The Winner (Racism Loses)

Nikki Tinker's racist campaign backfired! I am proud of my citty tonight. The ads she ran hurt her. Rep Cohen got 80% of the vote. He could not have done it if her racist crap had not pissed off my neighbors.

Misplaced Mistaken Outrage

... over Sen. Kerry's use of the term 'tar-baby'. You will note that I did not say false outrage. I do not think that Renee over at Womanist Musings is being disingenuous when she claims to be outraged. She is outraged. But she is outraged in error. She has the video posted on her blog so you can watch it there to judge for yourself.

She is acting like he called someone a 'tar-baby'. He did not. He used the word in its original meaning - a sticky problem that only entangles you more them harder you struggle. What he did was not like calling a black man a 'spade'. What he did is like using the word 'spade' to refer to the black card suit with pips shaped like spear heads. This is an argument that will likely turn out to be a tar-baby for me but we must stop running from the difficult topic of race. People of good will must speak about these things in the effort to increase understanding across the color line for so long as it exists.

In her post and comments she argues that the common vernacular meaning of the word is the racist word. I cannot argue with that because I am not a part of her vernacular community. Neither is the Senator. He has probably spent less time in his life around openly racist people who use racial insults than I have. And I do not recall hearing this term used as a racial insult, even though I have been exposed to an amazing variety of these terms. I have encountered people who refer to it as one but not heard it myself. I have also not heard it used in its original meaning very often. It is rapidly falling out of use all together.

She also argues in the comments,

BTW what I deem to be racist against WOC is far more accurate than your determination simply because I inhabit the body that I do. This is one of those times Larry when you listen to views of POC and put aside your inclinations.

This is the sort of argument that by design is racist and shuts down the discussion rather than opens it up. She may be able to more accurately say what a WOC finds offensive than I am, but she does not have any special insight into the way that Sen Kerry and his peers use language and that is at least as central to this argument as how she feels about it. It is obvious from the context that the over-educated elite white male was ignorant of the racial implications of the word he used. He used it in a clearly non-racial context in its original meaning. He is likely to issue an apology because of the controversy that his ignorant choice of words caused but that firestorm has only served to distract from the actual content of what he was saying. He was defending Sen Obama from a scurrilous attack and no one will note his defense of our candidate because we had to digress into the language of personal affront.

Black In America (Hour One)

I intended to watch the full two hours of this CNN special tonight. I was defeated by its glacial pace. It was as if it was the producers goal to give the viewer as little information in as much time as possible. I simply could not force myself to sit through another virtually content free hour this evening.

The first hour gave me the following tidbits.

1. There are families that have both black and white branches to their family tree. This was no news to anyone who is paying attention to the world around them. We are all mutts. It is only the retarded white supremacist and melanists who claim that they are pure bred. I am not the sort of credulous individual who will buy their con.

2. Education is important. They told of the program that is paying children for grades. I think it is a fantastic idea.

3. More and more children are being born out of wedlock. The single mother rate in the black community is 70%. No news here. They had no suggested solutions either.

4. There are some otherwise intelligent people who believe a pseudo since theory that blacks die younger than whites because of "Salt tolerance". Why look to research when we can just make some good sounding crap up and BELIEVE!

That is four tidbits of information in an hour of "reporting". Only #4 was news to me and I really did not need to be exposed to that bit of misinformation. Just like I have no need to hear the BS arguments for young earth creationism except to be able to refute them.

"What Is Wrong With Tennessee?" You Ask.

This morning a link on TPM led me to this post which asked, "What Is Wrong With Tennessee?" On my way home from work I took this picture which should answer the Question. It is the statue of Nathan Bedford Forest located in Downtown Memphis. Yes, this is the city with a statue of the founder of the KKK in its very heart, across the street from our state medical school. And this is the liberal corner of the state.

Supreme Injustice

The Supreme Court decided in all its wisdom that it is cruel and unusual punishment to apply the death penalty in cases of child rape because the child was not killed. I am against the death penalty for many reasons that have nothing to do with it being cruel and unusual but their reasoning seems to me to be the height of injustice. They are saying that there is no fate worse than death. That is simply not the case. We say that the death penalty is not applicable to simple murder. There must be aggravating circumstances. You get the death penalty for your cruelty, not for simple murder. (At least on paper that is the reason. In real life we all know it helps to be a member of a minority who has killed a white woman.) Their ruling is an affront to common sense. We know it is possible to inflict a fate worse than death. And for that you should receive the death penalty if it is to be imposed for any reason.

Black In America

A friend sent me a link to the add for this CNN special Black In America. I am setting the DVR for this one. I do not know how good it will be but it will be worth talking about good or bad. Maybe we can have that converstion that Sen Obama so eloquently asked us to.


Crossposted at TPM.