States' Rights and Racism today

Postby Jack Roper » Fri Apr 06, 2012 8:27 pm

This is a fascinating quote I had saved, from Harper's magazine on 12/20/10; a review of "Conservatism and Counter Revolution from Burke to Palin," by Corey Robin.

"As White House chief of staff H. R. Haldeman noted in his diary, Nixon 'emphasized that you have to face the fact that the whole problem is really the Blacks. The key is to devise a system that recognizes this while not apprearing to.'" Republican strategist Lee Atwater spelled out the system's elements more clearly: : "You start out in 1954 by saying 'n-----r, n-----r, n----r.' By 1968 you can't say 'n-----r'-that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff liked forced busing, states' rights and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now you're talking about cuting taxes, and all the things you're talking about are totally economic things and a by-product of them is blacks get hurt worse off than whites. And subsequently maybe that is part of it."

This came to mind recently when someone on here was touting states rights. My sense is that the extreme states' rights backers--see the Tea Party-- are most likely a ruse for the dominent culture to maintain their power over the powerless. The Constitution is deemed such a brittle document that we must go back to the minds of the Framer's to glean it's ultimate meaning and woe be it to anyone deviating from Justice Scalia's distored view of federalism. Of course, blacks were slaves at that time and only worth 3/5's of a white man (forget about women--they had 150 years of fighting to do before getting the vote).

The racism of the past is with us still, witness all of the efforts on the part of Republicans nationwide (U.S.) who are desperately trying to restrict voting rights for minorities. Michigan state have stripped ten mostly poor and black towns of their elected officials, and even their local voting rights. It si like a dictatorship under Rep. Gov. Tim Johnson.

Could it be a coincidence that the Republican Party of today--so belligerent and extreme-- would desperately attempt to steal the re-election of a black man to the White House?

Do you think they will get away with it with the Supreme Court's Citizens United decison and all of the corporate money flowing into Republican coffers? As they say, follow the money. And per the Court, money is speech and Corporations are people (see Mitt Romney, millionaire).

As the bumper sticker says: "I'll believe corporations are people when Texas executes one of them."

Re: States' Rights and Racism today

Postby Kyle » Fri Apr 06, 2012 8:40 pm

This might be the first time in my life I've ever heard someone equate cutting taxes with racism. And considering the number of things that can get you called racist today, that's saying quite a lot.

I have to admit though, that bumper sticker is pretty funny. I still can't believe the Supreme Court came up with that nonsense about corporations being people (more or less).

I have no idea where most of the rest is coming from so I can't comment on anything else.

Re: States' Rights and Racism today

Postby Jack Roper » Fri Apr 06, 2012 10:30 pm

Yes Kyle, that's why it is called subtle--but some conservatives actually do believe this stuff. For example, this from William F. Buckley's National Review on-line (as written by Think Progress today):

National Review Writer Pens Racist Screed: ‘Avoid Concentrations Of Blacks,’ ‘Stay Out Of’ Their Neighborhoods

By Annie-Rose Strasser on Apr 6, 2012 at 4:15 pm

Popular conservative columnist and National Review writer John Derbyshire topped all of his previous racistscreeds (and sexist rants) today by posting a long breakdown of all of the important lessons he has taught his children about race — and he’s outdone his own racism with this one.

Derbyshire wrote the column in the third person, as a list of lessons to his kids about race. The lessons are his response to “the talk” that black parents have with their children — conversations they are forced to have because of real, persistent racism. After spending a few minutes bemoaning that he can’t say a racist slur (“What you must call ‘the ‘N’ word’ is used freely among blacks but is taboo to nonblacks”) and opining on the hostility he believes all black people feel toward white people like himself (though he says he isn’t white before calling himself white several times), he cuts to the heart of his lessons for his children:

(10a) Avoid concentrations of blacks not all known to you personally.

(10b) Stay out of heavily black neighborhoods.

(10c) If planning a trip to a beach or amusement park at some date, find out whether it is likely to be swamped with blacks on that date (neglect of that one got me the closest I have ever gotten to death by gunshot).

(10d) Do not attend events likely to draw a lot of blacks.

(10e) If you are at some public event at which the number of blacks suddenly swells, leave as quickly as possible.

(10f) Do not settle in a district or municipality run by black politicians.

(10g) Before voting for a black politician, scrutinize his/her character much more carefully than you would a white.

(10h) Do not act the Good Samaritan to blacks in apparent distress, e.g., on the highway.

(10i) If accosted by a strange black in the street, smile and say something polite but keep moving.

(11) The mean intelligence of blacks is much lower than for whites. The least intelligent ten percent of whites have IQs below 81; forty percent of blacks have IQs that low. Only one black in six is more intelligent than the average white; five whites out of six are more intelligent than the average black. These differences show in every test of general cognitive ability that anyone, of any race or nationality, has yet been able to devise. They are reflected in countless everyday situations. “Life is an IQ test.”

While they are not included in the quote above, Derbyshire peppers the post with links to news stories of crimes, a few random videos, and his own columns. The only “fact” included in the entire piece (and just a small image, at that) is from the offensive book The Bell Curve. Every other hateful, racist claim is based on a one-off story or his own foregone conclusions.


Update



ThinkProgress reached out to Derbyshire to verify that the column was not meant to be satire. “I’d call it ‘social commentary,’” he said.

Re: States' Rights and Racism today

Postby drawscore » Sat Apr 07, 2012 12:02 am

One question: If corporations should be prohibited from making political contributions, shouldn't that same prohibition be extended to unions? If not, why not, and explain your rationale.

Drawscore

Re: States' Rights and Racism today

Postby Kyle » Sat Apr 07, 2012 7:15 am

Jack Roper wrote:Yes Kyle, that's why it is called subtle--but some conservatives actually do believe this stuff. For example, this from William F. Buckley's National Review on-line (as written by Think Progress today):

National Review Writer Pens Racist Screed: ‘Avoid Concentrations Of Blacks,’ ‘Stay Out Of’ Their Neighborhoods

By Annie-Rose Strasser on Apr 6, 2012 at 4:15 pm

Popular conservative columnist and National Review writer John Derbyshire topped all of his previous racistscreeds (and sexist rants) today by posting a long breakdown of all of the important lessons he has taught his children about race — and he’s outdone his own racism with this one.

Derbyshire wrote the column in the third person, as a list of lessons to his kids about race. The lessons are his response to “the talk” that black parents have with their children — conversations they are forced to have because of real, persistent racism. After spending a few minutes bemoaning that he can’t say a racist slur (“What you must call ‘the ‘N’ word’ is used freely among blacks but is taboo to nonblacks”) and opining on the hostility he believes all black people feel toward white people like himself (though he says he isn’t white before calling himself white several times), he cuts to the heart of his lessons for his children:

(10a) Avoid concentrations of blacks not all known to you personally.

(10b) Stay out of heavily black neighborhoods.

(10c) If planning a trip to a beach or amusement park at some date, find out whether it is likely to be swamped with blacks on that date (neglect of that one got me the closest I have ever gotten to death by gunshot).

(10d) Do not attend events likely to draw a lot of blacks.

(10e) If you are at some public event at which the number of blacks suddenly swells, leave as quickly as possible.

(10f) Do not settle in a district or municipality run by black politicians.

(10g) Before voting for a black politician, scrutinize his/her character much more carefully than you would a white.

(10h) Do not act the Good Samaritan to blacks in apparent distress, e.g., on the highway.

(10i) If accosted by a strange black in the street, smile and say something polite but keep moving.

(11) The mean intelligence of blacks is much lower than for whites. The least intelligent ten percent of whites have IQs below 81; forty percent of blacks have IQs that low. Only one black in six is more intelligent than the average white; five whites out of six are more intelligent than the average black. These differences show in every test of general cognitive ability that anyone, of any race or nationality, has yet been able to devise. They are reflected in countless everyday situations. “Life is an IQ test.”

While they are not included in the quote above, Derbyshire peppers the post with links to news stories of crimes, a few random videos, and his own columns. The only “fact” included in the entire piece (and just a small image, at that) is from the offensive book The Bell Curve. Every other hateful, racist claim is based on a one-off story or his own foregone conclusions.


Update



ThinkProgress reached out to Derbyshire to verify that the column was not meant to be satire. “I’d call it ‘social commentary,’” he said.


That's pretty blatant for "subtle." But I have no idea how it connects to anything you wrote above about states' rights and taxes and all that.

By the way, here is the actual article itself. You'll probably have to reload the page 2-3 times to be able to read it, as they apparently have the worst server known to man running this site.

http://takimag.com/article/the_talk_non ... z1rMmAJnLm