This is a photo show making the rounds of the 'Tea Baggers' protest in Washngton DC the other day. Take a good hard look at the demographic for Fox News and right-wing talk radio. And, once again, please try to find anyone who isn't white. Even just one person.
Meet Your Conservative Movement
12 comments:
At least they can stop complaining that they're not allowed to have white pride parades.
Here's a link that shows a few black protesters. In particular, one is holding a "Blowing Mad Money" sign, and the other a sign that says "I dont belong to the party of no, I belong to the party of HELL NO!"
But yeah, Im not sure how your "progressive" credentials will be affected by you making a point using somebody's race. Doesnt your blog have the caption "We're all equal right?"
I would think my point to be very obvious.
What is your point? That the protesters are white?
First of all, there are black protesters too, as clearly evidenced by the link above. So your "Even just one" comment is clearly and easily refuted.
But more to the point, what the hell are you trying to prove by pointing to the skin color of these people? Isnt that what racists do? I dont think for one second that you're a racist, but I think your point is to label your political opponents as racists using the flimsiest of evidence (pictures of white people). That's pathetic and intellectually dishonest.
I read their signs, I read and hear what they say.
I've also followed this particular political fringe for a long time. Racism is quite prevalent amongst it. The Republican ground campaign against Obama was rife with it from day one.
And now I'm racist for pointing out the obvious racists amongst them? Geez...
MF:
I clearly stated "I dont think for one second that you are racist". I dont waste my time calling people I've never met racists. Racism is a serious charge and involves a belief of superiority of one's race.
How have you pointed out the "obvious racists among them"? You showed pictures of white people and said "Look these people are white (OMG!)"
Read the signs, I said. There's also a previous post on this. Also, if the protectors are predominantly white, beyond the proportion of white in the population, doesn't that suggest something? In the USA, it certainly does.
And I expect my audience to have been following along with the more objective news concerning these groups. I'm not going to spoon feed the details to just one person.
I also consider the Conservative Party of Canada to have far more than its fair share of homophobes. The fact that there's at least one gay MP in it doesn't change my learned opinion.
So, likewise, a few photos of non-whites isn't exactly a rebuttal.
Yeah I read the signs. Some of it are pretty stupid, the worst being "Somewhere in Kenya there is a village missing a teleprompter" or something like that.
But I mean if these pictures show that republicans are all a bunch of racists, what do these pictures show? That the democrats are a bunch of (racist and anti-semitic) unhinged raving lunatics?
Warning: some of these pictures posted in that link are actually offensive, and include some nudity.
Fact is, your attempt to label a group of people based on their participation in a political protest suffers from the same logical fallacy as racism does, although I'll admit that it is less repugnant. Also your means for allegedly making that point leave a lot to be desired. If one can gather from a group of all white people that they are all racists, does that mean that a group of all black people are racists too?
And btw, a few photos of non whites IS a rebuttal, thanks to you for setting the very low threshold of "even just one".
The racism is clear. Stupid signs or not...
You are the one making distinctions between Republican and Democrat, not me. It just happens that this latest protest is Republican.
There were some fine examples of racists voters backing Hillary Clinton.
Everyone's racist. Some strive to not be, whereas others strive to be. When you have a large grassroots gathering which is disproportionately white, yes, you have racism at work there.
When a country is still largely run by white people, the racism of white people is more of a concern.
You seem to assume that I'm not offended by some of the antics of lefty radicals. You would be wrong. But they weren't on display the other day in DC, were they?
"And btw, a few photos of non whites IS a rebuttal, thanks to you for setting the very low threshold of "even just one"."
Obviously silly and petty of you.
MF:
I see you're of the "everyone's got some underlying racism" school. I disagree strongly, but that may just be a matter of semantics more than substance.
I tend to think of racism as something very serious, and extremely repugnant. Therefore, calling others racists is a serious charge and should be backed up by serious evidence.
If in fact, everybody's a little bit racist, doesnt that reduce the gravity of being racist?
I think what you're talking about is people's natural propensity to associate with similar people. I dont see that as racism one bit. To include this within the definition of racism would severely broaden the meaning with the effect that racism is no longer as repugnant as it should be.
The belief that one's race is superior to others (which I consider the classical definition) is in fact repugnant and strongly reprehensible.
The practice of discriminating based on race is equally repugnant and reprehensible.
Neither is on display in the pictures you provided. To have a stupid sign about Obama, even if it alludes to Obama's kenyan origins fits neither of those. These show nothing more than a lack of wit/class/taste.
I truly fear that with the constant cries of racism the actual meaning of the term is diluted to the point of losing all meaning.
Also, the fact that the overwhelming majority of protesters were white does not mean that blacks were not welcome.
And yes, that was silly and petty of me.
There clearly is racism on display there. It is in poor taste also.
Likewise, if people wish to avoid being described as antisemitic, they should avoid flashing posters saying things like "Down with the Jewish state." (I'm referencing your link earlier) Now, it may be that that person isn't antisemitic that they are merely being purposefully controversial, but I don't give them the benefit of the doubt.
Your threshold is set too high IMHO. But, you are free to have it.
Whatever is on display there, whether its ignorance, hatred, poor taste, or bigotry, it is certainly nothing to be proud of.
I do think however that the protests in general represent a legitimate opposition to some of Obama's policies. That the protesters are overwhelmingly white is unfortunate, but that shouldnt tell us anything about the beliefs of any individual protester - the signs however do that. And clearly, some of these people chose to focus on the president's race, but there are also a lot that didnt, and presumably were held by decent, non-racist people, much like the anti-israel protests (like you pointed out, some signs there clearly show a certain willingness to attack jews generally, but some signs were actually well thought out and were not racist).
Anyways, gotta go, thanks for the discussion.
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