Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Throwing down the gauntlet

Racist eggs2 A few Facebook friends posted a Newsweek story today, and I followed suit, because I thought it raised some excellent points and some pointed questions: "Are Tea Partiers Racist?"

Before you flip out, no, I'm not calling all teabaggers racists, and neither did the article. I know of people who shared some of the same concerns (albeit inchoate concerns) who I would swear in a court of law are not racists. But I will say this: I think the majority of them are.

For every person who is legitimately concerned about our government spending, and not-so-legitimately concerned (in my opinion) about the size and scope of our government programs, you'll find four like Tom Fitzhugh of Tampa (reminds me of Tom Tuttle from Tacoma, Washington), who was quoted in the article:

"It really makes me mad. They [the media] have tried to portray us as a bunch of radical extremists." He considers Obama an abomination—possibly "the most radical-voting senator that ever was" and someone likely to "take us down the path of destruction." He believes the administration is intent on taking away his guns, trampling on states' rights, and opening the borders with Canada and Mexico. He has serious doubts that Obama was born in the U.S. and suspects that the president is a closet Muslim. (There's no evidence to support any of these accusations.) But his anger has nothing to do with race, he says. The real issue is that Obama is "taking down the Constitution and the way it's governed us for [hundreds of] years."

Mr. Fitzhugh can deny charges of racism and radical extremism all he wants. The fact is that his concerns are completely unwarranted. The least of is them is probably that Obama was the "most radical-voting Senator that ever was." That is simply not true; Obama is one of the more moderate Democrats you'll find. Mr. Fitzhugh parrots news he gets from ClusterFox and GOP talking points about "taking down the Constitution." Bullshit. For all their braying about how we have to adhere to the Constitution, I sure as hell wish they'd pay attention to the First Amendment. You know, that one about our government not establishing a religion? They seem to keep forgetting that part.

My point is that Mr. Fitzhugh and others of his ilk seem angry about things that have been established to be completely false. The continued belief that Obama wasn't born in the U.S., or that he's a Muslim, or that he wants to take away our guns. When I think about why someone like him would continue to use these lame excuses and outright lies as reasons why they don't like our President, it leads me to only one conclusion: it is because they feel he is "different." He is a different color, he has a different heritage, with a Kenyan father and an atheist mother, he is a black man with a Harvard education, he doesn't talk or act like the black people Mr. Fitzhugh knows.

Racism Star Trek He can continue to claim that he is not a racist, but I know people like Mr. Fitzhugh, and yes, sir, you are a racist. When it was shown that John McCain was born in Panama, where was your hue and cry about how he wasn't qualified to be President? Those of us on the opposite side didn't worry about that, because we found out quickly that since he was born on a U.S. military base, he was indeed a U.S. citizen. Why are you unable to accept that Barack Obama is a U.S. citizen and was born in Hawaii, despite the release of his birth certificate, the certification by Hawaiian officials, the birth notices in Hawaiian papers, and the assertion by Hawaii's Republican governor that Obama is, indeed, a U.S. citizen? The only logical conclusion I can draw is that you do not like his color or his background. You see him as a threat to your way of life. Thus the constant assertions from teabaggers that they want their country back. Their country? It belongs to all of us, Mr. Fitzhugh, not just white, Christian, Republican males like you. Your era of dominance is past. We are not going back to days when blacks and women knew their places, when no one challenged your supreme authority, and no woman and no fag and certainly no nigger would ever beat you out of a job because they were smarter than your cracker ass.

One more thing. The teabaggers’ mantra is that the Obama administration is spending us into record debts and expanding the government at an unacceptable rate. I've got a question for all you good little teabaggers out there. Where was your little "movement" when George W. Bush was squandering a budget surplus by getting us into two wars and cutting taxes on the richest among us? Where were the marches on Washington asking why the Bush administration was usurping our personal freedoms with wiretaps on average citizens, or allowing the holding of prisoners without charging them of any crime, or ignoring the Geneva Convention treaty and authorizing torture? Why weren't you angry then, why weren't you mobilized, why weren't you calling for his impeachment? If you tell me that you were writing letters and marching on Washington and pissed off about Bush's activities, I'll accept your continued anger at President Obama, and the addition to our national debt (although I believe that was necessary to begin to mop up after Bush left our country looking like a frat house on a Sunday morning).

If you weren't this angry during the Bush years, if your righteous indignation didn't begin until Barack HUSSEIN Obama took office...well, I know what you are, then. We all know what you are.

9 comments:

  1. I will go back and read the article, Beth.

    One of the sad truths about a segment of the GOP is that their prejudice ins't limited to babbling nincompoops like Mr. Fitzhugh. There is people like Michelle Malkin and everyone associated with 'Faux News' giving them credence with psuedo intellectual arguments about the policies of the President that they claim is leading the country down the tubes.

    Of course it is completley ridiculous but President Obama tried to express himself when he made his 'guns and religon' statement is that many people want for a simpler time when as you say, 'people knew their place'.

    The re-branding of covert bigotry in the name of patroitism fuels the anguish that many people who are not capable of original thinking or forming independent opinions. I feel that they want someone to explain why they are in the situation they are in and want the nearest and most convenient scape goat to blame things on.

    Anywho... good post!

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  2. Me thinks that the TB's protest to much about not being racist. There may be a population that are not, but the cold hard truth is that they are represented by old school WASP. Nuf Said.

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  3. I don't think you can here me clapping Beth, but I most certainly am..excellent post!

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  4. if it walks like a duck....

    xxalainaxx

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  5. here i go again...hell yes some of them are racist and also, fucking stupid. Zealots are going to believe what they want to believe even if you have the truth staring them right in their face. In MY city, the Tea Party is HUGE...if my camera was working i was going to take pics to show you last week of HUGE notices attached to light poles all over my downtown and near where i work, telling you about huge rallies. Give me a break.
    What i would like to know is if any of those who believe in this movement have ever really went without....have they really been personally affected by Obama's laws to the point that they have struggled....most of them seem to be solidly middle class.....do you see lots of poor working people bitching and complaining? No. They are too busy just trying to put food on the table and live their lives without going around dishing bullshit out that is nothing but a damn lie anyway.

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  6. One day, in the not too distant future, we will have a president who is not a Christian (perhaps a good old fashioned Jewish mother) then what will they do?

    DB

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  7. Beth, reality really hurts them. I think it is why they spend so much time creating delusions for themselves. They can't stomach the truth about themselves or the loss of what they consider their way of life. They are a sad group of bigots.

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  8. For a bit, I was encouraged at the creation of a "Coffee Party" dedicated, according to its founder, to reasonable conversation about the issues. I wanted to know where to sign up.

    The founder ended up disgusted because the 'Coffee Party' quickly became radicalized...a screeching left wing to appose a screeching Tea Party right wing.

    I cannot abide extremism. I can abide rational discussion.

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  9. I have nothing to add. You said it and you said it well. I admit that I feel sorry for the children caught up in their parents' bigotry. I've never met a child who was a racist. Oh, sometimes they parrot what they've heard the adults say, but they really don't harbor racists feelings. It breaks my heart because eventally they will lose their innocence and start to believe that skin color, religious belief or lack thereof, sexual orientation, ethnicity etc. determine the worth of a person and make those who are different from them unworthy. That's the real crime of hate.

    Several years ago I volunteered to work with five year olds from a low income neighborhood on school readiness skills. One of the students, a blonde haired little boy called one of his playmates who was black a nigger. I was really surprised because he ahd taken quite a liking to me and was always following me about. So I sat down with him and I told him that the word that he used hurt my feelings. He looked puzzled, and said, "Miss Reid, you're not a nigger." So I asked the obvious, why had he called his playmate that name. He said that it was because the other child pushed him and made him fall. I realized that he was using the word as a generic insult and had no idea of its meaning. He hugged me and said that he was sorry for hurting my feelings and I hugged him back with the hope that someday when he understood the word that maybe he wouldn't use it because he remembered the summer that a black woman was his friend.

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I'm funny how, I mean funny like I'm a clown, I amuse you?