Glenn Beck's Great Whiteout -- AKA "Whitestock"

[jefferson_dem]

I would wager there were more non-whites on the podium than in the crowd today. That's the truth.

Glenn Beck's Great Whiteout
— By Andy Kroll
| Sat Aug. 28, 2010 2:34 PM PDT



As we passed the Washington Monument this morning and waded into the growing crowd of thousands at today's "Restoring Honor" rally, my friend, Chris, surveyed the turnout and then leaned in toward me. "Other than that guy back back there selling flags," he said somewhat discreetly, "I've got to be the only black person out here today."

He had a point. There were people of all shapes and sizes, young and old (though mostly old), from near and far at the rally on the Washington Mall—and, truth be told, they were almost all white. Despite the impressive turnout surrounding the Lincoln Memorial and the reflecting pool, I needed only two hands and maybe a few toes to tally the number of non-white attendees. You couldn't miss the irony: On the same day and at the same location as Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I Have a Dream" speech—when conservative icon Glenn Beck would repeatedly invoke King's memory and message on a stage featuring a portrait of Langston Hughes and a relative of King Jr.'s as a speaker—there were few, if any, black people in sight. "I've seen more people who're black onstage than at this whole thing," Chris said at one point.

We pushed onward into the crowd, trying to get closer to the front, where Beck was. But before we could get there, a middle-aged woman suddenly reached out and grabbed Chris' arm. She pulled him close. The woman, as sweaty as the rest of us, asked Chris if he planned on attending the NAACP's rally later in the afternoon. Without waiting for Chris' response, she told us, "I kinda want to go, but I feel like I wouldn't be welcome." Hard emphasis on the wouldn't be welcome. A bit surprised, Chris looked at me and then replied, "You mean kind of like I feel right now?"

A bit later on, after the rally had ended, Chris told me he didn't mean to respond to the woman quite like he did. He didn't feel any animus from the crowd, he said. Nonetheless, we agreed that for an event whose central figure, Beck, preached the importance of faith, hope, and charity, and drew heavily on King Jr.'s legacy, the paucity of non-whites in the crowd was startling. Not that it's any big surprise, though. The tea party, whose followers made up a good percentage of today's attendees, tend to be white, weathier, male, and married, polls have shown. A racially diverse turnout at a Glenn Beck rally? In your dreams.

http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/08/glenn-beck-white-ra...

[valerief]

1. Whitestock!!!!!!

[backscatter712]

3. Whitestock indeed! I'm stealing that! n/t

[jefferson_dem]

6. Please...feel free.

Works, eh?

I only wish I made it up because it's so perfect. Folks in twitterland have been chatting up "whitestock" for a few days now.

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=whitestock

[BeyondGeography]

29. Sheer perfection; these are the folks who felt left out of the 60's

Now they think they're finally the epitome of cool and righteousness.

I mean, the media is paying attention to them and everything. Right? Right?

[jillan]

7. Perfecto! Whiteout it is!

[Skittles]

2. racist rally

[lib2DaBone]

4. Pure Racism wrapped up in Jesus and the American Flag...

The U.S. Government is so worried about terrorism.... how can they look the other way when Glenn Beck uses the USA as a giant PR Stunt?

[jwirr]

5. Who were the Native Americans or were they just dressed up for the

teaparty? If they are real Native Americans then I want them to know they do NOT represent my family up there bowing down to the hate filled good old boys.

[jefferson_dem]

8. This was utterly shameless.

Beck opened with a kind of syrupy convocation at the beginning when he talked about those who "dreamed" to come to the "new land" and when they did, they met some native peoples. These two really just served as stage props because they said nothing. The Christian ministers and Jewish rabbi offered "prayers."

[prolesunited]

12. The Native Americans who we killed

stole their land and sent off to virtual concentration camps.

[jenmito]

9. And Beck told those attending to leave their signs at home. Looks like they listened to him...

but by telling people to leave their signs at home, he acknowledged that they HAVE those signs. We all know the racist, misspelled signs they usually show up with. Good to know that Beck admitted it.

[Johnny Noshoes]

10. I wonder...

how many of those "patriotic" shirts, hats, etc were made in China by some poor bastards making next to nothing in pay. Yeah but hot damn ain't they proud to be American.

[jenmito]

11. Probably ALL of them.

These people kept their hatred of Obama and their hatred and fear of Black people well-hidden today.

[unblock]

13. k&r for "WHITESTOCK"

[KaryninMiami]

14. Just arrived from a DNC org meeting- Whitestock was the word of the day.

Do we know yet how many were actually in attendance in total?

[Rosa Luxemburg]

15. LOL! Whitestock!

I bet that will stick

[timo]

16. they were not

all white a group of hispanics from the local talk radio station went, from down here in southern most tip of Texas

[Caretha]

17. Wow

that must have been a HUGE group. Do tell.

[timo]

26. actual numbers

I dont have actual numbers but I think there were a close to a hundred from down here, our population here is largely hispanic, he also posted some videos on facebook where there were groups of african americans and latinos there as well,

[Caretha]

27. 100

Well that's significant, must be quite a large radio station in the Southern tip of Texas. BTW, aren't Latinos & Hispanics the same thing? I'm quite sure they are. Being a Texan myself, we very rarely call Hispanics Latinos. Latinos is more a CA slang word used to describe the Mexican population.

[timo]

30. latinos/hispanics/mexicans

whatever floats your boat

[tavalon]

18. Whitestock,otherwise known as KKK 2010

[bullwinkle428]

19. "more non-whites on the podium than in the crowd today" - that's the

typical Republican National Convention!

[totodeinhere]

20. The crowd at Sharpton's rally was predominantly black.

Is that OK but it's not OK for Beck's crowd to be predominantly white?

[Empowerer]

28. Beck's crowd was predominantly white; Sharpton's crowd was predominantly black

The difference is that Beck's "predominant" meant almost 100% white. Sharpton's "predominant" meant there was a significant minority of whites, Latinos and others in the crowd.

Big difference.

[Hansel]

35. And Washington DC is predominantly Black.

So that makes Beck's group look even whiter.

[npk]

34. It was a civil rights march to commemorate MLK speech

and the struggle black people faced during the 60's. Of course the crowd would be predominately black. The same way that a GLBT march or rally would consist predominately of GLBT people. A group of almost 100% heterosexual white people rallying for THIER equal rights is not only an insult to the struggles of real oppressed groups in this country, it's downright laughable.

[Jade Fox]

21. Gonna be Pinkstock tomorrow........n/t

[David Zephyr]

22. Whitestock!

Yep.

[smalll]

23. Correct. But then, Woodstock was rather a Whitestock itself --

Yes, for trusty-fundy upper-middle class reasons, rather than for petit bourgeois lower-middle class ones.

[lynne]

24. Some might call it racist to be focused on the color of the crowd -

- would it have been different if it was pointed out that the crowd was predominately black or Hispanic? Last I checked, people of any color can voice an opinion in this country.

[jefferson_dem]

25. Really? Well "some" might call it racist to defend a virtually all-white rally of 87,000 people...

presided over by Glenn Beck, who has built his career largely on ginning up racial anxieties.

The answer to your question is "it depends".

[Name removed]

31. Deleted message

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

[SnakeEyes]

37. 87K

An odd estimation.. where did it come from?

[jefferson_dem]

38. CBS commissioned an actual legit estimation of the crowd size.

Google it.

All other "estimates" are really just spin, imo.

[Hansel]

36. And pointing out that they are nearly all white people led by a moron

who has been unabashedly ginning up racism in this country since Obama was elected president is stopping people from voicing an opinion exactly how?

Is there a problem with us voicing an opinion about that? Or can only large crowds voice their opinion?
If you going to be for voicing opinions, then why not go all out and stop implying those voicing an opinion about the rally are racists.

You might want to look up the meaning of the word "racism". It's not racism just to point out that a crowd is white. There also needs to be an element of superiority over the crowd because of their race.

I don't think anyone is voicing a feeling of superiority over these people because of their race. However, there is probably a fair number who are voicing such because these people are dumb-as-a-box-of-rocks sheep and tools.

[harun]

40. It wasn't a civil rights for white people rally. You are missing the point of why they

are there. If Sharpton has a civil rights rally, it is for minorities whose rights are being violated.

Beck's rally was to extend and embrace white privilege, delusional conspiracy theories, revisionist history, paranoid schizophrenia, and xenophobia, there is a difference.

[LatteLibertine]

32. I wouldn't say

every gathering of white people is a racist affair. That's rather bigoted.

I'm sure there were racists at Beck's event and I seriously doubt they all were.

Yes, the GoP and Beck have been working the Southern Strategy overtime. I'm still unwilling to call everyone at that event racist, or to suggest white gathering = automatic racism.

[Ikonoklast]

33. Beck is a racist, or at least he plays at one to make money.

His audience identifies with the racist persona Beck plays on the air.

I would say they agree with his point of view.

I would then say that they, too, are a just a tad on the racist side.

Maybe not all, but I bet if signs were allowed at the rally, your estimate at the amount of racists attending would dramatically increase.

[Hansel]

39. Bigoted means

utterly intolerant of any creed, belief, or opinion that differs from one's own, esp on religion, politics, or race.

Being intolerant of the conspiracy theories and lies that Beck spews and of the people who believe every word this liar spews is hardly intolerant of ANY creed, belief, or opinion that differs from one's own.

You might be correct that some of these people aren't racist. Maybe they haven't heard Beck's racist rants about Obama and are just there because he's cute or something.

However, one of Beck's central themes is that Obama is trying to build social programs in order to provide reparations for Black people and that to do that he wants to take the "hard working American people's" (which is code for White blue collar workers) to pay for it. This is where the Socialist meme comes from. It's hard to deny that there is some significant element of racism at work here.