The New York Daily News cartoon depicting a prone monkey killed by police is shameful, racist, despicable, and just plain wrong. I defend the right of the cartoonist to draw it, the editor to approve it and the newspaper to publish it. Whatever negative feedback, back flash, protest, contempt, lost subscriptions, ill-will, and other rhetorical kicks in the reproductive apparatus that News Corp and Rupert Murdoch receive come with the territory. If either you don't think that the cartoon is racist or you think that it is funny, then maybe you should educate yourself by reading the history of The Reconstruction, the Jim Crow era and the struggle for civil rights in this country despite the 13th and 14th Amendments.
The rancid whipped cream and moldy cherry atop this sundae of excrement and vomit (the cartoon) is the News Corp statement that offers an apology IF you were offended by the cartoon. Note that News Corp did not state that they apologize FOR printing a racist, shameful cartoon; they only apologize to those they offended. To my knowledge, I do not purchase any News Corp journals, magazines or newspapers. I admit to watching "The Simpsons" and "House" at times on Fox TV. I suppose that I can boycott all that is Fox, but that would have to include "Slumdog Millionaire" which was distributed by the Fox Searchlight division of Fox.
Most boycotts do not work as they are most often symbolic protests with little economic effect. Now that I am off that hook, I'll state that I will irritate News Corp in what little ways I can. If I succeed in any way, I'll let you guys, youse guys and y'all know!
Showing posts with label racism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label racism. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Saturday, December 15, 2007
The GOP’s Southern Strategy and Ronald Reag
Several Op-Ed pieces have appeared in the media this past month regarding the so-called “Southern Strategy” of the Republican Party and Ronald Reagan’s role in its success. The debate of late focuses on whether the strategy is racist and was Reagan a racist.
There is no question that following passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the GOP gained more and more political power in the southern states, until achieving a Republican “Solid South” resembling the old Democratic “Solid South”. Demographers, geographers, economists, historians, political scientists, journalists and pundits have offered a myriad of reasons for the change. One of my favorite Republicans, Kevin Phillips, wrote an excellent and prescient analysis of this trend in the late ‘60s: The Emerging Republican Majority. As good as this book is as a geography of political change, it, as well as most of the other analyses, misses the main point.
That point is racism. The Democratic Party in the South had its share of committed racists prior to 1964 (I am sure that many remain). Indeed, many of these racists stayed with the party until the 1980s, most likely due to local traditions. It was Reagan, however, in 1980 who won the racist votes for the GOP with his campaign speech in Philadelphia, Mississippi. At the urging of Senator Trent Lott (R-MS), then a member of the House, Reagan announced his candidacy for the presidency in Philadelphia and also stated his emphatic support for states rights. By so doing, Reagan sent a blatant message of support for racism, and he quickly was endorsed by the KKK (they were in attendance at the speech). For a more complete and erudite history of this event, please see http://www.gibbsmagazine.com/Reagan%20A%20Legacy%20of%20States'%20Rights.htm, as well as recent nationally syndicated columns by Bob Herbert, Paul Krugman and David Brooks.
The Reagan years, viewed with nostalgic awe by the GOP, was laced with race-baiting tactics and legislation, exemplified by Lott’s and Reagan’s attempt to grant tax-exempt status to the racist Bob Jones University (their efforts were declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in an 8-1 decision). Note that Lott lost his Senate Majority leadership post by stating that the USA would b e better off if the avowed racist Strom Thurmond has been elected president. Just about every Republican in a leadership position in Texas, for instance, switched parties following Reagan’s endorsement of “states rights.”
Racism remains the most destructive domestic problem in the USA. We will not become a true “nation” until this is remedied.
There is no question that following passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the GOP gained more and more political power in the southern states, until achieving a Republican “Solid South” resembling the old Democratic “Solid South”. Demographers, geographers, economists, historians, political scientists, journalists and pundits have offered a myriad of reasons for the change. One of my favorite Republicans, Kevin Phillips, wrote an excellent and prescient analysis of this trend in the late ‘60s: The Emerging Republican Majority. As good as this book is as a geography of political change, it, as well as most of the other analyses, misses the main point.
That point is racism. The Democratic Party in the South had its share of committed racists prior to 1964 (I am sure that many remain). Indeed, many of these racists stayed with the party until the 1980s, most likely due to local traditions. It was Reagan, however, in 1980 who won the racist votes for the GOP with his campaign speech in Philadelphia, Mississippi. At the urging of Senator Trent Lott (R-MS), then a member of the House, Reagan announced his candidacy for the presidency in Philadelphia and also stated his emphatic support for states rights. By so doing, Reagan sent a blatant message of support for racism, and he quickly was endorsed by the KKK (they were in attendance at the speech). For a more complete and erudite history of this event, please see http://www.gibbsmagazine.com/Reagan%20A%20Legacy%20of%20States'%20Rights.htm, as well as recent nationally syndicated columns by Bob Herbert, Paul Krugman and David Brooks.
The Reagan years, viewed with nostalgic awe by the GOP, was laced with race-baiting tactics and legislation, exemplified by Lott’s and Reagan’s attempt to grant tax-exempt status to the racist Bob Jones University (their efforts were declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in an 8-1 decision). Note that Lott lost his Senate Majority leadership post by stating that the USA would b e better off if the avowed racist Strom Thurmond has been elected president. Just about every Republican in a leadership position in Texas, for instance, switched parties following Reagan’s endorsement of “states rights.”
Racism remains the most destructive domestic problem in the USA. We will not become a true “nation” until this is remedied.
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