I'm Such A Racist, Don't Ya Know

The left has discovered a post of mine from yesterday and now I am learning what a racist I am! zzzzzz These people will look for anything to make what they think is a big deal.

What a juvenile joke they are.

On the flipside of this two-sided coin, you've got people like conservablogger Dan Riehl, who is so eager to prove that he's totes not racist, that he sits down at his keyboard and writes one of the most racist things I've ever read. I could throw up some blockquotes, but really, you need to just read the whole thing for yourself.

Comments

[syn]

It is RACISTS to say the Senator Barack Obama and Valerie Jarrett, with the help of Chicago slumlord Tony Rezko, greatly profited from the ghetto slums they created in Chicago?

[mark l.]

"ghetto" is code word for black. so yes, it is racist. Use of the words Barack, Hussein, and/or Obama, is prosecutable under the lefty blogsphere "hate crimes/patriot act II" bill of 2009.

"You CANNOT go to a 7-11 or a Dunkin Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent" remains in acceptable use, provided the person using such language is an employee of the admin, or has donated money to the DNC in the past year.

The DNC will gladly accept donations in excess of 50 dollars, and provide licensing to use derogatory racial remarks, which will provide protection against unfair characterizations by lefty blogs. contract is null and void if said licensee refers to unemployment, debt, afghanistan, in the same sentece as failure.

punishment shall not exceed, 50 "hail obama's", and provides that at a minimum, the offender shall call at least 30 congressmen outside their district who have demonstrated the temerity of voicing concerns over any of the messiah's policies.

[mark l.]

sorry dan,

you played a significant role in exposing gates' failure to pay taxes, impugning the character of an individual who is not of your race.

drives 'em apesh*t crazy.

[Ran]

http://www.hyperdictionary.com/search.aspx?define=ghetto

Ghetto is an old Jewish word, Mark.

[Mark Thompson]

Wow. Talk about missing the point of the story.

I mean, I could see how someone would read what you wrote and say that it's a derivation of the "I have ___ friends" defense against charges of racism. I don't think that was what you were trying to do with that post, but I could at least see how someone would interpret it that way. Even if it is interpreted that way, that doesn't make it a racist post in and of itself, just not a terribly strong defense against racism charges.

But to say that the post was racist (and misogynist!) in and of itself, and transparently so, denotes a complete lack of reading comprehension. There's a big difference between laughing "at" someone and laughing "with" someone.

I probably disagree with you 75% of the time, but that post was one of the more compelling snapshots of modern American life I've read in awhile. Hell, if I read you correctly, the point of that post was that those two immigrants represented all that you think is good and pure about America, with the white, lifelong American, representing the opposite.*

Indeed, an open borders guy like me might even read that story and wonder why you wouldn't want to make sure that we have more guys like those two in our country! ;)

*It was also pretty obvious that her gender was irrelevant - your entire point was clear enough that it wouldn't have changed the story one iota if she was a man. The very idea that a lefty critic is justifying the decision to shoo you away pretty damn well plays right into your point.

[anonymous]

I want the recipe for that misogyny sauce.

[mark l.]

"Ghetto is an old Jewish word, Mark."

wasn't jesus black?

[mark l.]

kinda wondering...

the person on the toilet...stock footage, or one lefty asking another lefty to take pics of them crapping?

[Slide]

I hear Riehl does his best thinking on crapper. That is not to say that he is full of S*** of course.

[E. Weiskott]

Oh, shove it with "the left." Anyone who disagrees with you or takes issue with a statement you make must be 'on the other side of the fence,' huh? Because, presumably, (1) your side of the fence is in dogmatic support of you, and (2) "lefties" exist to take you down. Right.

This isn't about politics, it's about human decency. The politicization of race talks has been one of the factors in our mass media, and yes even on the blogomosphere, that continues to mire minorities in low-paying jobs or unemployment, jail, &c. To deny this is to deny the truth, simple as that. Again, not about politics.

http://tr.im/ybot

[xerocky]

Bill Clinton was also called a racist if you recall. So having an office in Harlem, when you could have one anywhere counts for pretty much nothing I guess.

[syn]

Jimmy Carter built ghetto slums too,upper-upper east side NYC highrise ghetto slums!

Does this make me RACISTS for saying Jimmy Carter is a ghetto man?

[anon]

Maybe what "mires minorities" in low paying jobs, unemployment and jail is that 50% of them don't even graduate from high school and that according to the experts, a large percentage of those that DO graduate from high school do not possess the basic skills that go with a diploma.

[xerocky]

"The politicization of race talks has been one of the factors in our mass media, and yes even on the blogomosphere, that continues to mire minorities in low-paying jobs or unemployment, jail, &c. To deny this is to deny the truth, simple as that. Again, not about politics."

I like to think that a degree of personal choices plays a part as well. I also like to think that if you don't agree with that, then you sir are the racist.

[Troll Hunter]

"and yes even on the blogomosphere, that continues to mire minorities in low-paying jobs or unemployment, jail, &c. To deny this is to deny the truth, simple as that."

Yep. I remember my first toke.

[syn]

"open borders"

Personally speaking, I think the term 'open borders' is slavery; if a human being is in America without legal representation provided under the laws of being an American citizen then such humanitarians as Hollywood celebrities and Martha Vineyard elites tend to treat those undocumented illegally residing in America as their own personal slaves.

Open borders = Slavery = RACISTS = evil things = un-American

America has all the laws necessary for human beings from around the world to become a legally recognized citizen if they are themselves not criminals; unfortunately, in my opinion, far too many Americans cannot clean their own damn mansions or manicure their own damn lawns and don't want their pimply-faced snobbish college kids digging any dirt or cleaning toilets.

PS: My grandparents on my mother's side came to America from Denmark worked their entire lives as fruit pickers in California; my grandparents on my fathers side were coal diggers from West Virgina. They lived the American Dream, their children and then grandchildren moved upwardly mobile and I am proud of my American heritage; from farm workers and coal diggers brought successful entrepreneurs.

[mark l.]

"I hear Riehl does his best thinking on crapper."
don't know about dan, but my bathroom looks like the library of congress. (modest confession: I do crap, but it smells like roses)

on a smaller note, of going out of one's way to annoy...
"Shakespeare's sister", you'd think there was a band with a copyright or something. i gather it is a nice homey blog, not unlike rwv...how humiliating would it be if they had to change their name?

"a large percentage of those that DO graduate from high school do not possess the basic skills that go with a diploma"
affirmative action or fear? proabaly just loathing...who wants to have the same failure in class? damn georgr bush and that NCLB thingy (that he wrote with kennedy).

never fear race baiters, forgetting %'s, the number of white students 'given' grades overwhelms minority students. We all fail together...isn't that what america is all about?

[Mrs. Peperium]

Dan, accept it. What we have here is another teachable moment brought to us by Professor Obama. The only thing that can save you now is a round of beers with the Professors Obama and Gates on a White House picnic table.

Do me a favor, wear a wire....I could use a laugh.

[jr565]

The other website, and the various trolls on the site are, intentionally missing the point of the story. First off, he (Dan) put the words black and brown in quotes intentionally. The fact that those words are in quotes should tell you something.

But the story is not about dan laughing at the darkies as it were. The story is about how a bunch of people were trying to understand one another and were all trying to convey something and be helpful to one another, and laughing over the degree of to which they were failing to communicate. You'll notice that the "brown" person in question was also laughing his ass off at the situation. I suppose he was similarly a racist. Also the people in question had never met but were polite to one another and the race of all the participants was not at issue to any of the participants.

[Slide]

I think we all have to ease up on this issue of race. The word racist is being thrown around way to easily (on both sides of the aisle). Dan is not a racist. A clueless wingnut perhaps but not a racist.

[DW]

Yes, we are all missing the point that Dan is a NOT a racist. Upheld by you fine, fine thinkers on the right.

And somehow Gates not paying taxes is relevant to race because.......? OK, you got me.

[mark l.]

"And somehow Gates not paying taxes is relevant to race because.......?"

joe the plumber's tax records, background check, by a govt employee, who happened to be black?

monkey see, monkey do.

[North Dallas Thirty]

And Charlie Rangel's complete and blatant tax crimes, all ignored because he is black and an Obama Party member.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203946904574300013592601036.html

And hilariously:

"I think we all have to ease up on this issue of race. The word racist is being thrown around way to easily (on both sides of the aisle)."

Ah yes, the call of the backpedaling screaming leftist -- "No one party can be blamed, everyone's at fault...."

Try this, Slide; your racist Gates screwed up. Your racist Obama screwed up. You can spin and whine and try to blame everyone else, as we expect, but people know who the racists here are -- Gates, who was making racist remarks to a white cop, and Obama, who supported Gates.

[Mike2Cents]

Dan attempted to post something that spoke to the fact that outside of punditry, blog ranting, university studies, polls, etc. - we all often get on quite well and repectfully here, in spite of ethnic differences, etc. He felt some positive affirmation from his encounter with a couple of other folks (and quite potentially, fellow US Citizens) and wanted to share that.
The slip here is when he assumes and writes he's the only American. It's a bad slip.
I don't think he was thinking too hard about that detail when he wrote it, and had he been more thoughtful and done a re-read before posting he might have caught and removed that line.
In the end though it's there and there's no explaining it away.
He thought to himself - and shared that thought with others - that heavily accented people of color are probably not Americans. It's not an intrinsically evil or racist assumption - but it's a wrong one. I think DR could do well to not get too defensive here and instead consider accepting in hindsight that this was a bad sentence. Should anyone ever assume that a heavily accented person of color is not American?
Everyone knows the right answer, including DR.
(Even ND30, despite the free association rants against all things Obama.)

[Xerocky]

"I think we all have to ease up on this issue of race. The word racist is being thrown around way to easily (on both sides of the aisle). Dan is not a racist. A clueless wingnut perhaps but not a racist."

That's racist. Nobody has the right to take away someone's right to use the word racist. To do so would be racist. It's almost as if by saying that the word racist is losing it's power because people call other people racist too often, AND BY THINKING THAT YOU REVEAL YOURSELF TO BE A RACIST SLIDE.

One reason that the word racist has NOT lost it's power is because it garners a response. Every post about racism gets more responses than posts that are about whatever else. The fact that you comment on race so often and now try to throw in the moist towelette by saying that Dan ISN'T a racist because so many others have called him just that, a racist, proves how insensitive you are to those who made that statement in the first place. Which makes you a racist. I'm sorry to tell you Slide, but you are the racist around here.

[jr565]

monkey see, monkey do Mark? Damn it, youre a racist! Because clearly, by using the word monkey you are implying that blacks are monkeys. That is just racism straight up, you tea bagging redneck. :)

And before someone says its absurd to say that the left will accuse people of such racism I'll simply remind people about the recent incident from a few months ago where a cartoonist got lambasted for racism because he compared Obama's economic plan to a baboon. (For those for forgot, a baboon or money or some primate of some kind went crazy and bit off the face of some lady and had to be killed by the cops. The following day Obamas administration passed some form of stimulus package a cartoonist used the cops killing the baboon to compare it to the stimulus package with the punchline "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill"

Al Sharpton picketed the NY Post. Joy Behar called the cartoon "an assassination threat on Obama etc etc.

[Slide]

"That's racist. Nobody has the right to take away someone's right to use the word racist. To do so would be racist. It's almost as if by saying that the word racist is losing it's power because people call other people racist too often, AND BY THINKING THAT YOU REVEAL YOURSELF TO BE A RACIST SLIDE."

that's very racist of you to say

[DW]

And again, saying Gates didn't pay taxes is relevant, um, how? What does Joe the Dumber not paying taxes have to do with ANY of this - with whether or not Dan is or is not a racist, whether he thinks he is or is not a racist, whether or not he cares if anyone else thinks he is or is not racist - with absolutely anything at all relating to the original post?

Yes, people who are all colors and any political leaning CHEAT on their taxes. Newsflash! Sooooooo, what did that have to do with anything here other than ratchet up the debate a notch? Or, was that the intent?

Logic Fail.

[Mike2Cents]

Xeroxy -
That's pretty incoherent.
To note though, here really is such a thing as racism. Really. It really does exists.
No, really...it does.
I'm serious.
But maybe we can just the debase the harmful reality of it down to semantics.
Won't that just be oh so helpful.

[anon]

Maybe a side benefit of everyone who says anything even remotely negative about a minority, or even when, as in Dan's case, they say something positive, being called a racist is that "racist" will lose its punch.

Right now in this country the worst possible thing you can be called is a racist....it can be career ending and life changing, just as Sgt. Crowley and Ms. Whalen.

If the liberals continue on this bent of accusing anyone with a differing view on anything related to minorities a racist, then the term will eventually be ineffective.

And that would be a good thing.

[mark l.]

"monkey see, monkey do Mark? Damn it, youre a racist!"

actually, I hate pretty much everybody, regardless of race. (i'm working on the self-loathing thing)

one thing that is pretty common, for every person that can be held up as an exemplar of their particular race, there a 30 turds that drag em back down.

[Xerocky]

"Really. It really does exists."

I know it does. Al Sharpton told me so.

[Meta]

We are all racists. We started out as tribalists sticking with our group and our culture, and it is probably that which allowed us to survive before we became 'civilized'. Civilization makes us racists whether we are willing to admit it or not. History and paying attention forces racism on us whether we accept it or not. What matters is how we think about race and what we choose to do about it. Most of us choose to do nothing about it and accept differences as part of the human condition. Most of us don't even think about race. We just live our lives and get along with people, not blacks, Hispanics, or Asians.... we get along with people. But every now and then some vestige of the past forces its way into our conscious and makes us 'racist'. I was flopped on my couch alone watching the news one night when they showed the clip of Michelle Obama telling us she was finally proud of America. I sat up and out of my mouth came words I would never utter in front of anyone. I was seething because she is black. That's it. "Wisdom implies knowing what you are, knowing your place in the world, being able to take the wide view, with a due sense of proportion." (Sophocles) Whose wisdom and lack of the wide view was on display? Knowing your place in the world indicates how you think, and if you think in terms of all men are created equal, you can probably figure both of us lost touch with the wide view. But that is the human condition, and we're it. I believe we all loath overt displays of racism when it hurts another human, and I believe we use it when it offends our sensibilities. It will be with us forever, and flouting it endlessly as a tired insult turns a serious offense banal. Using racism as offense only ends up being a defense mechanism that produces unearned cynicism and cheap effects.

The unearned cynicism is apparent in the criticism of Dan's story. Anyone capable of deep feeling knows he was portraying one of those delightful human interactions that give us a fleeting moment of hope that all is okay with a world that has too many tragic dimensions to it. It was also storytelling. That's different from expository writing, and it allows the writer lots of room to embellish and detail events that are designed simply to share a good experience. If he'd told the story and left out the 'white' woman, the 'light brown, dark brown' men, and the language problems, it would not have worked. He also used hyperbole in saying he was the only American... he did that to poke fun at himself. The story made me feel good and reminded me of helping two Hispanic men jump start their car. One could speak a little English, and I loved it. I had the same feeling a commenter above who got it said - I felt proud that they were trying, and I wanted to help more than anything. We three with hand signals and some laughing got their car started. I drove away and felt kind of blessed. That is it. I felt blessed to be part of this world where race doesn't matter, where helping your fellowman is what matters. Despite relentless caviling about the worst of human nature, is it any wonder when we find the best we want to share it? I believe part of the DNA of every human contains an instinctual racism. I also believe good will toward men trumps that racism into quiescence until someone, anyone, foolishly lets it be known that they think they are special because of their race.

[Stogie]

I have many friends, colleagues and acquaintances who are black, hispanic, East Indian, Asian, etc; I am also married to a Filipina (33 years). I have a son who is Amerasian, two grandchildren who are Korean (adopted) and one niece who is as much of an "African American" as Obama (black father, white mother). However, just by pointing this out, I am automatically a racist. Why? Beats the hell out of me. It's liberal logic, which I have never understood, nor do I wish to.

Decoding the left's rules on race would require a Cray computer and a very complex algorithm, whatever that is.

[Bob]

"Decoding the left's rules on race would require a Cray computer and a very complex algorithm, whatever that is."

People on both sides need to lighten up a little and at least be willing to give the other side credit for their humanity. I can understand how some people might have taken issue with the way Dan worded his post. Maybe that part was worth a gentle rebuke. But they sort of missed the forest for the trees in overlooking that it was a positive and sincere expression of affection for these guys who helped him out when he was lost in the city. People shouldn't let their political agendas get in the way of simple compassion, and in his own sort of backhanded way, I think that's what Dan was saying too. Give the guy a break.

[joyMc]

I never take directions from anyone in Houston, a city of mostly ethnic black and Hispanic persons, with a white minority. I prefer a guidance system or key map. Not sure which race was most instrumental in those inventions. I occasionally eat in a Chinese restaurant. I have a couple of Michael Jackson CDs. There are some undocumented Latino gentlemen who mow my lawn. My grandfather was Cherokee. My dog is a diverse admixture of terrier and hound. Yet for all this, I am somewhere to the right of Atilla the Hun. Sorry, was Atilla ethnic something? No slur intended.

[syn]

We are all Lucia Whalen.

[repsac3]

I'm willing to give Dan the benefit of the doubt, and assume he just worded his post poorly as concerns being "the only American there in a DC suburb." (But then, I read somewhere that he's prone to Lunkhead Prose Reporting.) Contrary to his claims, the anecdote doesn't prove Dan does or doesn't have racist tendencies generally but, as anyone who's been in a similar multicultural multilingual situation will attest, it is a heartwarming story about human nature, and it made me smile. Perhaps once I read more of Dan's posts, I'll have a better idea of how racist he is or ain't, but I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt unless/until he proves that wrong. (I've only visited occasionally, thus far... but loved his recent smackdown of some bloggers that richly deserved it. 'nuff said.)

Not a bad back in forth in general, but North Dallas Thirty is pretty out there with his assertion that if any liberal anywhere does something, all libs everywhere are responsible for it. The topic isn't comments made by some disgraced Dem mayor on his porch, or accusations made & recanted by black kids in TX, and even if it was, you got nothin' unless you have the lib you're accusing (which appears to be all of us, one by one) agreeing with the comments you believe to be racist.
Apparently, ND30 is one of those who believes that one cannot comment on any potentially bad act (racial, or otherwise) unless one also comments on EVERY potentially bad act that resembles it in any way... ...which for the record, is friggin' stupid, just on the time it'd take to comply with those kinda demands, alone... You start where you start, and you say what you can about those people/situations that're most recent, or most disturb you. Anyone who's shocked to find that partisan bloggers might have a partisan bent when doing that, just ain't paying enough attention to the world around them, and ought not to be taken very seriously as a result. I invite those interested enough (anyone? anyone? Buller??) to search ND30's blog for all of his condemnation of fellow cons for bad behavior. I'm sure he's posted oodles... ...y'know, in the name of fairness, and intellectual honesty'n'all... Happy hunting.

[repsac3]

Oops, that comment above was supposed to be attached to the original "racist" Brown People post, from Tuesday...

[North Dallas Thirty]

"Not a bad back in forth in general, but North Dallas Thirty is pretty out there with his assertion that if any liberal anywhere does something, all libs everywhere are responsible for it."

Not really; it's the same theory as used by the black racists like Henry Gates, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Barack Obama, who are still blaming whites as racists based on slavery (ended in the 1860s) and segregation. That's why, for instance, Barack Obama doesn't consider it racist or intimidation to stand in front of voting areas with weapons and call people names like "cracker"; racism is based on skin color, not actions, and therefore no black can be racist while all whites are inherently racist.

Also a corollary to that supported by Gates, Jackson, Sharpton, and Obama is that all whites anywhere must apologize for and condemn anything wrong done by a white person. Interestingly, repsac3 doesn't seem able to follow his own rules in that regard, since he would have to condemn the black Obama, the black Kilpatrick, the black Gates, and the black Jena 6.

So what does he do? He tries to project onto others his own inconsistency.

"I invite those interested enough (anyone? anyone? Buller??) to search ND30's blog for all of his condemnation of fellow cons for bad behavior. I'm sure he's posted oodles"

That's a two-fer; not only does he demand that others live up to rules when he doesn't follow his own, he also admits up front he doesn't have all the facts, but makes the judgment anyway based solely on skin color and ideology -- just like Barack Obama.

[Rob Crawford]

"The word racist is being thrown around way to easily (on both sides of the aisle)."

Oh, get off it. The left tosses "racist" around like it's a bead necklace at Mardi Gras. The right? Not so much.

[repsac3]

"I'm not holding you (or any other conservative) responsible for the pretty obviously conservative cop who let loose with the "banana eatin' jungle monkey" rhetoric, and I'm not holding Dan responsible for your nonsense, either. (...even if he does let you spew it here on his blog.)" - Riehl World View: Those Damned Brown People! : http://www.riehlworldview.com/carnivorous_conservative/2009/07/those-damned-brown-people.html?cid=6a00d83451c1db69e201157156a176970c#comment-6a00d83451c1db69e201157156a176970c

[Slide]

Oh, get off it. The left tosses "racist" around like it's a bead necklace at Mardi Gras. The right? Not so much.

ROFLOL...... Gates is racist. Obama is racist. Sotomayor is racist. I am racist. the Democratic party is racist.

you guys call everyone racist to mask your own deep seated prejudices.