{"id":27127,"date":"2009-09-16T14:45:29","date_gmt":"2009-09-16T14:45:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scienceblogs.com\/gregladen\/2009\/09\/16\/a-trail-of-shame-racism-and-th\/"},"modified":"2018-07-31T18:46:28","modified_gmt":"2018-07-31T23:46:28","slug":"a-trail-of-shame-racism-and-th","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/2009\/09\/16\/a-trail-of-shame-racism-and-th\/","title":{"rendered":"A Trail of Shame: Racism and the Anti-Obama Movement"},"content":{"rendered":"

A couple of weeks ago, I published a very controversial post titled “Maybe We Should Have Elected a White President After All<\/a>” about the ongoing, possibly growing racism in connection with Obama’s presidency. The idea that a lot of the anti-Obama, including anti-health care reform, rhetoric and action was racially motivated was understood by some and rejected by others who seem to not want to see any significant racism in the mix. This was parallel to the head in the sand reaction to my earlier post on the the arrest of Skip Gates in Cambridge Massachusetts last July.<\/a><\/p>\n

There are those of us who have been saying all along that racism has played a role in anti-Obama sentiment. Does this mean that we think people who supported Hillary instead were all racists? No. Hell, they were Democrats. The vast majority were not orienting their politics in an overtly racist manner, choosing Clinton over Obama because Obama is black (though some were, as you will see below). Does it mean that we think that every objection to an Obama policy is racist? No. There are many valid objections, depending on one’s point of view, to various policies by Obama. Hell, Obama is a smart guy. He probably objects to some of his own policies! Does it mean that we think that every utterly unprecedented outburst of “You Lie!!!!!” in congress by a known racist from South Carolina during a Presidential address to the Joint Session of the House and Senate is a racist act? Well, duh…<\/p>\n

Over the last few days the left of center and centrist\/moderate wings of the mainstream press have gotten on board with this and have begun to discuss issues of racism in the current health care debate. As usual, the liberal blogosphere leads!!!<\/p>\n

Anyway, I thought it would be fun (in a “this whole thing makes me kind of nauseated” kind of way) to compile a random grab bag, ordered in time, of racist bits and pieces from way back before the election up to recent times. Even more recent bits and pieces on this important discussion can be found by just paging back through this blog over the last two days or so.<\/p>\n

The reason for doing this is to have a post to point to when people say “Oh yeah? What racism!!!11!!”<\/p>\n

Here we go:
\n
\nMarch 29th, 2008<\/strong><\/p>\n

North Dakota student skit<\/a><\/p>\n

The March 18 skit–which ignited complaints of racial insensitivity–involved the NDSU Saddle and Sirloin Club and was performed during the annual Mr. NDSU pageant, which is sponsored by the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority.<\/p>\n

The Forum reported on the lip-sync act in which a white student–wearing dark makeup and an Afro wig–portrayed Obama receiving a lap dance. In the background, two male students dressed as cowboys simulated anal sex while holding an Obama sign that one student ripped at the end of the 30-second skit.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

May 14th 2008<\/strong><\/p>\n

Obama faces racism in West Virginia — Finally the truth!!!<\/p>\n

MATTHEW PALEVSKY, JOURNALIST, TRNN: I’m in Martinsburg here in West Virginia, one of the poorest and whitest states in the union. Senator Clinton is expected to win today’s primary in a landslide, and the white, blue collar workers who make up her base have said they might be unwilling to vote for Senator Obama come general election.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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June 15th, 2008<\/strong><\/p>\n

Is the Obama Sock Monkey Racist? – June 15, 2008<\/a><\/p>\n

\"i-7ab6247c65071287830031a171f98adf-Obama_monkey_sock_puppet.jpg\"<\/p>\n

July 10th, 2008<\/strong><\/p>\n

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August 7th, 2008<\/strong><\/p>\n

Photograph of Obama and rioting black people<\/a><\/p>\n

\"i-50a94a696e433f5af99dddf7463e8ae7-racism-in-the-2008-election.jpg\"<\/p>\n

September 19th, 2008<\/strong><\/p>\n

The ladies on ABC’s The View sound off about Christian organization American Values, and Focus on the Family putting Senator Obama’s face on a box of waffles, portrayed him wearing a turban, and had some rap lyrics on the box cover. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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October 10th, 2008<\/strong><\/p>\n

October 10th, 2008<\/strong><\/p>\n

A billboard in West Plains<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"i-d4ef84c374e7c08aff26acc0394ccfd7-Racist_Obama_Billboard.jpg\"<\/p>\n

October 22 2008 <\/strong><\/p>\n

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October 22, 2008<\/strong><\/p>\n

Birds of a feather poster:<\/a><\/p>\n

\"i-2b68d54ab4aae486cd4e7a368751e316-birds_of_feather_poster.jpg\"<\/p>\n

January 26th, 2009<\/strong><\/p>\n

KKK – ‘increased and strengthened’ since Obama’s election<\/a><\/p>\n

\"i-0f725c5147865c767d22d629f121534f-KKK_increased_since_election.jpg\"<\/p>\n

June 3rd, 2009<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

(more on this video here<\/a>)<\/p>\n

July 24th 2009<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Obama the African witch doctor”<\/a><\/p>\n

\"i-7b9f07b8f2ede4f5f9a1fb08b658da21-African_witch_doctor_poster.jpg\"<\/p>\n

August 7th, 2009<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/object>
Glenn Beck On Obama’s Birthday – Is He Being Racist?<\/a><\/b>
by Young_Turks1<\/a><\/i><\/div>\n

August 13th, 2009<\/strong><\/p>\n

All White Crowd Turns on Black Women at Health Care Town Hall<\/a><\/p>\n

This is the only video of what actually happened at the event this afternoon. The news only showed the woman being escorted away by the police. What happened was that four women walked in with signs, the crowd booed and yelled at the women. The women rolled up their posters and put them down. A photographer\/reporter approached one of the women and wanted to see what the poster was. As the woman went to show the photographer\/reporter, a man from the bleachers stood up and snatched the poster from the woman and photographer\/reporter. As the woman went to retrieve her poster, the police stepped in and escorted the woman and the man from the building.<\/p>\n

The poster was not of Obama, it was not pro-health care. The poster that was taken from the woman and wrinkled up into a ball was of [African-American civil rights campaigner] Rosa Parks.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Watch the videos and read the details here.<\/a><\/p>\n

September 15th, 2009<\/strong><\/p>\n

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A couple of weeks ago, I published a very controversial post titled “Maybe We Should Have Elected a White President After All” about the ongoing, possibly growing racism in connection with Obama’s presidency. The idea that a lot of the anti-Obama, including anti-health care reform, rhetoric and action was racially motivated was understood by some … Continue reading A Trail of Shame: Racism and the Anti-Obama Movement<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5046],"tags":[659,33,43,306],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5fhV1-73x","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27127"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27127"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30046,"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27127\/revisions\/30046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}