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    We Need a Hand That Will Beat the Race Card


    By Political Agenda, Section News
    Posted on Thu Aug 13, 2009 at 05:59:19 PM EST
    Tags: Cynthia Tucker, Healthcare protesters, Healthcare reform, John Dingell, Race Card, Sergeant Crowley (all tags)

    Political Agenda with Danian Michael

    I don't know if you are familiar with the television series, "Star Trek: The Next Generation," but one of its episodes provides an interesting illustration. In it, the crew encounters a hostile and advanced alien race called the Borg.  One of their amazing abilities is to adapt to the weapons used against them.  When they attack our heroes on the Starship Enterprise, the crew is able to kill just two of the Borg. They were not able to kill three, because by then the Borg had adapted to their weapons.  What they did was both amazing and easily anticipated: the Enterprise crew stopped firing! Since their weapons no longer had any effect, why should they continue to fire?

    Let's leave that analogy for a moment and consider another one (I will reveal what that particular story of the Enterprise crew and their encounter with the Borg is analogous to shortly).  It's eight in the afternoon and you are about to have dinner with your family. All of a sudden the phone rings and intrudes on your privacy; the caller identification is displaying, "Caller Unknown," and immediately you think to yourself, "don't they know people have Caller ID and that their telemarketing won't work?" But the world of telemarketing plays the averages; if one person out of every twenty they call commit to using their services then those nineteen busy signals, answering machines, and rejections were worth it for them. It is a fact that telemarketing works, and that is why it continues. Presidential candidates don't spend millions on phone banks and directory listings for fun. I myself worked the phone banks for President Bush when he was running for re-election in 2004 and I was able to make a difference... Bush won.

    Where am I going with all this? Over the last two weeks my eyes have been opened; I now see the ten thousand pound gorilla in the room. Two weeks ago president Obama accused an innocent police man of being a racist because he arrested a black man.  When asked if people protesting healthcare reform reminded him of anything, Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) said the following on MSNBC: "Well, the last time I had to confront something like this was when I voted for the civil rights bill and my opponent voted against it. At that time, we had a lot of Ku Klux Klan folks and white supremacists and folks in white sheets and other things running around causing trouble."[1] Chris Matthews asked Cynthia Tucker this question: "Put 100 of these people in a room. Strap them into gurneys.  Inject them with sodium pentothal. How many of them would say "I don't like the idea of having a black president? What percentage?" Cynthia Tucker responded with this comment, "Oh, I'm just guessing. This is just off the cuff. I think 45 to 65% of the people who appear at these groups are people who will never be comfortable with the idea of a black president."[2] They, Dingell, Matthews, and Tucker were talking about people who are standing against Obama's plan for healthcare reform.

    In looking at all these examples I realized something (my eyes opened), the charge of racism is a weapon that people like president Obama, John Dingell and Cynthia Tucker will never stop using because it is effective. Like the telemarketer who continues to call no matter the consequence, it works.  Now back to the ten thousand pound gorilla in the room, what is it by analogy with current events? It is playing the race card. People continue to play it because it works. The only way to stop people from using this weapon against you is to make it ineffective. Remember the Borg; the Enterprise crew stopped firing their weapons when the Borg became immune to them.

    Sergeant Crowley has led the way on this. He is the white policeman who was racially castigated by the president for arresting a black Harvard professor. Sergeant Crowley stood his ground and said, "No - I will not apologize!"  A beautiful thing happened because the president's racial attack was ineffective against him; The Guardian.co.uk writes:

    The president said he should have chosen his words more carefully but stopped short of an apology."Because this has been ratcheting up and I helped to contribute to ratcheting it up, I want to make it clear that in my choice of words I unfortunately gave the impression I was maligning the Cambridge police department and Sergeant Crowley and I could have calibrated those words differently," he said.

    Seeking to lighten the situation further, he said at the daily White House briefing that he had invited both Crowley and Gates for "a beer here in the White House."[3]

    The president stopped his attack, invited Crowley for a beer, and did not apologize, which confirms my point that not being a racist is not necessarily going to stop people from calling you a racist; these things are deep in people's hearts. My pastor mentions repeatedly what experience confirms, namely, kicking a bad habit first starts with a commitment to acting differently; feelings will inevitably fall in line.  

    If we can get people like president Obama, John Dingell and Cynthia Tucker to stop calling people of good conscience racists (who cares if they think it; what a person thinks does not affect me) then perhaps ten years from now they might actually start believing that not every white person who opposes them is a racist. But it all starts with you my white friends and it doesn't matter if you are a white democrat, just ask the first black president, Bill Clinton.[4] It's time for a white civil rights movement, but instead of "We shall overcome," it will be, "We shall take it no more."

    Danian Michael,
    Political Agenda.

    Footnotes:

    [1] Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) made these comments on the cable network MSMBC. But don't take my words for it, listen to him yourself. http://beltwayblips.dailyradar.com/video/youtube_dingell_compares_town_hall_mobs_to_the_kkk/

    [2] Cynthia Tucker is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist; she writes for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Cynthia made the comments I cited on another MSNBC program called Hardball with Chris Mathews. Read the account at Newsbusters.org. http://newsbusters.org/blogs/mark-finkelstein/2009/08/07/cynthia-tucker-45-65-townhall-protesters-ar e-racists

    [3] Read the entire article titled "Obama invites race row policeman for a beer in the White House" at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/24/obama-race-row-beer

    [4] Bill Clinton was accused of being a racist for attacking Candidate Obama in support of his wife, who was also running for president during the primaries last year 2008.

    < Will Health Reform lower costs for Michiganders? | The Right Candidate in 2010 >


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    Display: Sort:
    I'm just gonna jump in. (none / 0) (#1)
    by maidintheus on Thu Aug 13, 2009 at 09:43:47 PM EST
    I believe we need to pick our fights. I agree that people should/shouldn't be...lots of things that they choose to be/say.

    When we purview the issues before us...goodness, we'd be running in all directions.  They've got us doing that too much as is. Let them stay busy trying to keep us busy and we can...get tight and focused.

    Please, please, don't be offended and please speak with a savy, intelligent, extremely trusted person who is 'in the loop' concerning my idea and yours...OFFLINE. There are several here that are highly capable, but choose wisely grasshopper.

    For me, I'm not all that tight and focused but I know people who are so, I'll focus on them and maybe do a bit of following.

    We can't herd cats. Plus, who wants to give THEIR straw man attention. We gotta quit letting them work that. I mean sakes! We all know we're post racial, we're into our second blk presidency. They have a great reason to do what they do, to get us off track. Heretofore it's worked, just stay focused and it will come back together. God will deal with their heart, don't let 'em see ya sweat.

    Encourage yourself with looking at the Tea Parties, town halls... Average citizens are getting involved in droves. That IS ALL IT TAKES. Just think if EVERYONE showed up when it's time to vote, we wouldn't be having most of these problems. Seeing as how we're mostly coming in after the fact...tight and focused, precept by precept, vote by vote, we'll get there.

    Just say no, any fake distractions and untrue projections, and other things that aren't TOP priority. There's only 24/7, we're going to need it.

    Oh, and God still answers prayers! Fear not! Only believe. We can do this, rah, rah, rah!

    savy, - intelligent,- in the loop (none / 0) (#4)
    by maidintheus on Thu Aug 13, 2009 at 10:52:48 PM EST
    Hi Danian, I'm the local idiot.

    Nice to meet you.

    • Maidintheus by Political Agenda, 08/14/2009 07:11:42 PM EST (none / 0)
    Actually... (none / 0) (#5)
    by rdww on Fri Aug 14, 2009 at 08:40:57 AM EST
    ... the race card fails when someone in the public eye is accused of racism, and does not respond by either A. Heatedly denying it or B. Apologizing all over the place.  Rather, it will fail the first time this person in the public eye responds with "Maybe, maybe not -- if I am, what of it?"


    Stalking? (none / 0) (#10)
    by rdww on Fri Aug 14, 2009 at 02:30:19 PM EST
    This from someone who keeps popping up to post non sequiters? At least we know you take pride in having nothing to offer.

    The hand needed to beat the race card is to call the bluff -- and double.

    The hand that beats the race card! (none / 0) (#11)
    by Eric T on Fri Aug 14, 2009 at 05:23:59 PM EST
    The hand that has beat the race card, is the state shaped like a hand,
     "Our Great state of Michigan"

    Our state has pioneered equality for everyone, and has rejected government sponsored racism by getting rid of affirmative action. That is the answer, we gotta end the freebies, handouts, and preferential treatment based on race. You see it everywhere, here it is in education.

    http://www.ehow.com/how_2053576_go-college-free.html

    "Investigate scholarships based on minority background. There are many scholarships available for members of various minority groups, such as African-Americans, Native Americans, women, gays and lesbians."

    Some may not notice the racism in this, they may just see it as the "run of the mill" "standard" political correctness. That you can find anywhere there is a government program.

    But, It really is state sponsored racism, with this kind of racism, I am forced to the back of the line because of my race, religion, and now my sexual preference as well. Free for every other ethnic background except mine. This is what REAL discrimination and racism looks like.

    Imagine affirmative action in government health care. You need heart surgery, but your a Straight White Christian male. So you go to the back of the line for care, so the preferred races get to go first like in any other government program.

    Michigan has proved Equality, is better than state sponsored racism. One day people will realize Michigan is the "best" state there is.
    Michigan was the first to take these bold steps towards equality and justice for all. The rest of the country needs to follow our lead, and end the government sponsored racism.

    • Eric T by Political Agenda, 08/14/2009 07:40:10 PM EST (none / 0)
    If that . . . (none / 0) (#12)
    by Kevin Rex Heine on Fri Aug 14, 2009 at 05:42:50 PM EST
    . . . was intended as a mild rebuke, CS, I'll take it onboard in the spirit in which I think it was intended.

    • Now see . . . by Kevin Rex Heine, 08/14/2009 08:05:56 PM EST (none / 0)
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