Shirley Sherrod should have quit while she was ahead: accuses Breitbart of wanting to enslave blacks
Gee, give Shirley Sherrod enough rope and she proves she’s got a racial chip on her shoulder the size of the rock of Gibraltar, and a finely-honed and relentless ability to play the race card [the relevant part begins around 1:50]:
For those who don’t have the patience to listen to the video, I’ve kindly provided a transcript. The important section begins with Anderson Cooper quoting Breitbart—“If anybody reads the sainted, martyred Sherrod’s entire speech, this person certainly has not gotten past black vs. white”—and asking her to comment on whether she has in fact gotten past black vs. white. Sherrod replies emphatically, “I know I’ve gotten past black vs. white,” and then proceeds to show just how very far she’s gotten past it (that is, not at all):
SHERROD: [Breitbart’s] probably the person who’s never gotten past [black vs. white] and never attempted to get past it. He can’t see, because he’s never tried…he can’t see what I’ve done to get past it, and he’s not interested in what I’ve done to get past it.
I don’t think he’s interested in seeing anyone get past it, cause I think he’d like to get us stuck back in the times of slavery. That’s where I think he’d like to see all black people end up again. And that’s why…
I think he’s so vicious—yes, I do—and I think that’s why he’s so vicious against a black president, you know…I don’t even think it was the NAACP he was totally after. I think he was after a black president.
It goes on, and at one point Sherrod demands that Breitbart prove he’s not a racist. She stops just short of asking him to prove he’s stopped beating his wife.
But Sherrod has rather convincingly proven herself to be a person who sees all criticism through the lens of black vs. white, the very thing she claims to have gotten past. Unfortunately, that sort of attitude is now rampant in the ranks of the Democratic Party.
No Beliefs
Only Knowledge
No Morals
Only Pragmatism
No Purpose
Only Power
To date I have been sympathetic to Sherrod, but her quoted statement is indefensible.
The situation resembles a tragedy in which–avoidably–every character’s good traits are overwhelmed by their bad ones and by external events, and the play ends in unrelieved cataclysm.
I hope it’s not a foreshadowing of the future of this country.
I don’t suppose the interviewer pointed out that it was the Obama Regime that fired her without even trying to verify the circumstances. (Did he play a role himself? We will never know.) And then the interviewer could/should have asked for her reaction to the NAACP’s racing the Regime to see who threw her under the bus the quickest.
No one in the Tea Party movement, nor the GOP, nor Breitbart called for any action against her. In a sense it is a shame that the entire video was not available from the outset; but, the manner in which it played out was very instructive about how the Obama Regime, and the NAACP jump to conclusions with incomplete information. Instructive and worrisome.
Well said, gs.
There is good reason to believe the catclysm will be mitigated and the evidence comes from Sherrod herself because actions speak louder than words. I think almost all of us are better than our words when it comes down to actually exacting our revenge.
This race industry thing is getting tiresome. Blacks flatter themselves when they think whites hate them or want to keep them down. Most whites rarely think much about blacks and don’t really care one way or the other.
If it were not for the benevolence of whites, blacks would be much worse off. Were it not for racial preferences, there would be far fewer black professionals and government employees. There would be fewer high ranking black military officers.
Interracial murder, violence and rape is heavily black on white. The idea that black poverty and deprivation is caused by whites is a myth that the race hustlers won’t let go of.
Of course he did. Who in his right mind would make a politically-fraught decision like that without consulting The Man?
It was a career decision, and making it unilaterally would be like disarming a bomb by yanking out a handful of wires.
The interesting question is why the Administration moved so quickly. Were they spooked by Breitbart/Fox, or worried that there might be more to come out? Or did they know there was more that might come out, and want to stifle the story asap?
I am surprised that dear Shirley can maintain a balanced and upright sitting or standing position….that chip on her shoulder is awfully big!
Indeed. I doubt most white people gives blacks a thought from one week to the next. Frankly, for most whites, blacks just aren’t important enough to warrant that kind of attention.
In similar fashion, Europeans often think that Americans are laying awake at night worrying about Europe’s opinions (expat, true?), never realizing that Europe in general is a matter of supreme indifference to 95% of all Americans. I used to ask Europeans their views on Bolivia and its foreign policy; to their consterned reaction that they never thought about it, I’d mention that that was pretty much the perspective of most Americans toward Europe. It just doesn’t cross their minds.
Occam’s Beard: I agree that most people don’t think that much about it. But I don’t think black people are flattering themselves by being sensitive to some racism and racists that still exist, especially with their history. The same is true for anti-Semitism, by the way (although I think there is evidence that the latter is on the rise again, which I don’t think is true for anti-black racism, at least so far).
I can’t be the only one enjoying the sheer humor of this exchange. There have been too few times since Obama’s inauguration where his lefty racial obsession have been shown to be utterly ridiculous as well as humorous. This is funny, and better it makes Holder’s and Ob’s racial obsession seem silly as well. May this scandal continue for years.
Oops I guess that makes me a racist!
I think I’d have two questions for Sherrod, if she’d be willing to honestly answer them and not avoid the thought process.
1: If Breitbart were a black man, would she still see him as a racist person when he criticizes the president and/ or the NAACP?
2: If not, is it possible that Breitbart’s problems are not with the president’s skin color, but with his policy- even though he is a white man?
And a follow up question if the answer to #1 was “no”- why does she automatically think “racist” when she sees a white man with opinions she disagrees with? This, of course, is assuming that she does not believe that all white people are racist.
Let me provide a little “context”. As a Black, former liberal Dem (A current Libertarian… but without the hookers and drugs), I can see through the layers. Ms Sherrod lived through a time where society was pretty hostile to Blacks. (Ex. her father was murdered by a White man and escaped the appropriate penalty). So anyone living through the times of Emmit Till and the Mississippi 3 (Freedom Riders killed and buried in a dam) are NOT going to get past their racial resentment.
My uncle told me of a time during the time of “seperate but unequal” that he had to walk a mile to/from school. While walking home, a school bus filled with White kids stopped next to him. The kids on the bus ran to windows and spit on him as he walked past them, to the point his shirt was drenched.
So, I tend to cut them some slack for their resentment.
That was not the case for Obama and Ben Jealous. They were priviledged more than 90% of the population Black or White. They are guilty of seeking to nueter the Tea Party’s effect on the mid-terms, by using accusations of racism.
Now, Obama is cringing because he can’t shut Sherrod up; and she continues to keep the conversation of race firmly in Obama’s lap, instead of via a nebulous network of proxies. And she unintentionally makes Breibat’s point.
Besides using her is a bad example of the NAACP’s hypocricy on the issue of race, given their silence of former Klasman Sen. Robert Byrd, and HArry Reid raxism/racial insensitivity, given their working in the most culturally diverse city (DC), in the Northern Hemisphere.
When I was a liberal Dem, I lived in an all Black community, I went to a Black church, all of friends were Black, etc. Much of is the lack of exposure to other people, and resentment that is fostered by our older family members who lived through the bad times. I forgot that Diversity worked both ways, as we often accused Whites who lived homogeneous lives as being insular.
This is beginning to be less the case with younger Blacks, as this year we have seen a record number of Blacks running as Republians. I also recall the case in Seattle where the teenaged girl got punched by the cop. A review of blogs predominated by Blacks and other minorities came down in favor of the cop like 8 or 9 to 1. Older Blacks were mortified; but those younger felt “she had worse coming”, and that the cop was quite restrained.
It’s the generational split in the Black cmmunity that many in the media don’t examine or account for.
Oldflyer asked, “Did he play a role himself? We will never know.”
I don’t usually watch CNN, but the clinic where I go for physical therapy for a bad ankle has one TV tuned to CNN (the other is tuned to sports), so sometimes I end up being part of a captive audience. There was a strange segment yesterday (Friday) afternoon in which the CNN talking heads were jabbering to each other about their problems contacting the woman in the Department of Agriculture who had supposedly relayed the White House’s message to Sherrod that she was fired. It seemed odd to me that they were obsessing (no other word for it) about the woman’s failure/refusal to return their calls (as if she has nothing else to do, of course). Then the camera switched to a live shot of a CNN reporter chasing after Vilsack as he left the USDA building shouting questions at him about his underling’s failure to return their calls. The only reason I could see for CNN’s hounding the lower-level employee (other than that it was a slow news day and they had to fill air time) is that they were hoping to verify that Obama was directly involved in Sherrod’s firing.
I stand by my statement that Sherrod’s latest remarks are indefensible, but:
Suppose I spend my life pursuing something: a disfavored scientific theory, a business plan considered nonviable, or an unpopular cause.
In late middle age I have beaten the odds and achieved a degree of success and recognition.
Then, out of the blue, for an invalid reason, people I thought were too powerful to notice me are making it a priority to bully me into accepting disgrace. Most of my friends and allies are silent or join the witch hunt.
Then, as I sit stunned among the wreckage of what I’ve worked at all my life, I am suddenly exonerated. The people who didn’t give me a fair hearing apologize, and the fair-weather friends who watched me get battered offer congratulations.
And then I’m the focus of a public storm. Some people persist in demonizing me, others canonize me and call for me to lead a crusade…and others dangle more money than I ever dreamed of.
Would I handle all that any better than Sherrod did? Not impossible, I’d like to think.
But I’m not at all sure.
Breitbart has said he didn’t edit the tapes. I may be naive, but I believe him.
So, if Breitbart didn’t edit them, and he was reckless and didn’t view the whole tape before posting the edited snippets he received from his source, how could he know the snippets he posted didn’t accurately represent her remarks?
And if that’s the case, doesn’t the whole racist thing she’s accusing him of sorta blow up in her face? Yet Anderson Cooper doesn’t push back and lets her get away with smearing Breitbart as a racist.
Unless she doesn’t believe Breitbart when he says he didn’t do the editing. In which case, he’s not simply a racist, but in her eyes he’s a lying racist.
The more she talks, the less sympathetic she becomes. She should declare victory and move on.
Among other things, I think this incident is going to take a good deal of what heft remains to the false accusation of racism as a manipulative scam.
Nobody believes it, and, in a cascade, people are now finding that not only do they know it’s bogus, so does everybody else.
It’s not merely knowing it’s bogus. It’s knowing that everybody else does as well that causes the cascade, the accelerating collapse of a meme.
Cubs_Fan,
Thanks for your perspective. We all need to try to understand that people’s experiences in life, especially from the pre civil rights era, were far different than what we see/know today. Things have gotten better. We will not erase all racism, ever. All we can do is try to keep an open mind and follow the Golden Rule.
As a typical older black woman it’s just her turn to be thrown under the bus.
Scott: “So, if Breitbart didn’t edit them, and he was reckless and didn’t view the whole tape before posting the edited snippets he received from his source, how could he know the snippets he posted didn’t accurately represent her remarks?”
The full tape doesn’t really do Miss Sherrod any favors. She “got past black vs. white” by deciding that *some* whites are OK … if they’re poor enough.
As far as I can gather, this is Brietbart’s first post on the matter — and it is being misrepresented by nearly everyone.
Oldflyer Says: “I don’t suppose the interviewer pointed out that it was the Obama Regime that fired her without even trying to verify the circumstances.”
Cubs_Fan Says:
July 24th, 2010 at 4:25 pm
“Let me provide a little “context”.”
Well said, both… We are witnessing the politics of left-wing desperation, both personal (ie. Shirley Sherrod’s very personally grounded bitterness), and cultural (the Dem Party’s politics of demagoguery). Strange how the Democratic Party has traversed from its early roots as the advocacy party of anti-American post-slavery segregation to the now opposite extreme as the advocacy party of post-segregation socialist anti-American radical left-wing ideology, central (Democratic) party control and government manipulation.
In reference to the earlier post about dealing with obstinate liberal friends and family, they’re playing the game of “no more discussion”, we’ll just be apolitical “friends and family”, requiring us to acquiesce in an agenda which is ultimately undermining the constitutional foundation and ideals of American culture, especially the notion of liberty, for which we will each pay dearly on a very personal level. It’s unfortunate that it is so personal now, but timid acquiescence at the interpersonal level is potentially catastrophic. Left-wing mass murder and subjugation, in history, has especially been facilitated by a culture fostering timid acquiescence of the individual, from Hitler, to Stalin, to Castro, to Mao, etc…
What’s the phrase…hand ’em enough rope. Err, I’ll stop there…
… and, in fact, even in the short video, if one is paying attention, one sees that she is saying that what was revealed to her is that the real issue is “the poor vs. those who have.”
Occams, I would say that they want us to be worrying about their opinions–at least the Germans. It’s really funny to see TV reports on a Hollywood star who visits Berlin for a film opening. The star is always asked what he or she thinks of Berlin (after 1 day in the city and 20 hours of meetings and press conferences), and the reporter always acts as if the response really makes Berlin the most wonderful city in the world (OK, that’s a bit of an exaggeration). I keep waiting for the lightbulb to go on: this guy makes money if people see his movie and he is not going to PO potential viewers by saying something nasty about schnitzel. But no, it happens again and again on TV and in newspaper feuilletons and the reporters remain as dim as a winter day at 4 PM.
The other side is that they love to find Americans who have some outdated idea about everyday life here and use that to illustrate how provincial and ill informed we are. It’s very tiring.
With regard to Sherrod: I still think she was sincerely trying to move on and I respect her for that, but this whole incident hit her like a rock and all the underlying mistrust and resentment came to the surface again. It’s probably even more vehement because she can’t face the fact that she was thrown under the bus by an organization she trusted and a man who promised to heal the world. She needs someone else to blame for getting her into this mess.
Like Cubs_Fan, I’m still willing to cut her some slack, whereas the real race baiters who will use both blacks and whites to enhance their power and pocketbooks are despicable. How many black people are barely literate because they didn’t want to be accused off acting white ? How many decent hard working middle class blacks were called Uncle Toms by their indoctrinated children? The radical black leaders and their radical chic enablers are the ones we should be pushing against. There was a window back in the late sixties when whites and blacks began to talk to one another honestly and humbly. The race baiters did all they could to close it.
The other problem is that she and her husband had just gotten a huge cash settlement from the USDA just before she started working there. That’s not normal, is it?
I also remember some sort of problem with the whole lawsuit. Like, there were more black farmers in the lawsuit (for one area) than exist in the entire country.
I think Riehl World View has done a lot of research on this.
http://www.riehlworldview.com/
Breitbart should slip in an ‘oops, I got played by being send an edited video’ but otherwise just let this woman talk and talk…
I tell you what. I am tired of this whole damned thing, tired of it on so many levels. Among the most insistent of these is the level on which conservatives issue something like the following disclaimer at every opportunity or apparent cause, and at the outset of every discussion on the matter: “Are there racists out there who hate black people? Of course there are. But . . . .”
Are there people of many and various opinions about everything on God’s green earth out there? Of course there are–and there are no “buts” about it. But ahem . . . people, that isn’t even the point anymore. It stopped being the point a long time ago. I have for some time now refused to play that damned game, and I never, EVER acknowledge that there are racists out there. It has nothing to do with the discussion into which these wizards are trying to force us anyway, nothing at all. The fact that we still, after all this time and after all these awful events, feel ourselves compelled to disown racism has come to the point of saying more about us than it does about the discussion itself. If these wizards aren’t ready to recognize that conservative doesn’t = racist, then tellwiddem, that’s what I say. I’m not disclaiming anything on anyone else’s behalf anymore, I absolutely refuse to go there. If there are racists, I don’t know them, and that’s the truth. And if there are racists, well, this is a free country (or at least it used to be), and I refuse to take part in the stupid discussion with a view towards delegitimizing them. They are delegitimized all by themselves, and without any help from me. I’m so OVER it.
Blacks (African-Americans? What’s the preferred moniker now?) have been told for so long by so many that they are oppressed that they take it as a given, as axiomatic, and the people who insist on telling them that never even attempt to question whether or not it’s actually true. It’s causing enormous problems, and we’d better allow ourselves to get beyond it. Nobody, including Andrew Breitbart, wants to re-institute black slavery. Period. There are plenty of real enemies in life; these guys need to quit dredging up fake, phony, long-dead ones. I deny that I am a racist. I don’t know anyone who is a racist. Conservatives have moved beyond–WELL AND FAR BEYOND that. We should simply say so, and refuse to engage that particular argument any further. Let them argue with the damned blank wall.
That’s what I say.
And another thing, while we’re at it: I think it was Occam who, in one of these discussions over the last couple of days, mentioned that “the poo-wer” are parasites. To his credit, he qualified his statement by saying that he didn’t really, necessarily, believe that. Well, here’s something else to consider: The poor (and, by extension, blacks) aren’t parasites so much as they are symbionts with the national liberal/left power structure. It reminds me of the position of the Palestinians, whom Mark Steyn has described as “the most comprehensively wrecked people on earth,” who have been trapped in refugee camps and supplicant status for years, as a ready-made army of disaffected victims, on a hair-trigger alert to fight Israel. American African-Americans (heh) have been kept in a similar condition, also for years, as their own alleged advocates have kept them as pitiful paupers ready at a moment’s notice to rise up against “The Man.” It’s a kind of dependent plantation, and no one is allowed to escape. “Obama money, from his stash” is just the latest iteration of the same ol’ same ol’.
It’s time to wreck it, and let those people go.
That’s what I say.
Cubs_Fan:
Thanks for your contribution. A friend from childhood was the daughter of a Tuskegee airman. While he was proud of what he did in WW2 and in his subsequent career, like many of his generation, he didn’t toot his horn. I first found out that he was a Tuskegee airman from independent sources — library research?- in my 20s or 30s. Several years after he died, I ran across his recounting his WW2 experiences in a book about the Tuskegee airmen. In the book he expressed anger about Jim Crow treatment in the towns and Army camps in the South — not what he was accustomed to in the North. That was an appropriate reaction, but it was also a side I had never seen of him: he had always been cordial with me. I decided that he didn’t exhibit this anger to me because I wasn’t the one who had made him angry. After all, I had been friends with his daughter for decades. That is something we whites are not always in touch with: from mistreatment, there arises an anger that must be controlled.
The anger came bubbling to the surface with Shirley Sherrod after Breitbart posted the video. To be fired via a cell phone conversation on the freeway, without due process, that is infuriating. But she doesn’t dare express too much of that anger towards those who fired her and made statements without knowing the full picture. It gets displaced onto Breitbart. I can understand why she doesn’t express anger towards the USDA and the POTUS. They are too powerful.
I am fed up with those who play the race card to extract advantage- especially when whites do it, such as Rachel Maddow and Chris “Tingles” Matthews. Let Shirley Sherrod keep talking. The more she talks, the less success will others subsequently have when they play the race card.
Let her speak.
I saw this video too earlier today. Turns out Sherrod is a loon. Well, what did we expect? She was, after all, hired by the Obama Administration, the same bunch who hired that Van Jones character
lol- Im off line for a few hours today and come back and here is this….the story that keeps on going….
Actually, its all kinda sad.
For various reasons, I dislike certain people who are black, Asian, Latino, Slavic, white, brown, red and every other color. At the same time, I like certain people who are black, Asian, Latino, Slavic, white, brown, red and every other color. So, what does that make me? Human, I suppose. This whole “racial” thing is absurd. IMO, there is no such thing as “race,” unless one is referring to the human race. There are only people – some I like, some I don’t. Some like me, some don’t. I wish the ruling class, the Ministry of Truth and the Obama regime would give it a rest already.
Breitbart’s only purpose in putting out the video was to show the reactin of the NAACP group to whom this Sherrod woman was speaking. She was only secondary in the whole thing. And Breitbart wants to bring back slavery? Oh, please! What a joke. But, why not? Let’s do it. Of course, being of Slavic and Irish ancestry, I would end up being the “slave” of the Italians, formerly Romans, and the British. See, Ms. Sherrod – we’s all been wronged at one time or another. Let her talk – the more she runs her mouth, the more her true character and hatred of whites becomes apparent.
betsybounds Says:
“apparent cause, and at the outset of every discussion on the matter: “Are there racists out there who hate black people? Of course there are. But . . . .””
Yeah, as soon they agree to open other coversations in similar ways. “Are their socialists out there who want to take way your right to make your own healthcare choices?? Of course there are BUT….”
Hopefully, Breitbart’s cameras continue to catch episodes of “politically correct racism” in action. Sherrod’s already “gotten paid” by the USDA and now they have to hire her back. Talk about club house cancer! My sympathies lie with Vilsack. Obviously he’s been sworn to secrecy, but it would be great to hear the real story. Anyone who has worked for government agencies can tell you, the decks are stacked with jokers like Sherrod, many openly racist. The mess J. Christian Adams exposed at Justice is just the tip of the iceberg. It’s time for a Congressional investigation into racism in the Obama administration.
“Breitbart should slip in an ‘oops, I got played by being send an edited video’ …”
That would be at best, lame, and in truth closer to intellectual dishonesty. One has a duty to ensure that one’s statements on matters such as this reflect reality and do not misrepresent the other person or organization.
But, in truth, Breitbart has nothing to apologize for. WHY is it that almost no one can see that we are still being played by the “liberals” on this? WHY is it that almost no one can see that the “liberals” have chaged the subject … and everyone is letting them get away with that distraction? Once again.
“… IMO, there is no such thing as “race,” unless one is referring to the human race. …”
Is that really your opinion? Or is that some bullshit you were told and it seemed like a handy way out of the on-going debacle the race-baiters are working overtime to keep us all trapped in.
There are two points here about the word ‘race:’
1) The English word ‘race’ actually has a much broader meaning than is common usage these days;
1a) thus, one can sensibly speak of “the English race,” or “the German race” … or even “the race of fishmongers;”
2) When used in the narrow, more modern sense, as a referent to the historical general continental origins of one’s ancestors, there is, indeed, such a thing as “race.”
Throwing out the racism charge protects people from asking why people don’t like them or why the got a poor evaluation. When I worked with in settings with people of different backgrounds, I never noticed any difference between groups in the number of people I liked, the number of OKs, and the small number of unpleasant avoids. And I have never known any workforce or social group of any background that didn’t have one or two whom everyone put into the avoid category. The racism charge allows these people to hide from the fact that they are loud, argumentative, incompetent, boastful, or whatever and to use their own personalities as a standard for the group. They say that white people don’t understand black culture. Racism doesn’t disappear when every member of one group likes every member of another. It disappears when people can stop pretending to like individuals whom they would otherwise dislike and avoid.
And that BTW is how societies managed to get get along and set necessary behavioral standards throughout time. In trying to become a better society, we have thrown out the whole mechanism for standard setting, not just gotten rid of standards that were deplorable. Anything goes now. Every tiny little rule of behavior has been found oppressive by some narcissitic bully. We are rich enough to have established college departments and art foundations and NGOs that allow these bullies to propagate their dysfunctional behavior.
I think, from now on, the accusation of racism shouldn’t be answered by cringing defensiveness.
Instead;
“Racist??? Shirley Sherrod, Vilsack, NAACP, Obama, HAHAHAHAHA! You’re kidding, right? HAHAHAHA!”
My Black Urban Professional friends, fellow parishioners, and colleagues are rather harsh in their attitudes about “Failed Blacks.” They know that the high school dropouts, unwed mothers, drug addicts, etc have brought their misery upon themselves, and the Buppies describe the attempt to blame racism or Whites for these problems is excuse-making. Neo wrote, a couple of years ago, about defense mechanisms, and this is what these bogus racism claims really are.
Within our dominant (bourgeois) culture of guilt/conscience orientation, we have a couple of shame/honor oriented subcultures, a part of our Black population, and now the new imports from Latin America. That we have powerful manipulators in politics and the media, who use this fact to their advantage, is what makes the matter so nearly intractable. When people act for show, and then, usually, fail, the enormous burden of shame must be shifted to someone else. Excuse-making, that’s a choice. Compulsive shame-shifting is not a choice.
How do we do therapy upon millions of people, who do not even have a generally recognized diagnosis? Some people, on some level, likely thought that the election of Barry Soetero would alleviate this problem. They were, sadly, wrong.
problems AS excuse making. So sorry. Such shame!
expat said, “Racism doesn’t disappear when every member of one group likes every member of another. It disappears when people can stop pretending to like individuals whom they would otherwise dislike and avoid.”
Yep, we want to pick and choose our friends. My Grandmother had rhyme about it:
“Birds of a feather flock together
and so do pigs and swine.
Ducks and geese will have their choice
and so will I have mine.”
We’re all tribal in that we want to associate with people with similar values not race or ethnicity.
In every group there will be people who don’t want to associate with one another for a variety of reasons. (Political beliefs being a big one!) If some one is a different race, you might stereotype them, but after getting to know them, realize your error. That is the beauty of a free society. Freedom of association is definitely one of the benefits.
We had a black dentist and his wife as neighbors when they and we both had our first children, so we had a lot in common and used to socialize. The dentist used to regularly go on rants about, e.g., welfare queens dropping N brats by N different fathers, dysfunctional families, absent fathers, the crime subculture, the underclass, people having children they couldn’t support, etc. He’d have had to tone it down a bit to join the KKK.
Occam’s Beard Says:
July 25th, 2010 at 1:08 pm
LOL.
Occams,
That was something I also picked up in Sherrod’s NAACP talk: the northern cousins who came home to visit in their cars, which later turned out to be only rented. She resented the big city types who treated the country people with condescension. There is and has always been a lot of class consciousness among blacks and there was definitely a black upper class, even in the 60s. The civil rights movement brought them superficially together against a common enemy, but in doing so it made it impossible to talk about dysfunctional vs positive behavior. In fact the radicals elevated the dysfuncctional. So we have gangsta rap becoming cool, Bill Cosby being dissed by the NAACP, and people like Rangel, Marion Barry, and Cold-cash Jefferson being re-elected.
expat.
wrt yr last sentence.
That seems to be a matter of poking whitey in the eye.
See Detroit, city of.
OK It’s time to plug (by Jane Jacobs)again. American friends of African descent come up to me at church, or the grocery store,or wherever, raving about how it describes the split in their own extended families. Slavery is a Guardian system, violent, ostentatious, and more. Being a free citizen in a bourgeois republic is very different from being a slave. Being a welfare mother is not so different from slavery, in the Systems paradigm. Just read it. Wade through the cumbersome dialogical format, and you will understand the world. Ms. Jacobs wove together in her theory the observations that everyone on this thread has made, a hundred times. Read it!
Oops I took out what I was trying to italicize. Systems of Survival, by Jacobs. Read it and know!
Were I her attorney, I would have told her to STHU, already!
But hey! Keep talking, woman! Keep talking!
Breitbart is bathing in rose petals right now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55aujTwuJY8&feature=player_embedded
Ms. Sherrod was victimized by a panicked Obama administration. Now the administration wishes only to hush her up and put this entire story behind them.
She is to the Democrats what “Joe the Plumber” was to the Republicans – a person who has neither finesse nor humility suddenly thrust onto the national stage.
Her colloquial racial worldview mixed with her unreasoned far-left zeal will be a thorn to an administration that desperately needs to become less racial and more centrist.
She needs to stay away from giant economy-size bottles of aspirin.
newton
Were I her attorney, I would have told her to STHU, already!
The MSM has finally figured it out that the more she talks, the more she is and the lefties are discredited and the more Breitbart comes out smelling like a rose. Result:
Shirley Silenced: Sherrod Kept Out of Sunday Talk-shows.
In similar fashion, Europeans often think that Americans are laying awake at night worrying about Europe’s opinions (expat, true?), never realizing that Europe in general is a matter of supreme indifference to 95% of all Americans.
Might be true about mainland Europe, but I think in Britain these days we tend to worry because we know that we really are a matter of supreme indifference to 95% of all Americans 😉
Ref Americans knowing about other parts of the world;
We had two generations who knew about Europe, the Med, North Africa, and the Pacific quite well. A younger cohort learned a good deal about Korea.
A bunch of folks know considerably more about Southeast Asia than one would expect, given US education practices.
And the current generation, from high school up, could probably do a pretty good freehand map of the Middle East and Southwest Asia.
And I don’t mean just the soldiers.
All in all, it would probably be a good deal if Americans never learned anything at all about your country.
No, Billm99uk. Americans do not care as much about most of Europe as Europe thinks that we should. That’s true. Someone further up the thread compared our concern for Europe to their thoughts about Bolivia.
Britain, however, is a lump in the gut of at least half of the American electorate. For Barry the Communist to snub Britain is on a level, a very low level, with snubbing Israel. Inasmuch as we ever decide elections on foreign policy, which is seldom enough, these two horrors could cost him reelection in 2012.
We do not idly refer to “our British cousins.” We mean it quite seriously, and family always matters.
Shirley’s husband
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrcJ3cBDS7Y&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fD_tHu4vdS8&feature=player_embedded
And yet apparently Brits thought Buraq was the Messiah, the One who would save them from the evil cowboy Bush, and then were surprised when He hung them out to dry re the Falklands, and offered Britain gratuitous slights. Any buyer’s remorse? Reality therapy is always painful.
Consider how much attention (relatively) we pay to Europe compared to Japan, China, or India. We should focus our foreign policy on India. Europe, Japan, and China are done; their demographic time bombs cannot now be defused, unless someone finds a way to generate 20 year olds, fast.
We have emotional attachments to Britain and Australia, but in terms of world power politics, India is the key.
Or “our British spouses,” even.
And yet apparently Brits thought Buraq was the Messiah, the One who would save them from the evil cowboy Bush, and then were surprised when He hung them out to dry re the Falklands, and offered Britain gratuitous slights. Any buyer’s remorse? Reality therapy is always painful.
Hey, I didn’t vote for him! Though, being a conservative only in the fiscal sense, McCain v Obama wasn’t really a choice I’d have liked, to be fair.
…but in terms of world power politics, India is the key
Yes, but most of them live in London these days…
Fair enough, but you didn’t vote for McCain either. /g
My wife swears herself blue that the European media’s enthusiasm for Buraq does not reflect the views of the populace, but…I dunno. What do you say?
Lots of company there, but the choice wasn’t between perfect and terrible, but between bad and worse. At this point I’d rather have Hillary as President. Hell, I’d rather have Carter as President.
I never thought I would ever type those words.
You must not have called a consumer help line recently!
Didn’t read the comments yet, but I can’t resist. I love me some Breitbart, but in the freeze-frame he totally looks like John Lithgow’s Lord John Whorfin from Buckaroo Banzai.
I don’t think Germans really consider GB part of Europe. It’s more of an annex. They resent GB’s rejection of the monetary union and the Anglosphere financial policies. There is more connectedness to other continenals culturally too. To coin an appelation, the Brits are EINOs.
I don’t consider Britain part of Europe either. Years ago, IIRC, Brits would bristle (britsle?) at being lumped in as Europeans, much as Southerners don’t like being called “Yanks,” or Scots dislike being referred to as “English.”
You’d think Britain would turn more toward the Anglosphere, and specifically us, than to Europe (the current resident of the White House notwithstanding; hell, we put up with Labour PMs who were at best lukewarm on America). Despite the geographical proximity to Europe, the UK has much more in common with us, and we’re considerably more reliable than the Europeans when the chips are down (once again, the current resident of the White House notwithstanding).
My wife swears herself blue that the European media’s enthusiasm for Buraq does not reflect the views of the populace, but…I dunno. What do you say?
Most European journalists are nice middle-class white arts graduates, just with slightly fewer toupees and slightly greyer teeth than their US counterparts. So, yes, pretty much BO’s ideal audience there.
The rest of us? Most people were just relieved he wasn’t GNB, I think, and would probably be just as happy with Hilary. Poor old George certainly had a amazing ability to annoy the hell out of Europeans simply by being himself. A truly unique talent in a way. Pity you could’t extract it and put it in an aerosol really…
Keeps getting better !
http://www.riehlworldview.com/carnivorous_conservative/2010/07/sherrod-we-must-stop-the-white-man-and-his-uncle-toms-.html
Bush annoyed yurpeens by being quintessentially American. The yurps don’t like that, either.
They likes them some Americans who are desperately trying to be continental.
Misery loves company.
Nah, it’s a widespread talent among Americans. I lived in Europe for many years, and was periodically introduced with, “He’s an American, but one of the good ones.”
If they’d only known, huh?
They apparently hadn’t figured out that when Europe steps in the dog’s business yet again – and let’s face it, that’s as certain as the sun rising tomorrow, it’s only a matter of time – the “good Americans” will cut Europe loose in a heartbeat.
Sure, they’ll feel terrible. They’ll press for a strongly worded letter to the UN, have some candlelight vigils, a few poetry readings, possibly a drum circle or two, maybe even make a quilt. But that’s about it.
Anyone calling Washington for help will get an answering machine. (“Hi, this is Buraq, I’m out on the golf course, so leave a message. If you’re inviting me to a gala celebrity-filled event, or to give me some undeserved award, dial 0 to get my secretary. If it’s a critical matter on which I’ll have to make a tough and potentially unpopular decision, or otherwise actually do my job, call 1-800-DIALA-PRAYER.”)
The Falklands was just a preview of coming attractions. When Iran successfully tests its first nuclear weapon, which will probably be during Buraq’s term, and he reads some platitudes off a teleprompter about “peace in our time,” I’ll bet Europe will be wishing to God that cowboy Bush was back in office, and even longing to hear him say “nucular” again. But maybe the Iranians are just building a nuclear weapon for a science fair project, and don’t mean any harm. Besides, we can rely on Ahmajinedad’s good sense and psychological hygiene, right?
For my part, on this one issue I’m with the “good Americans” on this one. Cut Europe loose, and leave them to their fate. Let them get a bloody nose — or worse. They need to man up. There comes a time when you have to pull your own weight, or shuffle to the tar pits of history. And that time has come.
PEGGY NOONAN thinks Shirley Sherrod’s speech needs to be shown in school !!!!
http://online.wsj.com/article/declarations.html
Time to look at the 532 comments back to Peggy on this one….
This commenter might’ve left a mark: