say is, she is living in the past. Her best example comes from 50 years ago, when, yes, racial attitudes were much more hostile? As a counterpoint, let me state that attitudes towards gays were universally more hostile, too; yet today there are particularly among younger generations widespread acceptance of gays. Things change a lot in 50 years, Ms. Harris-Perry. I accuse HER of living in the past. Racial attitudes today are nothing at all like they were in the early 60′s.

The assumption of racism is a false one.

How does Ms. Harris-Perry handle the fact that many outspoken opponents of Barack Obama unabashedly admire Col. Allen West, economist Thomas Sowell, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, and many others who happen to be black? (And allow me to gently point out to Ms. Harris-Perry that Obama is only half-black, where I believe all of these others are more, um, fully black. How does this lead her to assume that we must be pre-judged to be racists? The argument doesn’t hold ANY water at all.

Are there racists out there? Sure. Is there still an undercurrent of racism in this country? Sure. Show me a country where there isn’t, Ms. Harris-Perry. There are also undercurrents of parochialism and even xenophobia in every country. And I’d maintain we’re doing one hell of a lot better than nearly every other country out there in moving past them.

So, the woman, like most intellectual liberals, is firmly stuck in the past, and assumes, constantly, that people’s opinions are primarily based on racism. She see’s the world through the prism of racism, first. She can’t help it. And that is why they will continually raise the race card. They can’t help it! It’s practically in their genes.

Which is good news for us, because for the vast majority of people out there, her worldview is poisonous and wrong, and extremely insulting to them.

So, Ms. Harris-Perry, continue to shoot yourself in the foot. Over and over and over. You’re only helping us, and we thank you for it.

By: Gringo

Gringo — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 02:06:12 +0000

Perhaps the most accurate definition of their relationship was that they were Facebook friends.

In one sense, it is cruel and unusual punishment to poke fun at Joan Walsh. She has a talent for putting her foot in her mouth. She was once dismayed to find out that her SAT scores were as low as Dubya’s. She also said of former Congressman Weiner, “At least he’s not a hypocrite,” which is a an interesting description of someone who claimed he had been hacked- which is not the only reason for calling him a hypocrite.

Joan Walsh has played the race card on a number of occasions. One time she played the race card was in attacking Newt Gingrich for saying, “What we need is a president, not an athlete.Shooting three point shots may be clever, but it doesn’t put anybody to work.” Sounds like common sense to me, considering we have a POTUS who spends more time playing golf or attending fundraisers than he does at governing. He also plays basketball.

The Daily Kos article has a good link on Joan Walsh playing the race card in analyzing the results of a Gallup Poll Obamacare, where she condemns whites for having the opinion they will not benefit as much from Obamacare. Howcum? Because they are more likely to already have insurance. Like duh, Joanie. But to Joanie Baloney, pointing out the obvious shows whites are racist.

For all that Joan Walsh has the Chevy Chase approach to race relations- “You are racist- and I am not”- it must have been a shock for her to get such a response from a black person Joan Walsh considered a “friend.”

As many have pointed out , many libs see race and diversity issues as areas where they can prove their goodness, that they are not like those evil racist Republicans. For many libs. minorities are cardboad props, not actual people. The response Joan Walsh got shows that for all that she considers herself “enlightened” on race, in many respects she doesn’t have a clue.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/04/12/856479/-Joan-Walsh-plays-the-race-card-%28again%29
http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh040910.html

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Comments on: Life imitates . . . my blog?! UPDATED