"Proof" that republicans are racist

[longhorn_22]

Are Republicans really racist because they hate minorities, or because they disagree that people can sit on their asses and get helped out by the Liberals? I have no problem with helping out people that are unable to do anything because of a disability or other problem, but because they are too lazy to get out of the house and get a job or work for something I feel no sympathy.

Ahhh yeah. You gotta be tough on those minorities that are lazy and sit on their asses waiting for handouts.

If only there was just one lazy poor white people in this country....

I'm also just speaking in generalities. A lot of whites are just as fulfilling to my argument. I see people that are vastly overweight come into stores with payouts from the government and foodstamps. A personal encounter is with one of my familly members who is part of a group who travel the world and go on trips and whatnot. There is a certain member of this group who gets foodstamps and other "gratuities" from the government but can still somehow afford to pay for trips to New Zealand. Stuff like this is what I get irritated about and puts a huge doubt in my mind about "people in need."

[SonomaCat]

I assumed as much ... it just read funny.

[Ponycat]

Howard Dean has said some of the most blatently racist comments I've ever heard but he gets away with it for some damn reason

Do you have any examples? I'm not saying it couldn't be true, but I've certainly never heard Dean say anything worse than what I've heard come out of the mouth of our own Conrad Burns (who has the public use of the word "towelheads" on his resume).

I'll have to look for the exact wording but one that comes to mind was at a fundraiser or something he was talking about how the only minorities in a republican gathering are the waitstaff and cleaning staff.

No not as bad as towelhead but if anyone with an (R) by his name would have been slaughtered.

[longhorn_22]

Howard Dean has said some of the most blatently racist comments I've ever heard but he gets away with it for some damn reason

Do you have any examples? I'm not saying it couldn't be true, but I've certainly never heard Dean say anything worse than what I've heard come out of the mouth of our own Conrad Burns (who has the public use of the word "towelheads" on his resume).

“You think the Republican National Committee could get this many people of color in a single room? Only if they had the hotel staff in here.”
-Howard Dean

[Grizlaw]

“You think the Republican National Committee could get this many people of color in a single room? Only if they had the hotel staff in here.”
-Howard Dean

The meaning behind that comment really wasn't racist, though. The implication is that minorities do not participate in the RNC (except to serve them). It may not be a fair criticism, but it's not racist (although it wasn't particularly tactful).

And for the record, I don't like Dean as a candidate, so I'm definitely not one who would rush to defend him -- but I certainly don't think that comment can be compared to Burns' comment, or to the overtones that surrounded Bush's speech at Bob Jones U.

[longhorn_22]

Howard Dean has said some of the most blatently racist comments I've ever heard but he gets away with it for some damn reason

Do you have any examples? I'm not saying it couldn't be true, but I've certainly never heard Dean say anything worse than what I've heard come out of the mouth of our own Conrad Burns (who has the public use of the word "towelheads" on his resume).

“You think the Republican National Committee could get this many people of color in a single room? Only if they had the hotel staff in here.”
-Howard Dean

The comment about the hotel staff is racist in my opinion. He implies that this job is a job that only blacks could qualify for. A hotel employee isn't exactly a gorified position and many people took offense to this. Dean has also been quoted as saying that he wants to be the candidate of "white folks in the South who drive pick-up trucks with Confederate flag decals." I don't think this is too racist, but many others are offended by it.

[SonomaCat]

I think that there is a distinct difference between race-based comments and racist comments, although the two seem to get lumped into one pot sometimes. It seems like race-based comments are generally used to essentially suggest the other side is racist. Racist comments are those that are derogatory towards a particular race. I would argue that both are bad (unless the other side really is racist), but that of the two, the racist comments are the ones that concern me more on a human level. On a political level, both are uncalled for in my book.

[SonomaCat]

Howard Dean has said some of the most blatently racist comments I've ever heard but he gets away with it for some damn reason

Do you have any examples? I'm not saying it couldn't be true, but I've certainly never heard Dean say anything worse than what I've heard come out of the mouth of our own Conrad Burns (who has the public use of the word "towelheads" on his resume).

“You think the Republican National Committee could get this many people of color in a single room? Only if they had the hotel staff in here.”
-Howard Dean

The comment about the hotel staff is racist in my opinion. He implies that this job is a job that only blacks could qualify for. A hotel employee isn't exactly a gorified position and many people took offense to this. Dean has also been quoted as saying that he wants to be the candidate of "white folks in the South who drive pick-up trucks with Confederate flag decals." I don't think this is too racist, but many others are offended by it.

I think you are reaching on the Dean comment. I don't know how many hotels you have spent time in around the country, but in my travels, it's actually true -- hotel staff are almost universally non-white (it's weird when I am in Bozeman and see a blond on the housekeeping staff -- you just don't see that virtually anywhere else). He's not suggesting that only blacks could qualify for those jobs, he playing off of the fact that blacks, hispanics and Asian immigrants essentially ARE the only people who work as staff people in hotels. Was the comment appropriate? I don't think so. Was it racist? No.

EDIT: Now if Dean was more interested in advancing a noble cause as opposed to ripping on the GOP, he would have followed that statement with some sort of plan to improve educational and work opportunities for "people of color" so that at some point in the future, his comment wouldn't even make sense because the job opportunities for all people were no longer trended or predictable by race.

[Grizlaw]

The comment about the hotel staff is racist in my opinion. He implies that this job is a job that only blacks could qualify for. A hotel employee isn't exactly a gorified position and many people took offense to this. Dean has also been quoted as saying that he wants to be the candidate of "white folks in the South who drive pick-up trucks with Confederate flag decals." I don't think this is too racist, but many others are offended by it.

I dunno...like I said, I don't like Dean anyway, so I'm not going to spend a whole lot of energy defending the guy.

As to whether the "hotel staff" comment was a racist comment or not -- I can see your argument, but I tend to judge these things more by the meaning the person was trying to convey than by the actual words that came out. The words he chose are subject to more than one interpretation, but if you look at the meaning behind the message he was trying to convey, I think you'd have to agree that it was not intended as a racist comment. C'mon, let's be real: who do you really think he was attacking, the RNC or hotel workers as a group?

--GL

[Stevicat]

Howard Dean has said some of the most blatently racist comments I've ever heard but he gets away with it for some damn reason

Do you have any examples? I'm not saying it couldn't be true, but I've certainly never heard Dean say anything worse than what I've heard come out of the mouth of our own Conrad Burns (who has the public use of the word "towelheads" on his resume).

"I still want to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks."

-Howard Dean

[SonomaCat]

Howard Dean has said some of the most blatently racist comments I've ever heard but he gets away with it for some damn reason

Do you have any examples? I'm not saying it couldn't be true, but I've certainly never heard Dean say anything worse than what I've heard come out of the mouth of our own Conrad Burns (who has the public use of the word "towelheads" on his resume).

"I still want to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks."

-Howard Dean

That comment was just a head-scratcher, and caused him a lot of grief from within his own party (deservedly). Again, it's not a racist statement in itself, but since the Confederate War Flag is considered by many people (especially those within the Democratic Party) as a racist symbol, it is strange that he would want to reach out to someone who harbored those kinds of ideals. I think he was trying to use hyperbole to make a point, but it flopped dramatically.

[longhorn_22]

The comment about the hotel staff is racist in my opinion. He implies that this job is a job that only blacks could qualify for. A hotel employee isn't exactly a gorified position and many people took offense to this. Dean has also been quoted as saying that he wants to be the candidate of "white folks in the South who drive pick-up trucks with Confederate flag decals." I don't think this is too racist, but many others are offended by it.

I dunno...like I said, I don't like Dean anyway, so I'm not going to spend a whole lot of energy defending the guy.

As to whether the "hotel staff" comment was a racist comment or not -- I can see your argument, but I tend to judge these things more by the meaning the person was trying to convey than by the actual words that came out. The words he chose are subject to more than one interpretation, but if you look at the meaning behind the message he was trying to convey, I think you'd have to agree that it was not intended as a racist comment. C'mon, let's be real: who do you really think he was attacking, the RNC or hotel workers as a group?

--GL

That is just what I was about to get at. I really don't find it racist myself. I was just providing a quote for your post. I am more offended that it was directed towards the RNC than blacks. That is the only reason why I would have a problem with it.

The thing I can never get over in this country is the disparity between a Democrat quote and a Rebublican quote. When someone like Hillary Clinton says "When you look at the way the House of Representatives has been run, it has been run like a plantation...", there are a few rumbling about it, but if a Republican had said that, oh there would have been hell to pay. If a Republican would have said that that person would have been run out of office and that would have been the end of them. I just hate how everything is amplified 10 times when a Republican is quoted with something that woudn't be as big of a deal if a Democrat would have said it.

[SonomaCat]

When someone like Hillary Clinton says "When you look at the way the House of Representatives has been run, it has been run like a plantation...", there are a few rumbling about it, but if a Republican had said that, oh there would have been hell to pay. If a Republican would have said that that person would have been run out of office and that would have been the end of them. I just hate how everything is amplified 10 times when a Republican is quoted with something that woudn't be as big of a deal if a Democrat would have said it.

Actually, Newt Gingrich said virtually the exact same thing when he was in the House and was in the minority. It actually didn't get that much attention, as nobody remembers it.

Hillary was pandering when she said it, which bugs me, but both a Republican and a Democrat have now used the same criticism of the majority party when they were in the minority, and Hillary actually caught more grief than Newt did. Ironically, it was all of the "gotcha" sort of thing as opposed to sincere offense, as these people either didn't realize or ignored the fact that Newt had used the same expression in the past.

[Grizlaw]

"I still want to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks."

-Howard Dean

That quote was incredibly stupid, but the fact that Dean was attacked so heavily by Republicans for saying it is somewhat ironic in and of itself. Why? Because in order to attack Dean for this quote, one has to accept the fact that the Confederate flag is viewed by some as a symbol of racism. That's fine, but aren't Southern Republicans usually the ones arguing that it doesn't symbolize racism? When they need to argue that a southern state should be allowed to fly the Confederate flag over the state house, they always argue that it symbolizes states' rights, or that it's part of the south's heritage, or whatever...anything but racism.

I guess it only symbolizes racism when such an interpretation presents an opportunity to rip into a Democrat as a racist.

--GL (and I'm not even a Democrat; isn't that a daisy?)

[longhorn_22]

When someone like Hillary Clinton says "When you look at the way the House of Representatives has been run, it has been run like a plantation...", there are a few rumbling about it, but if a Republican had said that, oh there would have been hell to pay. If a Republican would have said that that person would have been run out of office and that would have been the end of them. I just hate how everything is amplified 10 times when a Republican is quoted with something that woudn't be as big of a deal if a Democrat would have said it.

Actually, Newt Gingrich said virtually the exact same thing when he was in the House and was in the minority. It actually didn't get that much attention, as nobody remembers it.

What did Newt say and when was this?

[SonomaCat]

"Since [the Democrats] think it is their job to run the plantation, it shocks them that I'm actually willing to lead the slave rebellion," Newt Gingrich told the Washington Post on October 20, 1994.

[longhorn_22]

"Since [the Democrats] think it is their job to run the plantation, it shocks them that I'm actually willing to lead the slave rebellion," Newt Gingrich told the Washington Post on October 20, 1994.

Ok, I'm not sure how much the media has changed since 1994 considering I was 8 years old, but today, the media is vastly not in favor of the Republicans. Virtually every major newspaper would have the Republicans ass if that were said right now. Not to mention the hell that Jessie Jackson, the NAACP and the ACLU would give them.

[SonomaCat]

"Since [the Democrats] think it is their job to run the plantation, it shocks them that I'm actually willing to lead the slave rebellion," Newt Gingrich told the Washington Post on October 20, 1994.

Ok, I'm not sure how much the media has changed since 1994 considering I was 8 years old, but today, the media is vastly not in favor of the Republicans. Virtually every major newspaper would have the Republicans ass if that were said right now. Not to mention the hell that Jessie Jackson, the NAACP and the ACLU would give them.

Methinks that such opinions generally come from listening to the media that is "vastly not in favor" of Democrats.

The fact is, virtually the exact same quote has been used in the modern political era (8 years old? Good lord!) by members of both parties, so the suggestion that a Republican would be treated differently is a pure straw man argument (that I've incidently heard advanced by many members of the "vastly and explicitly not in favor of Democrats" media that have major media exposure in every market in America) that doesn't hold true.

EDIT: And yes, Republicans had the same "the media is all liberal and hates us and is conspiring against us" mentality then (way back in 1994) that is has now. I was in my Young Republican stage at that point, so I can speak from first person testimonials. That was my first senior year of college. Eight years old!

[Grizlaw]

Ok, I'm not sure how much the media has changed since 1994 considering I was 8 years old...

Geezus, I'm feeling old. I was a college freshman in October of 1994...

(And yes, I also just turned 30 last week. Ugh...)

Alright, I'm going home from work for the night.

Later,

--GL

[Stevicat]

"Since [the Democrats] think it is their job to run the plantation, it shocks them that I'm actually willing to lead the slave rebellion," Newt Gingrich told the Washington Post on October 20, 1994.

Ok, I'm not sure how much the media has changed since 1994 considering I was 8 years old, but today, the media is vastly not in favor of the Republicans. Virtually every major newspaper would have the Republicans ass if that were said right now. Not to mention the hell that Jessie Jackson, the NAACP and the ACLU would give them.

Methinks that such opinions generally come from listening to the media that is "vastly not in favor" of Democrats.

The fact is, virtually the exact same quote has been used in the modern political era (8 years old? Good lord!) by members of both parties, so the suggestion that a Republican would be treated differently is a pure straw man argument (that I've incidently heard advanced by many members of the "vastly and explicitly not in favor of Democrats" media that have major media exposure in every market in America) that doesn't hold true.

Here's a recent study done by UCLA that does confirm there is a left leaning bias in the media.

http://www.newsroom.ucla.edu/page.asp?RelNum=6664