DUers what do think the code words/phrases being used against Obama to reinforce racial stereotypes?

[wndycty]

I remember in the '80's they never wanted to give Black quarterbacks in the NFL their due so they use to call them "great athletes" which was a way to acknowledge their physical talent without acknowledging that they had any smarts the same way they would for white quarterbacks.

When I see Obama called elitist or arrogant I keep hearing "uppity negro."

[mucifer]

1. yeah. Did they say reagan was "presumptuous" when he ran for prez?

I think not. he was "the great communicator".

[sourmilk]

6. "Presumptuous" is the new "Uppity."

I've been writing that a lot, today.

RW'ers are busy "deconstructing" his slavery apology speech from yesterday as we speak - I have already seen one headline designed to specifically separate and distance him further from white USAsians - "Obama Supports Slavery Reparations."

Disgusting.

[mucifer]

11. especially since that is false. It's not his position.

[BlooInBloo]

12. Like that matters.

[sourmilk]

14. As I said: "Disgusting."

"Divide et impera"

[nxylas]

23. But it might be his SECRET position

That seems to be the RW spin.

[TexasObserver]

2. Exotic, Elitist, Arrogant

[caledesi]

29. I agree! These would be mine. NT

[TexasObserver]

32. Exotic is code for "half breed." Arrogant/Elitist = "Uppity Negro."

That's what really pisses me off, to see these supposedly urbane, unprejudiced white people on TV news so comfortably allude to him as the dreaded Uppity Negro. The way they talk about him tells me all I ever want to know about THEM.

I have been shocked by the racist undertones that flow so easily from Chris Matthews and Andrea Mitchell.

[XemaSab]

3. "From Chicago"

sounds a lot more threatening than "From Honolulu." :P

[EV_Ares]

4. You are right, when Barack who is trying to get a handle on the economic mess, is meeting with

the economic teams he has assembled and others very knowledgeable, he is arrogant and presumptuous and already acting like he is President. But is he black enough? The media before was saying the people wanted someone new, someone outside the beltway, not the old politics. Barack has given them that, but now he is arrogant. Now, all we hear is the people do not know him, they need to get to know him. He needs to tell us who he is. Is he black enough?

He needed to look Presidential, needed to go to Iraq, Europe, he does this with no mistakes, he looks Presidential, then, the bar is raised again, will he get a poll bounce, did he go too far, acting presumptuous again, how dare he meet with the leaders before he is President, how dare he think about speaking at the Brandenburg Gate before he is President.

We constantly hear from the media, why is he only up 4 or 5 points. Well, the media never asks about their so called straight shooter who has been around for 25 to 30 years, why is he not in the lead, he is supposedly well known, Obama is not.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

5. All of the following...

Arrogant
Presumptuous
Black Muslim (conjures up the image of militant blacks who want to "kill whitey")
Elitist

All these words are code for the "uppity negro" who has forgotten his place. No matter how successful. No matter how smart. No matter how confident. He will *always* be just another "black man" who isn't good enough. And every action has been scrutinized through and through while McSame is allowed to get away with the most outrageous lies!

The double standards were evident during the primaries with some of the most incendiary remarks from media pundits and even liberals here in DU and elsewhere who bought into that language. Latent racism was revealed during the primaries. My shock is that I thought racism was a Republican characteristic. I learned that I was so wrong. I'm beginning to witness more and more Republicans willing to vote for Obama while many Democrats nitpick at everything he does. It saddens me a great deal.

[Zero Division]

7. "not a full-blooded American"

That and many other variations of the "he's not one of us" kinds of statements.

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[wndycty]

10. Wow. . .I see someone is very enlightened. . .

LOL

[styersc]

13. "Enlightened!!!!!!"

This is an obvious reference to my immigrant grandparents who were forced to work in the coal mines of Pennsylvania and wear carbide lamps on their heads to "enlighten" the shafts.

Calling me enlightened is the same thing as calling me a Pollock or a Kraut or a Mick!!! You are an obvious bigot. You are an immigrant hating bigot and xenophobe. You can't hide behind you code words. Your narrow minded intolerance is obvious!!!!!

(See how very stupid this thread is!!!)

[wndycty]

15. Are you kidding me?

LOL

[styersc]

18. Satire to demostrate stupidity.

There are real problems and intolerances in the world. Don't try to make some up.

[EV_Ares]

21. Exactly and what they are trying to do to Obama is a real problem which is the point of

the poster's topic.

[EV_Ares]

20. Yeah, you are right it is a stupid thread. eom.

[yardwork]

54. Grow up.

[geek tragedy]

16. I dunno, how did Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney

and John McCain avoid it?

[EV_Ares]

17. Wow, yeah, ok go ahead and join in the game, call him arrogant, call him

elitist, say he is not black enough, call him exotic. Yeah, see where you are coming from. Hit a nerve.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

9. When I hear him called a Muslim,

I equate that with "scary black man", because the folks I hear talking about that lie are really afraid of a black man getting into office--calling him a Muslim shields them from being called racists. They'd deny this, of course. They would be glad to hire a black man as, say, a worker--to their minds, blacks have equal rights as long as they know their place. And to them, the Presidency is not that place.

[JaneQPublic]

19. Exactly. Obama surrogates need to be making that point...

...whenever the GOP or political "analysts" use the words "presumptuous," "arrogant," "exotic." That these words are simply code for "uppity n_______."

Sure, they'll argue it's not about his race, but his lack of experience. But let's take, say, John Edwards. He had fewer years as an elected official than Obama, but do you recall anyone ever referring to him as "presumptuous" for running for president?

[EV_Ares]

22. Good point, eom.

[Tarc]

24. More playing of the race card

Shameful.

[wndycty]

25. Calling out racism hidden through code words is not playing the race card

And if you think code words aren't used you are very naive.

[Name removed]

27. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

31. So you're saying Obama really is uppity?

Why don't you tell us what Obama's done that strikes you as uppity?

[DevonRex]

39. And don't forget, somehow we're playing the race card by just

discussing republican tactics. Heaven forbid we actually, like, DISCUSS things here.

[DevonRex]

37. Why is discussing the bigotry of others "playing the race card?"

Are you saying that we aren't allowed to even discuss the fact that many, many republicans are prejudiced? Are you saying that republicans do NOT couch their prejudices in socially acceptable language?

If you don't care to participate in this thread without calling people names, then you should really just go elsewhere. Because in my book, calling someone a moron is shameful and you should be very, very ashamed of yourself.

[LowerManhattanite]

41. Because in the minds of some haters here...

...pointing that out indicates their stealth/spite candidate of choice—McSame—rolls with racists, and they don't want their faux-concern/backing of McSame attached to bigotry's ugly spectre lest they be called on it later.

[Nye Bevan]

26. People called Kerry elitist and arrogant

so I'm not sure how you translate these words into "uppity negro".

And what should we call great athletes who happen to be black if we are not allowed to say "great athletes"?

[ieoeja]

45. They did not repeatedly refer to Joe Montana as "a great athelete".

Ditto Brett Favre and a host of other white quarterbacks. They were always referred to as, "a great quarterback".

But black quarterbacks were almost always referred to as, "a great athlete". They were athletic, could throw the ball well, run fast, etc. But were they great as a quarterback, as the man who has to run the team? The refusal by many sports journalists to call great black quarterbacks, "great quarterbacks," was precisely for this very reason. Or did you miss Rush Limbaugh's firing from ESPN?

[Nye Bevan]

47. .

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22joe+montana%22+%22great+athlete%22&sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1B3GGGL_en___US231

[ieoeja]

49. Maybe you should read some of those.

Not one link on the first page refers to Joe Montana as a "great athlete" while he was an NFL quarterback.

Link #1: Joe was a "great athlete" as a child. In the NFL he was "greatest quarterback".

Link #2: "Bo Jackson" was a "great athlete", not Joe Montana.

Link #3: a list of great athlete names. Sports neutral.

Link #4: Joe was a "great athlete" as a child.

Link #5: another sports neutral list (a poll this time in which Joe finishes dead last).

Link #6: another sports neutral list.

Link #7: another sports neutral list.

Link #8: Rafael Nadal is a "great athlete", not Joe Montana.

Link #9: "Pryor is a true quarterback – not just a great athlete playing quarterback." Why do you think Pryor's coach felt it necessary to stress this? Maybe because Pryor is Black, and the coach has seen Black QBs disparaged in this manner before.

Link #10: Jim Ryun was "a great athlete", not Joe Montana.

[Nye Bevan]

50. OK, you win.

I now accept that "Great Athlete" is a monstrous racist slur, and I will avoid using this phrase in the future.

[Marrah_G]

28. Kerry was called elitist on a regular basis.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

30. It's not subtle.

It's pretty obvious they're bigots.

[LowerManhattanite]

33. “Sigh!”

Bad enough the in-your-face wingnut bigots are trotting those phrases around to paper over their racism...


...but seeing DUers bend over backwards to defend their usage as a dodge for their own hatred of the nominee is really just...sad.


But not unexpected. Cést la vie.

[wndycty]

35. Yup and they are calling me a moron for pointing it out

:kick:

[DevonRex]

38. And I did my civic duty on that...

Sheesh. What is wrong with some people? Are we not even allowed to discuss republican racism? Because somehow THAT is playing the race card? It doesn't even make any sense.

I'm kinda mad now. Maybe I ought to go sneak a cig.

[LowerManhattanite]

40. “What is wrong with some people? Are we not even allowed to discuss republican racism?”

Nope. Because in doing so, we're also evidently injuring the delicate sensibilities of the “griefer wing” of the Democratic party (although many of these clowns have now said they're considering going independent and shit like that) who would rather trash the nominee than say or do anything that damages their spite/stealth candidate of last resort, McSame.

Mustn't be too hard on him.

We must turn the other cheek on his lying and smearing and play by bullshit “Marquess of Queensberry” rules while he beats the nominee with a rusty bike chain.

We must bend over to be fair to him while he jail-shanks us.

Fuck that. With extreme prejudice and NO foreplay.

I'll not be a party to, nor will I countenance “so-called Dems” enabling the GOP because of their hurt feelings during “Campaign Past”.

99 days, folks. Ninety-nine days. Fuck enabling. Fuck spite. Fuck the passive-aggressive game-playing.

There's an election to be won, and I have two draft-age children I'm doing everything I can to save from McCain and the GOP. There's an economy swirling about the shitter that a McCain presidency (where he knows NOTHING about economics) will only make worse.

Stakes are too high. Fuck the hate. And double fuck the hate-rs. Those among us, and those outside.

[DevonRex]

43. Whew. You said everything that I wanted to say but was too

angry to say at the time. Thank you.

I just don't get it. Are we supposed to pretend that there aren't a lot of racist republicans out there? And even a few racist democrats? For crying out loud, isn't racism one of the things the democratic party fights against? But just because the candidate happens to be black, we can't even discuss it. That's even MORE racism.

This has given me one hell of a headache. Grrrr.

[yardwork]

56. That's about right.

[yardwork]

55. I know. It is really discouraging.

I'm disappointed to see some DUers defending the crap media, for crying out loud.

[applegrove]

34. The Republicans have never run without their "southern strategy" in the last

40 years. Same old, same old.

[Barack_America]

36. "Can't seal the deal"

That's how Buchanan keeps himself from blurting out the n* word.

[WeDidIt]

42. I'm just wondering which asshole pundit will slip and call him "uppity"

I'm betting Buchanan. He's so close to stroking out over Obama.

[DevonRex]

44. I would actually enjoy seeing Buchanan totally lose it. Folks

need to be reminded of how extreme he really is. And then maybe MSNBC would have to get rid of him.

[ieoeja]

46. "There is just something about him I don't trust."

If something about him bothers you, and you don't know what it is ... you just might be a racist.

EVERYTHING about the Rev. Wright Nontroversy is clearly racist since Rev. Wright's "God damn America" is no different than what many prominent white preachers have said a hundred times over the past 30 years. So if Rev. Wright bothers you about Obama, the same thing by these preachers should have bothered you about Hillary and every major Republican office seeker the past three decades. If it doesn't ... you just might be a racist.

PUMA is almost certainly a three way split between racists, misandrists and Republican agitators. So if you are Democrat who refuses to support the Democratic nominee against the Republican ... you just might be a racist.

[blondeatlast]

48. The "rock star" references wouldn't be used against a white candidate, IMHO.

The references aren't overtly racist, but I think they are aimed at a similar nerve in racist people.

[Nye Bevan]

51. .

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GGIH_enUS238US238&q=%22bill+clinton%22+%22rock+star%22

[Phredicles]

52. Good point - it's a way to trivialize him and the people who support him.

Plus, it has to rub people still worked up about those damn hippies the wrong way.

[KharmaTrain]

53. "Risky"

Right out of the Atwater playbook. It covers "untrustworthy" and "wreckless" or irresponsible...racial codewords as in "Branch Rickey's choice of Jackie Robinson was "risky".

Then there are tons of buzzwords on hate radio..."plantation mentality" was one I've heard as well as the continual mentions of Reverend Wright...trying to make him into H. Rapp Obama (and, yes I've heard that term thrown at him, too).

[Fleshdancer]

57. I think it sucks and they should be called on it. n/t

[wndycty]

58. Tuesday kick for the McCain use of race card

:kick: