Yup, I’m Playing the Race Card.
posted on March 21st, 2008
If you’re still not satisfied with Barack Obama’s explanation as to why he has condemned Rev. Wright’s statements but won’t sever all ties with him, then you’re a racist.
Why are you a racist? Because he shouldn’t have to explain in the first place, and yet he has done so anyway. He said on Tuesday that he too would hate Wright, if the only thing he knew about him was the 20 seconds of YouTube video that’s been seen a million times, but that over 20 years, he’s gotten to know the whole person (The Trinity Church would love for you to get to know him, too).
That’s a reasonable answer to a reasonable if impertinent question. That should satisfy everyone. It’s not racist to ask reasonable questions. It is, however, racist to apply a level of scrutiny to the answer that is completely disproportionate to the scrutiny aplied to the answers of anyone else answering the same question.
It is this subtle racism that allows Mike Huckabee to accept the endorsement of Jerry Falwell, who once called Desmond Tutu a phony among many other offensive statements, while Obama is called upon to not simply “denounce”, but “reject” the praise (not even the endorsement) of Minister Louis Farakkhan. In late February, John McCain received (and gladly accepted) the endorsement of John Hagee, a Texas televangelist and megachurch leader who has repeatedly made viciously anti-Catholic statements. This story started to get a little attention, contrasted as it was against Obama’s early rejection of Farrakhan, but has been largely forgotten in the wake of video of Rev. Wright hitting YouTube. Why? ABC scoured 20 years’ worth of footage to come up with half a dozen 5 second soundbites in which Wright is deeply critical of the U.S. Government but only one in which he is undeniably race-baiting. It took my 8 seconds of googling to find four separate occasions on which Hagee made statements that were either anti-Jewish, anti-Catholic, or both.
Discussion Question: Preachers Jerry Falwell and Jeremiah Wright each made controversial statements regarding the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. One of them declared 9/11 to be God’s punishment visited upon a nation that allows abortion and homosexuality; the other declared that the terrorists of 9/11 hate us because of decades of foreign policy mistakes. Only one of these statements is offensive; which one?
Answer: Whichever one the black dude said. Discuss.
My Rabbi officiated at both my Bar Mitzvah and my wedding. He has a son my age, and we were best friends throughout high school, until we both went off to college. When my sister was killed, this man was the one to tell me. The respect I have for him cannot be measured. And yet, he grew up in a generation that saw Israel constantly beset on all sides by hostile Arab neighbors. He has made generalizations about Arabs that, as an adult, I now consider racist. And while I strongly disagree with many of his opinions, I still love and respect him.
Nobody asks Catholics why they won’t walk away from their Church even when it has repeatedly, and at high levels, hidden and covered for degenerate boyfuckers. Or Anglicans why they don’t denounce their faith when its founder famously beheaded two of his wives. Or Jews or Muslims why they don’t “distance themselves” from self-proclaimed leaders who seem unable to resist committing acts of violence against one another in the middle east. And nobody has ever asked me to ever specifically reject my Rabbi, nor would I, even if I were running for president.
This rant filed under: Political
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March 21st, 2008 at 7:30 am
And what of Hilary and “The Family”?
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080331/ehrenreich