Why Conservatives Are Really Afraid of a Black President

[marmar]

via AlterNet:



Why Conservatives Are Really Afraid of a Black President

By Jonathan L. Walton, Religion Dispatches. Posted October 10, 2009.

The president reminds Glenn Beck, and those who identify with his white neo-nationalism, of the lie of their own professed superiority.



... in Obama's America, the white kids now get beat up with the black kids cheering, "Yay, right on, right on, right on, right on," and, of course, everybody says the white kid deserved it, he was born a racist, he's white. Newsweek magazine told us this. We know that white students are destroying civility on buses, white students destroying civility in classrooms all over America, white congressmen destroying civility in the House of Representatives. -- Rush Limbaugh,
Sept. 15, 2009


Ever the statesman, and often candid to a political fault, former President Jimmy Carter said recently that much of the animosity directed toward President Barack Obama is "based on the fact that he is a black man."

A lifelong Southerner, Carter acknowledged that the inclination of racism still exists, and that "it has bubbled up to the surface because of the belief among many white people, not just in the South but around the country, that African Americans are not qualified to lead this great country."

Though courageous, the former president's pronouncement will surely be considered controversial to many Republicans and Democrats alike. Some will view Carter's comments as politically inexpedient.

The topic of race in general, and charges of racism in particular, is political dynamite that typically explodes in the hands of the accuser -- just ask Professor Skip Gates, Gov. David Paterson, or Obama (whom I will return to momentarily).

Unless someone is wearing a Klan hood while yelling, "Nigger, Go Back to Africa," the charge of racism seems to offend the accused these days more than the actual victims. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/politics/143153/why_conservatives_are_really_afraid_of_a_black_president_

[Rabrrrrrr]

1. And even if they are wearing a klan sheet shouting "Nigger, go back to Africa!"

they'll still say they aren't racist, but are "helping to inspire the black people to have their own home" with "their best interests in my heart".

:eyes:

[Raschel]

11. That's the reason for the birthers existence. They long to tell the President to go back to Africa.

[juno jones]

22. Sounds like my sister

Bless her white supremacist ass.

She insists that both whites and blacks want to be separate, and that's fine with her as long as they are separate A LONG WAY away from each other. Oh and blacks are inferior by certain 'scientific' measures, all that reagan-era bell curve crap.

Otherwise, she's not racist at all, and how dare I suggest such a thing.

[whathehell]

2. K & R...Thanks for providing this.

[3waygeek]

3. I don't buy Walton's sub-head.

If 8 years of GWB didn't show them the lie of white supremacy, nothing will.

[Brigid]

7. Ding! Ding!

DUzy candidate right here! DUzy candidate here! :rofl:

[3waygeek]

4. I don't buy Walton's sub-head.

Edit; dupe removed.

[TxRider]

5. I don't think they are afraid of Obama

They are afraid of the triple threat...

A dem house, senate and white house.

[marmar]

6. It's the larger picture of what Obama represents.

nt

[RadicalGeek]

8. It may be

The idea that Obama represents an America that has become more tolerant, diverse and urban.

One need only look at the homogeneous communities and states that the GOP and Right seem to represent and you can see what Beck, etc are worried about.

"Their America" is dying little by little. Obama's strong showing among younger folks may mean that the ideas of White, Male, Heterosexual, Fundamentalist Christian, superiority may be on it's last legs.

Except among the teabaggers, etc. . .

[marmar]

20. "become more tolerant, diverse and urban."

Exactly. And that terrifies a Party that relies on racial, ethnic, gender, cultural, religious and sexual orientation-based fears and divisions to stay in power.

[RadicalGeek]

23. Glad you agree with me

<EOM>

[Taitertots]

9. Allen Keyes?

Strange how the same amount of people complained about Clinton and he was white. They shot at the White House and tried to fly a plane into it. They tried to impeach him too.


Anyone with half a brain knows that the real problem they have is that we have a blue president.

[marmar]

10. Of course they complained about Clinton, but you'd have to be completely naive to think......

..... that a black president hasn't ignited the paranoid insecurities amongst these "White Man's Burden" types.

[Taitertots]

12. Apparently not much more than Clinton did

Obama has some huge campaign promises that everyone could tell was going to cause a conservative backlash. If you didn't think advocating public health insurance, gun control, abortion, and ceding in Iraq would cause everything we are seeing then you sir are naive.

Put Allen Keyes in office and watch the tea bagging, birthing, and protests end overnight.

By any metric he is far less hated than the previous White President Bush. So is it only racist to protest the real or imagined grievances when the President is black?

[marmar]

14. It's the nature of the protests.....How often was Clinton depicted as a witch doctor or an ape?

..... or shown as an inkblot with big bulging eyes in an email sent from a State Representative's office? ...... Or perhaps you just haven't been paying attention.

[Taitertots]

15. Were you paying attention in the 1990's

They shot an AK at the White House, they tried to fly a plane into it, tried to have him impeached, and blew up a federal building.

[marmar]

19. So a black ink spot with bulging eyes and Obama as an ape aren't racist?

Nobody's denying that the Right went after Clinton, but race wasn't a factor in their attacks on him. It's most definitely a factor in the attacks on Obama. Only an idiot or someone in deep denial can't see that.

[MindPilot]

13. Black AND Blue.

All the commiesocialistliberal stuff to hate in a Democratic president and now the racist can join in too.

[Arugula Latte]

16. Obama is much smarter, more handsome, more popular and more successful than these racists douchebags

and they can't stand it. It just eats them alive. I hope they all stroke out over it.

[Odin2005]

17. The Racists are afraid that it means the end of "Their America", and they are right

The demographics are against them. Younger Americans, who voted overwhelmingly for Obama, are the least racist, least homophobic, and most diverse generation in American history, and it scares the morans shitless,

[malaise]

18. That's the absolute truth

What's more the reason they didn't want their children to watch him is because all the lies the parents told them; all the myths about who is inferior to whom were shattered and the parents would have been exposed as nasty, disgusting, ignorant racists by their own offspring.

Obama continues to shatter nearly 400 years of myths perpetuated by racists.

[BlooInBloo]

21. There are few things white folks hate more than when other white folks speak out against racism...

It makes it that much harder to maintain the fiction that it doesn't exist, and thus harder to perpetuate it.