Harry Reid and stupid white people
Posted by keithosaunders on January 12, 2010
It never ceases to amaze me how politicians are able to gain office while retaining large amounts of ignorance. Harry Reid may, or may not be racist — I would like to believe that he is not. His ignorance, however, cannot be questioned. Reid, who in a private conversation during the 2008 campaign described Obama as a “light-skinned African-American with no Negro dialect unless he wanted to have one,” is now under pressure from Republicans to resign. That’s a nice trick, isn’t it — giving the Republicans the high road on race relations.
By a long shot this is not the most racist thing ever said. It certainly pales next to Dodger General Manager Al Campanis’ remarks about “Blacks not having the makeup to be executives in baseball,” or Jimmy the Greek’s musings on race, for that matter. Still, at the very least this reveals a train of thought — that a “Negro dialect’ is inferior to that of a white man.
It’s disheartening on many levels. This is a man who has risen to be among the top in his field to become the Senate Majority leader. I would expect him to have enough intelligence to be able to refrain from uttering disparaging remarks such as this.
The World According to Keitho 
idoitbetter said
It is very disheartening. Unfortunately, this will most likely NOT be the last time we hear something like this during the Obama presidency. At least two racial remarks and one rude outburst (“You lie!”), and it’s only been a year. More proof that America has a long way to go in the so-called “post-racial” America.
planetofbob said
I’ll go you one better Keith. On the night after it was released that Reid had said this, I was listening to Mark Thonmpson on Sirius Left, one of the few places I can go to get the left point of view on talk radio.
Anyhow, Thompson is a an African-American talk show host, human rights visionary, and community leader (according to his Sirius Bio). He is also described as a “nationally known as a longtime NAACP activist, emcee of the Million Man March, founder of the Umoja Party, and an ordained minister. Mark Thompson is also known by his African name, Matsimela Mapfumo.”
Based on that information alone, it should be pretty obvious that we are not talking about Ruch Limbaugh here. Anyway, Thompson stated that he would forgive Reid because – and I’m paraphrasing here – Reid “grew up in Nevada, where their aren’t many black people, so I doubt that he is familiar with the African American veniacular”.
WHAT? Okay, Maybe Reid, who grew up outside of Vegas in Henderson – with an African-American population of just under 10% – may be forgiven for not knowing what “fo’ shizzle” means, but for not knowing that “negro” is a dated and unacceptable term.
Look, I don’t know if this means that Reid is a racist or not, but I do know that the most offensive comment discussed here did not come from Reid, it came from Thompson. And I’m sure if a Republican senator had made that dumb-ass remark, Thompson would have been just as forgiving, right?
keithosaunders said
I’m willing to give Reid the benifit of the doubt that he is not a racist. He is, however, ignorant, and it never ceases to amaze me how people are able to attain such power while being tonedeaf.