CNN Highlights Racist Writings To Argue That An Obama Presidency Could ‘Hurt Black Americans’»

[Joanne98]

Today, CNN’s John Blake has an article titled, “Could an Obama presidency hurt black Americans?” In the piece, Blake notes that some commentators — including African-Americans, whites, Latinos, and conservatives — warn that “an Obama victory could be twisted to suppress the push for racial equality.” One of the white commentators Blake cites is Steve Sailer:

Steve Sailer, a columnist for The American Conservative magazine, wrote last year that some whites who support Obama aren’t driven primarily by a desire for change. <…>

“So many whites want to be able to say, ‘I’m not one of them, those bad whites. … Hey, I voted for a black guy for president,’ ” Sailer wrote.

Sailer cited another reason why many whites want Obama as president:

“They hope that when a black finally moves into the White House, it will prove to African-Americans, once and for all, that white animus isn’t the cause of their troubles. All blacks have to do is to act like President Obama - and their problems will be over.”

It’s unbelievable that CNN would use Sailer, who, as Jesse Taylor notes, is more than just a conservative pundit. He has repeatedly made racially insensitive remarks, including:

– African-Americans “tend to possess poorer native judgment than members of better-educated groups. Thus they need stricter moral guidance from society”

– “The brutal truth: Obama is a ‘wigger’. He’s a remarkably exotic variety of the faux African-American, but a wigger nonetheless.”

– Michelle Obama “sounds like she’s got a log-sized chip on her shoulder from lucking into Princeton due to affirmative action.”

– “Nor is it surprising that the black refugees at the Superdome and the convention center failed to get themselves organized to make conditions more livable. Poor black people seldom cooperate well with each other because they don’t trust other blacks much, for the perfectly rational reason that they commit large numbers of crimes against each other.”

Several of Sailer’s comments appeared on the site VDARE, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has classified as a white nationalist hate group. It’s doubtful that Sailer’s opinions are representative of most whites.

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/07/22/cnn-white-supremaci...

[Smith_3]

1. They try anything. Its pathetic.

its like saying "look, you cannot actually achieve equality because then you would loose your right to complain, and you don't want that, correct?"

or

"if we legalize abortion that would hurt the women's movement"

[The Backlash Cometh]

9. Without question. I expect them to go this route.

[fasttense]

2. Well, we all know how all those old white men elected to the US presidency

hurt the image and prestige, not to mention power and wealth, of old white men in the US. I mean just look around you, do you see any old white men in power anymore?

[Brewman_Jax]

3. Based on that logic

George W. Bush* should be a walking embarrassment to white males.

[libnnc]

4. there were DUers yesterday defending this CNN piece

on the grounds that it is a valid "intellectual" argument

It's horseshit.

Kick for the truth.

[NNN0LHI]

6. I would much appreciate a link to that thread so I can read it if possible

[libnnc]

7. here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[Blue_Tires]

5. kick

[no limit]

8. I saw this on their front page yesterday

I couldn't fucking believe it.

[struggle4progress]

10. "... As American Prospect Online found (12/7/04), a little research reveals Sailer as a leading

promoter of racist pseudoscience. As a principal columnist on the white nationalist website VDare.com, named for Virginia Dare, the first English child born in the ''New World,'' Sailer (e.g., 2/23/03; 12/12/01) extols the work of academic racists who say Africans as a group are innately less intelligent than whites or Asians. He is also a staunch defender of the Pioneer Fund, a primary funder for such racist research ..."

Extra! March/April 2005
Academic Racists Make Mainstream Inroads
From National Review to the New York Times
By Steve Rendallhttp://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2487

[exothermic]

11. Paul Street is hardly a racist. He is a well-known and respected African American writer.

[libnnc]

12. The CNN article didn't just mention Street. What about Sailer?

Your post is pretty disingenuous

Did you read the ThinkProgress piece at all?

[exothermic]

13. How is it disingenuous to identify one of the people quoted?

Of course I read it, I don't think YOU did. Regardless of Sailer being a prick, he happens to be correct in this particular case. I don't understand how people here can deny obvious facts.

[Karenina]

16. First rule of holes seems to apply here...

[Brewman_Jax]

14. Paul Street isn't black

but he is a noted anti-racism author.

[exothermic]

15. I stand corrected! I obviously confused him with someone else, and I apologize!

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.inthe...

[readmoreoften]

17. Steve Sailer is the mouthpiece for a community of fascist PhDs and [non] thinkers.

While other members of this community were pushing the idea of "the gay gene" (which they considered to be genetic inferiority) his other great idea is "the Gay Virus"--that homosexuality in men is caused by a virus passed on through either the birth mother or through 'sexual transmission'. I don't need to tell you where this group of scientists is going with their thought.

Hint: some of them are at major universities, including Harvard and Northwestern.