See other Editorial Articles
Title: Barack Obama, John McCain and the Language of Race
Source:
www.nytimes.com
URL Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/22/opinion/22observer.html?em
Published: Sep 23, 2008
Author: BRENT STAPLES
Post Date: 2008-09-23 08:06:50 by Ferret Mike
Keywords: None
Views: 205
Comments: 11
It was not that long ago that black people in the Deep South could be beaten or killed for seeking the right to vote, talking back to the wrong white man or failing to give way on the sidewalk. People of color who violated these and other proscriptions could be designated “uppity niggers” and subjected to acts of violence and intimidation that were meant to dissuade others from following their examples. The term “uppity” was applied to affluent black people, who sometimes paid a horrific price for owning nicer homes, cars or more successful businesses than whites. Race-based wealth envy was a common trigger for burnings, lynchings and cataclysmic episodes of violence like the Tulsa race riot of 1921, in which a white mob nearly eradicated the prosperous black community of Greenwood. Forms of eloquence and assertiveness that were viewed as laudable among whites were seen as positively mutinous when practiced by people of color. As such, black men and women who looked white people squarely in the eye — and argued with them about things that mattered — were declared a threat to the racial order and persecuted whenever possible. This obsession with black subservience was based in nostalgia for slavery. No sane person would openly express such a sentiment today. But the discomfort with certain forms of black assertiveness is too deeply rooted in the national psyche — and the national language — to just disappear. It has been a persistent theme in the public discourse since Barack Obama became a plausible candidate for the presidency. A blatant example surfaced earlier this month, when a Georgia Republican, Representative Lynn Westmoreland, described the Obamas as “uppity” in response to a reporter’s question. Mr. Westmoreland, who actually stood by the term when given a chance to retreat, later tried to excuse himself by saying that the dictionary definition carried no racial meaning. That seems implausible. Mr. Westmoreland is from the South, where the vernacular meaning of the word has always been clear. The Jim Crow South institutionalized racial paternalism in its newspapers, which typically denied black adults the courtesy titles of Mr. and Mrs. — and reduced them to children by calling them by first names only. Representative Geoff Davis, Republican of Kentucky, succumbed to the old language earlier this year when describing what he viewed as Mr. Obama’s lack of preparedness to handle nuclear policy. “That boy’s finger does not need to be on the button,” he said. In the Old South, black men and women who were competent, confident speakers on matters of importance were termed “disrespectful,” the implication being that all good Negroes bowed, scraped, grinned and deferred to their white betters. In what is probably a harbinger of things to come, the McCain campaign has already run a commercial that carries a similar intimation, accusing Mr. Obama of being “disrespectful” to Sarah Palin. The argument is muted, but its racial antecedents are very clear. The throwback references that have surfaced in the campaign suggest that Republicans are fighting on racial grounds, even when express references to race are not evident. In a replay of elections past, the G.O.P. will try to leverage racial ghosts and fears without getting its hands visibly dirty. The Democrats try to parry in customary ways. Mr. Obama seems to understand that he is always an utterance away from a statement — or a phrase — that could transform him in a campaign ad from the affable, rational and racially ambiguous candidate into the archetypical angry black man who scares off the white vote. His caution is evident from the way he sifts and searches the language as he speaks, stepping around words that might push him into the danger zone. These maneuvers are often painful to watch. The troubling part is that they are necessary.
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: Ferret Mike (#0)
Mike, the system itself is so foul that even if McCain and Obama were able to live up to their "onstage personas" it wouldn't matter. If either of them were to waiver from accepted banker policy they would die. I fear we're in more trouble than an election will resolve.
HOW is it that (you) the Private citizen is being touted as the debtor when the PRIVATE FED RESERVE loans CREDIT to other PRIVATE BANKS ???
The 1st sentence is fixed. I'll work on the rest of this steaming pile when time allows.
About time we all jumped in with both feet and got to work fixing it.
All nouns are social constructs.
"Anybody can rat. It takes real ingenuity to re-rat." -- Winston Churchill
I think it's about time we all jump out with both feet let them fix it.
HOW is it that (you) the Private citizen is being touted as the debtor when the PRIVATE FED RESERVE loans CREDIT to other PRIVATE BANKS ???
Mike... I see your source is the NYT. Perhaps you care to also comment on a past reporter for the Times, named Walter Duranty?
Mike, Wake the f**k up or just admit what you really are. Rotara
"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”—Samuel Adams
I dreamed Bill Gates lectured me about being a porch monkey, and how he was taking it back.
And they write innumerable books; being too vain and distracted for silence: seeking every one after his own elevation, and dodging his emptiness. - T. S. Eliot
I'm an avowed race mixer. I am also someone who gets into the face of anyone live and in the flesh who is racist in speak or action in my presence. I also don't think Caucasians are one bit different then Negroes except for cultural heritage and the obvious physical difference which are minor to the extreme. None of this I am the least bit ashamed of or reluctant to talk about. So what's your major malfunction with me? I don't take our differences personally, but it is important to stand up against racism, and I don't give a rip if someone is angered or offended by my beliefs. That is their problem.
Don't give me your 'race' bullshit, peckerwood. I won't vote for a world socialist cabal sucker if he's white, black, green, red, yellow, red or polka dot with stripes. Who the f**k do you think you're kidding? It appears you're going to be on the 'other side' when TSHTF. I would enjoy drawing a red dot on your f**king forehead if it comes to that.
"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”—Samuel Adams
If it came to that, I'd much prefer wrestling you to the ground like the sexual bottom you are and introducing you to one of my knives. And when I do use a rifle or handgun, I don't use laser sights. They probably taught you to use that when you were roughing it sometime with your boyfriend at a dude ranch, but they are a crutch I don't need.
#2. To: Ferret Mike, all (#0)
It was not that long ago that white
black people in Harlem Deep South could be beaten or killed for seeking the right to vote, talking back to the wrong white black man or failing to give way on the sidewalk. 
#3. To: noone222 (#1)
I fear we're in more trouble than an election will resolve.
#4. To: Ferret Mike (#0)
#5. To: angle (#3)
About time we all jumped in with both feet and got to work fixing it.
#6. To: Ferret Mike (#0)
#7. To: Ferret Mike (#0)
#8. To: Tauzero (#4)
All nouns are social constructs.
#9. To: Rotara (#7)
"Wake the f**k up or just admit what you really are."
"You only have power over people so long as you don't take everything away from them. But when you've robbed a man of everything he's no longer in your power -- he's free again. Alexander Solzhenitsyn
#10. To: Ferret Mike (#9)
(Edited)
#11. To: Rotara (#10)
(Edited)
"I would enjoy drawing a red dot on your f**king forehead if it comes to that."
"You only have power over people so long as you don't take everything away from them. But when you've robbed a man of everything he's no longer in your power -- he's free again. Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest