Race debate at CPAC descends into chaos after slavery slur

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Race debate at CPAC descends into chaos after slavery slur

Adam Gabbatt and Paul Harris in Fort Washington, Maryland
guardian.co.uk, Friday 15 March 2013 22.01 GMT

A discussion about race descended into chaos at CPAC on Friday when an attendee suggested slaves benefited from being given "food and shelter".

The provocatively titled session, "Trump the Race Card: Are You Sick and Tired of Being Called a Racist and You Know You're Not One", had been billed as offering a way for Republicans to counter suggestions of racism and win over minority voters.

But it fell apart when two people at CPAC, the largest annual gathering of US conservatives, interjected from the floor and and made a series of extreme remarks.

The session's moderator, K Carl Smith, described himself as a "Frederick Douglass Republican", an audience member interjected. "When Douglass came through slavery … he (wrote) a letter to his former slave master and said: 'I forgive you for all the things you did to me'," Smith said.

From the floor, Scott Terry, pictured, asked: "For giving him shelter and food for all those years?"

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Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/15/race-debate-cpac-slavery-slur

The article goes on to describe Scott Terry's and Matthew Heimbach's extreme views.

[tanyev]

1. He should go ask McCain if he ever thanked North Vietnam for giving him shelter & food for 5 years.

[Squinch]

2. Holy Shit! And this is the leading edge of the Republican party!

Next breakout session: "Which size rock is the best to use in a public stoning? Is an underhand or overhand throw appropriate for stoning an adulterer? A homosexual? How about a mouthy woman? Republicans need to know!"

[southernyankeebelle]

3. Don't you love the republicans when they say they aren't racists yet their actions show different.

Love the embrace of ignorance.

[Tx4obama]

4. The link below has A LOT more details and a video

Here: http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/03/15/1729331/cpac-slavery-minority-outreach/

p.s. Be sure to read the whole article for additional disgusting quotes that aren't on the video

[TxDemChem]

5. That is sickening

Saw it on Think Progress while at work and have been pissed ever since. Even though the politicians claim they're not racists, with attendees making those sorts of comments, they will never win the minority vote. And his comment about women! I'd like to drop kick his sorry ass. Subservience. I don't think so!

[horsedoc]

6. Typical...

This is all that is left with the Repug party. Moderates have fled or are brow beat into submission. Sickening

[DFW]

7. Isn't it ironic?

They hold these things to hammer out the true image of the Republican Party (not a conservative present, but then, they aren't bound by Truth in Advertising laws), and then get all upset when the world sees the true image of the Republican Party.

[workinclasszero]

8. This is what teabagger republicans mean when they say lets "take back america"...

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/03/15/1729331/cpac-slavery-minority-outreach/

After the exchange, Terry muttered under his breath, “why can’t we just have segregation?” noting the Constitution’s protections for freedom of association.

ThinkProgress spoke with Terry, who sported a Rick Santorum sticker and attended CPAC with a friend who wore a Confederate Flag-emblazoned t-shirt, about his views after the panel. Terry maintained that white people have been “systematically disenfranchised” by federal legislation.

When asked by ThinkProgress if he’d accept a society where African-Americans were permanently subservient to whites, he said “I’d be fine with that.” He also claimed that African-Americans “should be allowed to vote in Africa,” and that “all the Tea Parties” were concerned with the same racial problems that he was.

At one point, a woman challenged him on the Republican Party’s roots, to which Terry responded, “I didn’t know the legacy of the Republican Party included women correcting men in public.”