As a brief follow-up to Pete’s excellent post on liberals and race, the Daily Beast’s Kirsten Powers pushed back against the canard that GOP opposition to Susan Rice is racially motivated by calling out one of her fellow liberals, MSNBC talker Touré, on Twitter this morning. Noah Rothman at Mediaite has the full Twitter debate between the two, which ends in a fairly devastating victory for Powers.
Touré bases his case on the fact that John McCain called Susan Rice “incompetent,” which Touré decided was racial code. Powers tweeted back the following, which so far has elicited only silence from Touré:
(@Katrinanation is the Twitter handle of the Nation’s Katrina vanden Heuvel.) This is the problem with the left’s strategy of accusing opponents of racism for just about anything. Pete mentioned the ridiculous suggestion from Chris Matthews that referring to the Obama campaign as “Chicago” because of its location was racist code. Of course, the Romney campaign certainly didn’t coin this shorthand; the campaign merely followed the press’s habit of referring to each campaign by its headquartered city. But even more, “old white Republicans” aren’t the only people who use the word Chicago, of course.
And, as Touré discovered today, “old white Republicans” aren’t the only ones who use the word “incompetent.” That’s the trouble with the left’s “dog whistles”–when universally applied, they make everyone racist. And that, as Pete wrote earlier, strips the term of all significance. Good for Powers for holding her side to account.
The left considers black Republicans to be traitors to their race, thereby allowing them, in their twisted logic, to be consistent.
Well, I think they (the vocal element but certainly not all) view black Republicans as not "real" black people and therefore the rules don't apply. Racial stereotypes – Uncle Toms, House Negroes, et cetera – can be employed against them. If those ugly labels were used against a "real", i.e., liberal, black man or women, there'd be hell to pay (rightly so). n nLet's face it: race is as much, if not more, about ideology than it is skin color. And so we see that there are "real" blacks, Latinos, women, gays and "not real" blacks, Latinos, women, gays. The authenticity depends on their political views. The first category, the "real" groups, must be protected at almost all costs while the latter can be denigrated ad libitum. n nIt's really bad out there, isn't it?
Liberal/leftist's can't be racist. They just can't. They support affirmative action and were for civil rights (or their parents were) and they read Toni Morrison for crissakes. And as Bill Maher said, "I donated $1 million to Obama's campaign? I can't be a racist!!" n nIt's like the Whig interpretation of history. That is, history is a series of conflicts between progressive and regressive forces. And we know which side is which, don't we? n nSo it doesn't matter what charges they hurl at Clarence Thomas or Condi Rice, it simply can't be racist. They're pure, they're the good guys, they're the ones who favor racial progress. n nNow you conservatives? Everything you say is racist. Or code for it. Or a dog whistle. Or can be interpreted as racist or racialist. n n
Kristen Powers is not a "fellow" anything to this clown Toure, except they both are apparently humanoids. She irrirates me at times (she IS a Democrat), but she is more a liberal like they used to be.
Powers is of the Clinton Wing of the DNC. Otherwise, she'd be echoing Toure, instead of pushing back.
Toure seems to think any word with a negative connotation is a racist code word. n nPretty low self esteem he has, I think . . . . n nEither that, or any criticism of black people is off limits. n nMaybe both. n nThis is seriously effed up, and it does not look like it is going to get better in our lifetimes. n nThe US is going over a cliff in more ways than one . . . .
I think it is more "any criticism of black people is off limits", but, if you follow The New Republic comment threads, it appears that criticizing Obama's golf games is a racist dog whistle for "lazy". and my least favorite was a commenter who believes white people just can not stand the thought of two black people having sex in the WH – my response to that was that most Americans do not want to think ANYONE is having sex in the WH. n nThe real tragedy is that Age discrimination is very real, yet NO ONE EVER mentions that.
"…most Americans do not want to think ANYONE is having sex in the WH." n namen to that. but K2K…I had managed to just about put the image of Bill and Monica in the Oval Office out of my mind until I read your comment!
I think people like Toure (whether black, brown, white or whatever) ought to look in the mirror when they start spouting off about racism.
Let's pause for a moment and consider what is happening. Anyone reading this can come up with a list of truly important issues we should be discussing/debating. This racism "discussion" is stupidity on stilts. That it continues after the nation re-elected a black president is disheartening, to say the least. But, it exposes one of the very real problems confronting conservatives, one that I suspect many readers of Commentary experience regularly – conservatives come to the Arena prepared for intellectual sparring. We're prepared for Oxford Union. Instead we get WWF.
Mike makes a very good point. We conservatives should not take this anymore. We have to stop thinking we're in a battle with honest people. We have to call these people who make the racist accusations exactly what they are: scoundrels, cowards, miscreants, frauds!!! Let's remind everyone of Jackson's pass comments; Sharpton's past. We conservatives do not have to take this crap!!!
I would add that what makes it all the more galling is the fact that I suspect a significant number of white liberals – I would guess, based on my experience, a majority – agree in general with us, that this issue is silly. Fear of being called "conservative" or "insensitive" (I know – they are synonymous) stops them from speaking out. In other words, we've surrendered much of our public discourse to a handful of loud-mouth jerks with whom a significant majority of Americans of every political stripe disagree.