What great news for a Thursday morning. It’s evidence, if not proof, that grassroots activism really can work. Congratulations to the Basta Dobbs campaign, along with everyone else who worked tirelessly to get this xenophobic, racist piece of human waste removed from the CNN spotlight.
The blogger, Kristofer Paul, can be reached at bottomleftpolitics@yahoo.com.
In case you missed this in our ever-moving flow of news ticker factoids and talking-head rants, Kansas (Republican) Representative Lynn Jenkins – another one of those right-wing lunatics who infest Congress – proclaimed at a town hall meeting that what we need here in America is “the great white hope.” Now, I’m not sure how exactly one can step back and try to shift the meaning of those words. We all get it. We all know what she’s saying. Yet she’s trying.
Obviously I was discussing the future of the Republican Party in response to a question about is there any hope for Republicans. I was explaining that there are some bright lights in the House, and I was unaware of any negative connotation. If I offended somebody, obviously I apologize.
As she told the Lawrence (KS) Journal-World, “Republicans have been suffering in recent years and we need a bright light.” No, Ms. Jenkins. We need a bright white light. We all get it. This is just more reactionary hate speech that is apparently supposed to pass for civil discourse as we try, once again, about a hundred years after the first attempt, to reform our repulsive, bloodsucking privatized health care system. This is just one more Republican who hates President Obama for one reason and one reason only – and, no, it’s not because he’s a Democrat. I’m sure she now realizes that she shouldn’t have said it in public, but I’m also betting that she’s thanking her lucky stars (or, excuse me, the Almighty GAWD) that she didn’t drop the N-word (good luck spinning that ). So she’s talking to reporters and explaining that all she meant was that we need a bright light to save the GOP. A great white hope, if you will (snicker snicker, snort snort).
But remember…Republicans aren’t racists. They just disagree with President Obama on policy issues (wink wink).
The blogger, Kristofer Paul, can be reached at bottomleftpolitics@yahoo.com.
Remember how Obama is supposedly the racist, the angry black man who hates white culture? Remember that? Yes, and the cops – ESPECIALLY Crowley, who arrested Skip Gates in his own home – are heroes in uniform, just doing their thankless jobs and getting bullied by the White House. Remember the screams from the right wing? “HOW DARE THAT BLACK MAN IN THE OVAL OFFICE CRITICIZE LAW ENFORCEMENT!? HE DIDN’T HAVE ALL THE FACTS! DOESN’T HE KNOW CROWLEY GAVE MOUTH-TO-MOUTH TO REGGIE LEWIS!?” Rush Limbaugh shat himself, and Glenn Beck popped a blood vessel on Fox & Friends. And so many people in America went right along with it – even President Obama, to the extent that he admitted that both sides may have overreacted. The story became a pity-party for Sergeant Crowley, the victim of reverse racism and angry black men with vendettas against white people.
Enter Justin Barrett, a police officer in Boston. Officer Barrett was more than a little pissed off at the controversy surrounding the Gates arrest (apparently, Officer Barrett finds it perfectly fine that police officers entered a man’s home and apprehended him for the crime of being mouthy). So what did Officer Barrett do? Officer Barrett got online and sent out a mass e-mail in which he referred to Professor Gates as (brace yourself) a “jungle monkey.” Here’s an excerpt. Barrett said in the e-mail that had he “been the officer he assaulted like a banana-eating jungle monkey, I would have sprayed him in the face with OC deserving of his belligerent non-compliance.” Well, Officer Barrett, why don’t you tell us how you really feel? The officer went on to claim that he was not a racist, even though he used the term “jungle monkey” four times in the e-mail.
Officer Barrett has apologized. And, of course, his lawyer says that the comments were taken out of context (I’m not sure which context would allow the proper use of “banana-eating jungle monkey”). But I wonder – I just wonder – how many right-wing talkers will pick up on this. President Obama used the word “stupidly” and was attacked as a racist by some of the biggest racist scumbags in the country; how many of these idiots will attack this pig Officer Barrett for calling Gates a “jungle monkey”?
Maybe it wasn’t the (traditional) place of the President of the United States to comment on the recent arrest of Professor Skip Gates, a prominent African-American academic from Harvard. But, then again, he was asked the question. And he did respond – truthfully (and, in my mind and in the minds of many others who regularly see the results of racism ingrained in police departments, accurately). He simply stated the obvious: that the Cambridge officers participating in the arrest “acted stupidly.” He didn’t call them stupid or anything close to that; he criticized their reaction to the situation.
So, obviously, President Obama is a racist. Make sense?
Such are the cries from the right wing. Obama the reverse racist, participating in racial profiling. Obama, the shameless critic of our HEROES in uniform – the HEROES who regularly commit acts of stupidity and outright malice like the one committed in the home of Skip Gates. Shame on our President. One GOP Congressman, Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, is actually attempting to get a resolution passed in the House that would call upon President Obama to apologize for speaking his mind without knowing all the facts.
What in the hell is wrong with these people? I’m not just talking about McCotter, because he’s a goddamned Republican – he’s fucked in the head as it is. I’m talking about all the people, now including President Obama himself, who are acting as if this was anything but a racially-motivated arrest and claiming that “both sides” may have overreacted. Bullshit. What would you have done? If police officers entered your home and demanded identification, do you think you’d get a little mouthy with them? Or would you just salute, say “Sir yes sir,” and hand over your ID? I think a lot of us would be rather “disorderly.” Would we all be arrested? Or did something about Professor Gates set him apart from, say, me – a white male?
A lot of us are not willing to admit that America is not yet beyond – and, indeed, never will be beyond – racism. We’re willing to do intellectual backflips and cartwheels to defend this pig from the Cambridge Police Department, Sergeant James Crowley, just to avoid the reality that we’re still up against some pretty nasty racial tensions.
The result? Crowley is now the victim, and the bad guy is President Obama the racist. It’s funny how the right wing can turn tables.
