Those who are calling for Reid's head for what he said, and using Trent Lott's resignation as Senate Majority Leader over his comments about Storm Thurmand's 1948 Dixiecrat Presidential campaign as a justification for doing so, are not interested in improving racial relations in America. They are playing an unseemly game of political "gotcha."
This is bad politics and it is stupid politics. It won't hurt Reid or Democrats with the African American community, which is lining up to support him. It is a distraction from the issues that will make a difference in the 2010 election. Republicans and conservatives should just stop talking about it and get back to the economy, health care and cap and trade.
Those on the left defending Reid are also not interested in promoting racial harmony. They gain personally and politically with the racial "gotcha" games which are designed to foster division and keep people down, rather than foster harmony and empower people.
Al Sharpton was on FoxNews this morning with his straight hair. He said he was offended by Reid's use of the phrase "Negro dialect." As if there is no such thing. If Sharpton was really about empowering his people and fostering racial harmony rather than division he would be agreeing with Reid sentiments and encouraging African Americans to improve their educations and those who speak in such a dialect to improve their mastery of language.
This is not about race. It is about education.
Last weekend while watching the football games one of the TV stations had the starting football players introducing themselves. I was impressed with the diction of several of the African American players. It defied the stereotype. I rewound the introductions to hear what colleges they went to.
Let's take black and white out of this conversation for a minute and consider a Cuban-American; U.S. Senator Robert Menendez. Have you heard him speak? He does not speak in a Cuban-American dialect nor a Hudson County dialect for that matter. I don't know if he was self taught or had linguistic training but I would bet good money that he speaks more masterfully now than he did as a young person in Hudson County.
Speech is a skill that people of all races should study, practice and master. Sharpton should be championing that kind of education rather than denying that the problem exists.
NAACP Senior Vice President Hillary O. Shelton was also on FoxNews this morning. His diction was perfect and his straight hair appeared to be much more natural than Sharpton's did.
Shelton was defending Reid. He said Reid's words were "awkward" and not racist. Of course they were awkward, not because there was anything inaccurate or inappropriate about them, but because whenever a public figure talks about anything racial someone is going to grab a metaphorical megaphone and make hay out of it for political or financial gain.
Would it have mattered if Reid said, "Black dialect", "African American dialect" or "speaks well?" Probably not. Joe Biden got heat early in the last Presidential campaign when he said Obama was articulate. Had Reid said "Ebonics" there would really be a s**t storm.
So what about the census form?
There's plenty to be offended by if you want to make political hay. Why are Whites classified as White instead of Caucasian? Is Caucasian on non-PC word now? Why are there so many distinctions of Asians? Are Chinese, Japanese and Koreans really different races? If they are counted so specifically, why are not Europeans and Africans also counted that way?
How come American Indians and Alaskan Natives are not classified as Aboriginals?
What about Hispanics? Arabs? There must be something wrong with the picture of the form I found.(The photo of the form is accurate) They could not possibly be excluded. Or maybe they are, which should be fixed.
Posts
4 comments:
There is also a United Negro College Fund. They try to hide the word "Negro" from their name as most of their documentation/website just says "UNCF".
I'm not offended, and it seems like there are worse things that Reid is doing to our country than accurately describing Obama, who is light skinned compared to say Michael Steele and who doesn't speak with a Negro accent compared to say Fat Al Sharpton.
It still doesn't explain or diminish from the obvious media bias - or why Don Imus had to lose his job for a similar matter.
So Reid is saying that a dark skinned black man who spoke like a street hoodlum probably would not have been elected president.
First if anyone should be insulted by that it should be white people not black people. Reid is inferring that the more someone is like us the more likely we are to elect them.
BUT even we should not be offended, BECAUSE IT IS TRUE.
We would also be unlikely to vote for a heavily accented oriental guy or a bearded gap tooth white guy who chewed tobacco and had a heavy southern drawl (even in the unlikely event he went to harvard)
We all make judgements about people based on how they look and sound. Now you can argue that we shouldn't do that but pretending it does not happen is idiotic. All Reid did was acknowledge a fact of human nature.
I despise Reid but you are right Art. Republicans should shut up and stay out of this. Let the liberals beat up each other. We just look stupid getting involved.
This whole thing just reveals Reid as clueless; the tone of voice does not matter; what it says does. The hue of blackness doesn't matter; charactor and inegrity do.
Charactor, integrity, what is said; means so much more than tone of voice, and hue of color; that for reid to focus on that, exposes him as the dysfunctional superificial official he is.
my biggest concern is that the Dems will make all the illegals legal, concoct some "mandatory" voter registration to further stuff the ballot boxes/steal more elections,and further control every single aspect of our lives, while they, the genius, Marxist elites, get to rule us in a forever dictatorship.. they are halfway there in ONE year, folks..so,be counted, whatever you think of yourself as, give them the least personal info you can,but pay the hell attention to what they are doing to us everyday, and then,let's take back our country!..here: JC Watts, Condi Rice, Alan Keyes, dark, darker, darkest: they'd get MY vote any day, (but certainly not the one we've got,whatever his "shade,")whether I was sighted or blind, because of who they are, and what they stand for, NOT how dark, or twangy, or "streetish", their looks/accents may be!!!how I'd hoped we're beyond the so superficial and so "PC", but, sadly it's all still there!..
Post a Comment