I overlooked this column, “Slurs Fly from the Left,” by Jeff Jacoby in Wednesday’s Boston Globe and only noticed it today through some links. See if you notice what’s missing:
NOTHING BRINGS OUT RACIST slurs like an ambitious black man who doesn’t know his ”place.” So when Maryland’s lieutenant governor, Michael Steele, announced his candidacy for the US Senate recently, the bigots reared up. On one popular website, The News Blog, Steele’s picture was grotesquely doctored, making him look like a minstrel-show caricature. ”I’s Simple Sambo and I’s Running for the Big House,” read the insulting headline accompanying the picture.
This wasn’t some white supremacist slime from the right-wing fringe. The News Blog is a liberal site, and the reason for its racist attack on Steele, a former chairman of the Maryland Republican Party, is that he is a conservative. Specifically, a black conservative. As far as too many liberals are concerned, blacks who reject liberalism deserve to be smeared as Sambos and worse.
”Black Democratic leaders in Maryland say that racially tinged attacks against Lt. Gov. Michael Steele . . . are fair because he is a conservative Republican,” The Washington Times reported. ”Such attacks . . . include pelting him with Oreo cookies during a campaign appearance, calling him an ‘Uncle Tom,’ and depicting him as a blackfaced minstrel.”
What’s missing, of couse, is the blogger of The News Blog, Steve Gilliard. Who is black. And the beef with Steele is not with his conservatism but with his aquiesence to racism. Steve defends himself quite well here; no need for me to do it for him. “What would you think about Jewish politicians who sought the favor of Islamic radicals,” Steve asks. “Would you want that person to represent you?”
Still, I wasn’t going to write about this until I ran into Ann Coulter’s latest, um, effort. No need turning over rocks or reading between lines to find racism; Coulter throws it in your face. Here’s Ann’s ode to Kwanzaa:
(Sing to “Jingle Bells”)
Kwanzaa bells, dashikis sell
Whitey has to pay;
Burning, shooting, oh what fun
On this made-up holiday!
Yeah, she actually wrote that. Here’s a bit more, if you can stand it:
Coincidentally, the seven principles of Kwanzaa are the very same seven principles of the Symbionese Liberation Army, another charming invention of the Least-Great Generation. In 1974, Patricia Hearst, kidnap victim-cum-SLA revolutionary, posed next to the banner of her alleged captors, a seven-headed cobra. Each snake head stood for one of the SLA’s revolutionary principles: Umoja, Kujichagulia, Ujima, Ujamaa, Nia, Kuumba and Imani — the same seven “principles” of Kwanzaa….
…Kwanzaa was the result of a ’60s psychosis grafted onto the black community. Liberals have become so mesmerized by multicultural nonsense that they have forgotten the real history of Kwanzaa and Karenga’s United Slaves — the violence, the Marxism, the insanity. Most absurdly, for leftists anyway, is that they have forgotten the FBI’s tacit encouragement of this murderous black nationalist cult founded by the father of Kwanzaa.
Now the “holiday” concocted by an FBI dupe is honored in a presidential proclamation and public schools across the nation. Bush called Kwanzaa a holiday that promotes “unity” and “faith.” Faith in what? Liberals’ unbounded capacity to respect any faith but Christianity?
She also notes President Bush’s recognition of Kwanzaa: “It’s as if David Duke invented a holiday called ‘Anglika.'”
Jeff Jacoby wrote in the Boston Globe that “Once upon a time, segregationists excoriated white liberals as ‘nigger lovers.’ Today, racist insults in the political arena are more likely to come from the left — and to target black conservatives.” And if he reads Coulter’s column, will he revise his opinion? Of course not — IOKIYAR.
Update: See RT at Just a Bump in the Beltway and John at AMERICAblog.
I see Jacoby is still regurgitating the Oreo Cookie story which has been shown to be total fiction. Last year, he was trotting out the “Bush Special Olympics poster” story, which had already been exposed as a rethug dirty trick.
Jacoby is typical of extreme-right attack poodles: he’s a shameless liar with nothing but contempt for the facts.
Soldiers serve under a code of honor, something they say Bush lacks.
“Bush is of a kind with the dictators; a strutting, sanctimonious buffoon who talks democracy but acts like Saddam Hussein,†Abbott says. “Bush might differ in degree from Hussein, not having been in power as long, but in behavior, with torture and the corruption of government, they are of a kind.
“While al-Qaida is an enemy of the values and principles of the United States and Western civilization and must be confronted, it can do no more than kill people and destroy property.
“Bush can subvert our principles and institutions. He is the greater enemy.â€
Read more at:
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/printer_7919.shtml
I guess that I’m also one of those who traffic in that foul, foul stuff called hate speech. I know I should be ashamed,but my mind can’t help but draw parallels between Bush and Hitler. And seeing how misery loves company,I was glad to see Pat Oliphant on Jacoby’s hate speakers short list. The funny thing is, Oliphant’s political humor has historically shown an uncanny acuracy in assessing the true nature of political events and personalitys, when viewed in retrospect. I believe the Library of Congress has dedicated an online tribute to Oliphant’s political cartooning.
When it comes to Coulter, I can see who she is as a person and I can understand the deceits that she uses in her craft..but what I can’t understand is how she gained prominence by employing the the most base elements in her journalism. Ogrish dot com shows a greater integrity in their visual offering than Coulter does with her journalistic offering by atleast allowing their followers to be honest in understanding their desires and feeding their sickness
“Sambo,” by the way, was originally a little Indian boy who turned Indian tigers into butter by making them chase him faster and faster around a tree. It is a story from British colonial times in India which became corrupted here due to its title, “Little Black Sambo.”
Sambo,†by the way, was originally a little Indian boy who turned Indian tigers into butter by making them chase him faster and faster around a tree. It is a story from British colonial times in India which became corrupted here due to its title, “Little Black Sambo.â€
Which explains the restaurant chain’s logo and then many years later the brouhaha over same. It forced the breakup and the leftovers became Bakers Square and was actually at the start of all this pc junk.
I ate there all the time and never felt offended or discriminated against, even in AL.
Between Coulter and Limbaugh it makes you wonder if they would accept a tranfusion from a race other than theirs. Their donor group would be really small.
sorry I forgot to close the italic above for the quote.
[I fixed it — maha]
Regarding the idea that the left feels justified in using racism against Uncle Toms: What we need is a discussion on what the left is. The left respects all people, even fascists (this is not to say that fascists should not be put in jail for their crimes). The left believes that people work and create wealth, and that wealth is theirs to be used for the common good, not for an elite that appropriates it for its own use. The weapons of the left, at least in this century, are the proliferation of the truth to counter the lies of the right, and the ballot box in conditions of one person one vote (abolish the electoral college because it is patently undemocratic). The left believes that there is no democracy without equality and there is no freedom without justice. Racism simply doesn’t come into the equation. If some people were insulting Mr. Steele because of his skin color, the left will reject them, as I do.
Antonio — I can’t say that I “respect” fascists, but let’s go on … nobody was insulting Mr. Steele because of his skin color, but because of his actions in regard to racial issues.
I live in Maryland. Mr. Steele has a very lackluster political background serving primarily as the Republicans’ token black candidate. Then, they try to turn it on the left as being racist if the left questions Steele’s qualifications. As Maha pointed out earlier, Mr. Gilliard is black and I believe his commentary is built on the concept that just because Steele is black is no reason for Gilliard to vote for him or respect him if he is not deserving of such respect. The lack of respect for Mr. Steele is related to his character and his actions, which do not benefit any one except the Republican White Boys’ Club.
I, myself, am an American Indian, who lives in an area where the local pro football is claimed to honor American Indians. If I remark on the ethnic slur that is the name of this local pro football, I find the racism is turned on to me.
#5 FYI- I actually worked for the Sambo’s chain in the 70’s, and they always said the name came from the juxtaposition of the names of the co-founders, Sam Bannister and F. Newell Bohnett. The names may not be exact, but they’re pretty close
Also, “Sambo” is the English version of the Spanish name for certain types of Black-Spanish mulattos–“zambo” is a category that appears in Spanish colonial censuses in Mexico, Argentina, etc. The conflation of “sambo/zambo” and the fictional “Sambo” character is not coincidental, and has everything to do with a long history of colonial racist and racialist discourse.
“black conservatives.”
You don’t mean all seven of them, do you?