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[kpete]

Eugene Robinson | The Truth, Crudely Put

Tuesday 12 January 2010

by: Eugene Robinson, Op-Ed


Washington - Skin color among African-Americans is not to be discussed in polite company, so Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's newly disclosed remark about President Obama -- that voters are more comfortable with him because he's light-skinned -- offended decorum. But it was surely true.

.......

Forgive me if I am neither shocked nor outraged. A few years ago I wrote a book about color and race called "Coal to Cream," and the issue no longer has third-rail status for me. What I would find stunning is evidence that Reid's assessment -- made during the 2008 campaign and reported in a new book by journalists John Heilemann and Mark Halperin -- was anything but accurate.

.......................

American society's focus on race instead of color explains why what Harry Reid said was so rude. But I don't think it can be a coincidence that so many pioneers -- Edward Brooke, the first black senator since Reconstruction; Thurgood Marshall, the first black Supreme Court justice; Colin Powell, the first black secretary of state -- have been lighter-skinned. Reid's analysis was probably good sociology, even if it was bad politics.

Much worse, as far as I'm concerned, was the quote the new book, "Game Change," attributes to Bill Clinton. In an attempt to convince Ted Kennedy not to support Obama, Clinton is supposed to have said that "a few years ago, this guy would have been getting us coffee."

I guess the one-drop rule can still trump Harvard Law.

more:
http://www.truthout.org/article/eugene-robinson-the-truth-crudely-put

[Captain Hilts]

1. We take many prejudices into the voting booth. I don't believe the Clinton quote, nor that he said

it to Kennedy. None of it makes sense.

[CBR]

3. Yeah, I cannot see WJC saying this to Ted Kennedy at all. nt

[Captain Hilts]

4. Nothing about it is believable. It's the right wing trying to divide and conquer.

And folks here respond as if on cue.

[mopinko]

7. how do we stop that?

man, if only we could learn to duck that catapulted bullshit. if only.

[rocktivity]

2. Has everybody forgotten

That Joe Biden has said worse?

:eyes:
rocktivity

[marmar]

5. If the Clinton quote is true, it is indeed much worse......

..... and just further exacerbates my growing distaste for the man. I have a good deal of respect for Hillary, but Bill in retrospect seems slimier and slimier.

[waiting]

6. Clinton is not a racist

He was talking about Obama's lack of experience as a junior senator.

[Myrina]

8. ... that's how I understood it , too ....

Clinton and Kennedy were the Democratic Party - internationally known 'statesmen', and Obama was a young-come-upper.

I think its more of an arrogant statement than a racist one.


:shrug: