Limbaugh: Indians = "redskins," "clowns"

Hour 3:  Limbaugh Refers To Native Americans As "Clowns"Rush got the final hour started with "one more thing" about Sonia Sotomayor--a mental exercise: "She said that because she is a Latina, because she is a Hispanic woman, that she'd--because of the richness of that experience, she'd be a better judge than a white guy. What if she had said because of her rich experiences as a Latina, as a Hispanic woman, that she'd be a better judge than a black guy? What do you think the reaction to that might have been?" Doesn't matter what race you shoehorn in there, that's not what she said. What Sotomayor did say, while discussing the importance of judicial diversity in race and sex discrimination cases, was: "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life." And that's not too different from some praise John Yoo heaped on Clarence Thomas, or comments Thomas made himself.

Nonetheless, Limbaugh broke out the racial shoehorn to reinforce whatever point he was trying to make, and in the process insulted Native Americans: "If we want to talk about richness of experience, there's a group of people that were here before we got here, gang: the Indians, the Native Americans, the chiefs, the redskins. I don't see any of them being put up on the courts. Talk about a richness of experience--hell, these clowns beat Custer. They have cred. You don't see them being put up, do you?"Comment:  Yes, we don't seen Native judges nominated to the Supreme Court. At least not yet. The reason is because of conservative racists like Rush Limbaugh. They can't tolerate someone as mildly unconventional as Sotomayor, so they certainly won't tolerate an Indian.

Note that even though Limbaugh is nominally sticking up for Indians, he's really insulting them. He calls them "chiefs" and "redskins." He talks about their defeating Custer as if "they" were all involved in that and "they" haven't done anything noteworthy since.

Most important, he calls them "clowns," which in his mind is similar to "chiefs" and "redskins." No doubt he's gotten all his "information" about Indians from dancing Indian mascots.

It's funny that the defenders of the word "redskin" don't understand what many Americans think about it. To these Americans, a "redskin" is a "clown"--i.e., a primitive savage in gaudy feathers and warpaint who did nothing but kill Custer in battle. And after being defeated by the US Army, refused to work, received welfare, got drunk, and died out.

For more on the subject, see Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Racist.