Excuse me, Sarah, but neither you nor folks like Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, or Michelle Bachmann

[HipChick]

http://www.ebonyjet.com/politics/national/index.aspx?id=17318

Excuse me, Sarah, but neither you nor folks like Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, or Michelle Bachmann don't get to tell Black folks that what they see and hear are not racism. See when you’ve been enslaved, lynched, lampooned for your skin color, and otherwise victimized by discrimination, you know racism when you see and hear it. You don’t have to hear the words “coon” or “nigger” to understand that you are being subjected to racism. Because it’s not necessarily or solely the terminology or statement but the spirit underlying it.

Problem is folks like Sarah Palin treat African Americans like the kid from that movie who said he sees dead people. “I see and hear racism.” As if the expressions Black persons perceive as racist are just a figment of their collective imaginations. Because what they see and hear really isn’t racism but someone exercising their Constitutional right of free speech. Believe it or not, there are limits to free speech, like uttering “fighting words,” “incitement to violence,” “defamation,” and “threats.” Arguably, racist speech fits into all of these categories.

The next excuse you hear is that the statements didn’t carry racist intent. What exactly was the intent underlying, for example, sending a noose to a person of color’s office? Moreover, what does that say about how ingrained racism is in our society that buried deep within certain folks’ subconscious are these thoughts and ways of expressing themselves?

We’re often told slavery was a long time ago and “my ancestors didn’t own slaves”. Or Jim Crow has been outlawed. Or that we have civil rights laws. Or that we elected a Black President.

The double-standard here is evident throughout history. It’s okay for a two-year old matter involving allegations of voter intimidation by the New Black Panther Party to be resurrected right now, right? Or for various politicians and groups to ask groups like the NAACP to repudiate Minister Louis Farrakhan whenever he thinks about speaking publicly? It’s even okay for people like Michelle Bachmann to co-opt history and reverse the imagery by saying Obama is creating a “nation of slaves.” But it’s cheap, cynical, and outdated for a Black person or organization to label racism as racism, right?

<snip>

Sarah makes nice fashion statements with her clothing, but she is ignorant to history. She speaks in sound-bites and talking points. The next time she utters an original statement, wake me.

[Catshrink]

1. You could have just ended your last statement here

Sarah makes nice fashion statements with her clothing, but she is ignorant.

She speaks in sound-bites and talking points. The next time she utters an original statement, wake me.

[Bitwit1234]

2. I think I am beginning to understand the republicans...yep...

Long ago we fought the War Between the States, a Civil War. The South lost. And for about the last 140 years they have been mad because they lost. Then in 1990 we had and election and the republicans lost. They got so mad they spent 80 million dollars trying to manufacture something on the president that beat them. Eventually he did his own self in, but that's beside the point the republicans were a part of mad and sore losers. Then lo and behold in 2008 a BLACK DEMOCRAT won the election. Now that made the southerners and the republicans mad and this is what is wrong with them all today. THEY CAN'T STAND TO LOOSE. So they are trying to manufacture enough lies and incite enough hate and violence so they can again be in power and ruin this country while raking in the moola for themselves. And they have the off branch of the KKK, commonly known as tea bags to help them.

But they are all stupid enough to believe the people in this country will go along with them and revert back to what they had in the previous administration. People don't want republicans back in power it is as simple as that.

[malaise]

3. They don't matter

They are all racists

[Tigress DEM]

4. What really gets me....

I've pointed out racist talk or behavior and been called a racist because I pointed it out. It just shows how completely ignorant people are about what racism is and is not.

Like you said: "...there are limits to free speech, like uttering “fighting words,” “incitement to violence,” “defamation,” and “threats.” Arguably, racist speech fits into all of these categories."

Let's add the equally stupid, but supposedly "harmless prank" of yelling "FIRE!" in a crowded theater. While you can't legislate all stupidity, you can make people responsible for the results of their behavior and let them know ahead of time that ignorance of the law is no excuse.

Racism is still racism whether it's said intentionally or not. The person who is able to learn about how their words affect others and find a better way to express what they really mean is showing their intelligence. People who use every excuse in the book not to understand what racism is are just lazy and ignorant if not downright hateful.

You have the same insanity when it comes to rapists who murder their victims and don't get treated as murderers because they started out with a rape. HOW does that make the person any less dead or it any less the fault of the person who murdered them?