Conservative Free Republic blog in free speech flap after racial slurs directed at Obama children
By Chris Parry
These are a small selection of some of the racially-charged comments posted to the conservative 'Free Republic' blog Thursday, aimed at U.S. President Barack Obama's 11-year-old daughter Malia after she was photographed wearing a t-shirt with a peace sign on the front.
The thread was accompanied by a photo of Michelle Obama speaking to Malia that featured the caption, "To entertain her daughter, Michelle Obama loves to make monkey sounds."
Though this may sound like the sort of thing one might read on an Aryan Nation or white power website, they actually appeared on what is commonly considered one of the prime online locations for U.S. Conservative grassroots political discussion and organizing--and for a short time, the comments seemed to have the okay of site administrators.
Moderators of the blog left the comments--and commenters--in place until a complaint was lodged by a writer doing research on the conservative movement, almost a full day later.
"Could you imagine what world leaders must be thinking seeing this kind of street trash and that we paid for this kind of street ghetto trash to go over there?" wrote one commenter.
"They make me sick .... The whole family... mammy, pappy, the free loadin' mammy-in-law, the misguided chillin', and especially 'lil cuz... This is not the America I want representin' my peeps," wrote another.
Such was the onslaught of derision on the site that the person who originally complained about the slurs, a Kristin N., claims only one comment in the first hundred posted actually criticized the remarks as inappropriate.
Let's reiterate the key point: This happened on a major, mainstream conservative website, not some fringe site. Therefore, the postings reflect the views of mainstream conservatives.
Glad to see I was basically right when I attributed racist views to the Palin lovers, teabaggers, and other hypocrites who have protested Obama's policies. If more than a fraction of them would act the same way toward Barack Obama and Barry O'Brien, I'd be surprised.
This posting is relevant here because it shows the continued racism against blacks and other minorities. I have little doubt the response would be similar for our first Latino, Asian, Indian, woman, gay, Muslim, or atheist president. White male Christian Americans aren't ready to give up the white privilege they've clung to for centuries.
For more on the subject, see Highlights of the US Report to the UN on Racism.
4 comments:
"Once again, the sun rises in the east and conservatives prove they're racists."
By that logic leftists are also bigots given the sheer amount of leftist anti-semitism and the bigotry spewed at Cuban-Americans.
"Let's reiterate the key point: This happened on a major, mainstream conservative website, not some fringe site. Therefore, the postings reflect the views of mainstream conservatives."
Likewise anti-semitism also comes from prominent leftists (I'm looking at you George Galloway).
"Glad to see I was basically right when I attributed racist views to the teabaggers and other hypocrites who have protested Obama's policies."
By that logic you're a sexist for criticizing Palin and a Jew hater for criticizing Israel, see how silly that argument is?
"This posting is relevant here because it shows the continued racism against blacks and other minorities. I have little doubt the response would be similar for our first Latino, Asian, Indian, woman, gay, Muslim, or atheist president."
Yeah because we all know leftists can't be bigots. *Sarcasm off.*
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"White male Christian Americans aren't ready to give up the white privilege they've clung to for centuries."
Ah yes the myth of white privilege again and thanks for telling us what every single White Christian in America thinks. So whites in general have clung to 'white privilege' for centuries eh? Would that include Jews, Poles, White union members who were oppressed by such 'factions' as the pinkertons and so on?
Oh yeah I forgot to go over this link:
http://www.bluecorncomics.com/2009/06/right-wingers-foment-hate.html
Actually Von Brunn is very left wing, the guy hates conservatives, he hates Bush, he's a 9/11 truther, the anti-semitic views he holds are quite common among leftists and he supports socialism. So no he's not an example of conservative bigotry. He hates corporations in a manner that is virtually indistinguishable from that of anti-globalization activists.
In fact his views on 'Jews owning Obama' sound identical to the dreck spewed by Wright and Russell Means. He also made posts expressing his opposition to the Iraq War, and felt that the September 11 attacks were an "inside job". Von Brunn was also highly critical of businessman Rupert Murdoch, the Fox News Channel, former U.S. President George W. Bush, and U.S. Senator John McCain.
"From the white faces on TV"
This isn't the 50s last time I checked TV is quite multi racial.
"In God We Trust" on coins"
God of course is not a solely Christian concept.
"Finally, Bob Herbert notes how Americans act upon our racial and religious differences: not with rational debate but with irrational violence."
The same can be said of virtually every country on the planet.
"This is rooted in the American mindset, which says might makes right and winning is everything."
There is no singular American mindset, we're far too diverse for that.
""Finally, Bob Herbert notes how Americans act upon our racial and religious differences: not with rational debate but with irrational violence."
Herbert is rarely correct on anything. He's one of the most illogical and least-well-researched of any columnists I have ever read. This isn't because he's on the Left. There are plenty of insightful left-wing columnists. He's just not one of them.
Compared to elsewhere, the US acts on such differences with incredible reserve. Large-scale race and religion riots (or even massive pogroms or ethnic cleansing efforts) are common in the recent history of Asia, Europe, and Africa. Even civilized France has had hundreds of thousands march in "down with the Jews" protests in recent years.
Don't forget "left-wing racism and Obama". Recent comments from him imply that he supports discriminating against people based on skin color as one factor in making hiring and promotion decisions in the workplace.
President Obama has always danced around this issue, failing to do the correct and just thing and come out unequivocally against racial discrimination. Such racism is mainstream on the Left. The ACLU even has a division devoted to promoting racial discrimination in college admissions and hiring.
On to the central point of this, last year I read many racist comments about John McCain from nutty bloggers. The comments usually involved the KKK. This is just exactly the same sort of situation as these nutty blogers you mention on "Free Republic", with the Free Republic commenters making themselves worse by taking the Letterman road of making their outrageous statements about children.
The anti-McCain racists did not "prove" any mainstream racist current in the Left, just as these Freep commenters do not "prove" any mainstrea racist current in the Right.
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