Brent Nyitray
Fairlington Blade
Let the mutherfuker burn!
jnc4p
Kevin S. Willis
Michigoose
lmsinca
markinaustin
Arcanaut
novahockey
quarterback
ScottC
yellojktThis article is making the rounds in the rightwing blogosphere. Short version, “White liberals are abandoning Obama because of racism.”
This speaks more about the victim politics of the author than of reality.
What do those on the left think?
–Troll
Filed under: Uncategorized |
All Things in Moderation 
By the way, I'm struggling with hyperlinks today. Sorry.
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I hyper-linked it. From the article:One way to determine how many people felt this way is to measure the “roll-off.” In presidential election years, a small percentage vote for the president, but then “roll off” by not casting ballots for state and local offices. A substantial increase in roll-off—larger than usual numbers of voters who picked John Kerry or George Bush but declined to choose between Obama and Keyes—would have been a measure of the unwillingness of some to vote for any black candidate. I tested this in 2004 and found no increase, statistical or substantive, in roll-off in Illinois. Faced with two black candidates, white voters were willing to choose one of them.Really? The author sure is looking very, very hard for any possible data that will prove racism is operative. If old-fashioned electoral racism is the absolute unwillingness to vote for a black candidate, then liberal electoral racism is the willingness to abandon a black candidate when he is just as competent as his white predecessors.I really find that a stretch. I may be wrong, of course, but that seems like a stretch, to me. Could there be other factors? A new generation of more impatient voters being one possible example? An increasing tiredness of giving non-performance on pet issues a pass? Unhappy with the approach–Obama seems more conciliatory towards Republicans to many on the left than Bill Clinton was perceived, I think. Maybe that's what they don't like. They are comparisons of two centrist Democratic presidents who faced hostile Republican majorities in the second half of their first terms, forcing a number of political compromises. One president is white. The other is black.One candidate was southern, one candidate was northern. One was mackin' on the ladies, one is a little bit more professorial. One had Al Gore as his vice-president, the other has Biden. Al Gore had a full head of hair, while Biden does not. One election took place in 1996, the other is taking place in 2012, 16 years later. Admittedly, I'm not on the left, but I'm very dubious of the theory. My 2¢.
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I like Melissa Harris-Perry a lot, but I think she's wrong on this one. I don't think he's losing whites because of electoral racism so much as he's losing them because we're disappointed in some of his policies. I'd compare it to my vote against my (caucasian) Blue Dog rep in the last election–he's finally pushed me too far over the edge with his "centrist" (actually pretty far right) votes on issues and I've abandoned him for a third party candidate.
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Wow, that's a pretty explosive charge isn't it? I suppose anything is possible but I'm really doubtful personally. Number one, all things aren't quite as equal as she claims, the economy is much worse now than during Clinton's term and number two, the polling right now is still a little outside of a year until the election. We don't know yet how many liberals will actually vote for Obama even if they are somewhat or greatly disappointed in his performance. Most of the progressives I know who are actually considering voting for someone outside the two party system are more disappointed by his perceived catering to the banks and the insurance industry and the continuation of a slippery slope erosion of civil liberties. So I'm not sure she's defined the difference between Obama and Clinton to my satisfaction at least.If she's correct, that doesn't say much about race relations does it?
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Another thought, on most of the occasions where I've seen her commenting on race relations, she takes a pretty moderate view and sees a lot of context and nuance. This seems to be a little outside of her normal optimistic opinions, for what it's worth.
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Bob Collins, the journalist who writes the 'newscut' blog for MPR, has a pet peeve about the use of 'may'. As in this sentence:"His re-election bid, however, may indicate that a more insidious form of racism has come to replace it."can as easily be rewritten as:"His re-election bid, however, may not indicate that a more insidious form of racism has come to replace it."And that about sums up the story.
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"If she's correct, that doesn't say much about race relations does it"Nope, but I'm skeptical she's correct. The first comment on the article: "Suffice it to say, not everything is reducible to race; and as an African American I'm troubled by professional 'race-baiters' who (whether from the left or from the right)frame everything in these terms."I tend to agree with that commenter. Otherwise, it's impermissible to change your criteria, as an individual, over time, if someone involved is black. What if you were a Democrat who stuck with Clinton and maybe voted for Obama but had an epiphany and became a conservative Republican? There is always some percentage of people moving from liberal to conservative and vice-versa–somebody did it during the Obama presidency. Is that racism? What about when folks did it under Clinton? Was *that* racism? I think her argument, in this case, is insubstantial. The conclusion is essentially that, in any circumstance someone changes their mind and the race of the people involved is different, it's racism. And is it mean, or does "insidious" here really simply mean "unprovable"?
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Do you all think she believes it ?
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I think her argument, in this case, is insubstantial. The conclusion is essentially that, in any circumstance someone changes their mind and the race of the people involved is different, it's racism.Kevin, if that's true, which I'm wondering about myself, then I am disappointed as she has been a really great analyst of race relations today.
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"Do you all think she believes it ?"I don't know if you can tell. But, presumably, it's a job and she gets paid. If I was here and I'd been all reasonable and my boss said, "Start some controversy, or you're fired!" . . . I might do that. But she may. Some people certainly do. I don't read her enough to say, but lmsinca seems to think it's inconsistent with her previous writing. So . . . who knows?
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And thanks Kevin.Based on Michi's assessment that she has been moderate in her comments about rackets under every bed, I'm doubtful she believes it.
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Rackets = Racists. I was using a dog whistle.
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Troll McWingnut hires a contractor. He's white. He comes with great recommendations. But he screws up the job. Quarterback explains he was having a bad day, his wife just left him, he got screwed by his suppliers–it wasn't his fault. He's normally great, and, next time, he's going to do an awesome job, and cut the price in half. Troll has reservations, but agrees: okay, he can do this other job I need done. Well, he's late, half-asses it, leaves a dozen holes in the wall that he never fixes and Troll has to fix himself, and then tries to bill Troll twice what he had said he was going to charge. Well . . .Let's move forward a few years. Troll hires another contractor, this time on Scott's recommendation. This guy is black. He comes with great recommendations from everybody. People just gush. So, Troll hires him, and he does a crappy job. No more crappy than the white guy he had hired a few years ago, but easily just as crappy. Scott explains that the guy had just gotten divorced, he'd been in the hospital, his assistant had quit, the suppliers had screwed him, but next time he'll do a great job . . . it all sounds eerily familiar to Troll. So, despite having more work to do, this time he does not hire this fellow again. Instead, he hires someone else whose apparently a 3rd generation Mexican, and the job is great. Then he hires that fellow again the next time. Was that racist? That's kind of what MHP is asking us to believe. When, in fact, since he had five opportunities to hire a women and never did, he's actually sexist. 😉
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It just seems so shameless to me, as a way to fire up the base. Plus, it's schaudenbonerish, so there's that.
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Kevin, you corked me! That was the exact last sentence I was going to add to your comment!
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"Schaudenbonerish"??????
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I knew Troll was sexist, let's ban him!How does that fire up the base? Are people afraid they'll look racists if they don't vote for Obama this time around?
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An obscene paraphrase of schaudenfreude.
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Ashot, yes,'playing on white (liberal) guilt.
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It's when the misfortune of your enemies arouses you.
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Well, arouses the men in the group, anyway!And you may be right about the white liberal guilt thing, but it's still fairly out of character of most of the commentary I've heard her do. This is the first time I've read any of her writing, so maybe she's going for a different audience than when she appears on, say, TRMS. Dunno, but I still disagree with her!
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It seems to me it would insult the base rather than fire them up, but it wouldn't be the first time in the last few years the base has been insulted. I don't think it's a workable strategy if that's what's going on. And I will be disappointed if this is some sort of political calculation on her part. If she believes it, fine, she has a lot of history studying and lecturing on race relations. If it's true, it make me more sad than fired up.
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Do you guys think there's still such a thing as white liberal guilt? I don't see it at all, but I'm in CA.
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Nah. It's a cute phrase that still gets thrown out there. But then I live in a state where there aren't enough white liberals to throw a wine and cheese party!
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lol, michi FTW and McWing takes second.
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Wow, we just had a little discussion re race and no one labeled anyone a racist? What's up with that?
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On a more serious note, good thing I'm good at compartmentalizing, I'm out for the afternoon. Off to administer a little love and compassion via Hospice. I'll check in tonight.
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God Bless. Lms.
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Mass hysteria, lms, mass hysteria!And have a wonderful time at Hospice–I admire your good works!
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It seems a stretch given the utterly different economic environment in 1996 and 2012. If there isn't significant improvement, Obama's in serious trouble. It's just how the American people roll. We credit (Reagan, Clinton) or blame (Bush 41, Carter) the President more than he deserves.BB
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