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The Racebaiting Media

by Jon Henke | October 5, 2008 at 8:33 PM
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Why are  Douglass K. Daniel, the Associated Press and Andrew Sullivan so eager to race-bait?

I'm not saying they're racists, per se, but it is rather remarkable how often they imagine they're hearing "dog whistles".  It's even more remarkable that they have no problem fomenting racial tension for political gain every time they find a way to infer racism.

On the other hand, perhaps there's no important distinction between "racist" and "willing to casually, intentionally racebait for political gain."

Racism is a genuine problem and Republicans should do more to denounce it when it happens.  This seems like a good opportunity.

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Why, you ask?

Submitted by Walt Gilbert on Sun, 10/05/2008 - 21:30.

I'll show ya why (as if it needed explaining):

As a similar line of attack would be used against a white

Submitted by mnmod on Sun, 10/05/2008 - 23:16.

nominee for the ayers association, I won't quibble about what I see as the slight racial undertone (although a stronger case for racism can be made when only a very short clip is played about "pallin around with terrorists" without the context that the pal was a white guy and events were 40 years ago.)   Anyway, as these pictures show, the attack is ridiculous more than anything.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/10/5/01042/1913

As Nicholas Kristof explains in yeterday's column

Submitted by mnmod on Mon, 10/06/2008 - 00:21.

its not overt racists that cost Obama support, but subtle, subconscious racism (perhaps the kind that causes people to unknowingly respond to dog whistles.)

"The racism is difficult to measure, but a careful survey completed last month by Stanford University, with The Associated Press and Yahoo, suggested that Mr. Obama’s support would be about six percentage points higher if he were white. That’s significant but surmountable.

Most of the lost votes aren’t those of dyed-in-the-wool racists. Such racists account for perhaps 10 percent of the electorate and, polling suggests, are mostly conservatives who would not vote for any Democratic presidential candidate.

Rather, most of the votes that Mr. Obama actually loses belong to well-meaning whites who believe in racial equality and have no objection to electing a black person as president — yet who discriminate unconsciously." .......

....."Research suggests that whites are particularly likely to discriminate against blacks when choices are not clear-cut and competing arguments are flying about — in other words, in ambiguous circumstances rather like an electoral campaign."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/opinion/05kristof.html?ref=opinion

I am going to side with the AP reporter and Sullivan afterall on this.  Besides which is worse- suggest someone is racebaiting  for politicl gain or that someone pals around with terrorists.

 

 

mnmod. . .

Submitted by Walt Gilbert on Mon, 10/06/2008 - 01:59.

. . .you're doing one hell of a job of convincing yourself -- I'll give you that.  I hope you'll keep going on about it.

Is there anything I can say that would encourage you to keep defending Obama on this?  Would calling you a liar help?

How about if I just point out that if "the racism is difficult to measure" but it benefits one side to insist that it's there regardless of whether or not the means to quantify it exist, then perhaps someone is being just a tad opportunistic -- maybe even disingenuous?

One thing that isn't difficult to measure is the fact that, Bill Ayers is more than just "a guy in Obama's neighborhood".  Do you want to dispute that?

give me a break

Submitted by Xrlq on Mon, 10/06/2008 - 06:26.

The notion that Obama gets less support because he is black is beyond preposterous.  Obama is by all objective measures the least qualified candidate for President in modern history.  A white with his non-credentials would never have been taken seriously as a presidential contender.  Just ask President Edwards, who at least served a full term in the Senate first.  The only similarly unqualified white candidate who came close was the other affirmative action candidate, Hillary Clinton.  And even she only counts to a point, as much of her draw was that she supposedly was experienced.

The Racism is Growing - At the urging of Palin/McCain

Submitted by ohmmade on Tue, 10/07/2008 - 13:08.

Recent days show the racism and race-baiting is getting worse and worse with every campaign rally.

At a recent Palin rally, a supporter yelled out "sit down, boy" to an African-American sound operator for one of the TV networks there. The overt racism reared it's ugly head again at a McCain campaign rally, where people yelled out "kill him" and called Obama a "terrorist".

It now seems that Palin herself has the ugly end of this stick in her hands, and is whacking away every chance she gets.

And now Corsi's pathetic stint in Kenya - without even talking about his historically racist and bigoted past - is sealing the deal on this topic. And fanning these flames and bringing out the worst in the public is not only unseemly, but it is literally dangerous. All POTUS candidates face great physical threats and is why there are huge Secret Service details surrounding them. For something very bad to happen because of this race-baiting should send cold chills up all Americans' spines.