Thursday, November 22, 2012

 "Incompetent" is racist?
   
Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said Tuesday that a letter from nearly 100 House Republicans urging President Obama not to appoint Susan Rice as secretary of State employed racially charged "code words" to make its case.

The letter, signed by 97 House Republicans, says Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, "is widely viewed as having either willfully or incompetently misled the American public in the Benghazi matter" — language Clyburn saw as racially loaded.

"You know, these are code words," Clyburn, the third-ranking Democrat in the House, told CNN. "We heard them during the campaign — during this recent campaign we heard Sen. Sununu calling our president lazy, incompetent, these kinds of terms that those of us, especially those of us who were grown and raised in the South, we would hear these little words and phrases all of our lives and we'd get insulted by them.

"Susan Rice is as competent as anybody you will find, and just to paste that word on her causes problems with people like [incoming Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman] Marcia Fudge and certainly causes a big problem with me," he added.

"I don't like those words," Clyburn said. "Say she was wrong for doing it, but don't call her incompetent. That is something totally different.

Source


Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Pretty stupid comment. Racism works both ways. Being so quick to unjustifiably toss down the race card is just as much a racist act as as any.

That said, Republicans, the party overwhelmingly supported by older white men and the wealthy, aren't devoid of a racist element either. So when all these primarily white folks start calling an African American UN Ambassador incompetemt because she repeated the info provided her by intelligence officials, it's not too big a stretch for those overly sensitive to such matters to leap to the conclusion that racism played a part.

But hey, at least they didn't call her a "useless black" as the article's poster once refered to the African American RNC head Mike Steele. (Makes one wonder what JR would have called him if he weren't a political ally?) Nope, JR clearly doesn't have the moral authority to be dictating to us what is and isn't racism. Just saying....

Anonymous said...

Susan Rice is a moron and should be pumping gas somewhere.

locomotivebreath1901 said...

Remember when GW Bush's nominee for SoS, Condoleezza Rice, was called a ‘House Nigga’ and excoriated by Senate democrats??

But that's OK because they're democrats and open-minded and tolerant n stuff.

Anonymous said...

Firstly, to clarify, no senate democrats refered to CR as a House Nigga, it was a syndicated cartoonist.

Secondly, having served as national security advisor for Bush, and being one of the front men selling the idea of war with Iraq to the American people, CR came to the table with a lot more political baggage when being consideried for the post of Secretary of state than does the UN ambassador.

Just because there was opposition to CR nomination, doesn't mean it was racist based. (the same is true for SR as well.) Just because a Cartoonist refered to CR in a cartoon as the house Nigga doesn't mean he speaks on behalf of the opinions of Democrats in congress, or anywhere else for that matter.

This is the problem with people so polarized in their politics. Their skewed and biased perceptions that prevents them from seeing anything other than in terms of us against them. Kinda sad really. But yes, continue to post links to politically polarized websites with Clear biases and agendas for "the truth". I can't tell you how much we, those of us with moderate viewpoints, admire and respect your opinions. Honest, I can't.

locomotivebreath1901 said...

I normally don't respond to 'anonymous,' but since your comment highlights sophistry evident in moderate (read: always slants left) political thought, I'll make an exception:

1) IMHO, cartoonist Ted Rall embodies 'skewed and biased perceptions,' and he doesn't operate in a vacuum. He's widely syndicated and has a loyal following because he illustrates memes or advances narratives embraced by his audience and publications.

If that wasn't true, he'd be out of a job.

2) As for the elected class, the S.O.P. in our modern political landscape is that vociferous liberal opposition to conservatives is accepted, - even justified - in order to atone for perceived wrongs by conservatives.

Such Liberal behavior is rarely characterized as 'extreme' or 'partisan,' but stalwart Conservative opposition to Liberals is frequently characterized as 'racism,' bigotry,' 'war on (insert demographic du jour here), etc.

It's often applauded by liberal supporters and championed in MSM headlines.

3)The good Dr.'s post illustrates just that point, yet it's my snarky accordance with the good Dr. you chose to autopsy - not Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) derogatory and baseless 'code word' trope.

4) My informed opposition against an agenda or philosophy doesn't make me or my sources 'politically polarized' with 'clear biases and agendas.' It simply means you and I disagree about the foolishness of standing in the middle of the road.

Anonymous said...

Pardon me...but the very first paragraph of my original post here was denouncing ClyBurns ignoramus comments. It was after I did so that I also denounced partison hypocrisy, then partisan tunnel vision (which I applied to both ends of the political spectrum) and only after that did I then autopsy your dear Dr. JR, who I believe from reading a plethora of his writings posted here to be a bigot and a perveyor of hate. Fellow readers are free to draw their own conclusions and offer their own thoughts, in agreement or opposition.. As for the rest of what you said....you crack me up, as always. You reenforce the concepts I speak of, seemingly clueless that you are doing so. My impression is anyone who doesn't agree with folks like yourself and your pal Dr.
JR are viewed by you and yours as "left leaning" and therefore in league with all that is leftist. Worthy of your judgment and condemnation. As a moderate opposed to all partison tunnelvision and their associated rhetoric, I find that mindset both insulting and pitiable in it's shallowness. But hey, it's a free country,

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