Racial Politics: "The Roots of Obama's Rage"

Conservative ideologue and "author" Mr. D'Souza has surpassed even his own shameless, hateful rhetoric and taken it to a whole new level of straight up racism.

In his book "The Roots of Obama's Rage," D'Souza uses Obama's support of his father to paint the president as an angry, anti-colonial, kenyan national.  This was subsequently parroted by Newt Gingrich, who was forced to pull back much of his statement and has since been somewhat silent on the national scene.  As one might expect from the media obsessed only with politicians and not with the truth, most stations neglected to mention that his words come almost verbatim from D'Souza's book.  The media moved on to another topic without even mentioning the horribly racist pages from which the quote was taken.

I usually take these books as what they are.  Trashy talking points and ignorant sensationalism thrown together in some neo-con media machine trash-mill with a famous name slapped on the cover.  Seriously, I think they have manuscripts laying around where all you have to do is insert a famous name and whatever group is out of favor (muslims, socialists, communists, etc.) and you've got a conservative bestseller.  And the conservative masses do their job.  They go out and eat this crap up like the mindless drones they are.

Anyway, I digress.  What is different about this book for me is that it's no longer just mindless conservative drival touting economic policies that don't work, mainstreaming religious extremism, or justifying trillions of dollars in war spending.  This is just good old fashion racism.  There is just nothing else you can say about it.

Let's break it down:

Obama is angry (Rage was a pretty good word, I'm sure they will be keeping that in their manuscript pile for the next time a black person gets elected president):  This WREAKS of "angry black man."  I mean, when has Obama EVER gotten angry?  has anyone ever seen him blow up at anyone?  has he ever lost his temper in an interview?  Is there ANY evidence what so ever that he has ever been anything other than cool and collected?  No, exactly the opposite.  Try reading Game Change, and you'll realize that Obama's cool, collected attitude probably does mask his irritations better than most, but never has he ever gotten close to anger, much less "rage."  Contrast that to the Republican candidate in 2008 and maybe you'll get a clue.

Obama is anti-colonial:  WELCOME TO THE 21st century... oh wait, no, your still about 200 years behind.  Colonialism has been out of vogue since about the 1800s.  In fact, we had a whole revolutionary war about that I'm pretty sure.  Does the US still engage in "colonial-esque" activity.  Yeah sure it does, but I'm pretty sure just about every liberal (and most conservatives for that matter) are categorically opposed to that kinda thing.  So why is it suddenly a pejorative when Barack Obama is anti-colonial?  Maybe Mr. D'Souza has it in with an undercurrent of American pro-colonialists the rest of us have never heard of before.  Or maybe he's just a d-bag.

Obama is Kenyan:  whether D'Souza was using it as a descriptor "kenyan anti-colonialism" or just accusing the president of being Kenyan all together, it's trash.  In the second instance he is lying through his teeth, which I think everyone should be opposed to no matter how much an ignorant conservative redneck you may be.  He's not a Kenyan, he's an American.  Get over it you xenophobic d-bags.  The first instance is slightly more sinister.  It's meant to point out the "he's not one of us" message that the conservatives have been pushing since Nov 3, 2008.  It plays on our Xenophobia in the same way that "illegal aliens" and Obama's middle name play on our xenophobia.  So what is it conservatives?  is he muslim?  or is he Kenyan?  or he both?  or is he a Socialist, Maoist, Communist, Muslim, Kenyan??  is it even possible to be all of those things? (the correct answer is no, but heaven forbid a neo-con would have stayed in school long enough to learn the differences)

To put it simply, this book is trashier than usual, and as such worthy of scorn.  Another truly sad development is that it is now #2 and #4 on the Amazon.com bestseller list.  What is the world coming to where we eat up trashy, racist, zenophobic garbage like this and thinks it's legitimate.  There were actually people commenting on the book who thought it was a biography of Barack Obama!!  How did we become that stupid as a nation where people think a radical conservative would write a biography (or at least one that wasn't clearly tainted with lies and misinformation) about a democratic president?

There is ignorance, and then there is willful ignorance.  The latter seems to define today's conservative movement.

Racial Politics: SB 1070's New Crime: Breathing While Brown

There are two issues in the new immigration law in Arizona (SB 1070): Principle and Practice.

I will accept that the law does not allow police to just run around and pick up brown people off the street corner and accuse them of being illegal (though the practice of at least one sheriff seems to contradict that statement as we will see).  However, there are still problems.

In principle the law allows police broad discretion to use their prejudice to determine who might be here illegally.  When they pull me over and demand to see my liscense, which I have forgotten at home, am I going to be accused of being an illegal?  No, because I have pale skin and I speak excellent english.  Would my father be accused in the same circumstance?  probably, even though he speaks impeccable english, he has dark skin.  Would me grandmother?  most likely yes, because even though she is a citizen, she looks hispanic and she speaks soft english (but still fluent).  the problem is that even though each of us is a citizen, the police would be responsible for deciding which is more or less likely to be a citizen and make an accusation accordingly.  Thus, my problem.  My citizenship status, or that of my family members, is not decided by the police, and they have no right to accuse me of not being a citizen without cause.  And not having a driver's license on me is NOT cause.

In practice it appears that all the fears were warranted.  Today, Huffington Post reported that a Phoenix sheriff when on a crime sweep and rounded up 89 criminals 61 of which were illegals.  seems kinda strange that 61 of your 89 would be illegal.  If you are just rounding up criminals regardless of their status and with no prejudice why would such a large proportion be illegal?  Unless you are stupid enough to subscribe to the myth that illegals are here to commit crimes against us, this should make you question whether the cops were really out to find people they suspected of being illegals.

If you really believe any of the following you might be a little bit racist:
1) illegals are here to commit crimes against americans
2) illegals commit more crimes than other people in their communities
sorry to tell you but neither is true.  most illegal immigrants are here to find a peaceful life where their children can become successful and wealthy and live the American dream.

Looking to the future.  This whole debate has dug up issues from English as the National Language in Alabama to racist comparisons in the US House to censorship in schools.  Clearly this is a great law if it has such great affects.

Common Sense

You Might Be a Racist: "Miscegenation is a Crime" Photo shows up on the RNC website

Oops, someone wasn't watching that facebook feed.  Apparently a proponent of the more hateful brand of neo-conservatism created this photo and put it on the RNC facebook page.

What exactly makes people think this kinda stuff is ok?  I'm all about freedom of speech, but just because you CAN say something, doesn't mean you SHOULD.  Stuff like this, similar to the Louisiana justice of the peace case, deserves condemnation of the highest order and strongest language.  If the RNC really expects anyone to believe that they are not a racist party then they need to smack this down with the same indignation that they throw at the president everyday.  or is Health Care Reform really more abhorrent to them than racism?  maybe thats a question someone needs to ask them.

This photo was legitimately not on the GOP website.  It was on facebook, and someone let it show up on the facebook feed on the GOP main page.  However, the GOP threw a temper tantrum when the same thing happened to MoveOn.org.  At least MoveOn had the good sense to apologize.

Someone should explain to Michael Steele the whole concept of "what goes around comes around."

Common Sense

Racial Politics: Illegal Alien Costume

Ok, here is a little of my conservative side coming out (I know, it's very rare).  So apparently there is a big controversy right now over an Illegal Alien Costume that has come out for Halloween.  The costume is a orange "prison like" jumpsuit, with an alien mask and a green card.  Hownestly, when I saw this the first time I laughed a little.  It's funny.

I recognize that some people might find it offensive because it is meant to satyre an entire group of people, but I don't think this version does, because you aren't really satyring the group, you are making fun of the concept.  Now, there were versions that I found offensive.  When the alien has a baseball cap or sombrero and a handlebar mustache, I think that was tasteless.  If the image were clearly a mexican man/woman then it would also be wrong, but it's not.  It's of an alien, and its funny.

I suppose my main reason for not finding it offensive is that, while there is a clear connection with the politically hot topic of illegal immegration, it's poking fun at the concept not the people.  One person remarked that he thought it was meant to suggest that illegal aliens aren't human.  That is a stretch and you might be a little over sensitive if you come to that conclusion.  I think it is funny because it suggests that maybe our immegration policies are silly in that we might even call an actual alien an illegal immegrant.  That might be a little stupid huh?

Anyway, I don't think it's that bad, but since I'm not an illegal immegrant, I will leave the decision of whether it should stay or go up to those individuals.

Common Sense