Again, he wasn’t just talking about “those two” (unless you mean “those two” being “black” and “female” as opposed to Braun and Lee), he was talking about black female congresspersons. And, to be honest, I’m not buying Braun and Lee as being the first people who pop into mind when you think Stupid Democrats. Pelosi, Schankowski, Barney Frank, Carnahan, Ellison, Rangel, and others are a ton more “high profile” (and more hated by the talking heads) than those two, but, oddly enough, he didn’t pick any of those. Instead, he went after black women as a group.
I’m having a hard time coming up with a reason why he would have picked those two modifiers instead of either naming names, or going with higher profiles. Well, I can come up with a reason, but it’s not very flattering.
I s=din’t mean to say that Braun and Lee would necessarily take the 1-2 spots, but that they would be in the top grouping. I think he thought of those two and instead of naming them, referred to them another way. Again, what I’m missing from the racism accusation is some causal, or even correlative, link between blackness and idiocy. He may be a racist, I don’t know. But I don’t think one can fairly hang that around his neck based on this one incident. But, naturally, you are free to come to your own conclusions. You asked for my opinion, so there it is.
Again, I’m missing the why. Even accepting your guess as true (which I remain unconvinced) that Braun and Lee are the first two people who just happen to pop into his head as stupid democrats AND instead of using their name you use their race and gender to describe them, I think he really needs to ask himself why. Why those two? And why describe them that way instead of by name.
Thanks for your honesty and patience. The term “racist” is overused, so I’m not sure I’d use it to describe him based solely on that one post. But it is certainly … not good at all … that when he’s looking for example of stupid people, he picks people who happen to be black and female, and, instead of actually naming them by name, he describes them in those terms. It’s certainly not the KKK, in your face racism of Stormfront, but it’s far too indicative of prejudice and sloppy thinking for my comfort level.
Braun and Lee certainly are idiotic, but Carol Moseley Braun hasn’t been in the senate for 10 years now. She was defeated in 1998. So, she doesn’t count.
OK… first a little water on the fire, then maybe a little gas.
Having studied the term “race card” a bit I find that, apparently, the first use was to refer to a racist ad in a UK election in the 1960’s. To me it’s always made sense to use it in it’s OJ Simpson conotation ie use allegations of racism to trump any other argument no matter how tangential. Therefor, in the classic sense, I would be considered to have used the race card instead of having had it used against me.
Now, why did I say what I did. First of all, I think it is probably true. In large part, because most of the black ladies in congress wouldn’t be there if they were white. I’ve said the same thing (and believe it) about Obama relative to a general electorate. Clearly the theory applies more so to black congressional districts.
Why would I say it and muddy my point? I actually wasn’t too concerned about making a point… it was a pit thread.
Finally, I would like to say to all my black friends, I sometimes feel remorse for lacking the sensitivity others do regarding their skin color. At least you can take comfort in the fact that the oversensitivity of others makes up for it in spades.
Well, I do admit if you’re going to claim that most of the black women in Congress are “dumb” and refer to people who disagree with you as “dumb fucks” I would assume you can refer to more than two women.
Moreover, I assume you could provide evidence that the two women in question are “dumb.”
I also have to say claiming that a woman like Sheila Jackson Lee, who went to Yale on a scholarship and received a Law Degree from the University of Virginia is “dumb” is an extremely strong statement.
Yes, there are some people who’ve graduated from the Ivies who are quite dumb, including former Presidents and Presidential candidates, but they didn’t attend Yale on scholarship but got in due to family connections.
So, to be clear, “black” isn’t a convenient way to group 14 women (e.g., like saying “those women over there”) who you think are dumber than average. You think that they’re dumber than average, and the fact that they’re black is why they’re there. It’s not saying “black women are dumber than average”, it’s saying that some sort of electoral affirmative action has placed fourteen women where they couldn’t be by merit alone.
Yeah, that’s a nice tangled little knot of racism right there, and I’m not going to try to tease it apart. But rest assured, it is racist, and playing the race card was entirely appropriate.
There are a lot of things that are true. Ask yourself why you picked that particular observation of yours.
I’m not interested in berating you about your views on racial politics. I don’t think it would change a thing about you. But, if you’re ever lying around in bed, or sitting in church, or on a park bench letting your mind wander, take a second and think about why you think that. Do you believe that black people vote on the basis of color, but white people don’t, or is it for all people? And what you could do to try and change that. And ask yourself why you seem to see people as members of groups (black people, black congressional leaders) and not as people.
It wasn’t the effect it had that I’m questioning, it’s why would you say it at all? It wasn’t germane to the issue at all. At those period of reflection I mentioned, ask yourself why, when you’re searching for examples of stupid people, you immediately think of black females first. And why you feel necessary to express that thought in such a way that it could easily be interpreted as not speaking very highly of your character.
But an eye for an eye is no way to run the country. To a large degree, the law mandates that districts be drawn to facilitate minorities getting elected.
The opposite is also true of the remaining districts, which are also lily-white by design (since you’ve gerrymandered out most of the minorities).
It’s no wonder that many – definitely not a majority but many – Congresspeople subscribe to racially polarizing views. It can’t hurt them unless they say something beyond the pale.
If his use of “spades” was intentional and meant to be funny, it registers a 1.43 on the Snicker Scale. If it was inadvertent, it may be the funniest damn thing I’ve ever seen on these boards.
It’s not that you’re lacking in sensitivity regarding skin color. It’s that you’re too sensitive to it. You saw Frederica Wilson bitching about how mean Congress is for not letting her wear hats in the chamber, noticed she was black, and immediately tarred all other black Congresswomen with the same brush.
It’s as though I decided that all white Congressmen have the IQ of soup, because of Louie Gohmert.
And second, can’t a case be made that the average black person is less intelligent than the average white person? The health of the mother is more likely to be bad enough to affect the child and the environment in which a black child grows up is less likely to help them learn or stimulate their brain functions.
I agree that there was no reason to bring up the black ladies in congress but remember that this was a pit thread. I was responding to my political allies being insulted with comment directed toward my political enemies and their allies.
