Louisville Courier Journal: Dialect Of Hypocrisy.
Dialect of hypocrisy
In what he thought was a private conversation, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., was asked to assess Barack Obama's chances of being elected. He said that he believed Mr. Obama stood a good chance because the young senator was “a light-skinned African American” who doesn't speak in the “Negro dialect.” This was Sen. Reid's clumsy way of articulating the attitudes of many Americans — who are still color-conscious. For them, a candidate speaking in dialect, whether “Negro” or Eastern Kentucky hillbilly or Brooklynese could scare off potential voters in a presidential campaign.
Nevertheless, Republicans claim to be outraged! They are demanding that Sen. Reid step down. They've gone so far as to compare him — one of the President's strongest supporters in Congress — to some dyed-in-the-wool racists. They claim he's no different than former GOP Majority Leader Trent Lott, who not only praised Strom Thurmond in a speech, but said that the U.S. wouldn't have “all these problems” had voters followed Mr. Thurmond and his segregationist cohorts, many of whom abandoned the Democrats for the GOP during the civil Rights era.
Sadly, Michael Steele, the loquacious African-American chairman of the Republican Party, led the chorus of Reid attackers over the weekend. Mr. Steele (subject of an article on the facing page) has himself often chided his party for its lack of racial inclusiveness. These clumsy remarks, he claims, amounted to an intentional racist attack on President Obama, and other African Americans.
How preposterous. It has been Mr. Steele's party that has tried to attack, and marginalize, the President and his policies by calling him an “other,” meaning not white and not American. Mr. Reid and his party have stood for racial advancement for the last half century. In the decades since passage of the Civil Rights Acts of the 1960s, the GOP, sadly, has stood for something else.
Editor's comment: ANYONE who thinks that Harry Reid's silly but well intentioned racial remark can be equated with Trent Lott's longing for the days of Jim Crow have to be made to take off their tin foil hats, wear a straight jacket and wear a helmet!
In what he thought was a private conversation, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., was asked to assess Barack Obama's chances of being elected. He said that he believed Mr. Obama stood a good chance because the young senator was “a light-skinned African American” who doesn't speak in the “Negro dialect.” This was Sen. Reid's clumsy way of articulating the attitudes of many Americans — who are still color-conscious. For them, a candidate speaking in dialect, whether “Negro” or Eastern Kentucky hillbilly or Brooklynese could scare off potential voters in a presidential campaign.
Nevertheless, Republicans claim to be outraged! They are demanding that Sen. Reid step down. They've gone so far as to compare him — one of the President's strongest supporters in Congress — to some dyed-in-the-wool racists. They claim he's no different than former GOP Majority Leader Trent Lott, who not only praised Strom Thurmond in a speech, but said that the U.S. wouldn't have “all these problems” had voters followed Mr. Thurmond and his segregationist cohorts, many of whom abandoned the Democrats for the GOP during the civil Rights era.
Sadly, Michael Steele, the loquacious African-American chairman of the Republican Party, led the chorus of Reid attackers over the weekend. Mr. Steele (subject of an article on the facing page) has himself often chided his party for its lack of racial inclusiveness. These clumsy remarks, he claims, amounted to an intentional racist attack on President Obama, and other African Americans.
How preposterous. It has been Mr. Steele's party that has tried to attack, and marginalize, the President and his policies by calling him an “other,” meaning not white and not American. Mr. Reid and his party have stood for racial advancement for the last half century. In the decades since passage of the Civil Rights Acts of the 1960s, the GOP, sadly, has stood for something else.
Editor's comment: ANYONE who thinks that Harry Reid's silly but well intentioned racial remark can be equated with Trent Lott's longing for the days of Jim Crow have to be made to take off their tin foil hats, wear a straight jacket and wear a helmet!
Labels: News reporting
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