Patterico's Pontifications

2/20/2010

NYT: Conservative is Racist Because . . . Because We Say So

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 12:22 am



Kate Zernike of the New York Times writes: CPAC Speaker Bashes Obama, in Racial Tones:

How can conservatives win the youth vote that overwhelmingly went for Barack Obama in 2008? At the Conservative Political Action Conference, apparently, some are betting on using racial stereotypes.

What racial stereotypes?

In a panel appealing to conservatives under 30, Jason Mattera, author of a forthcoming book called “Obama Zombies: How the Liberal Machine Brainwashed My Generation,” likened the gathering to “our Woodstock.”

“Except that unlike the last gathering, our women are beautiful, we speak in complete sentences and our notion of freedom doesn’t consist of snorting cocaine,” he said, “which is certainly one thing that separates us from Barack Obama.”

After the laughing died down, he added, “Actually, on the cocaine front, I do believe many people in America viewed Barack as they do drugs: it was a substance to experiment with.”

Ah. So he was playing on the racial stereotype of the black man who snorted cocaine.

No, wait: Obama did snort cocaine.

So, then, what racial stereotypes?

He then mocked what he described, with a Chris Rock voice, as “diversity,” including, he said, college classes on “cyber feminism” and “what it means to be a feminist new black man.”

Oh, so he used a Chris Rock voice.

No, wait: he didn’t.

The video is here. Big Journalism challenges Zernike to state precisely where in the video Mattera supposedly uses a “Chris Rock voice.” I listened to all of the statements he made that she quoted. I didn’t hear a Chris Rock voice.

Andrew Breitbart says Kate Zernike is a despicable human being:

I don’t know that I can judge her entire character on the basis of one blog post. But it certainly was a despicable blog post.

Might I add that it smacked of racial overtones?

Yes, I might.

34 Responses to “NYT: Conservative is Racist Because . . . Because We Say So”

  1. Jason Mattera responds to the NYT reporter’s “racist!” allegation here

    McClatchy Watch (ff803c)

  2. i think using the term “racist” is racist….

    redc1c4 (fb8750)

  3. First of all, this is an exceedingly lame one-liner coming from a movement which supported George W. Bush:

    “our notion of freedom doesn’t consist of snorting cocaine,” he said, “which is certainly one thing that separates us from Barack Obama.”

    I didn’t really hear a Chris Rock voice, either. It’s probably going a bit too far to call anything in that clip truly racist, but there was one line that was fairly dubious. The line about a “feminist new black man” being a cross between RuPaul and Barney Frank was something he should not have said. What’s that supposed to mean? You can’t be a black man who supports feminism unless you’re gay and/or a drag queen? If you toss off comments like that, I don’t think you should complain about being tagged as a bit racially insensitive. It’s also skating a bit too close to homophobia.

    Foo Bar (6d186c)

  4. Kinda stupid (he needs better writers). But racist? Nope.

    Icy Texan (f3341b)

  5. Well, I happen to think that Barack is dreamy. So there, you savages.

    nk (db4a41)

  6. Subbing for Hugh Hewitt as guest host, Ed Morrissey pointed out that the “Chris Rock voice” is actually Jason Mattera’s native Brooklyn accent. He’s a racist for having a Brooklyn accent. Ed asked, Isn’t Brooklyn supposed be in the home territory of the New York Times? Shouldn’t its reporters recognize the accent?

    nadine (f9d233)

  7. I enjoyed the reference to Ru Paul, Barney Frank and feminism. You can’t be all things to all people as BHO has discovered. At some point a line must be drawn defining what is best for the country as a whole as opposed what is best for each micro-group therein. Clamboring for recognition and hush money defines the toxic environment we find ourselves in these days. In order to survive politically in the land of the enlightened elite one must embrace, whether it exists or not, one’s inner (fill in the blank) to avoid being charged with the associated epithet; homophobe, misogynist, racist…!

    That is all the entitlement folks have is to retreat to the hollow ground of name-calling reminiscent of grade school and perpetual adolescence; Oh yeah, well you’re a poopy head!”

    vet66 (9d1bb3)

  8. The more Brietbart exposes the rank hypocricy and outright lying that’s been going on in the NYT and the MSM for decades, the more crap he’ll have to put with such as this. It’s nothing more than the final death throes of a kind of reportage and “journalism” that’s already got one foot in the tar pits of history – and they know it.

    Dmac (799abd)

  9. That’s not racism, that’s just failing to grow up. CPAC did boo a young conservative bigot. Good for them.

    imdw (2c1194)

  10. Kate Zernike must be a delicate flower, just like imdw.

    daleyrocks (718861)

  11. Ms. Zernike’s actually just another partisan hack, like our own little cupcake.

    Dmac (799abd)

  12. “When calculated by the average annual percentage of the Gross Domestic Product that he will spend during his presidency, Obama is on track to become the biggest-spending president since 1930, the earliest year reported on the OMB’s historical chart of spending as a percentage of GDP. When calculated by the average annual percentage of GDP he will borrow during his presidency, Obama is on track to become the greatest debtor president since Franklin Roosevelt”.

    Nothing racist about that.

    GeneralMalaise (0428a9)

  13. “feminist new black man”
    Probably an oblique reference to “metrosexuals”.

    And, I think AB was really enjoying himself as he skewered those he knows best.

    AD - RtR/OS! (e05987)

  14. Man I do love this post-racial country we live in since electing Barry. Never again will we have to worry about completely race neutral speeches or writings from ever being perceived as coming from the KKK.

    Oh wait! Time for Obama to have another beer summit between Mattera and Zernike. That is what he is really good at.

    MU789 (fe58f9)

  15. “…from a movement which supported George W. Bush…”
    And the alternative was???

    Foo Bar is still FUBAR!

    AD - RtR/OS! (e05987)

  16. The strange thing is that stereotypically, cocaine is a white person’s drug. Crack is the corresponding black person’s drug. When you hear people complain about the racial disparity in the sentencing laws for the two drugs — and I’m one of those people — it’s because of this stereotype.

    Next they’ll be complaining that “leader of the free world” is code for “black”.

    roy (d6fc79)

  17. If “Professor” is the new “uppity”, I’d hate to think what “President” is dog-whistle code for.

    Also, I guess Bugs Bunny speaks in that “Chris Rock voice” too.

    I denounce Mel Blanc!

    Techie (43d092)

  18. Kate Zernike is merely projecting her own phoniness and various biases upon others. After all, she undoubtedly is a limousine liberal — and one does not have to be wealthy to be guilty of such behavior — meaning she talks the talk but doesn’t walk the walk. So I’m sure she loves to think of herself as so tolerant, so humane, so fair, so free of prejudices.

    Meanwhile, I bet she generally steers clear of living in, or even spending much time in, predominantly black neighborhoods. And if she has kids? It’s almost a 100% given she’ll break her back before sending send them to predominantly black schools.

    Behavior no different from Al Gore, so much the big mouth about enviromentalism and green-earth politics. Meanwhile, he lives the high life in his big energy-hog mansion in Tennessee and drives around in his gas-hog vehicles—based on reports from at least a few years ago, in which he and his kids were described as the proud owners of SUVs. For that matter, there’s Obama, who gave a speech a few years ago in Illinois about the perils of global warming. An event which he drove to in, at it turns out, a conventional gas-hog SUV.

    And it’s not race or racism that fuels people like Zernike. It’s ideology. IOW, if Jason Mattera were a liberal, Zernike would give a million benefits of the doubt to even flat-out racist, bigoted mutterings from him.

    Again, if over 80 percent of black America were centrist to rightwing instead of liberal, a lot of nitwits like Zernike would suddenly lose their enthusiasm for civil rights and standing up for — as liberals patronizingly see them — the “underdog” of black men or women. Just as if, say, John Kerry were a conservative, Zernike’s sympathies about truth and lies would have flip flopped…

    mrc.org:

    New York Times reporter Kate Zernike again portrayed the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth as sleazy liars: “Extensive news media accounts undermined the Swift boat charges in 2004.” Sunday’s Times featured a Vietnam flashback, not to 1969, but 2004, as Zernike once again reported for duty in defense of John Kerry in the former presidential candidate’s Ahab-like quest for revenge against the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, whose questioning of his Vietnam War citations wounded him in the 2004 campaign.

    The background: Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens issued a challenge last November — $1 million to anyone who could disprove a single charge the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth made against Sen. John Kerry. A group of Kerry’s crewmates from Vietnam have sent a package to Pickens (and apparently to certain media outlets as well) that includes a 12-page letter and a 42-page attachment of Kerry’s Navy records.

    Zernike wrote it up as “Veterans Rebut Swift Boat Charges Against Kerry — Say Their Service Was ‘Tarnished.'” Neither Zernike nor any other media outlet have so far named those veterans or provided any other details as to the contents of the package.

    …As case expert Tom Maguire noted, regarding the events leading to Kerry’s Silver Star, the Swift Boat Vets were simply pointing out discrepancies between Kerry’s medal citation and Kerry’s own recount of the event.

    Mark (411533)

  19. “When you hear people complain about the racial disparity in the sentencing laws for the two drugs — and I’m one of those people — it’s because of this stereotype.”

    Maxine Waters and the CBC were among the chief proponents of increasing penalties against the trafficking of rock or crack cocaine back in the day.

    GeneralMalaise (0428a9)

  20. Get ready for a lot more along this line before the election and the 2012 election campaign will sound like a 1964 brief before the Supreme Court, complete with lynching.

    Mike K (2cf494)

  21. Not racism. Far from it.

    Just more moribund media Ray-Sizzum.

    So it goes.

    faxhorn (42b595)

  22. Calling her a despicable human being is not helpful. They want to make it personal! They don’t want to talk facts or issues! Empty name calling takes away from any specific argument we may have.

    Say that she wrote lies, that she is a race baiter, that she thinks any critique of Obama is racist, etc – and back it up with what she wrote. Wrap her up in her own garbage and present her that way for all to see. Don’t throw dust in the air that only obscures the view.

    What she did is despicable. Focus on that.

    Amphipolis (17a9b7)

  23. Over the past couple months, I have developed a massive aversion to the exclamation point (!). It is very much over-used on both sides of the aisle.

    Throwing that aside … aside, I understand your point, Amphipolis, but I disagree to some extent. The woman is, without doubt, a despicable human being. To say so is merely pointing out the obvious fact of the matter. But, as with all mathematical proofs, QED cannot be the first line. And the fact the woman is a despicable human being is not a mathematical definition; therefore, the proof of the statement must follow. And I believe the proof did follow.

    It was a sound-bite statement, to be sure, and those with sound-bite attention spans could be duped. But there was enough evidence provided to show the statement to be true for that ever-increasing number of people who are living beyond the sound-bite.

    John Hitchcock (016a51)

  24. Here are the missing is and ” ” in my last comment.

    John Hitchcock (016a51)

  25. Oh wait! Time for Obama to have another beer summit between Mattera and Zernike.

    when i have my inevitable beer summit with Ear Leader and whatever tender sensibility i have bruised, i will bring Ear Leader a bottle of Arrogant Bastard Ale, for all the obvious reasons. i’d bring more than one, but he’d never get to them, and why waste good beer?

    me?

    i’ll be drinking Double Bastard, of course.

    redc1c4 (fb8750)

  26. More straw man arguments based upon questionable assertions from the NYT. So what else is new?

    FatBaldnSassy (cc3778)

  27. Don’t throw dust in the air that only obscures the view.

    What she did is despicable. Focus on that.

    I don’t believe he obscured the message at all – he detailed exactly what it was that he was so upset about, and why this is just more of the standard MO for fading media outlets like the NYT. It’s well past time to call out these dishonest hacks and expose them for what they are – I was hoping he’d invite her up on the stage to explain just what the hell she thinks been playing at all these years.

    Dmac (799abd)

  28. @22 Amphipolis —
    This is dead-on. Zernike cannot render a leftist counter-response to specific issues or debate key topics unless she is willing to venture into the ridiculous or the irrational (both of which she managed to accomplish in her article). She has nothing to offer in terms of sensible solutions or accurate facts that might counter conservative arguments.

    All she has left is the personal attack. Deserved or not, she will take any given opening to paint someone she politically disagrees with as a racist.

    Perhaps more disturbing is that Zernike has determined that she has the wisdom to make such judgments, and dismiss the possibility of any well-intentioned humor, and then use that “perfect” judgment to paint an entire group of people. The fact that she does not understand or acknowledge any moral responsibility toward smearing other people is despicable. The fact that Zernike is an editor at the NYT is contemptible.

    Par for the course at the NYT.

    Pons Asinorum (d41770)

  29. And the alternative was???

    Foo Bar is still FUBAR!

    The alternative was not to bash Obama for cocaine use in his youth, given that it appears likely that Bush also used cocaine.

    Foo Bar (6d186c)

  30. ““Except that unlike the last gathering, our women are beautiful, we speak in complete sentences and our notion of freedom doesn’t consist of snorting cocaine,” he said, “which is certainly one thing that separates us from Barack Obama.”

    After the laughing died down, he added, “Actually, on the cocaine front, I do believe many people in America viewed Barack as they do drugs: it was a substance to experiment with.””

    – Jason Mattera

    He’s not being a racist, I don’t think; just an asshole.

    Leviticus (30ac20)

  31. 23 Hitchcock The woman is, without doubt, a despicable human being.

    I never said she wasn’t. What little I know of her is not encouraging. My point is that calling her a despicable human being is counterproductive in the extreme, thus my rare use of the dreaded punctuation.

    Amphipolis (17a9b7)

  32. He should still be bagged on for giving a fairly uninteresting and definitely unfunny speech. He had nothing to say really. He did nothing to address the reasons the vast majority of young people think Team R is only slightly less gay than Johnny Weir.

    happyfeet (713679)

  33. It is simple mathematics. The Democrats can’t win without 90%+ of the Black vote. Their lapdogs, like Zernike, echo the Obama-Pelosi-Reid talking points. They will find racism and “code words” everywhere. It is vital to them.

    I don’t think they’re racists but they will do everything they can to provoke racial tension and prevent racial harmony. And they will do it for purely political purposes. That may be more despicable than racism.

    Ken Hahn (fc4368)

  34. The Democrats can’t win without 90%+ of the Black vote.

    I don’t think that’s true.

    happyfeet (713679)


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