Edwards mentioned that he lived in the Segregated South during the Civil Rights era....

[FrenchieCat]

and he said he saw the racism close up. Did he go to a Segregated school? Did he march or something? I just thought it was interesting that he made that comment, and I wanted to find out if there was a back story behind that it?

Thank you

[sandnsea]

1. Yeah I think all of it

I've heard him speak of the movie theatres with the balcony section, a teacher being very upset when his school was integrated, whites only food counters, the whole deal. It's completely foreign to me because I grew up in a suburb in California and it was a complete cultural mix. It's hard for me to comprehend people my own age growing up as if it were a completely different point in time.

[FrenchieCat]

3. Wonder if he befriended any of the "new" kids that went to his school.....

in that desegregation effort?

[jackson_dem]

8. How many Latino friends did Obama have in grade school?

Hey, maybe that is why he is at 11% with Latinos? :sarcasm:

[FrenchieCat]

9. Could have been a peaceful thread, till you showed up, you and

Indian killing Jackson!

considering that Obama was raised in Jarkada and Hawaii for most of his youth, I'm sure he had friends from all over the Globe. Doh!

[jackson_dem]

11. I was making fun of your racist question

[FrenchieCat]

13. Actually, someone offered up a story downthread.....

while you only made yourself a nuisance.

[tom_paine]

21. Sorry, but the nuisance is your thinly (and I do mean THINLY) veiled accusations

You think you aren't as obvious as a Bushie pushing that shit?

Perhaps a litmus test? Exactly how many friends of color did he have? How many do I have?

Jesus, your insinuations are so lame and transparent, why don't you just have the guts to come out and say it?

Now please, throw some thinly veiled bullshit at me. Ask me how many African-American friends I have had? Have I ever used the 'N' word? Did I smile when Wilson Goode bombed MOVE in Philly in the late 1980s?

:puke:

Usually I try to stay out of nonsensical flamebait such as yours but I was floored by your "what, innocent little old me?" regarding your transparent bullshit, which you got called on.

You're fooling nobody, so why not have some guts and say what you're thinking outright?

[OneGrassRoot]

25. I usually try to stay out of this shit as well...

and I read this around 5:00 this morning, now four hours ago, and have been simmering ever since at the "what, it was an innocent question?" attitude of Frenchie in this thread. Yep, you were called on this time. Big time.

This isn't about Edwards or Obama or anyone else. This is about you and I call bullshit.

[SammyWinstonJack]

59. Thanks for that. It really was so transparent, the "innocent little old me" act.

:eyes:

[adabfree]

15. It appears or seems to be

mostly Mexican and a South American "thing" except for with Brazilians when it comes to the anti-black "Obama" vote, at least from my travels and conversations.

I've spoken to many Hispanics, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Dominicans, Mexicans, etc, and I've found the most adamant resistance to Obama amongst Mexicans and Guatemalans, poor and middle class...not sure about the rich.


Tucker Carlson hit it on it...the other day by talking about the racial strain within the "Rainbow Coalition," and the racial strife that is huge in Los Angeles and other areas of California, but didn't go into detail.

During the last Democratic debate, a Mexican gentleman said there is no way Latinos would vote for Obama in large numbers. When pressed as to why, he simply said because they won't... and would give no further explanation.

Any opinions? Thoughts?

[jackson_dem]

16. Obama and Edwards are tied with Latinos. Is Edwards blaming racism for it?

They are also tied among whites. It is only Obama's 59-4 lead among black voters that lifts him to big numbers over Edwards nationally. This should be exposed on Super Tuesday in states with small black populations.

[adabfree]

18. UH

I was simply asking people's opinion and sharing my experiences and conversations. I didn't say it was because of racism, but I'm not naive enough to think, racism doesn't exist outside of black and white.

Again, the Latino gentleman in Nevada said, Latino's will not vote for Obama in droves, and couldn't say why he said that...he didn't say Edwards.

Now, the question to have asked him was this: If it was between Edwards and Obama only, how do you think Latinos would vote in large blocks.

And again, being a minority, I know it isn't all about race, but I've have enough conversations and interactions with Latinos to know there is a strain amongst the two groups. Especially on the west coast. I've lived it and there still many that I know that live it everyday out west, even some down south in Florida.

I'm simply seeking dialogue and honest opinions, not trying to inject race in an ugly manner

[jackson_dem]

19. Many Obamites have blamed Obama's poor showing with Latinos on alleged racism

Obama's poll numbers are distorted by his high support among his ethnic group. Among everyone else he is tied with Edwards.

Edwards versus Obama? The polls say it would be close among Latino since they are statistically tied with that demographic (11% and 9%). Perhaps Edwards since Obama should be beating him handily among Latinos given his $100 million and the amount of media attention he gets compared to Edwards.

There is racism among Latinos just as there is among whites and blacks. I don't accept the Obamite notion tarring Latinos as racist because Obama is losing among them. It is revealing that as soon as Obama started losing he went from "transcending race" to losing because of race in the eyes of many Obamites.

[adabfree]

20. again

From my readings and watchings, I haven't seen Obama say anything about what I'm speaking of...

It came directly from a Mexican gentleman and was mentioned by Tucker Carlson in passsing...and also my experiences and travel.

I haven't seen Obama tar and feather Latinos as racist, but if you have please share... As for Obamites, I'm sure there are some that truly believe Latinos won't vote for him because he's black, and I'm sure would be right on point. It's real.

As for the whole race card, being injected in a negative manner, I'd say let's look to MSM, across America.

Again, you're entitled to your beliefs and opinions, but let's keep it honest, and agree, for some it is about racism and for some it isn't. If O'Bama was Latino, I'm sure his numbers would be pumped up by other Latinos supporting him...just as Hillary numbers are beefed up greatly by a certain demographic...

[2rth2pwr]

42. Black anger grows as illegal immigrants transform urban neighborhoods

http://www.city-journal.org/2008/18_1_blacks_and_immigration.html
What’s got Anderson—motto: “If You Ain’t Mad, You Ain’t Payin’ Attention”—so worked up isn’t the Jena Six or nooses on Columbia University doorknobs; it’s the illegal immigrants who allegedly murdered three Newark college students last August. And when he excoriates politicians for “letting this happen,” he’s directing his fire at Congressional Black Caucus members who support open borders and amnesty for illegal aliens. “Massive illegal immigration has been devastating to my community,” Anderson, a former auto mechanic and longtime South Central Los Angeles resident, tells listeners. “Black Americans are hit the hardest.”....

...This battle over quotas for public-sector jobs is a glaring example of how immigration is turning the race-based policies of the last 40 years, originally designed to help blacks, against them. For African-American leaders like Claud Anderson, head of the Harvest Institute, the turnabout represents a betrayal of the civil rights movement: only blacks deserve quotas. “When did our government ever exclude immigrants or deny them their constitutional rights, as they did African-Americans?” he asks....

...has included attacks against law-abiding African-Americans with no gang involvement; a horrifying example was the December 2006 murder of 14-year-old Cheryl Green by Mexican gang members in Harbor Gateway, a brutal crime designed to terrorize local blacks. Three years earlier, the same gang had killed a black man because he dared to patronize a local store that they considered “For Hispanics Only.” Meantime, federal authorities have indicted members of another Los Angeles–based Latino gang, Florencia 13, for random shootings of blacks in South L.A. The indictment chillingly accuses a gang leader of giving members instructions on how to find blacks to shoot.

...Blacks may also be starting to realize that many Latinos hold intensely negative stereotypes about them. In a 2006 study that ten academic researchers conducted of various racial groups’ attitudes in Durham, North Carolina, 59 percent of Latino immigrants said that few or no blacks were hardworking, and 57 percent said that few or no blacks could be trusted. By contrast, only 9 percent of whites said that blacks weren’t hardworking, and only 10 percent said that they couldn’t be trusted. Interestingly, the survey found that blacks were broadly well-disposed toward Hispanics, though how long that will be true remains to be seen.

The rising tensions between African-Americans and Hispanics render the old hopes of a black-brown coalition chimerical. “In studies,” says Frank Morris, former dean of graduate studies at Morgan State University, “immigrants actually tend to say they think of themselves more like whites in America than like blacks, which is one reason why a black-brown political coalition has never existed anywhere except in the minds of black political leaders.”

[Adelante]

58. It will be interesting to look at the Latino vote in New York and New Jersey

Where it ends up in the results of those state primaries. In both states, unlike in the West or Southwest, Latinos can frequently be black because large groups come from the Hispanic Caribbean countries like the Dominican Republic or Cuba, countries where there is more of an African-Hispanic racial mix than the Indio-Hispanic of Mexico, where there just aren't a lot of blacks. So I wondered, when it comes down to voting, if black Latinos will vote black for Obama or Hispanic for Hillary. Maybe it won't play either way in particular, but I thought it an interesting question given the vastly different voting patterns showing up between blacks and Hispanics so far.

[XemaSab]

62. He went to grade school in Indonesia and Hawaii

:shrug:

[redqueen]

31. Here's your answer.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=4180403&mesg_id=4180474

[Blackhatjack]

41. YES HE DID ... See post # 32. Next question....

[grantcart]

44. probably didn't probably was just a normal guy

its a good thing we aren't really interested what our guys did in school :toast:

[Monty__]

49. What are you trying to imply?

Or invent here?

[tkmorris]

2. Well he was born in 1954

So yeah, he would have been intimately familiar with segregation as a young boy, but I would imagine most of the marching etc had died down before he would have been old enough to participate.

[zalinda]

4. He talked about one of his best friends

not being able to go to the same school as he did. I didn't realize until later that the person he was talking about was black. He is now a pastor in a church where Edwards spoke, and that's where I put two and two together. Btw, he never said that one of his best friends was black. He just talked about three friends who made a pact to go to college and make something of themselves. He, of course went to law school, one became a dentist and the other a pastor. I only knew the pastor was black, because it was identified as a black church. I don't know what color the dentist is. They are still very good friends today.

zalinda

[jackson_dem]

7. WTF? You had to ruin another Obamite effort to swift boat Edwards, this time tarring him as a racist

Swiftboating the Clintons as racists worked wonders for Obama in South Carolina so I guess they want to try to do it with another person with a great civil rights record. Thanks for the story.

[JohnnyLib2]

5. Good question; really brings up the need for deeper understanding

of life before and during the "civil rights movement." Virtually every public facility was segregated in those years, every facet of life.
Things did not change easily.....

[mac2]

6. We just drove through the South on our way to Florida

in the 60s and saw racism close up. Driving through Georgia, they chased us out of a restaurant because we were "Yankees" let alone black. One man and three young girls made them angry? We were on our way to a cousin's wedding in Florida. The sign in the resturant should have said, "Rednecks only".

When we lived in E.Tennessee we saw someone deliberately try to hit a black man walking along the road. That was in the late 80s.

My sister and family moved to Wilmington, NC in the 70s. The clan was still very active in her area. They wanted her to join but she refused.

So Edwards is telling the truth about his youth and racism in North Carolna.

Unless you were in that area of the country you would not believe it still existed.

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[jackson_dem]

12. How many Obamites have you heard say it would be great to not have a white male as president?

It seems being white and male disqualifies one from being president in the eyes of many Obamites. You are right.

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[jackson_dem]

17. Did Obama march when he was 10 years old?

[tom_paine]

22. Hypocrisy, thy name is FrenchieCat.

You have the audacity of a Bushie, I'll say that.

Audacity: To have the nerve to come in with a thinly vieled attacks that "Edwards is a racist", so thinly veiled it wouldn't fool a five-year old and THEN you turn around and whine about someone injecting racism into your thread.

Ever think of working for Fox Noise? I hear they like that kind of hypocritical audacity and the starting pay is VERY good.

:puke:

[acmavm]

30. My damn post got deleted and that pisses me off.

You have a lot of gall with your never ending bashing of people, accusations of racism, when you are every damn bit as bad, if not worse that anyone I've ever seen on this board. To call out someone for not naming all their
black friends is absolute bullshit.

[Blackhatjack]

40. SOMEONE here has a quick finger on the alert button... Can you guess who??

That likely explains why your post was deleted.

[Blackhatjack]

38. "my thread"??? Hmmm... Didn't you lecture others you could comment on any thread posted here? n/t

[yellowdogintexas]

23. Of course he did. He is the right age, and the blatant racism, JimCrow etc was unavoidable

I grew up in Kentucky during that same period. I remember whites only bathrooms and water fountains and lunch counters where blacks could not be served. I remember "BACK OF THE BUS" and "colored Sections" . I remember my great grandmother having a FIT because I mentioned that I rode on the (long, comfortable, stretch out for a nap) back seat of the Greyhound coming back from Nashville on an uncrowded bus, I remember older African Americans addressing me as "miss" and calling me ma'm when I was 10 years old. I remember when Brown v Board made the county school board decide to close the "colored" high school and a whole dozen black students came to our high school and NOTHING HAPPENED thank God but I do remember lots of grumbling and mumbling about it (( was in second grade)..I could go on but I have to go take a shower and get dressed for work.

So yeah, Edwards would know first hand. So did Bill Clinton, for that matter.

[JohnnyLib2]

24. Thanks for those personal memories.

I'll add that when the Army sent me to Ft. Knox in 1974, I drove up Dixie Highway into Louisville within a week---and there was the KKK at a bonfire, across from a high school, protesting forced busing.

Some times the lack of memory, or ignorance of recent history, displayed on DU is just stunning.

[yellowdogintexas]

63. I can truly believe that since Dixie Dieway into Louisville goes right through

Shiveley which I have heard referred to as the armpit of Jefferson County.

[JDPriestly]

48. As Yankees in the south, we kids used to ride in the back of the bus

all the time. If a white person sat down next to a black person, however, the black person would get up. Also, sometimes black people would stand up when white people got on the bus and there were no more seats. My mother found that so painful that she refused to sit down. Of course we kids were offended by some older person standing up to let us sit down so we would just motion for them to sit down. The "etiquette" of segregation was just ridiculous, just absurd.

[unc70]

26. Everyone in the South, many in the North saw it up close

Edwards did and has talked a little about it here and there.

There was an interview I read a couple of weeks ago where some black voters in SC saying they were probably voting for Obama but that Edwards understands them and their problems and had more in common with them that Obama. Months ago there were discussions about whether Obama was "black enough" which noted that he and his family had no ties to the AA community, civil rights, etc. and he really had little experience with the black community until college.

[Tennessee Gal]

27. If you think Edwards was being disingenuous, you are dead wrong.

I am two years older that Edwards. I personally experience it right here in Tennessee. My father worked for the railroad selling tickets. I saw the black and white water fountains and restrooms in Nashville. I saw it on the city buses. I saw it at the lunch counters.

Edwards saw it and lived through it just as I did.

[BlackVelvet04]

28. I'm a year older than Edwards and I certainly

saw it up close and personal. I remember going to school on the bus (grade school) and seeing KKK meeting signs tacked to trees.

[Ishoutandscream2]

29. Hell, I was only 5, and remembered the sign in Greenville, Tx.

"Blackest land, whitest people." And I wasn't marching or hanging out with African Americans.

This is just petty on so many levels.

[Emit]

32. Here's some info from a piece on Edwards in Newsweek

~snip~

Tall and good-looking—and he knew it—John Edwards was a popular student and a star football player, skinny but fast. His high-school friend John Mashburn remembers Edwards as a leader. "In a little redneck town, he was different," he says. There was still racial tension in Robbins in the early 1970s, and black students were sometimes mistreated. In protest, several of them once held a sit-in. Edwards persuaded his white friends to join in. "Johnny got a lot of the athletes, myself, our girlfriends … he was instrumental in encouraging us," Mashburn says. John Frye, another high-school friend, says it was a gutsy thing to do. He "stuck his neck out," Frye recalls. "There was a price to pay in how some folks treated him after that. We had people who didn't embrace desegregation even though it had been a bridge crossed years earlier."

~snip~

http://www.newsweek.com/id/78238/page/2

[redqueen]

34. Thank you!

Good stuff.

[Blackhatjack]

36. Well Done Emit, BUT FrenchieCat won't respond to this because it does not promote her agenda...

The S.O.P. of anti-Edwards posters here is to attack by framing the allegation in the form of a question(They should consider going on Jeopardy!), and when there is cogent on point evidence with LINKS posted which answers that question --the disappear.

If the poster of the OP here was really 'concerned' you would see the poster's response to your LINK with evidence that clearly answers the 'concerns' raised in the OP.

[balantz]

33. I was born near Atlanta in 1962, seventh generation white Georgian.

I was only there for my first year because my Father, a young Methodist Minister in rural Georgia, was being threatened by the good ol' boys because he was open to the poor white folk and the poor black folk to worship together in the same congregation. Needless to say it was a dangerous position for a white man to take then. We had to move away from Georgia under threats to our family.

[IndianaJones]

35. If you lived in the south during that time, you saw racism close up. nt.

[WinkyDink]

37. The "back-story" is called "U.S. History". Did you expect a 10-year-old JE to have "marched"?

[asdjrocky]

39. In his high school, which became integrated while he was there-

There was a place where only white kids sat. He helped organize with some of his friends and some of the African American kids so everyone could sit there. They all sat down, to the protest of some of the whites, but they held their ground.

That's the only story I know about this. But if you've spent any real time in the south, you know there are still problems there that need to be addressed.

[ClericJohnPreston]

43. Oh Frenchie, Frenchie, Frenchie....

This is so not "kewl" of you.

Beyond disingenuous, and finally, well beyond the pale of propriety, you now seek to determine, through innuendo, your own litmus test of racism. You have already been called out for your seeking to inject racism into a non-issue where Edwards is concerned. Even your own crowd, has abandoned you on this one.

In almost knee-jerk fashion now, the absurdist qualities of the cult of Obama, which entails the highest degree of non-critical thinkers, has lashed out at anything and anyone, because your candidate is in a tailspin. This tailspin was perfectly predictable to any objective observer, because it was clear your candidate had a jump on fundraising and was a media darling. All along, we Edwards supporters knew the balancing process would begin.

However, you Obamites cavalierly went along, OBLIVIOUS to the gathering storm. No, Hillary and Bill aren't the storm, but POLITICS themselves, wherein the media would begin to scrutinize the candidates under a microscope. While I am not a HRC fan, she at least has lived with this scrutiny for more than 15 years. This is the first time, Obama has been in the national spotlight and no, his State Senate race and speech at the 2004 Convention don't count. Unfortunately, he shows a testiness and defensiveness, which only encourages a rabid press.

This is how a campaign is ever evaluated. It is a trial by fire, so to speak. If anyone aspires to the highest office in the land, they must endure the stiffest of competitive atmospheres. One need only look back to Dean in 2004 or Gore and Kerry to see campaigns which made huge mistakes, resulting in their failures.

Scream foul, but that is POLITICS. Edwards has to live with an M$M that has tried to ignore his campaign, even though Obama and HRC have borrowed heavily from Edwards ideas, which he had first. Parroting our candidate is offensive, but, we recognize that is POLITICS.

There are so many neophytes in your campaign, they act shocked that everything isn't a bed of roses. Well, that is the way the cookie crumbles, and sometimes a campaign. Obama will remain viable, until HRC has too many delegates or Obama is undone by his own peccadillos, such as Rezko or whatever is temporaily swept under the carpet, IF anything has been.

But, it is truly offensive that you think so little of our collective intelligence, that you would initiate a thread like this. Perhaps you shouldn't be such a ZEN poster, posting as a new thread, every thought in your concious head. Perhaps you should deliberate more before you offer one of these type of threads.

Finally, your accusations of racism against anyone making a valid point is also reprehensible. There is no place on a DU board for that level of acrimony, without thought.

Later......

[LostinVA]

47. Good post

Johnny is my strong #2. I lived in NC for 17 years, so he's a sentimental almost-favorite.

[redqueen]

53. Great post...

:kick:

Maybe Frenchie Cat will respond.

[ClericJohnPreston]

56. I'll bet on not.....

But, thanks redqueen! Hope you are well.

[redqueen]

57. Yeah... I guess not...

Thanks & hope you're doing well, too. :)

[bullwinkle428]

61. ClericJohnPreston...you complete me!

:we're-not-worthy-emoticon:

:applause:

[JDPriestly]

45. He was born in the 1950s. He was too young to march.

He was not born into a sophisticated activist family.

[LostinVA]

46. His Daddy probably would have been fired

[robbedvoter]

50. Oh, goody! A thread where the Clenis didn't do it!

:popcorn:

[Beaverhausen]

51. Why can't Obama's supporters simply post something positive about him?

Instead of this thinly-veiled racist accusations? Doesn't do any good for him.

[Monty__]

52. Obama supporters

seem to be getting as snippy as Obama has become. On the campaign trail it's Obama and Hillary, here it's Obama supporters against Edwards supporters.

[Blackhatjack]

54. ANOTHER HIT AND RUN OP -- FrenchieCat's last post here #13 @ 5:42 a.m.

It is so easy to throw out a baseless accusation in the form of a question, and then move on ....

Mission accomplished here.

[SeattleGirl]

55. I'm a year younger that Edwards, and I spent a lot of time in

Arkansas when I was young. I recall seeing "White's Only" and "Colored's Only" signs.

I remember hearing the word "ni**er" in everyday conversation from my white relatives.

I remember there were black people in the town we lived in, but none of the black kids ever went to school.

Those kinds of things were part of everyday life then.

No doubt in my mind that Edwards encountered the same kinds of things every day.

[madfloridian]

60. Anyone who lived in the South before and during the 60s

saw racial segregation. It was open and overt. There were signs on restroom doors and water fountains...white and colored they said.

Separate schools. No access to public restaurants. Honest. It was all right out in the open.