Barack Obama came into office in large part as the "post-racial" President, a racial healer. That doesn't seem to have worked out too well. Shortly into the first months of the Obama term, his Attorney General announced that we're all cowards for refusing to discuss race. Given the recent flap over the Shirley Sherrod public relations disaster, I would ask "who's the coward now?"
For good background, I suggest you re-read Andrew Price's Wednesday article on this blog. Andrew Breitbart went off half-cocked and aired an edited and partial video of Ms. Sherrod making some remarks about an incident of her own racism twenty-five years ago. But once the entire video was aired (it was in the hands of the NAACP the whole time, but that's another issue entirely) it became apparent that the not-too-bright Sherrod was trying in her stumbling way to tell a story of reconciliation. But I'm also going to say without hesitation that even after seeing the full video, I'm not convinced that she has come very far from her early days. Her post-firing statements only confirm my suspicions.
At this point, a race-obsessed nonentity is dragging the President of the United States and his administration flaks around by the nose. She's in charge here. She has received a personal telephone apology from the same President who says he had nothing to do with her firing. I find that extremely unseemly. She has blamed Fox News for her firing, even though the firing occurred hours before Fox News did any extensive analysis of the Breitbart fiasco. But they're all racists at Fox News, as Sherrod would have it, so they must be to blame. Meanwhile, she gets to decide whether she should accept a much better-paying federal job with a much loftier title (even though she had already risen far above her level of incompetence), or a massive lawsuit. Best of all, she could choose to do both. At the same time she gets to make her evil boss, Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture, look like a white buffoon. Well, strike that last remark. She's right--he is a buffoon.
So where am I going with this? Just this. Obama and his gang have stood up to, defied and ignored every conservative point of view, any moderate view that disagrees with his own, and even the plaintive cries for help from liberal Democrats. But the same people who called us cowards for refusing to deal with race issues have a yellow streak bigger than an entire cargo of bananas. Health care? Attack. Financial reform? Attack. Confirmation of dangerous political appointees to office? Attack. Race? Cave in, and do it as quickly as possible.
Obama and his Attorney General have no problem standing up to those who charge them with blatant racial favoritism in the dismissal of the New Black Panther cases. A minor disagreement and misunderstanding of the law, they say. But when it comes to one of their own officials hinting at black racial bias, it's time to bury her and circle the wagons. They couldn't even wait for Sherrod to get to her office to fire her. They called her twice, and the third time had her pull over to the side of the road to submit her forced resignation online. It was more important to act precipitously, fire her, and get her out of the public eye than it was to have at least sufficient information to decide whether or not the Breitbart allegations were true.
I am convinced that there was no problem for the Obamists with Sherrod making black racist remarks. Her sin, at least as it appeared at the time, was getting caught. The NAACP Director, Ben Jealous (not the old one, Ben Chavis) made outrageous remarks about racism in the Tea Party, and that was no problem for Obama or Holder. Obama sat in the pews at the church of Jeremiah Wright who damned America and white people every Sunday, but took no action until Wright's sermons were exposed to the public. Obama referred to his own grandmother as "a typical white person" (his version of "you people"). But it is clear that in order to keep dividing people so ethnic groups will continue to vote Democrat, it is vital that conservatives and Republicans appear as racists and black people must be shown always as victims, never as oppressors. Shirley Sherrod got caught in the middle of that. First she was punished, but now she will be rewarded.
Obama got caught with his racist pants down in the matter of the Skip Gates arrest, but quickly pivoted, told everyone they misunderstood his remarks, and had a jolly beer fest at the White House which included, horrors, the racist cop who dared to arrest a black Harvard professor. In other words, Obama got caught making black racist remarks, and since he can't fire himself, he had to enlist the help of the MSM to spin the whole thing into a simple misunderstanding. The left has spent nearly two years trying to prove that Fox News makes outlandish charges of racial favoritism in the Obama administration, and this Sherrod matter was likely to prove them right.
So, fleeing in terror, the Obama administration fired one of their own leftists to avoid an embarrassment rather than taking the time to see if she was actually guilty of anything. Screwing over a white farmer is OK, maybe even desirable in their minds, but getting caught talking about it is bad for their post-racial image. Off with her head! Imagine the relief they must have felt when it turned out that the unedited video could be turned into something neutral, or even positive. But imagine their additional embarrassment in having fired a black woman. So, Obama, who swears he had no part in the decision, has the Secretary of Agriculture fall on his sword. And even that was a quibble. He wasn't "wrong," he was just "hasty."
I can't help concluding that the Obamists are scared spitless about race. Not racism itself, but the very open and honest discussion of race relations that Holder claimed to want. His idea of the discussion of race is "America is racist, white people are oppressors, as a victim class blacks can't be racists, and let's keep this all off the front pages of the New York Times." End of discussion. Sherrod's sin was that she admitted her own racism (even if it was in the past, maybe), and that blows the one-sided "discussion." Holder doesn't know the difference between a discussion and an ongoing soliloquy.
Well, as you all know, this is a racist, right-wing rag of a blog, so it is inevitable that I would continue the clarion call of white supremacy by blaming the Obamists for the very pickle they got themselves into. Well, then, please explain the following from my old nemesis, Jonathan Chait at The New Republic:
"If there is a single idea the Obama administration most fears, it is that the Obama presidency systematically favors blacks over white. The Obama administration is able to hang tough in the face of many right-wing charges. Anything that carries the whiff of racism, though, and they'll run for the hills." I guess I'm not the only one who thinks they're cowards.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
The Slings And Arrows Of Outrageous Fortune
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14 comments:
Who is the coward, now? Barrack Hussein Obama, hmmn . . hmnnn . . . hmnn. (Or snap, snap, snap if you prefer.) I love it when he has to fly his true colors flag under circumstances not of how own choosing.
Great read Lawhawk! I’m loving this whole thing, the entire press corpse is tying itself into knots running - - including FOX, from any accusation of “racism.” They moved at light speed to sanctify Ms. Sherrod, when in truth, she is at the very least bigoted, if not racist. Racism is going to be the big play of the liberals this election season, in a feeble attempt to diminish the power of Tea Party.
I went back this morning and read Breitbart’s original post at Big Government, and in his zeal to protect the Tea Party, from the NAALCP’s declaration of racism “perhaps” he should have vetted his source more completely. But in the entirety of his article, his thrust was correct, and the video was tagged on the second page as evidence of bigotry or racism at the NAACP, even viewing the video in it’s entirety still proves his point…sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good?
Let’s remember Reagan’s 11th commandment, “thou shall not speak ill of another Republican,” The Tea Party, or Breitbart are not the villains here, but the democrats, NAACP, The New Black Panthers, Barry’s post racial hooey, and the MSM. Remember she was fired because of blog post, before Beck at 5:00PM ET, that very day. This to me shows real fear in the White House, and I love it!
The thing is that we knew this was coming. As soon as this story hit the airwaves, the whole collection of Obamists, MSM and the race industry set about trying to turn this around. First, they all attacked the usual boogeymen -- Fox News and the Tea Party. They even made up the idea that Fox was at fault even though she was fired before Fox even reported on this. And apparently, MSNBC has now been caught manipulating video to make it appear that Fox did act first, but that story gets buried because it doesn't help their storyline.
Then they started turning out a ton of articles asking: "is there really such a thing as black racism?" which they of course conclude does not exist. . . that it's racist white paranoia -- even though this is patently absurd.
Secondly, they tossed out every excuse they possible could for her, excuses that don't fly for any conservative. (The same kind of excuses they used to save Harry Reid from his racist comments.) And the reason they did it was given away by Jesse Jackson -- they can't afford to admit that there is such a thing as black racism because that would hurt their victim industry.
Then they tried to change the story to "you lied and manipulated the story." But that's not true. We knew she was using this as part of bigger story supposedly about repentance. No one is hiding that. What bothers people (what the story has always been about) is that the NAACP people are sitting there approving of THE RACIST PART of her story, and the hypocrisy that a white telling the same story would be skewered by the left no matter what the context. Could you imaging if Glenn Beck said, "I used to hate blacks, but I've learned I was wrong and now I love them" -- he would be torn apart as "once a racist, always a racist" and MSNBC would be airing only the first part of that quote.
Finally, they have totally ignored what you point out so well here -- she is continuing to act like a racist. She demanded they shut down Brietbart, she is accusing everyone else of racism, she is attacking, attacking, attacking. And her story of "repentance" is not a story of repentance, it is a story of having switched her hate from "whites only" to "whites only, except for very poor whites."
Tennessee: Let's put that together in musical format and offer it for free to the public schools. LOL
Stan: I love it. Press "corpse." I needed a chuckle this morning. I understand why Breitbart did what he did. Like most of us, he was sick of being called a racist for disagreeing with government racialist policies. But he did jump the gun, however understandably. And as this thing becomes clearer, there is no doubt that Sherrod's views haven't changed very much over the decades. She may have had one moment of reconciliatory clarity, but she still sees everything through the lens of racism.
The worst Breitbart is guilty of his haste, and now he'll have to repent at leisure. I'm only sad that the cause of racial equality will be temporarily damaged because Breitbart unintentionally handed them a club to beat us over the head with. At the end of the day, the left will not be able to prove their charges of institutional racism against conservatives and the Tea Party. The same cannot be said of them.
Andrew: I have very little that I could add to your comments. The MSM will join hands and do a war dance to protect this "innocent victim of racist manipulation by the right." But it's unlikely that it will stick. Each day, more proof of her endemic racism comes out. She has "reconciled" with one poor white farmer, but she still hates the other 200 or 300 million of us. Her big mouth and inarticulateness will eventually make her the focus of the story once again, and this time we'll have all the facts.
And in line with both our posts, I'm sure Obama wishes she would just shut up, take her blood money, and go away.
LawHawk,
Weeeelll, I guess we are talking about race after all. Hmmm.
I am not sure it was a mistake in total, on Breitbart's side.
Racism is ugly, talking about it, is hard, and to be totally unbigotted is impossible.
In Breitbart's zeal in counteracting the racism charge against the Tea Party, he released a video not properly vetted. In the state's zeal in protecting the blacks-aren't-racists meme, they fired a bigot. Lotsa hurt feelers along with a huge handout for the bigot for the firing. (This actually shows the strength of the internet and Breitbart's perceived abilities. Remember how he dripped out the Acorn stuff? This administration attempted to get out ahead of this.)
In a perfect world, the administration should have suspended the bigot and investigated her remarks. In the end they should have been fired her for her inability to remove her personal feelings against whites with her professional dealings.
At any rate, the Administration and MSM has egg all over it's face, because it isn't lost on the public how quickly they moved to fire her, and how quickly the MSM moves to protect the black bigot despite the rest of her remarks.
I just love it when it hits the fan. I don't think Breitbart's reputation is harmed. He instincts are still good.
I wonder how many organizations are going to quietly purge their ranks. I doubt the NAACP will because they are too invested in black bigotry.
Good article. :)
Joel: I think you have the sum and substance of the article down pat. I was, more than anything else, trying to make the point that the same administration that called us cowards for not having frank discussions on race are themselves cowards. First, the Obamists were quick to hide a fellow racists by firing her, then they falsely raised her to the level of civil rights heroine. They were wrong on both counts, but it all stems from their bone-chilling fear of being called out for what they are.
As I've mentioned in the past, the NAACP was a highly-respected organization that did fantastic works against all odds. But within a few years after passage of the Civil Rights Acts and a sea-change in white attitudes towards black, they lost their main reason to exist--legal and factual equality. So like any institution, it had to choose to disband, focus on the far fewer specific issues, or transform itself into something else. It chose "something else," and became a race-promoting organization instead of a race-protecting organization. And it slowly evolved into its own exact opposite. From an organization to protect equal rights for "colored people," it morphed into an advocate for "victim groups." And finally, it has become openly racist. It's a sad end to a once-great organization.
Lawhawk--The NAACP stood for the National Association for the ADVANCEMENT of Colored People. It was formed at a time when black and certain ethnic groups were held back from advancement by law and de facto discrimination. But the advancement was meant to bring blacks and others into the American mainstream on an equal footing legally and factually with whites. It was a major contributor to that advancement. But today, it means advancement of black people beyond legal and factual equality of opportunity. It means advancement of special and imagined victim groups, and is almost entirely unconcerned with any "colored people" who aren't black.
HamiltonsGhost: That is very accurate. The downslide started when they elected Kweisi Mfume as the head of the organization--the same man who as a Congressman was instrumental in racially dividing Congress by forming the Congressional Black Caucus. He was followed by Benjamin Chavis, a convicted felon with no known legitimate qualifications for the office. Chavis was a spendthrift who spent about half of the NAACP's money on race-baiting and the other half on himself. The guy was an Assembly of God pastor who converted to Islam and couldn't understand why he wasn't allowed to maintain his position as a Christian pastor. After a few more scandals, he couldn't understand why the NAACP asked for his resignation. But by then the NAACP had outlived its usefulness and had become just another fund-raising self-perpetuating divider of the races.
I can't help but be amused by the name of their new leader--Ben Jealous. I hadn't seen it written down until recently, nor did I have any idea who he was. So when they would say his name on TV, I thought they were saying Vangelis. I kept wondering how a Greek musical composer became the head of the NAACP. Now that I think of it, Vangelis would probably do a better job.
Excuse please! …corps. Good slip however, it makes more sense.
The thing that irritates me most, is how the MSM, and has now been confirmed by “journalist” exposing a collusion of the press, too coronate Barry. If our press had done their jobs, we wouldn’t have Barry right now. What Breitbart has done is set a hair trigger at the White House, and sheer hysterics set in…amazing!
When you think about that for a minute, a blog (Big Hollywood) …that we all for the most part met, ah…somewhere shortly after January, February 2009, has essentially altered the, day to day, for a White House…any White House, for that matter. Too use a Southern vernacular, “that’s high cotton.” It makes me happy to think, that the assholes in the White House, pay attention when something comes from a conservative blog…like, Commentarama, the BIGs, The Daily Caller, you know the list. Though this whole affair was a mess, undeniable, it was also quite instructive, actions tell you many things that the mouth will not.
And for the most part Breitbart has pretty well controlled quality content, staying prescient, and in many cases leading the press…in other words they’d love nothing more than to shut him down, and every conservative blog down with, “The Fairness Doctrine!”
Stan: Damn! I was sure you did that purposely. But let's use it anyway. LOL
Breitbart being on an hair-trigger is understandable. We, including Breitbart himself, knows that it's not an excuse for sloppy journalism, but it's a damned good explanation.
The last time I looked, there has only been one perfect human being, and we know what they did to Him. Breitbart made a mistake. That doesn't make him any less important in the scheme of things. His BIGs have had a major influence in the blogosphere, and he is to be highly commended for it.
Anybody who gave Andrew Price and me our start can't be all bad. I am critical (and not terrifically so) about Andrew B's mistake. I couldn't be as hard on him as he's probably being on himself. His track record of honesty and accuracy should be the envy of the MSM. And for that reason he's a major target for them. This mis-step gave them a temporary advantage. It will disappear like the summer wind, and Breitbart will be back on top lobbing journalistic grenades at the wolf pack soon.
When Sherrod is through shooting her ignorant mouth off over the next few weeks, the American people will see that Breitbart was wrong on form, but absolutely right on substance.
LawhawkRFD
The problem I have with Sherrod is not her racist comments (they were but I don't care). The problem I have is she is a government official who admitted that she did not do "all she could do" becuase she did not like the person she was dealing with. I find that unprofessional.
Had she said at the meeting "I hate white people, the disgust me and anyone that I deal with when I go home I lock myself in the bathroom and cast voodoo curses on them in the name of my dark gods"
So long as she followed that with "but I know my job and anyone that comes to me, I honestly explain their situation, I make sure they understand the forms and deadlines and I answer any questing they have related to thebusiness at had to the best of my ability as openly as I can no matter what I think of them"
then I would not care. For me race is not the issue nor is class warfare excuse me I forgot my PC dictionary "helping the poor". Professionalism is the issue at hand and no one seems to think about it.
For me I spceculat that her firing may have been Vilshak jumping the gun on the president when he called. She was involved in some lawsuit for black farmer that she made 300 grand and she was not a farmer. I am not sure but if she had enemies where she worked this would be the perfect excuse to be rid of her.
Note how she is not goig to be rehired to her original job. Why did they fill it in one day. In government when you want to get rid of a supervisor who is incompetent but you cannot fire them you create a position that is a higher pay grade but without the mangerial authority and promote the person.
The whole this is suspiscous to me.
Individualist: I don't entirely agree with you on the racism issue involved, but I heartily agree with you on the professionalism (or rather, the lack thereof). It's a problem that goes to the highest levels. There is a job description and an oath that goes with it when taking a position in government. That oath requires that the person taking the job do the job fairly and equitably without regard for race or social station. Sherrod admitted that she violated that oath, and now it appears she would do so again, given the opportunity. She was a low-level functionary, but what she did and why she did it, under the best of interpretations, is not much different from Sonia Sotomayor's determination to use race, ethnicity and economic class as factors in making judicial decisions. Black and white, rich and poor, all are supposed to receive equal treatment under the law.
In the wonderful world of corporations and big government, what you describe about her possible new position is called "kicking her upstairs." It's an old tactic for giving someone a fancier title and better pay because you really can't get rid of her, and in the new position, she has no real power or ability to do further damage.
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