The Democrat Party Has Always Been the Party of Racism

Andrew Klavan (via Self Evident Truths):

Wal-Mart Wins Supreme Court Sex Discrimination Case

This is huge.

At New York Times, "Justices Rule for Wal-Mart in Bias Case."

And at Althouse, "'The Supreme Court on Monday blocked a massive sex discrimination lawsuit against Wal-Mart on behalf of women who work there'":

I hope the GOP candidates for President are smart and articulate enough to use this case in their argument against electing the Democratic President to a second term.

Word.

High-Tech Lynching: Progressives Attack Clarence Thomas Alleged Ethics Breach Because He's a Black Conservative

It's one of the greatest apostasies from progressivism. To be black and conservative is to reject everything about the politics of racial grievance and victimology. And for 20 years we've seen Clarence Thomas bear the brunt of the left's attack on black conservatism at the Supreme Court. I mentioned it today, the story at New York Times, "Friendship of Justice and Magnate Puts Focus on Ethics." And I linked Althouse, but folks need to go over there again, because she hammers the progressive hypocrisy: "The NYT goes after Clarence Thomas over 'an unusual, and ethically sensitive, friendship'."

And here comes the Soros-funded Think Progresss, "Justices Have Been Forced To Resign For Doing What Clarence Thomas Has Done":

Justice Clarence Thomas is an ethics problem in a black robe.

And he's being subjected to a high-tech attack in a white robe.

Despicable, but it's the progressive left we're talking about, so there you go. Just terrible people.

Via Memeorandum.

The Racist 2012 Republican Field?

So far both Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul have been attacked as racist. Check Matthew Yglesias, "Newt Gingrich Proposes Reviving “Poll Tests” of the Sort Outlawed in the Civil Rights Era." He did nothing of the sort, but Yglesias cites race-monger Ta-Nehisi "Don't Spell My Name Wrong" Coates as an authority. It's just a warm-up. The entire GOP field will be attacked as "racist," pretty much for just running against Barack Obama. He's black. How dare you??!!

Via Memeorandum (with some bonus dolt-douche thrown in).

Ron Paul Wouldn't Have Voted for the Civil Rights Act

And Scott Lemieux uses that wholly unsurprising revelation to slur Robert Stacy McCain as racist? Well, yeah.

Lame-ieux links to Robert's essay, "Whatever Happened to AuH2O?" And Robert mentions Rand Paul's controversy over the Civil Rights Act back in May 2010, where Rachel Maddow saw an opportunity and squeezed it for all the racism juice she could get out of it. I wrote at the times, in "Rand Paul on Rachel Maddow: 'IDEOLOGICAL EXTREMISM = RACISM'":

Paul wants government out of enforcing behaving among individuals, consumers, and places of business in the economy. We are 46 years since the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and it certainly seems difficult --- given the crises of that era --- to envision progress in eradicating that kind of Jim Crow racism in the absence of federal intervention.

I actually had a lot more to say, but basically I doubt any libertarian argument can carry the day on that issue, and I recall Ace of Spades making a really in-depth repudiation of the kind of libertarianism favoring private discrimination. See: "A Little History For Rand Paul."

That said, I know Robert Stacy McCain pretty well. He's a helluva lot smarter than Scotty Lame-ieux. But colorblind fairness (which is how I've come to see Robert's interaction with people) means nothing when progressives break out the long knives. It's pretty awful, but that's the way thing are nowadays.

RELATED: "Burlyce Sherrell Logan Returns to the University of North Texas."

Burlyce Sherrell Logan Returns to the University of North Texas

She's interviewed at New York Times, "A College Degree, 55 Years and an Era in the Making."

Burlyce Sherrell Logan, now 73, faced horrendous, racist attacks when she attended the university back in 1956:

“One day I was walking across campus, going to another building, and I saw a bunch of placards out,” she said. “I thought someone was going for office.” She recalled that she started reading the signs and they said, “ ‘Jungle bunnies go home,’ ‘Africans go home,’ ‘Burrheads go home.’ And I was totally shocked, but I had noticed there were a bunch of kids ganging up behind me. And I don’t know what made me do this, but I just started knee-slapping laughing, and I couldn’t stop. I think they think I went crazy, and they all ran away.”

She quit as bad grades piled up; moved west; married, divorced and remarried; raised three children; worked as a banker and a secretary. Then, in 2006, Ms. Logan returned to a changed university, now with 36,000 students — about a third of them black, Hispanic or Asian. It took 55 years, but she has earned a bachelor’s degree, her only worry whether her cranky 73-year-old knees can carry her up the steps and across the stage to collect a diploma that is as much about a life journey as any academic achievement.

Read the whole thing.

Ms. Logan is not bitter. Times have changed, and she's appreciative of the second chance and wise to the social transformations since 1956. That's apparently not enough for the racial grievance masters at The Root:

I wonder if some are in too much of a hurry to close the door on past injustice without exploring the history first. At a time when there is a disturbing rumble about race under the surface of so many of our discussions, we need to hear the survivors' tales. America has changed since 1956, or even 1976. It wouldn't hurt to remind America of the enormous psychic and emotional price that African Americans paid to simply exercise their rights.

Oh no. Wouldn't want to close the door on the last deep wellspring of radical left-wing power. Americans want to move forward and provide citizens with equal opportunity, and, unfortunately, more often than not, what's holding folks back is the Democrat stranglehold on inner-city political and educational institutions, not to mention the culture of anti-intellectualism that's gripped those trapped in the black underclass. But The Root says don't "close the door on past injustice ..." It's all we've got left!

The Paranoid Style: The Persistence of Conspiracy Theories in American Politics

An interesting piece from Kate Zernike at the New York Times. An excerpt:

The fact that many Americans — and many Republicans in particular — have told pollsters that they doubt the president’s citizenship is less surprising when you consider the sizable percentages of Americans who subscribe to other conspiracy theories, said Robert Alan Goldberg, a history professor at the University of Utah and the author of “Enemies Within: The Culture of Conspiracy in Modern America.”

Eighty percent of Americans, he said, believe that President Kennedy was killed by a conspiracy, rather than a lone gunman, as a government commission affirmed. Thirty percent believe that the government covered up aliens’ landing in Roswell, N.M., and a third of American blacks believe that government scientists created AIDS as a weapon of black genocide. Sept. 11, of course, has inspired conspiracy theories — it was plotted, variously, by “the Jews,” the Bush administration or Saddam Hussein.

By definition, Professor Goldberg said, a conspiracy theory is a belief that cunning forces are seeking to bend history to their will, provoking terror attacks or economic calamity to move the world in the direction they wish.

“I look at this birther conspiracy as a typical example,” he said. “This is far beyond the issue of whether this is a legitimate president. The real issue for them is this belief that this is a ploy by this hidden group to get power, to move Americans toward socialism or globalism or multiculturalism using Barack Obama as a pawn.”

RTWT at the link.

Kung Fu Fighting Composer Rejects Allegations of RAAAAACISM!!

You can't make this stuff up!

Blazing Cat Fur has the background, and at London's Daily Mail, "Racist? My song's just a blend of East and West, says Kung Fu Fighting composer":

Yesterday the song’s writer and original performer Carl Douglas described the decision to arrest Mr Ledger as ‘political correctness gone mad’ because the song was not racist.

‘The arrest is a little unbelievable because there’s no racism in the song,’ Douglas, who is now 68, said. ‘It’s very strange indeed. ‘I’m very proud of the song. Everyone told me that a fusion of the west and east couldn’t work and I said “no, it can”. I have cousins that are Chinese in Jamaica, so I knew it could work.’

He said he has met thousands of Chinese fans of the hit and had even been asked to perform it at the Olympics in Beijing.

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National Palestinian Radio

Bare Naked Islam has the perfect headline, "NPR executive caught on tape bashing Christians and Jews, praising Muslims."

I read Ed Morrissey's account earlier today. He covers most of the bases and suggests that the discussion on public/private funding is the key moment of the tape. The tea party racism stuff is typically boring, although the section on the need for more progressive elites is pretty good. But by far the most damning sections are those in which Ron Schiller is shown nodding approvingly as actors Ibrahim Kasaam and Amir Malik roll off a litany of anti-Semitic statements. And not only does Schiller remain nonplussed, he laughs at NPR's designation as "National Palestinian Radio," and vigorously defends NPR as untainted by "Zionist" influence. Meryl Yourish responds:

So the Jews Zionists control the media, except at NPR, and this guy, who has a Jewish last name, is only too happy to agree with undercover citizen journalists posing as Muslims offering $5 million to NPR. So, Ron Schiller — are you Jewish? Because if you are, that makes your actions even more offensive.

Yeah. It's pretty bad, but typical for the Israel-hating left. The fact that NPR executives are meeting with a (fake) pro-Sharia outreach group claiming ties to the Muslim Brotherhood is mind-boggling, but again, par for the course. See Washington Times, "NPR seeks funding from Sharia backers."

See also The Blaze, "NPR Issues New Statement: Exec Put on ‘Leave’ & We Need Public Funding." And Memeorandum.

Updates coming ...

Cantor Rips National Public Radio: 'Taxpayer Dollars Should No Longer Be Appropriated to NPR'

I'll post the video later, but here's this from The Daily Caller, "Republicans tee off on NPR after latest O’Keefe video":

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Virginia Republican, ripped National Public Radio (NPR) on Tuesday after NPR foundation’s nonprofit president Ron Schiller was caught on video saying the radio network and most of its member stations would survive without federal funding.



“As we continue to identify ways to cut spending and save valuable resources, this disturbing video makes clear that taxpayer dollars should no longer be appropriated to NPR,” Cantor said in an e-mail to TheDC. “Not only have top public broadcasting executives finally admitted that they do not need taxpayer dollars to survive, it is also clear that without federal funds, public broadcasting stations self-admittedly would become eligible for more private dollars on top of the multi-million dollar donations these organizations already receive.”



The NPR and public broadcasting defunding debate has heated up as of late, and the new video conservative activist James O’Keefe released emboldens their cause. Congressman Doug Lamborn, Colorado Republican, told TheDC “it’s amazing, the attitude that these guys have,” and their “arrogance and condescension” is “just amazing.”

The initial exposé is here: "NPR executives caught on tape bashing conservatives and Tea Party, touting liberals" (via Memeorandum). Also at POWIP, "Latest O’Keefe Sting: NPR Exec Ron Schiller."



Expect updates. Meanwhile, John Cole doubles down on the racist allegations.

Twenty Years After Rodney King Beating: Video Ushered Police Into YouTube World

At Los Angeles Times, "LAPD's Change in Focus":

In the wake of the videotaped police attack on motorist Rodney King, the department has learned to embrace video scrutiny.

It was shortly after midnight, 20 years ago Thursday, when George Holliday awoke to the sounds of police sirens outside his Lake View Terrace apartment. Grabbing his clunky Sony Handycam, he stepped out on his balcony and changed the Los Angeles Police Department forever.

The nine minutes of grainy video footage he captured of Los Angeles police beating Rodney King helped to spur dramatic reforms in a department that many felt operated with impunity. The video played a central role in the criminal trial of four officers, whose not-guilty verdicts in 1992 triggered days of rioting in Los Angeles in which more than 50 people died.

The simple existence of the video was something unusual in itself. Relatively few people then had video cameras, Holliday did — and had the wherewithal to turn it on.

"It was just coincidence," Holliday reflected in an interview a decade ago. "Or luck."

Today, things are far different and the tape that so tainted the LAPD has a clear legacy in how officers think about their jobs. Police now work in a YouTube world in which cellphones double as cameras, news helicopters transmit close-up footage of unfolding police pursuits, and surveillance cameras capture arrests or shootings. Police officials are increasingly recording their officers. Compared to the cops who beat King, officers these days hit the streets with a new reality ingrained in their minds: Someone is always watching.

"Early on in their training, I always tell them, 'I don't care if you're in a bathroom taking care of your personal business…. Whatever you do, assume it will be caught on video,' " said Sgt. Heather Fungaroli, who supervises recruits at the LAPD's academy. "We tell them if they're doing the right thing then they have no reason to worry."

More at the link.

Folks will tell different stories about this, but Rodney King resisted arrest. Was the police reaction excessive? Perhaps, although a federal court trial found otherwise, and the rest is history. I was more shocked by the Los Angeles riots than by the alleged police brutality in the beating. Of course, maybe I'm not in a good position to truly understand it, not being an oppressed minority, and all that, or a conflicted middle-class white feminist struggling to overcome her racial privilege, like Melissa McEwan:

Twenty years later, it's still the same victim-blaming I was hearing about Rodney King, even as he sat in a wheelchair convalescing from his physical injuries. (He has nightmares to this day, and, while currently sober, has struggled with alcoholism.) Twenty years later, same old shit.

But, twenty years on, I am a different person than I was then. Working through my privilege is an ongoing process—it always will be—but what happened to Rodney King was so much more difficult for me to understand and culturally contextualize then, and it's not just because I was a teenager; it's because I was a privileged white teenager who hadn't yet begun in any meaningful way to examine her privilege.

Somehow that sounds inauthentic to me, but that's progressives for you --- they're all FUBAR all the time.

RELATED: At CNN, "Rodney King, 20 Years Later." (At Memeorandum.)

Race Minstrels? My Reply to Chauncey DeVega

I read Chauncey DeVega's sick racist screed earlier: "Black History Month is Herman Cain Playing the Race Minstrel for CPAC." The piece is puerile yet vicious, and while it's tempting to ignore such rants as typical race-baiting of the progressive left, there was something that went above and beyond in this case. Disparaging Herman Cain as a "monkey in the window" is the kind of language one might expect from KKK members in the 1960s. But here this is coming from an author who's bio shows a body of publications in some of the left's most prominent progressive outlets. Thus, DeVega's racism is a perfect window into the deep disturbing psychologies of the Obama-Democrat cult of racial exploitation. It's a spectacle, and the critical reaction has been quite forceful. See David Weigel, for example, "Herman Cain Shall Overcome."

What's especially noteworthy to me is how DeVega's attacks form a broadside against the entire black conservative establishment. Herman Cain was the immediate target, but he served as the initial race "mascot" for DeVega's slurs against the whole GOP infrastructure. The piece was so provocative even Alternet thought a disclaimer was warranted in introducing DeVega's follow up, "On Chauncey DeVega's Herman Cain Post." I doubt this was the editors' intentions, but I appreciate the acknowledgment that a racist screed of this magnitude has nevertheless evinced little outrage on the left:

We understand that some are offended by DeVega's choice of words. We note, however, that most of the consternation generated by DeVega's post has come from right-wing supporters of Cain who have focused on the language of his post and not the substance of his claim that Cain lends cover to reactionary right-wing forces.

One of most widely understood aspects of Obama-era poltics is the left's endless resort to the race card as the last hope of any kind of political viability. Perhaps it serves as a dog whistle to racial victimologists on the left, but progressive racism hasn't served Democrats well over the last couple years. So you'd think Alternet would repudiate its own author. Instead they've doubled-down, as Confederate Yankee snarks: "Alternet Doubles Down on Bigoted Accusation that Black Conservatives are Race Traitors."

The entire concept of a group owing fealty to a specific political party due to their genetic makeup is entirely offensive to any thinking person, but that is precisely the argument Chauncey DeVega made earlier this week, and one that leftist web site AlterNet and its writer continue to support.

In my original post, I referred to Herman Cain and other black conservatives as "race minstrels" and "mascots" for the White conservative imagination. I stand by this observation.

DeVega's vivid bigotry is his own cross to bear. what is less clear is why Alternet is tolerant of such myopic rhetoric.

Confederate Yankee block quotes the precise passage that convinced me to respond to DeVega. I'm not only one of those "other black conservatives," but I stood with both Hermain Cain and Allen West at CPAC. The opportunity to do so was the high point of the conference.



At this point I'm simply in contempt. No doubt DeVega speaks volumes for progressives, given the left's silence in light of these allegations. And the reason is obvious: People like Herman Cain, Allen West and myself stand for conservative principles. We demand both equal opportunity and equal respect. We want a country that values individual initiative and guarantees that people of all backgrounds can pursue their dreams of happiness to the best of their abilities. The nation's founders laid the vision. Herman Cain, Allen West and others are living it. The question for me is how any confident, intelligent and morally upstanding black American could possibly endorse that kind of outrageous racist sentiment in this day and age. Perhaps it's just retail race-card politics. But when folks like DeVega demonstrate an encyclopedic knowledge of Jim Crow stereotypes and attack rhetoric, it's quite revealing of the extent that America has not yet overcome. Progressives are holding this country back. It's the color of your skin that matters, whether you identify with and belong to group consciousness organizations, rather than identify with American individualism and liberty. It's pretty easy for me to choose up sides. The patriotic thing is to stand with those who fight to destroy racial classes and hierarchies. Indeed, the pathologies espoused by the likes of DeVega are beyond revolting, but un-American. I reject the poltics of the progressive plantation, and I join in might with other upstanding blacks working for a better future.



More from Matt Welch, "Onward and Upward with Racial Tolerance" (via Mememorandum).