Sunday, September 04, 2011

Smith's Take On Carson's Race-Baiting Disturbing

It's part of a disturbing trend in this country. According to mainstream media thinking, any criticism of African-American politicians is just racism, pure and simple. Whenever an African-American politician makes outrageous statements, they are justified by circumstances. That's pretty much the view the Star's Erica Smith reflects in her column today defending U.S. Rep. Andre Carson's suggestion that Republican members of Congress who align themselves with the Tea Party movement want to see blacks lynched:

I admit that the details of what he said didn't concern me. Are there members of Congress who literally want to lynch black people? I don't know. And to be honest, I really don't care.
Because that's not the point . . .
The point is that the essence of what Carson said is true. There is racism in Washington and a lot of it is coming from an extreme faction of the tea party -- a faction that mainstream Republicans have chosen to indulge and no one, until now, has bothered to check. The GOP would rather pretend that faction doesn't exist and silence anyone who dares to point out the obvious by calling him a "racist." Talk about doublespeak . . .
Many white people choose to think we live in a post-racial society, that race somehow no longer matters because slavery ended decades ago or because the civil rights movement is over or because Barack Obama was elected president.
They think the personal attacks on Obama are just the lumps that come with being president of the United States. That because people called President George W. Bush "Hitler" and "stupid," it's the same as Obama being called an ape.
Well, it's not the same.
It's not the same because Bush is white and Obama is black, and there's a legacy of slavery and racism in this country that lingers like a fog to this day. That's not to say that presidents -- heck, all politicians -- don't deserve criticism. But racism crosses the line . . . 
So, yes, I'm glad he said what he said. It needed to be said.
That's the way it has become in this country. President Obama can tell his supporters to get in the faces of opponents. "If they bring a knife to the fight, you bring a gun," he once said. He can question the patriotism of members of Congress who oppose raising the federal debt limit. Sorry, Erica, but Bush was frequently caricatured as a primate during his presidency. Yep, That's perfectly okay. Carson can accuse his fellow Republicans of wanting to lynch blacks because they favor fiscal restraint, and Smith could care less whether the statement is accurate. He has a right to say it because slavery existed in this country 150 years ago and some continue to this day to judge people by their race rather than the content of their character, including Carson and Smith.

What is remarkably frightening in this country is the determined effort of the Left to categorically label any person who favors less government, lower taxes, balanced budgets and personal accountability as racists. It's a reflection of the wholesale adoption of the Machiavellian approach of Obama's spiritual soul mate, Saul Alinsky, to political organizing. The idea is to bait an opponent into reacting by making outlandish claims about their beliefs and positions:  "The enemy properly goaded and guided in his reaction will be your major strength." Thus, we have seen efforts by the Left to repeatedly falsify claims that the Tea Party is nothing but a high tech, modern-day version of the KKK. Their friends in the media continuously repeat their false claims as fact. As with Smith, the truth doesn't matter. The end justifies the means. The content of a person's character is irrelevant as long as they hold the correct political views.

14 comments:

Covenant60 said...

Remember that liberals project their own characteristics onto others. So here, when they accuse others of being racist, it is because liberals are racist. All they think about is race. So tea partiers dont like Obama b/c he is black? So she thinks that if Allen West were President, the tea party would hate him too b/c he is black? Did it ever occur to Erica "Stupid" Smith that the tea party is pissed at Obama b/c of his policies? Of course not. B/c it is about race. Everything is about race. Liberals are racist.

Downtown Indy said...

It's pretty sad the Star chooses to characterize Carson as having 'guts' for his crude and irresponsible outburst.

Gary R. Welsh said...

Let's not confuse Smith's opinions with those of the newspaper. The paper editorialized against his comments earlier this week.

Pete Boggs said...

BayernFan is 100% right. Liberals are projectionists of their emotive misgivings of guilt and fear. What they strawdog contrive and see in their "enemies" is more often who they are.

Marycatherine Barton said...

Ignorant, fuzzy thinking from Erica Smith. I do not think that if he were alive today, Martin Luther King would agree with this convuluted defense of U.S. Rep. Andre Carson she wrote in the Gannett's Indianapolis Star.

Marycatherine Barton said...

Neither is Bruce A. Dixon at www.BlackAgendaReport.com, at all happy with the Congressional Black Caucus. His post of 8/24/11 is titlede: "CBC: Impotent, Irrelevant and Tied to the President in 2012, Even If Obama is the Black Herbert Hoover."

His 'cartoon' of Obama has him saying "Poverty? Joblessness? Pollution? More wars? No matter. Where else they gonna go?" That is the sad state of affairs in the "federal family" of today, where, to quote Dixon,

"The CDC is reduced to whining, futile efforts to distance itself from the White House, and blame anyone but themselves."

Paul K. Ogden said...

I actually have less sympathy for Erika Smith than I do Carson. Carson could at least claim he got caught up in the heat of the moment and said something that was completely false and defamatory. Of course he hasn't apologized yet.

Erika Smith on the other hand had time to reflect on what Carson said and still wrote that it was true. When did any tea party supporting member of Congress suggest they wanted blacks to hang from trees. She should be ashamed of what she said. She not only insults tea part people, but more importantly she insults those who lived through the civil rights struggles and actually did face such things as lynchings.

Downtown Indy said...

Gary, Erika Smith wrote the story, the Star editors chose to slap 'guts' in the headline.

Not just that but Smith wrote "had the guts to stand up and say what we've all seen over the last three years." That's beyond editorialization, that projecting her opinion onto the entire population.

The disgrace is a team effort.

Gary R. Welsh said...

The editorial read: "Carson has done a disservice to his district, his state and himself. An apology is in order for his over-the-top rhetoric that should have no place in American political discourse."

My guess is that Smith started playing the race card with the newspaper's management after that editorial appeared in the paper. After Ryerson changed his shorts, he apologized to Smith and said she could write whatever she pleased in her column and he would publish it. In the words of a former columnist for the Star, Ryerson would have never allowed a white reporter to write such an offensive column in the newspaper and give it the promiment play Ryerson gave her column. Just ask Lisa Coffey if you don't believe me.

Maple Syrup Maven said...

All you white boys can continue to pretend that racism doesn't exist in Indy (and elsewhere), but the rest of us know better.

I say hurrah for Erika for saying it like it is.

Gary R. Welsh said...

The worse documented cases of racial discrimination in this state all occurred at the Marion County Coroner's Office and involved a black official and black employee overtly discriminating against white employees and contractors. These cases have been adjudicated and affirmed by the EEOC in Washington and twice by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. Look at how little reporting the Indianapolis Star has done on those cases. The cost to taxpayers has been several million dollars and the person responsible for the discrimination remains in charge of the office to this day being rewarded for her discriminatory conduct. If any white public employee had engaged in anything remotely similar to what this employee was proven to have done in legal proceedings, he or she would have been fired and banned from employment by the county. Do you think Erica Smith or Andre Carson would condemn that public employees' conduct? Absolutely not. They consider her a very good friend. You can protest all you want, Maple Syrup Maven, but Smith and Carson have both demonstrated their complete contempt towards whites in the ugliest possible terms by their words.

Covenant60 said...

Maple...

of course there is racism in Marion County.

The Marion County Coroner was racist for discriminating against whites.

Erika Smith is racist.

Rep Andre Carson is racist for thinking that whites want blacks hanging from trees.

All the blacks who agree with Carson for "telling it like it is" are racist.

And the blacks in Marion County (and, to be fair, pretty much everywhere else) who vote for the black candidate by margins of 95-5 are racist.

Old Grouch said...

Are there members of Congress who literally want to lynch black people? I don't know. And to be honest, I really don't care.

If there really *are* "members of Congress who literally want to lynch black people," there's got to a guaranteed Pulitzer for the reporter who comes up with the names.

But "I don't know and I don't care" is so much easier, and doesn't interfere with The Narrative.

Michael Kobrowski said...

I don't agree with what Carson or what Smith said 100%.

But I believe it is true you can't compare a white president being depicted as an ape with a black president being depicted as an ape.

I fully loathed most of what Bush did, but still think its wrong to portrait any president in that way.

Due to our shared American history (some of it very recent with the civil rights movement and still people going out and killing people just because of color) it is more wrong to portrait any African American as an ape.

Don't understand that? Talk to more African Americans.

PS: BayernFan? Really? Horrid... ClubFan here ;-)