You Might Be a Racist If…
The language of GOP racial politics is heavy on euphemisms that allow the speaker to deny any responsibility for the racial content of his message. The code words in this game are “entitlement society” — as used by Mitt Romney — and “poor work ethic” and “food stamp president” — as used by Newt Gingrich. References to a lack of respect for the “Founding Fathers” and the “Constitution” also make certain ears perk up by demonizing anyone supposedly threatening core “old-fashioned American values.”
Yeah, any time I hear someone talk about the “Constitution” I can tell they’re racists.
The fact is, if you hear the n-word every time someone talks about our entitlement society, the person with the race problem is YOU. If you hear “American values” and think “bigot” then the person with the race problem is YOU. If talking about the Founding Fathers seems racist, the person with the race problem is YOU.
If everything sounds like racism to you, Juan Williams, you might be a racist.
Racists
Patterico (d508e7) — 1/30/2012 @ 8:58 pmPlenty of white people on food stamps, Juan. Plenty of white people clamoring for their various entitlements.
Going this far to identify racism seems to show a mission of finding racism whether or not it’s there to be found.
Dustin (401f3a) — 1/30/2012 @ 9:04 pmI think it’s about time we just admitted we’re racists and got defiant about it. If that’s your definition of racism, then what’s wrong with it? If that’s your definition of racism then I’m proud to be a racist. The game the left is playing is an old one: get universal agreement that X is bad, and then slowly shift the definition of X to include more and more things that were never agreed to be bad. The syllogism goes “If X is bad, and Y is X, then Y must be bad.” But the correct response is “Y was never bad before, and it doesn’t become bad by defining it as X. X is only bad if it doesn’t include Y. If X includes Y, then only some instances of X are bad while others are good.”
Milhouse (ea66e3) — 1/30/2012 @ 9:08 pmIt’s part of a general leftist philosophy of elevating words above substance. Because they deny that substance actually exists; that we can know any absolute truths. All “truths” are really about language, so by manipulating language we can make whatever we like become true. Hence Focault.
Milhouse (ea66e3) — 1/30/2012 @ 9:10 pmAny argument about “code words” is intrinsically insulting, and instantly reveals the arguer to be arguing in the worst of bad faith. If anything I say can be reinterpreted at will by the person arguing with me, then that person might just as well be engaged in a monologue, and I’m completely superfluous to his own self-stimulation.
Williams has had better days that this, even for a reliable leftie. How quickly he forgets his treatment at NPR!
Beldar (493372) — 1/30/2012 @ 9:10 pmhe is totally totally totally the food stamp president his ne’er-do-well mama raised him on the food stamps and he has recipes
happyfeet (3c92a1) — 1/30/2012 @ 9:13 pm“To say the least this is a chilling assault on free speech. The critical importance of honest journalism and a free flowing, respectful national conversation needs to be had in our country. But it is being buried as collateral damage in a war whose battles include political correctness and ideological orthodoxy.”
It only applies some of the time, and to some of the people.
Dana (4eca6e) — 1/30/2012 @ 9:16 pmThe reason why people praise the movie Evita is because it portrayed a Marxist in a positive light.
Juan Williams deserves to get a barium enema.
Dohbiden (ef98f0) — 1/30/2012 @ 9:19 pmCan we please give it a rest there is no oil in the gulf anymore………..alright liberals or is that too hard?
Dohbiden (ef98f0) — 1/30/2012 @ 9:20 pmDamn right I’m a racist…I love NASCAR!
Gazzer (1aa3de) — 1/30/2012 @ 9:20 pmthe scene is set for a bonanza of racial politics really?
who thinks like that?
Stupid people.
happyfeet (3c92a1) — 1/30/2012 @ 9:21 pmDon’t forget what one of the august members of the Congressional Black Caucus (was it Charles Rangel or John Conyers or someone else?) told us about twelve years ago: tax cuts are code words for institutional racism.
If you can’t understand how this all works, just remember the old joke: What’s the definition of a bigot? Someone who is winning an argument with a liberal.
JVW (4d72aa) — 1/30/2012 @ 9:21 pmOnly the useful idiots.
Honestly the cult of personality over Obama is the same as with the perons.
Dohbiden (ef98f0) — 1/30/2012 @ 9:22 pmRegardless of how they were intended, poor people and minorities sense that with those comments Gingrich is winking — some call it “dog whistling” — at certain white audiences by intimating that black people are lazy, happy to live off the government and lacking any intellect.
Isn’t this about intentionalism? The intent of the speaker does not matter; what determines the actual meaning of the statement is how a select group of people interpret them. But it also doesn’t matter that the select group of people already have their own presuppositions and assumptions solidly in place about the speaker and his assumed views before they even hear the statement.
Dana (4eca6e) — 1/30/2012 @ 9:23 pmJuan Williams was on O’Reilly tonight defending Occupy Wall St. assclowns as speaking for America. Economist/actor Ben Stein agreed that California would vote for Urkel in a big way because of ethnic groups Obama relates to. Cannot that be deemed racist? Soros seems to think Romney is another Obama and told the Euroweenie libtards not to fear Romney in the race. I keep hearing that Obama is a great salesman but cannot fathom why people seem to think so, other than he managed to push through Obamacare and paid off his cronies and contributors through stimuli funds. Seems people are just ignorant about the eventual effects of printing money. Sooner or later the kaka will hit the fan. Personally I’d like to see the DC pols and banking crooks hanging in the fashion of Mussolini
Calypso Louie Farrakhan (cf92ce) — 1/30/2012 @ 9:32 pmPing (although it doesn’t substantively add anything to what I said above in #5 above).
Beldar (493372) — 1/30/2012 @ 9:53 pm____________________________________________
Williams is almost 60 years old, and, again, keep in mind the well-known phrase about a person being a conservative when he’s 20 years old (and supposedly not having a heart), and that same person being a liberal when he’s 40 (and therefore lacking a brain).
Even more so given the flap Williams experienced not long ago, there has to be something truly defective about him or anyone else who’s well past his or her teenage or college years — or certainly well past his middle years — who still clings to, or is infected with, liberal biases. How else can one understand the cognitive dissonance, bratty dishonesty and immature judgment of people like Williams?
Mark (31bbb6) — 1/30/2012 @ 9:53 pmMy name is Drew, and I’m a Racist!
AD-RtR/OS! (c544cc) — 1/30/2012 @ 10:35 pmIt is just as racist to vote for someone because he is black as it is to vote against someone because he is black.
Racists.
tyree (84087f) — 1/30/2012 @ 11:12 pmJuan Williams is just upset about the fact that while 40 per cent of welfare recipients are white, 41 percent are black. See, Juan remembers that blacks are like 12.5 per cent of the U.S. population. Whites are like maybe 75 % and shrinking. That’s why he’s so upset with Gingrich, because anyone can see that this huge percentage difference is Gringrich’s fault. Anyway, I’m not voting for Newt, but Juan’s criticism has nothing to do with it.
DV1252x (045cef) — 1/30/2012 @ 11:29 pmOn This Week, Donna Brazille, a black lady, said Gingrich whipped her once.
wesson (1dbab0) — 1/30/2012 @ 11:39 pmHi Drew!
Icy (ad8d03) — 1/30/2012 @ 11:42 pmJuan Williams is haughty and presumptuous.
Icy (ad8d03) — 1/31/2012 @ 12:01 amYou might be a racist if:
Icy (ad8d03) — 1/31/2012 @ 1:33 am— While running to be the 44th President of the United States you tell 300 million people that your WHITE grandmother was afraid of black men.
— You are the 39th President of the United States and you categorically state that people who criticize the 44th President of the United States are doing so because of the color of his skin.
— You are the 42nd President of the United States and in explaining why your wife lost the South Carolina primary you say: “Jesse Jackson won South Carolina in ’84 and ’88. Jackson ran a good campaign. And Obama ran a good campaign here.” And when criticized for making that comment responds by accusing the campaign of his wife’s opponent of “playing the race card on me”.
I confess. I’ve always had a strong bias against SOBs, especially dumb ones. I’m kind of feeling that way, right now, about old Juan.
PE (0609ab) — 1/31/2012 @ 3:58 amWhen your only tool is a hammer, pretty soon everything starts looking like a nail.
Maybe it’s time for Williams to take that huge racism chip off his shoulder.
‘Course, I’m probably a racist for saying so…
bobdog (166386) — 1/31/2012 @ 5:02 amDenounced and condemned.
JD (48f69a) — 1/31/2012 @ 5:11 amDE ja vu, or it’s all different this time;
http://www.bootsandsabers.com/index.php/weblog/permalink/gab_conceals_walker_petitions_in_blatant_partisan_act
narciso (87e966) — 1/31/2012 @ 5:18 amRest assured, any of you who may have thought that Juan had an awakening of sorts after the NPR kerfuffle.
He’s still asleep.
Colonel Haiku (a2233a) — 1/31/2012 @ 5:35 amthe pods are still in the backyard.
narciso (87e966) — 1/31/2012 @ 5:38 amSo… um… does that mean all the liberals who said Bush was shredding the constitution, etc. for 8 years were all racists?
Then again, they DID like to portray him as a monkey… hmm…
Aaron Worthing (73a7ea) — 1/31/2012 @ 5:43 amRacism is the excuse lazy minority bums use to evade responsibility for sponging off taxpayers.
ropelight (18b0e1) — 1/31/2012 @ 5:50 amI try to keep things simple as is the Declaration of Independence being one page and the Ten Comandments being one page (no lawyers).
My right to freedom of speech is basic and my right and people have shed blood and died in wars to protect my rights.
Now, those who have not shed blood are trying to take away my rights.
GreenLeaf (90347c) — 1/31/2012 @ 5:58 amIt doesn’t matter what we say. All they hear is racism.
Group-think is a very effective means of control.
Looney Newt (b120ce) — 1/31/2012 @ 6:05 amI think Obama causes jock itch.
Dohbiden (ef98f0) — 1/31/2012 @ 6:06 am“I can unboil an egg… I fought the law and I won… I put my contacts in with a nail gun… I won a game of Scrabble with all Z’s…”
Charles Rangel (fe1432) — 1/31/2012 @ 6:11 amThe writer of this article might take his own advice, and look to himself for seeing the racism in Juan Williams.
tadcf (ead2bd) — 1/31/2012 @ 6:24 amWhen the economy collapses the recession won’t be cleaned up.
Nice try though with your optimism leftys.
Dohbiden (ef98f0) — 1/31/2012 @ 6:31 amtadcf
How does that even make sense?
In what way has patrick treated people of a different color differently?
Otoh, did juan williams ever say that the people accusing bush of shredding the constitution are racist? and if not, why not?
Aaron Worthing (73a7ea) — 1/31/2012 @ 6:39 amAnd tadcf might look to himself, for seeing the racism in seeing the racism in seeing the racism in believing in the Constitution.
Did I stutter?
Patterico (d508e7) — 1/31/2012 @ 6:40 amAs I said:
Racists
Patterico (d508e7) — 1/31/2012 @ 6:41 amRacist!
http://thepeoplescube.com/peoples_resource/image/11222
Colonel Haiku (fe1432) — 1/31/2012 @ 6:56 amIt’s rather ironic that all these “racist dog whistles” can only heard by liberals….
Manfred (3379b8) — 1/31/2012 @ 7:35 amI suspect Juan Williams got a lot of “now you’re just a sellout on Fox” flak from the left after the NPR dustup. Now he’s trying to show he can still be every bit the idiotic, racist lefty he was before. Fie on him.
Mitch (29964e) — 1/31/2012 @ 8:07 amAs far as I can tell, according to Juan Williams, anyone whose beliefs or statements veer off the liberal plantation (yes picked that word intentionally) is automatically, forever after, a racist. So fine. I grew up I’m the 60s and 70s and lived through the horrors of Carter; therefore, I am as conservative as they come. So I respect the constitution, the bill of rights and the rule of law, including equal protection under that law. And for that alone, I am quite positive that Williams would consider me a racist. Hogwash, he just sees the reflection of his own race based views on everyone else. I would suggest that he stop worrying about the splinter in another’s eye and instead worry about the LOG in his own.
TexasMom2012 (cee89f) — 1/31/2012 @ 8:08 amTadcf can go eff himself.
DID I STUTTER?
Dohbiden (ef98f0) — 1/31/2012 @ 8:11 amFor those who may need a bit of brushing up on their history — and to clarify that associating blatant bigotry/racism with the Democrat Party is not restricted to generations ago, when Lincoln was in office and fighting the Civil War — the odd contradictions with liberals/Democrats behind closed doors and the way they are in public deserves to be illustrated…
________________________________________
_______________________________________
^ These are explicit examples of why I believe that liberalism — and protecting and furthering leftism — is far more important to many on the left than whether its leading adherents (including some of the major figureheads of the Democrat Party in the 20th century) are the biggest phonies on two feet behind closed doors.
BTW, I think there is something truly deranged when anyone, regardless of his or her politics, can speak as crudely as Truman and Clinton did in private. And there’s something not much less deranged when they can rationalize away their blatant desire to discriminate as Woodrow Wilson did. Wilson, btw, was a big promoter of creating what would have been a predecessor to the UN, referring to the League of Nations. So I believe he generally fancied himself as a do-gooder liberal.
[note: released from moderation. –Stashiu]
Mark (411533) — 1/31/2012 @ 8:50 amhttp://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-31/how-to-listen-for-racism-on-the-campaign-trail-jeffrey-goldberg.html
narciso (87e966) — 1/31/2012 @ 8:53 amI became a Juan Williams “fan” in 1991 after reading his lengthy defense of Clarence Thomas against the bogus accusations against him.
But it’s always seemed like there’s two versions of Juan Williams.
There’s there’s the reasonable man who knows the difference between real racism vs. those who piggyback on the Civil Rights movement for political gain (and who edited the civil rights chapter of Ann Coulter’s latest book)…
… and the guy who feels a need to recover liberal “street cred” by saying ridiculous things.
Juan knows better than this.
NJMark (ebc589) — 1/31/2012 @ 9:09 amI agree with Mitch and NJMark.
This is something we’ll see from the more reasonable lefties who ‘sell out’ by appearing on the ‘wrong’ programs.
Dustin (401f3a) — 1/31/2012 @ 9:14 amI knows what Juan is talking about. I is feeling him.
john b (8662d1) — 1/31/2012 @ 9:36 amI knows code words when I hears them too: like “community” and “folk”. I knows and I hears them Juan
As long as Juan Williams gets to define what is racism, you just can’t win an argument like that. If the definition of racist is saying something supported by evidence but disliked by the Left, then I guess we’re all racists.
rochf (f3fbb0) — 1/31/2012 @ 10:30 amA very important post, although quite brief.
This needs to get bounced all over the blogosphere.
A_Nonny_Mouse (57cacf) — 1/31/2012 @ 10:48 amWhat the?
Dohbiden (ef98f0) — 1/31/2012 @ 10:56 amJuan Williams has always been like this so no he does not know better.
But thanks for expecting him to be reasonable.
Dohbiden (ef98f0) — 1/31/2012 @ 10:57 am“If you hear “American values” and think “bigot” then the person with the race problem is YOU.”
What if they’re speaking the language of the ghetto? Or saying they’ll talk about food stamps to the NAACP? It’s not even a code word with some of these nuts.
hafter (5fb702) — 1/31/2012 @ 11:25 amThe thing about racial “dog whistles” is only liberals can hear them.
Then there’s this:
It’s the illegal immigrant advocates who carefully lump them together with legal immigrants to try to paint conservatives as “anti-immigrant.” Conservatives always are careful to distinguish between people who came here the “right way” and those who came here illegally. But Juan Williams can’t hear those words; I guess they’re pitched too low so he can’t hear them as clearly as the “dog whistles.”
Herman Cain was right about the brainwashing, but he was wrong to confine it just to blacks. You can see the effects of the same brainwashing on Chris Matthews or, indeed, any opinion show on MSNBC.
Anyway, you might be a racist if….
you think it’s OK for the GOP to run any candidate against the historical firstest, bestest, Black President at all!
Anybody want to take bets that I’m wrong?
Steve (32257e) — 1/31/2012 @ 11:26 amFounding slave owners. Fixed that for you
Eli Rabett (265174) — 1/31/2012 @ 1:49 pm^Josh is branching out from AGW.
Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (a18ddc) — 1/31/2012 @ 2:10 pmTranslation: “I’m not a bigot and the evidence is in my books. So it’s beyond the pale to read anything into my comments. But those klansmen named Romney, Gingrich and Santorum dog whistling up the redneck cracker vote? They’re fair game.”
BTW, sorry Manfred. I didn’t see your comment @ #43. Otherwise I wouldn’t have said the same thing in my earlier comment.
I can guarantee it’s a thought that has occurred independently to millions of voters for quite some time all over the country as they watch the media ramp-up the dogwhistlepalooza.
Maureen Dowd, NYT, talking about what she heard at Obama’s 2009 Health Care speech:
Melissa Harris-Perry, MSNBC, talking about what she saw at the Brewer-Obama tiff on the tarmac:
We used to lock up and medicate people who heard voices in their heads or saw things that weren’t there. Now they get jobs in the media.
Steve (32257e) — 1/31/2012 @ 2:42 pmYou keep using that word, “might”.
I do not think it means what you think it means.
Smock Puppet, 10 Dan Snark Master (8e2a3d) — 1/31/2012 @ 5:22 pmEli Rabbett is a fag.
Dohbiden (ef98f0) — 1/31/2012 @ 7:01 pmA lit one?
Milhouse (ea66e3) — 1/31/2012 @ 7:03 pmAnd why aren’t our coroners being arrested by the feds for malfeasance?
Dohbiden (ef98f0) — 1/31/2012 @ 7:15 pmAfrica for the Africans,Asia for the Asians,white countries for EVERYBODY!
Everybody says there is this RACE problem. Everybody says this RACE problem will be solved when the third world pours into EVERY white country and ONLY into white countries.
The Netherlands and Belgium are just as crowded as Japan or Taiwan, but nobody says Japan or Taiwan will solve this RACE problem by bringing in millions of third worlders and quote assimilating unquote with them.
Everybody says the final solution to this RACE problem is for EVERY white country and ONLY white countries to “assimilate,” i.e., intermarry, with all those non-whites.
What if I said there was this RACE problem and this RACE problem would be solved only if hundreds of millions of non-blacks were brought into EVERY black country and ONLY into black countries?
How long would it take anyone to realize I’m not talking about a RACE problem. I am talking about the final solution to the BLACK problem?
And how long would it take any sane black man to notice this and what kind of psycho black man wouldn’t object to this?
But if I tell that obvious truth about the ongoing program of genocide against my race, the white race, Liberals and respectable conservatives agree I am a naziwhowantstokillsixmillionjews.
They say they are anti-racist. What they are is anti-white.
Anti-racist is a code word for anti-white.
JakeBennington (3c0695) — 1/31/2012 @ 8:29 pmShut up, racist. Not joking this time. Thanks for the reminder that loathsome racists really do exist, they’re not just a bogeyman invented for the purpose of advancing leftist politics.
Milhouse (ea66e3) — 1/31/2012 @ 8:42 pmFounding slave owners. Fixed that for you
Comment by Eli Rabett — 1/31/2012 @ 1:49 pm
— Wrong! The men that gave birth to our nation were NOT the first men in history that owned slaves. Sheesh! Ever heard of fact-checking?
Icy (d5ef49) — 2/1/2012 @ 2:40 amEli Rabbett is a beeyotch.
Dohbiden (ef98f0) — 2/1/2012 @ 9:07 amExactly we have a paulnut nazi amongst us.
Dohbiden (ef98f0) — 2/3/2012 @ 8:44 amWe have more spambots.
Dohbiden (ef98f0) — 2/3/2012 @ 6:56 pm