Forty two years after his assassination, Martin Luther King’s dream(s) has not been fully realized. Dr. King would have turned 81 last Friday, had he not met an untimely death, courtesy of assassin James Earl Ray.
Despite solid civil rights strides over the last few decades, marching towards Dr. King’s dream, a section of Republican America is still as fucked up as they were in 1900s. Although systematically dwindling in numbers, it is unfortunate to note that quite a fairly large chunk of “conservative savages” are still roaming this land, spitting venom like trapped cobra’s.
So, where’s the racial progress Obama promised? Polls suggest that one year into the Obama presidency, the country hasn’t made much progress when it comes to views on race.
I concur ….too may tea-bagging goons still living in America.
As I have stated above, as long as race-baiting baboons in the mode of Palin, Beck, Limbaugh ….Fox News, similar Republican Scum, and despicable black apologists like Michael Steele still exist, race relations in America will remain strained for a long time to come.
There is a prevalent misconception that racism is a self-contained problem. The myth goes like this: unless a hooded clansman is burning a cross on an African American family’s lawn, the United States is not dealing with traditional racism. Our country has transcended race, since the election of President Obama, this myth says. Furthermore, race is only a relevant factor when something overtly hostile happens to our leader, who happens to be black (not that any of us notice, since we have transcended the problem of racism). The myth leaves no room for discussions of institutionalized racism, or the acceptance that race and racism are always in the room with us, and not just when President Obama delivers nuanced, thoughtful speeches about them.
By: Allison Kilkenny President Obama has long suggested that he would like to move beyond race. The question now is whether the country will let him.
He woke up one Wednesday to a rapidly intensifying debate about how his race factors into the broader discussion of civility in politics, a question prompted in part by former President Jimmy Carter’s assertion the previous day that racism was behind a Republican lawmaker’s outburst against Mr. Obama as the president addressed a joint session of Congress. — via Political Memo – As Race Debate Grows, Obama Steers Clear of It – NYTimes.com.
There is a prevalent misconception that racism is a self-contained problem. The myth goes like this: unless a hooded clansman is burning a cross on an African American family’s lawn, the United States is not dealing with traditional racism. Our country has transcended race, since the election of President Obama, this myth says. Furthermore, race is only a relevant factor when something overtly hostile happens to our leader, who happens to be black (not that any of us notice, since we have transcended the problem of racism). The myth leaves no room for discussions of institutionalized racism, or the acceptance that race and racism are always in the room with us, and not just when President Obama delivers nuanced, thoughtful speeches about them.
Aside from the obvious targets of a Joe Wilson or Rush Limbaugh, the problem of racism infests every facet of the American experience, including the ongoing health care debate, though few politicians and journalists seem to realize racism is bigger than a few of Glenn Beck’s disciples shouting something about Obama being Kenyan. "Race issue lingers over health care debate," an AP headline declares, but what it fails to mention is that the health care debate is also a race debate, and the racism issue does not belong exclusively to the province of zaftig, paranoid white Conservatives, flawed reasoning that comforts many liberals.
Another Reuters headline reads, "Healthcare, anger, and race," presenting the three nouns as if they are separate, autonomous entities. Such compartmentalization seems to suggest we can only talk about one issue (healthcare, anger, or race) at a time. We’re either chatting about Obama’s plans for health care reform, or we’re snickering about those crazy birthers, but we’re never talking about the same thing. However, in reality, the broken healthcare system and anger are subsidiaries of racism, and the three share a deeply interconnected relationship.
According to a study by researchers at Dartmouth, race and place of residence have a huge impact on the kind of medical treatment a patient receives. For example, blacks with diabetes or vascular disease are nearly five times more likely than whites to have a leg amputated. The widest racial gaps in mammogram rates within a state were in California and Illinois with a difference of 12 percentage points between the white rate and the black rate. The country’s lowest rate for blacks — 48 percent in California — was 24 percentage points below the highest rate — 72 percent in Massachusetts. In all but two states, black diabetics were less likely than whites to receive annual hemoglobin testing. But blacks in Colorado (66 percent) were far less likely to be screened than those in Massachusetts (88 percent).
Statistics released by Advocates for Children and Youth, an independent statewide nonprofit organization, show that the infant mortality rate is 8 deaths per 1,000 births in Maryland, with African American babies dying at a 2.5 times higher rate than white babies. African Americans’ life expectancy is six years shorter than whites at birth, two years shorter at age 65, and numerous studies document the relatively poor health and health outcomes of African Americans, reflecting a long history of economic deprivation and barriers to health care.
Race has infrequently been addressed in this fashion possibly because it removes racism from the territory of crazy, right-wing protesters and delivers the blame to larger institutions like the private health care industry, and the United States government at large. It’s one thing to make fun of Rush Limbaugh’s ignorance, it’s another thing to ask multi-billion dollar industries to change their racist practices, or accuse the entire government of being rotten at the foundation. Such accusations would earn a dissenter the title of "race-baiter," or one who "plays the race card." These kinds of platitudes are usually euphemisms for "You’re making me uncomfortable. Don’t rile up the black folk. Shut up."
As much as white Americans hate to admit it, we are always talking about race, even when we’re not poking fun at Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck. Race and racism will play a huge roll in the health care reform debate, and not just when Joe Wilson is the topic of discussion. Rep. Donna Edwards has said that proposed legislation overhauling health care would likely address racial disparities in education and health among children. Let’s hope so. At least then the discussion of race and racism may reap some productive rewards instead of more empty chatter about Joe Wilson’s motives.
About The Author: Allison Kilkenny co-hosts Citizen Radio, the alternative political radio show alongside her partner, comic Jamie Kilstein. She is a contributing writer to Huffington Post, Alternet.org, The Nation, the Beast, Counterpunch.org, and 236.com.
She doesn’t care if you’re offended by anything she has written. Allison cordially invites you to join her on other social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter. VISIT [ http://allisonkilkenny.com/ ]
Do not confuse Free-Speech with Hate-Speech. When this SLOB Beck speaks, it is exclusively HATE speech.
Joan Walsh:Is GOP using race to block Obama agenda? Ya think? — There is one main reason the U.S. doesn’t have the social democratic traditions and programs enjoyed by most Western democracies — we are the only such nation without some kind of universal healthcare — and that reason is our history of ethnic, racial and class strife. (The bounty of the eternal frontier and American exceptionalism fit in there too, but I’d pick our fractious and well-manipulated heterogeneity as the top reason.) The irony is the last 50 years have seen brutal class warfare in which the forces behind the wealthy transferred income and privilege consistently upward. Yet now the forces of reaction are claiming Obama is the class warrior, and the race warrior, declaring war on whites, and trying to snatch the status-quo privileges — like healthcare, allegedly — from the haves, to provide for unworthy have nots. [ READ MORE
Should Beck apologize for his comments?: An Ed Show panel debates whether Fox News' Glenn Beck should be forced to apologize for calling President Barack Obama a racist.
1. Too Hot for Fox News: "In its anti-Obama hysteria, Fox has mainstreamed voices once relegated to the fever swamps. This is most immediately clear in the apocalyptic buffoonery of Glenn Beck, and in the way the network has indulged the delusions of the so-called birthers, who insist that Obama was born in Kenya and thus can't legally be president. Yet that's just scratching the surface. On the weekly, hour-long Freedom Watch, which began airing in February, Fox gives its imprimatur to the kind of rhetoric once confined to the short-wave radio broadcasts of militia movements. After eight years of championing increased executive power, the network now hosts a show whose anti-government fixation sometimes leads to cheerful talk of dissolving the United States and dark warnings of impending tyranny. [ READ MORE ]
Race is arguably the biggest issue in this election, and it’s one that nobody’s talking about. If Barack Obama loses this election, it will not be because of John McCain’s superior “political pedigree” but just plain old White-Racism.
McCain is a hopeless candidate — a sleazy, lying opportunist, worse than Bob Dole.
He is a tired, old and archaic relic of the bitter past of Jim Crow racism.
Teaming him up with an unqualified “moose hunter” is the biggest joke since Indiana’s Dan Quayle. The Palin pick clearly reflects McCain’s gambling tendencies a.k.a “Maverickism” — something he might resort to in a crisis, if elected president.
Selecting Sarah Palin, another opportunist “dimwit” and an anti-intellectual, who attended five colleges before graduating, is an alarming dis-regard for America — after eight years of another anti-intellectual idiot named Bush.
The job of president of the United States requires top-of-the-line smarts, and not “arrogant puppetry” propped up with “beauty queen” shallowness.
McCain is a grumpy old belligerent man who thinks he knows it all, and that America owes him something because the VietCong broke his arms, legs and nearly castrated him during the Vietnam War.
Yet, in a year when the ReTHUGlicans should be running for the hills, he is consistently polling even with Obama, and in some cases he leads.
Why?
The plain and simple answer is — RACISM. A huge chunk of white America still wallows in excruciating and hysterical racism — steeped in extreme ignorance, and far-right “Biblical Superstition.”
The McCain campaign is the beneficiary of America’s ubiquitous malediction — racism. Racism is McCain’s covert ally; it is his campaign’s secret stealth weapon.
Unlike his predecessors — Nixon, Reagan, Bush I and Bush II — McCain has no need to actively inject race into the presidential campaign. Obama’s skin color does that spontaneously. McCain can afford to take the high road because the low road is well paved with our nation’s tarnished racial history, a history which for too many people is insuperable.
Hillary Clinton’s “Hard Working” a.k.a RACIST Whites who would rather vote
for McCain than Obama — Usually poorly educated and filled to the throat
with crippling ignorance
FROM CNN’s Jack Cafferty:
The differences between Barack Obama and John McCain couldn’t be more well-defined. Obama wants to change Washington. McCain is a part of Washington and a part of the Bush legacy. Yet the polls remain close. Doesn’t make sense…unless it’s race.
Time magazine’s Michael Grunwald says race is the elephant in the room. He says Barack Obama needs to tread lightly as he fights back against the McCain-Palin campaign attacks.
He writes, “Over the past 18 months, Obama has been attacked as a naive novice, an empty suit, a tax-and-spend liberal, an arugula-grazing élitist and a corrupt ward heeler, but the only attacks that clearly stung him involved the Rev. Jeremiah Wright – attacks that portrayed him as an angry black man under the influence of an even angrier black man.”
The angry black man, he goes on to say, doesn’t have broad appeal in White America. And even though the makeup of our population is changing, whites are still the majority in this country. How ironic that the giant step forward of nominating an African American for president may ultimately keep us mired in the past.
Mr. Cafferty posed this question to his viewers last night: Will Barack Obama’s race cost him the White House?
Some Replies:
Jack, I’m a 60 year old white guy who once was a racist. That was many years ago and I am now a supporter of Obama. Sad to say that there may very well be enough ignorant racists who will prevent this man of vision and inspiration, a true leader, out of the White House. — Terry, Chandler AZ
Probably. If he were white and Palin was a man (with the same resume) the democrats would be a shoe-in. My dad is the perfect litmus test of American politics; he’s always voted the candidate, not the party, but he now says he’d vote for a corpse before he’d vote for Obama, simply due to his race. He’s my dad, I love him, but there you go… — Kenny in Va.
No his race is not a factor but his color is, he’s as red as Joseph Stalin — Sarah, indiana
Yes, Jack- If Obama doesn’t win the “White” House, it’s because he’s a “Black” man. With the Economy falling apart and the American people are loosing jobs along with other crisis, and if the American people put their trust back in the Republicans hands again, yes, it will be because of race. Ask the people of VA. — Bit, Alabama
It grieves me deeply to say this, but I do believe it will cost him the White House. People too ashamed to say it to your face will vote their prejudices in the privacy of the voting booth. — Judi Goldsmith, Lenox, MA
Obama’s race won’t cost him the election if enough first-time voters, young people and newly registered voters come out to vote on November 4th. I believe it could effectively counter balance the racist voters (new demographic for pundits to punt around). But if these people stay home, or are denied their right to vote because of home forclosures – we’re in trouble. — Christie, Michigan
Hopefully not, but a definite maybe. The USA is NOW at a major ideological multicultural crossroad. Will we move forward to a new reinvigorated redefined America or live the glory and prejudices of the Past? The real choice, however, is who will structure itself to be the leader of the 21st Century…USA or China? Don’t answer too quickly….nothing is certain. — George Smith, Dallas, TX
Sad to say it is….younger people are not interested in a person’s skin color but many older people are stuck in racism..interesting that he is half white and we do not hear much about that influencing voters…dont you think that is strange? — Annie Kraft, Naples FL
With everything the “RepulsiveCan’ts” have done to working people and the middle class in this country the last 8 years, IF Obama was to lose I would think his race would be THE major factor. — Billy G in Las Vegas
There can be no doubt it. Unless a lot of voters are lying and vote different than they say they will. As much as they want change I believe a lot of whites will not vote rather than vote for a black man. America has a long way to go in actually accepting the fact that there are good, decent, smart, hard working Blacks in every community in America. I’m a white, southern live and let live redneck that cannot stand to see what Bush and Co. have done to our future generations. How anyone with half a brain could let race prevent getting change to DC is beyond me. By the way, Jack I agree with you. McCain looks like some fool just off the turnip truck. — Bill Howell, Jackson, TN
2.Closet Racists May Cost Obama The Race — AP-Yahoo Study — Analysts have long presumed that racism was underreported, as some who factor race into their vote would not be willing to admit that prejudice to pollsters. AP’s study, which tries to find these closet racists, as it were, by comparing more loosely associated racial attitudes to…[Read More]
He’s stuck in no man’s land — no longer able to stand before adoring crowds of African-Americans, who welcomed him as the “nation’s first black president” with thunderous applause — and he clearly is having issues dealing with the new world order.
Almost two months after Sen. Barack Obama captured the Democratic presidential nomination, the former president still is brooding about his wife’s loss. And his chief source of anguish? That supporters of Obama accused him of injecting race into the campaign.
Never mind that the Obama camp — loaded with white male advisers — was so afraid to bring up race that it wasn’t funny.
When Bill Clinton compared Obama’s win in South Carolina to the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s 1984 and 1988 wins there, it was seen by African-Americans as an attempt to marginalize Obama. That always has been a fear of African-Americans who achieve mainstream success, and it left even close friends of the Clintons aghast.
That was the tipping point, along with other perceived slights, and we know a person’s perception is his reality.
What Bill doesn’t understand is that the masses of black people know what it feels like to be marginalized, and many saw that in those comments.
In an interview with ABC’s Kate Snow, Clinton, when asked about regrets in the campaign, immediately threw out, “I am not a racist.”
He kept insisting that he isn’t angry, but we all have seen that stare, that change in body language, and the parsing of words. Even when Snow asked whether Obama is ready to be president, Clinton answered in the third person, never actually saying he’s ready or not.
Bill, we get it. You still are peeved. At Obama. At Rep. James Clyburn. At the media. At anyone who you determined was against you and Hillary.
Many have said Clinton wants his legacy intact, and a lot of that has to do with the reality that no group gave him more comfort than the black community.
When he was facing the end of his presidency, he called on black folks like no others, using the affection to get him through the Monica Lewinsky scandal. He relied on black support to keep his poll numbers high. And we all know it.
But what Bill knows — and we know — is that you don’t have to be a racist to use race as a tool in a political campaign. An inference here, a comparison there, and you can send the right signal at the right time to the right people. He says he did nothing wrong. Yet perception is very powerful, and denying it doesn’t make it go away.
Bill and the legions of Clinton supporters are quick to act as if the comments made by African-Americans — the regular folk — simply didn’t exist. That was his bread-and-butter group, and its members were none too happy.
But what the Clinton folks also fail to grasp is that they did offend older African-Americans, such as Clyburn, Dr. Johnnetta B. Cole and others who were always in the corner of the Clintons but could remain silent no longer.
It’s clear that Bill can’t deal with the fact that his black supporters didn’t stay quiet. Many of them recoiled at what they heard.
As for what’s next, some Hillary Clinton fundraisers have said Obama should help restore Bill’s reputation and show respect for both Clintons, according to the Huffington Post. But the truth is that there is nothing that Obama can do to salvage the reputation of Bill Clinton before most African-Americans.
Bill lost that on his own, and he’s going to have to get it on his own.
The Clintons need to stop living in la-la land, listening to the same folks soothe Bill’s bruised ego. They thought they would win the nomination and that blacks would fall in line. Harold Ickes said as much.
But in this new world order, he needs to recognize that a lot has changed.
Bill, you clearly have issues with what took place, and sure, you can be angry. But denying you’re angry doesn’t help.
Roland S. Martin is a nationally award-winning and multifaceted journalist, a CNN contributor and a talk show host for WVON/AM in Chicago.
Mr. Martin is a commentator for TV One Cable Network and host of “The Roland S. Martin Show” on WVON-AM/1690 in Chicago. He can be heard daily from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m.
A provocative and insightful analyst, Mr. Martin has appeared numerous times on CNN, MSNBC, FOX News, Court TV, BET Nightly News, BBC News, National Public Radio, The Word Network and America’s Black Forum. Mr. Martin provides news reports for American Urban Radio Networks…..[more]
President Obama has long suggested that he would like to move beyond race. The question now is whether the country will let him.
Roland S. Martin is a nationally award-winning and multifaceted journalist, a CNN contributor and a talk show host for WVON/AM in Chicago.
