I must have missed something.
I thought I had a pretty good understanding of civil rights, through reading, interviews, visiting civil rights museums, etc.
For a white guy who did not live through the civil rights march I thought I had a pretty good handle on what the civil rights struggles were all about. I follow in the footsteps of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. as a pacifist who speaks out against intolerance. This does not always make me popular, but so what?
But I must have missed the part of King’s “I Have A Dream” speech where he carved out an exception for Republicans, as in “My dream does not include black Republicans.”
I must have missed the part where he said it’s ok to throw Oreo cookies – black on the outside, white on the inside – at a black politician because of his political beliefs.
And while I read and wrote about Rosa Parks' death recently I don’t recall her saying that she was standing up, or in her case sitting down, for blacks…so long as they are Democrats.
Or maybe I am not the one who missed something. Maybe it’s some of the black Maryland Democrats who are forgetting something.
Normally I would find it very inappropriate for a white man to tell a black man what he should and should not do. But in this case I feel I need to say something.
You see, I thought that the Democratic party was the party of tolerance, of fighting discrimination, of having an open mind.
But it’s hard to square that with how Maryland Lt. Governor Michael Steele has been treated in recent months. I should note that I've met Steele. I accompanied him on a tour of a local school and interviewed him and he seemed a nice enough guy.
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Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - RJ
Fine post. I agree that the racial attacks against Mr. Steele by some Democrats are disgusting. And I am frustrated by the fact that this hasn't gotten more coverage in the MSM...
2 - Dave Nalle
>>You see, I thought that the Democratic party was the party of tolerance, of fighting discrimination, of having an open mind.<<
(falls on floor, laughing uncontrollably and desperately waving an arm for the self-defibrilator unit.)
dave
3 - Dave Nalle
On a more serious note, this is a somewhat more extreme example of the much more frequent use of terms like 'uncle tom' and 'house nigger' to refer to people like Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice. It's completely unacceptable and enormously racist.
Dave
4 - MCH
Re comment #1 by Bobby (RJ) Elliott;
Please spare the pretense of non-discrimination, Bobby, since you're on record right here on BC as agreeing with Rush Limbaugh that Donovan McNabb was overrated because he's black; as well as making a big deal of the black quarterbacks going against each other in the playoffs last year....
5 - Bennett
Nice job with this, Scott. Valid points, well presented.
Thanks!
6 - Bennett
Dave - re: #2
I saw an ad for those things the other day... Very effective video of an ambulance in bumper-to-bumper traffic.
"You have five minutes... The ambulence will be there in seven."
Gotta get me one a them!
Carry on.
7 - Al Barger
Good on you for this Scott. But also consider some things perhaps slightly less obvious than this in the range of racial demagoguery coming from supposed black leadership. Particularly, consider the ads the NAACP was running against Bush on black radio in 2000 with James Byrd's daughter making like Bush was re-lynching her father. That's ugly.
Also, Maryland Democrats and Kweisi Mfume in particular have an ongoing story with this nonsense. You should have seen the gubernatorial debate the NAACP sponsored.
8 - steve
The Naacp = full of bigots...they are full of nonsense Al! I agree!
9 - Scott Butki
Thanks, folks. Dave, dare I ask why this was so funny?
10 - Dave Nalle
Because the statement I quoted was so patently ridiculous, Scott. I realize you were putting it in question, but that displays a laughable naivete - I was laughing at the fact that you had just come to this realization which has been so obvious to most of us for a long time.
The democratic party's policies are absolutely built on racism and classism. Their power base is controlled by keeping the poor and minorities oppressed and marginalized so that they will think of themselves as dependent on the party if they want to advance. It's a horrible, cynical truth about the democrats.
Dave
11 - Scott Butki
Compared to the Republicans, the Democrats do much more against discrimination and bigotry.
I disagree with your assessment of the situation.
12 - Anthony Grande
"The Democrats do much more against discrimination and bigotry"
Replace "do" with "say".
13 - Luke
the Republican party is less racist by doing nothing at all, people are responsible for their own racism, the liberals act like it's the governments job to apologize for anything bad that a white person has done, and to put systems in place to try and counter-act white peoples tendency to be racist, which is their natural inclination, nope, that's not racist at all, in fact, that's a noble effort in the battle against racism.
14 - Luke
They should call that good racism versus bad racism, you can only fight racism with racism it seems.
15 - Dave Nalle
>>Compared to the Republicans, the Democrats do much more against discrimination and bigotry.<<
Sort of true, though I'd probably agree with Anthony that they say a lot more than they actually do. But at the same time they have no problem at all with institutionalized exploitation, especially when they are at the receiving end of the benefits. And not just exploitation by race and class, but also the exploitation you see in unions which charge their members dues and then use the money for political causes their members don't support or even actively oppose.
Dave
16 - RogerMDillon
While the racist attacks show that his opposition has no arguement against his policies and positions, it's easy to understand why other blacks call Steele an Uncle Tom or a sellout when he didn't immediately speak out against fundraisers held at an all-white country club.
17 - Dave Nalle
I imagine Steele was just happy the white folks were giving him a bunch of dough.
Dave
18 - RogerMDillon
The same white folks that think he's not good enough to join their club because of the color of his skin. Hmmm...can't see why anyone would consider Steele a sellout with that rationale.
It is better to have people think you are a fool, than to type a comment and remove all doubt, Dave.
19 - RJ
"The same white folks that think he's not good enough to join their club because of the color of his skin. Hmmm...can't see why anyone would consider Steele a sellout with that rationale."
The club has no black members, true. But I read that they are actively seeking minority members. It's just that none have joined yet.
20 - Dave Nalle
Roger, what about my comment was foolish or innacurate? Perhaps you should heed your own advice.
There's no evidence they don't think Steele is good enough to join their club. Perhaps he'll be the first black member. You have no idea, just a bunch of bigoted assumptions.
Dave
21 - tommyd
The blogger could've saved alot of words by just saying "racism is never ok (for white people) but if you're a person of color, hating whitey is ok"
22 - Scott Butki
Tommy: Which blogger do you mean? Me? Or the one who put Steele in minstrel show makeup?
23 - RogerMDillon
"But I read that they are actively seeking minority members."
Yes, after being exposed as a whites-only club, they are now seeking minoriities. And it only took them 127 years.
"There's no evidence they don't think Steele is good enough to join their club."
Why that's foolish right there. Have they offered him a membership, Dave? Of course, the fact that they haven't found any black men good enough in their 127-year history speaks to their bigotry. Do you think he's the only black man in Baltimore that has been eligible in all that time?
24 - Dave Nalle
The kind of passive tradition of exclusion we're talking about here isn't exactly racism in the traditional sense, Roger. They probably don't let anyone in who's not part of a certain very small segment of society and it's defined more by income and where they live and the kind of jobs they have than by race. Until relatively recently it probably never occured to them to go out looking for diversity, and it's pretty unlikely that any minorities even thought of applying. The fact that this is changing is a good thing. I remember when this issue came up at a very old, very exclusive club my parents belong to, and there wasn't much real objection to minorities, but they weren't getting any minority applications and had never considered that there might be a reason to go looking for minority members.
Dave
25 - Luke
RogerMDillion is a [deleted in line with BC Comments policy against personal attacks] --in case they censor this [skcatta lanosrep tsniaga ycilop stnemmoC CB htiw enil ni deteled] - read backwards