NPR hits interesting points on Obama “race-based criticism” debate
WASHINGTON - SEPTEMBER 09: U.S. President Barack Obama addresses a joint session of the U.S. Congress at the U.S. Capitol September 9, 2009 in Washington, DC. Obama addressed the joint session to urge passage of his national health care plan, the centerpiece of his domestic agenda. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
As the racial debate continues in the aftermath of South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson’s outburst and former President Carter’s frank comments, this morning, NPR went to Selma, Ala. to ask residents mindful of the city’s racial history to put the current debate in context. The report yielded two sides with viewpoints echoed throughout the Post-Dispatch’s story comments and forums, plus a cautionary view that could also be applied to the Gateway City.
Morning Edition asked black and white residents whether racism and racial prejudice have played a role in criticism of President Obama at a time when his policies — particularly his effort to push Congress to overhaul the national health care system — have caused a very vocal pushback from conservatives and some moderates.
Black Selma, Ala. residents Sam Walker and Faya Rose Toure had different opinions on the role of racism in comments critical of the president.
Toure, founder of the National Voting Rights Museum, is quoted in the NPR story as saying “race is a major factor.” The concerns about Obama’s health care efforts are legitimate, Toure told NPR, but she sees “vengeance and hatred” expressed because of an unspoken belief that any efforts to revise health care to “benefit black people have an opposite, negative effect upon white people.”
Walker, who works at Toure’s museum says the vitriol directed at Obama is motivated by a fearful resistance to change. This resistance, Walker says, is reminiscent of the same fear of the civil rights movement in 1965. Now as then, says Walker, people were trying to “hold onto that last little bit of control that they thought they had.”
White Selma residents had a different take — one I’ve seen expressed in comments of any racially-tinged story posted on stltoday.com. Business owner Steve Fitts told NPR of frustration among conservatives that the race card is being played in attempts to de-legitimize any criticism of the president’s policies. Fitts said to NPR if “we’re not able to criticize his policy because he’s black, we’ve lost our country.”
Fitts believe the diversionary rhetoric of race prevents discussion of the actual issues. NPR says to Fitts, a self-described conservative, the issue is “that we’re going socialist.”
Business owner Benny Austin tells NPR that he lost faith in the government having his best interest at heart and that his feelings of anxiety while paying estimated income taxes were the result of no longer trusting the government.
The segment closes with the advice of Selma resident and civil rights activist Donald Brown. Brown’s advice struck me as specifically applicable to St. Louis, with its own history of racial-based geographic, economic and social division.
“Black people, white people, Democrat, Republican. The price is less of an America than what it could be just because we’re different colors,” Brown told NPR.
With the loss of jobs, low tourism, declining population, fewer manufacturing industries, less airline service, and fewer Fortune 500 companies in the St. Louis region over the past 20 years, Brown’s advice can certainly be applied to us as well.
The link to the NPR piece is here.
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It isn’t just the criticism. It is the subtle “We’re losing our country” (to the minorities) and “My grandchildren won’t grow up as I did” (getting the job because they are white). And not so subtle: Watermelon patch on the whitehouse lawn, Curious George with an Obama sticker, editorial cartoons linking policy to a dead chimp and armed militant black power afros, birthers looking for justification to hating the president, etc.
President Obama has lost support of the large Independent bloc … they’ve discovered his policies are nowhere near the Centrist positions he portrayed them to be.
Moduke, did you ever think you might be putting words in the mouths of people. “We’re losing our country” isn’t about demographic shifts…it’s about the abuse to the constitution that is happening. “My grandchildren won’t grow up as I did”, doesn’t have to do with getting a job as an adult, it has to do with the childhood experiences that children can no longer enjoy because American society is so screwed up.
I’m pretty sure that Michelle Obama made a big deal out of planting a vegetable garden on the White House grounds.
Concerns about whether the President was born in the USA were also expressed about John McCain because he was born in Panama to a military officer (on a military base which constitutes being born int he US). Sure some people hate Obama, but not everyone who disagrees with him does.
I disagreed with most of the Presidents in the US at one time or another. I didn’t agree with the bailout of the banks under Bush, I was hesitant about invading Iraq, I didn’t support NAFTA under Clinton, Bush was wrong about broccoli, and Reagan (oh, yeah, he I agreed with!!!)
I’ve lost all respect for former President Carter, first when he accepted the Nobel Prize and didn’t defend the office of the POTUS, and then when he insinuated that disagreeing with the POTUS was because he’s black making me a racist. Gross generalizations do not move any of us toward a place where we can discuss issues civilly.
I truly only glanced at this because I saw NPR and anything posted on this blog is going to confirm the PD’s view that those who oppose Obama are racists. But here is the other point of view.
A good friend of mine just returned from a GOP women’s convention and went on and on about the black speaker and how terrific he was. She was also telling me about a Mason Weaver who spoke at the DC 9-12 march who is also black and a great conservative. Actually, the Republicans I know get really excited when we find conservative blacks who realize that blacks have been subjugated for their votes by the Democrat Party. If the Democrats were really helping them, would we still have the poor education and poverty, drugs and crime that inhabits the predominantly black neighborhoods? But keep on voting for the Dems, it really seems to be working out for you folks.
So now where was NPR when Condi Rice was drawn with big lips looking like Aunt Jemima or the attacks on Clarence Thomas. Did they call those people racists?
Go MO Red: The views of black conservatives and their treatment within the black community has been the focus of countless stories over the past 10-plus months since the presidential election. Particularly after then-candidate Barack Obama’s “race relations” speech during the Rev. Jeremiah Wright flap and President Obama’s inauguration in January, much has been made of the backlash prominent black conservatives felt and feel when critical of the president or of Democratic policies. This is nothing new. Now GOP-head Michael Steele and NPR’s Juan Williams have faced the same criticisms and “Uncle Tom” comments directed at Justice Clarence Thomas and former Sec. of State Condeleeza Rice. You can find articles via a web search. There were also several articles and stories done by mainstream media early in the campaign season in 2007 in which blacks openly questioned whether then-candidate Obama, raised in a multi-racial setting was “black enough” to be in touch with concerns of African-Americans.
There are other conservative blacks like former Oklahoma Congressman J.C. Watts who offer viewpoints of the black right.
Here’s a link to a piece about Juan Williams by NPR’s Ombudsman Alicia Shepard:
http://www.npr.org/ombudsman/2009/02/juan_williams_npr_and_fox_news_1.html
P-D MoJo,
You seem to be side-stepping Go MO Red’s point which is:
When liberal WHITES drew outlandish caricatures of Condi Rice and when liberal WHITES made outrageous charges against Clarence Thomas — were the liberal WHITES accused of being racists?
Sedona Sam: Nice try. Actually the question was this:
So now where was NPR when Condi Rice was drawn with big lips looking like Aunt Jemima or the attacks on Clarence Thomas. Did they call those people racists?
My response was that mainstream media has covered the criticism (and the degree of it) former Sec. Rice, Justice Thomas and other black conservatives have received either from the “liberals” you mention and within the black community. Former Sec. of State Colin Powell was also skewered because it was his speech that became the focal point for both international and Congressional support for the Iraq War.
Since you bring up appearances, caricatures in the context of political cartoons (satirical and otherwise) have always been considered protected speech. The depictions of presidents (Carter’s teeth; Reagan’s lips; H.W. Bush’s glasses; Clinton’s chin, G.W. Bush’s ears and Obama’s ears or lips) have been exaggerated historically for recognition and effect. The depictions of Sec. Condoleeza Rice’s gap-toothed smile and Justice Thomas’ glasses are drawn in the same vein.
When Emerge magazine ran its infamous cover illustration of Justice Thomas as a lawn jockey, it was widely condemned across the board as over the line by some and justifiable by others. Even war protest imagery of former President Bush and former Vice President Cheney dressed as SS officers can be perceived as extreme, but in my opinion, different from the stereotypical “animal” or “primitive” imagery at times associated with President Obama. It’s naive to think such imagery isn’t deeply, historically offensive to African Americans. I am unaware of such animalistic, primitive imagery used to depict either Sec. Rice, Sec. Powell, Justice Thomas or other prominent black conservative voices.
Mr. Swint,
I have to respectfully disagree with your assessment of the media’s coverage of black conservatives. All you have to look at is your paper’s lack of coverage of Michael Steele’s rise to the top of the RNC.
This paper’s racial coverage has been atrocious and insulting. Every post in this blog is about how white conservatives, like myself, are racists. We are called racist for not supporting Obama. We are called racist when we point out the double standard as evidenced by the Belleville Bus Beating. I am fed up with it.
Regarding Brown’s comment. I don’t understand it. Please explain.
This once great nation is being defiled and fleeced into oblivion by a political oligarchic represented by the two main entities, Repubs/Dems. Racial discord is the catalyst in the perfect storm that has brought about a deep polarization within the core of this nation in 2009. Those that were salivating over Hillary representing the push of the ongoing coup of our political and financial systems here in America, got an unexpected windfall when a man of color rose to the forefront of the country’s presidential aspirations. Now post-election, the rest of us are cleverly pitted against each other by the mainstream media. Endless propaganda, hyperbole, half-truths and out-right lies foster fear-mongering and hate. Left wing this; right wing that- ad nauseam! These people are very good at what they do and we’re played as a populace on an unimaginable level. While the political class runs amuck, we look to devour each other on the internet and talk-radio, etc.. The end result: DIVISION. The forecast call for more government intervention and further civil unrest.
Racial/ethnic divarication has always been present throughout time and America has certainly had it’s share of regrettable circumstances. However, Mr. Obama is merely a sad hoax in representing true “change” along racial lines here in the United States. Minorities are exploited by the machine in D.C.- being spoon-fed and promised social programs in exchange for votes. The problem is we’re nearly bankrupt- so all we can do is further devalue the dollar by printing it and taxing the masses ad-fin; this is not sustainable and we WILL fall. The best situation that could have unfolded in the 08 election would have been for both candidates to be of color so we could have brushed aside the smokescreen of race and concentrated on the debacle that is the HOPELESSLY broken, governmental system called Washington.
Mr. Obama may be driving the bus now, but he simply took over for Mr. Bush as both parties have methodically destroyed this nation over the last 20+ years. We’re merely seeing the fruition of that here in 08-09. The elitists are ruthless and they want it all(money & control); they will not regress until WE stop them. Vote out ALL incumbents in 2010; fumigate Congress. Diligent hands will rule, but laziness ends in slave labor. (prov 12:24)
Think,
I respectfully disagree with your assessment that our coverage in this blog and others paints conservatives as racists. On the contrary, this blog in particular exists to help foster discussion and hopefully progress beyond the third-rail issue of race in American society.
The reason for this particular post is what I noticed were well-thought, different perspectives on the ongoing debate of whether criticism of Obama is race-based. Through the comments, it also grew to encompass whether the type of historically-used political caricatures have crossed the line by depicting President Obama as an animal or a witch doctor. You might note that I mentioned that the perspectives of the conservative white men in the NPR story reflect a belief expressed both fervently and frequently in our blog and story comments. That perspective is that the “race card” is used as a diversionary tactic to discredit conservative criticism of the president and his policies. In story comments, conservatives and whites also mention the race card is used as a diversionary tactic as in the Belleville school bus beating story.
As far as Michael Steele, the P-D has covered him since he entered the race for the Maryland Senate seat in 2006. Look up these headlines for coverage of Steele in the P-D:
Black Republican battles traditional voting habits (ran Oct., 29, 2006)
U.S. Senate Races (ran Nov. 8, 2006)
GOP finds unexpected hope in Democratic Maryland (ran Sun., Nov. 11, 2006)
Strides and Prejudice: Getting past the “Bradley Effect” (EDITORIAL, ran Oct. 29, 2008)
Republicans scramble to pick party leader (ran Jan. 7, 2009)
Facelift or total makeover for the Republican Party (EDITORIAL, ran Jan. 9, 2009)
GOP could add diversity at the top (ran Jan. 11, 2009)
Republicans struggle to find identity (ran Jan. 11, 2009)
GOP picks Steele as national chairman (ran Jan. 31, 2009)
Parties gear up for post-stimulus fight (ran Feb. 18, 2009)
These are the articles I found through a quick archive search. I will agree that we did not run a full story when Steele was named GOP Chairman. The story ran as a brief in a political digest on Jan. 31.
Further, the nomination of Steele to GOP Chairman was a much discussed topic in the black community. In the discussions in which I participated or overheard, African Americans across the political spectrum felt it was good to have a black conservative voice within the GOP as well as a sense of progress in the prominent political roles that Secs. of State Colin Powell and Condeleeza Rice played on the international stage. Likewise, both Rice and Powell were quoted of being touched by the historic significance of a black man elected president and a black family in the White House.
I might also add that prior to it’s cancellation in late 2008, NPR’s News and Notes talk show devoted a great deal of air time covering black voices of political issues. Juan Williams was a contributor to News and Notes, a host at times and a prominent black conservative voice on the show. Also, there was Michael David Cobb Bowen, of Conservative Brotherhood who weighed in on political discussions as a member of the Blogger’s Roundtable on the show. The roundtable would offer thoughts, views and insights on political topics and news of the day.