Thread: Isn't This Racism ??

Originally Posted by DAVESBABYDOLL

I'm no racist, but these did make me laugh, but then again I can laugh at white, Puerto Rican, Mexican, Asian jokes too

I agree, every nationality/culture has their stereotypes.........doesn't mean they're true for all and that all apply. I even laugh at my own nationality stereotypes....

September 08, 2009
After a While, You Have To Accept That These Are The President's Beliefs On Display

When asked for an opinion about government-run health care, guess which Obama mentor answered this way?

I think the racists in the right wing are upset because poor people are about to be helped.

If you guessed Rev. Jeremiah Wright, you would be correct. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,547544,00.html

I know that people on the left are tired of having Wright, terrorist Bill Ayers, and other Obama mentors and allies thrown back in their faces repeatedly, but the influence these and like-minded figures had over the President in their long associations with him are very germane to how the President views the world. Wright's comments—and the twisted hatred and paranoia that underlie them—are the same sort of conspiratorial rants we've come to associate with another Obama ally that just stepped down from the Administration this weekend, Van Jones.

The simple fact of the matter is that all of these people were close to the President because they share the same core beliefs. While every person is an individual and they do differ on specific points, when a belief is endemic to a group and permeates it as a majority view, it is folly to think that that view is not commonly held and accepted by members of that group.

Barack Obama has a track record more than two decades long of walking arm-in-arm with radicals and racists that propagate these theories of conspiratorial oppression.

Perhaps Glenn Beck was right. Maybe President Obama is a racist. It certainly seems more likely every time one of his allies opens his mouth to spit forth another theory of conspiratorial oppression.

http://confederateyankee.mu.nu/archives/291971.php


Comments

One reason I am amused at the perplexed questions of "who vetted Jones, anyway" is my certainty that nobody bothered to vet him because they knew all about him, and it wasn't a problem. Jones wasn't some goofy nut who slipped past the system - he represented what this particular system was looking for.

Remember how Obama was blindsided that anyone had a problem with him chumming around with Ayers and Wright for most of his adult life? It's one of his blind spots. America is so alien to him that he can't tell when somebody is not just out of the mainstream, but beyond the pale.

Posted by: Steve Skubinna at September 8, 2009 12:23 PM

'Judge me by the people with whom I surround myself.'
---Barack Obama, 2008 Presidential Campaign

Rev Wright, Billy Ayers, Henry Gates, Van Jones, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, John Holdren, Eric Holder...

Posted by: Michael in MI at September 8, 2009 12:38 PM

I just don't understand why people couldn't see this from the get go... the only explanation is willful blindness.... at least people are beginning to open their eyes.. finally.. Obama is a racist and a very hard core one.. in my opinion his hate toward white people has a direct relationship to the fact that he's half white and half black..

Posted by: hogtrashhd at September 8, 2009 01:06 PM

Perhaps people are waking to find, Hussein Obama is a radical too. Could it be? Or is he simply an innocent who just happens to have hung around and still hangs around radicals?

Posted by: rssg at September 8, 2009 01:09 PM

Exactly. Jonah Golberg is still saying that he does not believe that Obama is racist. But any white person with similar types of friends would be considered a racist, case closed.

Try to imagine a white Republican who spent twenty years going to a white supremacist church, was friends with David Duke, and appointed neo-Nazis to his staff.

Would there be even the slightest debate over whether such a person was racist?

Posted by: Steve at September 8, 2009 01:21 PM

Stop blaming racism for the failure of black parents
By Paul D. White
Thu Oct 22, 5:00 am ET

Los Angeles – Growing youth violence in the United States will not be resolved until we find the moral courage to address the racial issues that underlie it.

During a Chicago school visit earlier this month to the site where a black honor student was beaten to death by a mob of black students, Attorney General Eric Holder stated that growing youth violence in America is not just "a black problem," but a problem for all races. The trouble with this statement is that it is statistically untrue.

Youth violence may not be solely a black problem, but it is primarily a black problem.

Consider, by race, the contributing factors of prison incarceration and school suspension. Blacks are imprisoned and suspended three times more frequently than the rest of the US population, and as much as six times more frequently than their white, Asian, and Latino counterparts.

The question is not whether young blacks, particularly males, get involved in violent incidents more frequently than other races. The question is why.

White and black liberals blame this disparity on a racist society that misinterprets and discriminates against black culture.

White and black conservatives explain these statistics as the result of less respect for the law, caused solely by poor parenting. They cite as proof that high-achieving blacks have been well-parented.

This is not a new problem. Consider a memo written in 1965 to President Lyndon Johnson from Assistant Labor Secretary Daniel Moynihan in which the secretary expressed his great concern over the high rate of out-of-wedlock births among blacks (25 percent at that time). Unaddressed, Mr. Moynihan predicted, this large number of fatherless children would result in increasing school failure, criminal delinquency, and joblessness. Sadly, because liberals across the board condemned this call for action as racist propaganda, President Johnson didn't want to risk heated public debate and so did nothing.

The recent Chicago incident, and countless others that occur daily, are the result of not heeding Moynihan's warning 44 years ago. The previous out-of-wedlock birthrate has almost tripled, and 7 out of 10 black children now grow up not only without a father, but also in disproportionate poverty. That means millions of young kids lack adequate parental guidance to make the transition to become successful adults.

So of course unparented black kids act up and get in trouble more. Any racial group would do the same. The starting point for reducing our nation's youth violence must begin at home. We need our elected public officials to acknowledge this.

President Obama – himself black, well-parented, and successful – has a unique opportunity to start reducing youth violence by addressing this key issue. The president needs to condemn the disparity in out-of-wedlock birthrates and antisocial behavior between black youth and their peers of other races. He needs to specifically address the habit of blaming racism alone for the failure to instill proper behavior in black children.

A specific call for black parental accountability would be a strong first step in avoiding future tragedies like the one in Chicago.

Paul D. White is a career public educator from Ventura, Calif., and the author of "White's Rules – Saving Our Youth One Kid at a Time."


http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20091022/cm_csm/ywhite

Ridiculous “RAAAACISM” charge of the day
November 4, 2009 02:05 PM

The Left will do anything to smear the US Chamber of Commerce, a leading foe of the Democrats’ government health care takeover and the radical cap-and-tax plan.

You’ll recall that Reuters got punked by an attack parody of the Chamber a few weeks ago. Now, the Huffington Post is stirring up grievance-mongering by the AFL-CIO, which claims that the business group’s ad against Obamacare is RAAAAACIST:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/1..._n_345392.html

A new Chamber of Commerce ad attacking Democratic-led efforts to pass health care legislation includes a storyline that union critics of the group say is rife with racial undertones.

In the new spot, titled “Millions,” the business lobby goes after health reform by arguing that it could “wipe out even more jobs” than those lost so far. But the group does so in a peculiar and perhaps controversial way.

The scenario of a distraught boss forced to fire an employee is illustrated by a white worker being summoned to the office as a black co-worker looks on.

An official with the AFL-CIO, who saw the ad air on Wednesday morning, argued that it was a perpetuation of the stereotype that minorities have a leg up on their colleagues because of affirmative-action policies. It gets at the heart of concerns raised by labor leaders like the AFL-CIO’s president, Richard Trumka, who fretted during the 2008 presidential campaign that Barack Obama’s candidacy would spur racial unrest within work forces.

“This is the same old right wing dog whistle politics,” said Eddie Vale, spokesman for the AFL-CIO. “They’re trying to use race and class to scare working people about a health care bill.”

The Chamber scoffed at the charge. “Really?” emailed spokesman Eric Wohlschlegel, in a succinct and dismissed response.

Here’s the ad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__ngB...layer_embedded

If the fired worker had been black, Big Labor would have concocted “racial undertones” for that narrative. If there had been no black workers in the spot, Big Labor would have cried RAAAAACISM over that, too.

You can never win with the cult of the aggrieved.

As one of my favorite Tea Party signs put it:



http://michellemalkin.cachefly.net/m...9/10/marco.jpg

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/11/04...ge-of-the-day/

Pastor sees pure evil in Obama
25 November, 2009, 08:43

A New York pastor claims Barack Obama is pure evil, not an American citizen, and therefore has no right to run the country. A pastor in one Harlem church has been sending out political messages that have been causing much controversy in the US. Former prisoner-turned-pastor James David Manning, who also has his own radio show, is not a fan of the US President.

Offensive and what some call hate-filled messages fly out of his church on a daily basis.

“I believe [Barack Obama] represents pure evil. He is an evil, evil man – spiritually,” Pastor Manning is convinced.

He claims that both the police and the secret service have visited him because of his messages. Manning says he expects to be arrested soon for his political beliefs, which he insists would be an infringement of free speech.

The pastor alleges the President is not a US citizen and is therefore leading the country in breach of the Constitution, which bars foreigners from the White House hot seat. Manning has been daring Obama to prove him wrong.

“The only reason why they have not moved further to jack me up or imprison me is because, at present, he would have to demonstrate I am making false charges against him. But he can't do that,” Manning says.

The controversial cleric's wife, Sister Elizabeth, has no doubts about her husband's righteousness:

“I stand behind him 100%. I believe he is led by God to speak the things that he speaks.”

However, there is little support in evidence on the streets of Harlem.

“It's a way to create attention. It's controversial to do that. I am not sure it has much to do with his true beliefs. I think it's almost like a PR stunt,” believes one man.

“He is supposed to be showing us love – showing us that God loves everybody. Not teach us to hate,” said one woman.

Pastor Manning remains undeterred in his rhetoric, despite the criticism of his community.

Read also: Wake up, America! http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/fee...e_up_america-0

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20091229/D9CSP5F82.html

Which begs the question - if it was a white pastor making these staements they would be derided as "racist" but since it is a black pastor they are not ?

Reid Repents for 'Negro' Remarks
January 09, 2010 2:08 PM

ABC News' Rachel Martin reports: There’s a new book coming out Monday that’s already raising hackles in Washington and has even provoked an apology from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Here’s the Reid quote from “Game Change”, written by political journalists John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, as reported by The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder, who has published highlights from the book:

"He was wowed by Obama's oratorical gifts and believed that the country was ready to embrace a black presidential candidate, especially one such as Obama -- a 'light-skinned' African American 'with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one,' as he said privately. Reid was convinced, in fact, that Obama's race would help him more than hurt him in a bid for the Democratic nomination.’”

Today, Reid responded to those remarks. “I deeply regret using such a poor choice of words," Reid said in a written statement. "I sincerely apologize for offending any and all Americans, especially African Americans for my improper comments. I was a proud and enthusiastic supporter of Barack Obama during the campaign and have worked as hard as I can to advance President Obama’s legislative agenda. Moreover, throughout my career, from efforts to integrate the Las Vegas strip and the gaming industry to opposing radical judges and promoting diversity in the Senate, I have worked hard to advance issues important to the African American community.”

African American leaders called the remarks careless.

"I think more than insensitive, the remarks are enlightening about the racial psychology in the country," the Rev. Al Sharpton told ABC News.

Sen. Reid called upon Sharpton to apologize today.

He also called the president. In a statement by the White House, Obama said, "I accepted Harry's apology without question. ... I know what's in his heart. As far as I am concerned, the book is closed."

More on this tonight on "World News."

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpu...o-remarks.html


Reid to Obama: Sorry for 'no Negro dialect' remark
By Philip Elliott, Associated Press Writer
33 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid apologized on Saturday for saying Barack Obama should seek — and could win — the White House because Obama was a "light skinned" African-American "with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one."

Obama quickly accepted, saying "As far as I am concerned, the book is closed."

Reid made the comments in private during the long 2008 campaign, according to a new book about that election, which elevated Obama from first-term Illinois senator to the first black president.

After excerpts from the book appeared on the Web site of The Atlantic, Reid released a statement expressing regret for "using such a poor choice of words. I sincerely apologize for offending any and all Americans, especially African-Americans for my improper comments."

Obama issued a statement saying he had spoken with Reid, who faces a difficult re-election amid frustration from both liberals and conservatives with his leadership in the Senate and his agenda. For Reid, trailing in polls, the comments can't help, even as Obama relies heavily on him to try to pass a health care overhaul.

Reid's office also said he had phoned to apologize to civil rights leaders, including the Rev. Al Sharpton; NAACP Chairman Julian Bond and Leadership Conference on Civil Rights president and chief executive officer Wade Henderson, as well as veteran political operative Donna Brazile. Reid also spoke with Reps. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., and Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., both African-Americans.

The revelations about Reid's language — included in the book "Game Change" by Time Magazine's Mark Halperin and New York magazine's John Heilemann — are based on interviews with more than 200 people involved in the campaign, including Obama. The writers' sources were granted anonymity and the writers reconstructed much of the narrative from interviews with those involved with direct knowledge of events, notes and transcripts. The book is to be released on Monday and was obtained by The Associated Press on Saturday.

"I was a proud and enthusiastic supporter of Barack Obama during the campaign and have worked as hard as I can to advance President Obama's legislative agenda," Reid said in his apology.

Reid was neutral during the bitter Democratic primary that became a marathon contest between Obama and then-Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. Obama picked her as his secretary of state after the election.

The book also says Reid urged Obama to run for president, perceiving the freshman senator's impatience in Congress.

"You're not going to go any place here," Reid told Obama of the Senate. "I know that you don't like it, doing what you're doing."

The book also dealt with the GOP campaign.

According to the book, aides to Republican nominee John McCain described the difficulties they faced with their vice presidential pick, then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Steve Schmidt, a senior adviser to McCain, is quoted telling Palin's foreign policy tutors: "You guys have a lot of work to do. She doesn't know anything."

While flying home to Alaska to see her son off to war, she told her team: "I wish I'd paid more attention to this stuff."

At another point, she is quoted as saying she would not have accepted the vice presidential nomination if she had understood the burden.

The former governor's spokeswoman, Meg Stapleton, disputed the version presented in the reporters' book.

"The governor's descriptions of these events are found in her book, 'Going Rogue.' Her descriptions are accurate," Stapleton said in a statement to "60 Minutes," which is featuring the book in a Sunday broadcast.

"She was there. These reporters were not."

The authors also quote Obama's initial reaction to McCain's selection of a little-known governor: "Wow. Well, I guess she's change."

Vice presidential nominee Joe Biden was direct. "Who's Sarah Palin?" the book quotes the then-senator as asking as they left the nominating convention in Denver.

The Reid comments about Obama come at a time that Reid needs the White House's help if he wants to keep his seat. The Obama administration has dispatched officials on dozens of trips to buoy his bid and Obama has raised money for his campaign.

Recognizing the threat, Reid's apologies also played to his home state: "Moreover, throughout my career, from efforts to integrate the Las Vegas strip and the gaming industry to opposing radical judges and promoting diversity in the Senate, I have worked hard to advance issues."

Even before his remarks in the book were reported, a new survey released Saturday by the Las Vegas Review Journal showed him continuing to earn poor polling numbers. In the poll, by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research, Reid trailed former state Republican party chairwoman Sue Lowden by a 10 percentage points, 50 percent to 40 percent, and lagging behind two other opponents.

More than half of Nevadans had an unfavorable opinion of Reid. Just 33 percent of respondents held a favorable opinion.

Racially charged language cost Sen. Trent Lott, a Republican, the majority leader's office in 2002. The Mississippi lawmaker had kind words for then-Sen. Strom Thurmond, the South Carolina lawmaker who sought the presidency in 1948 on a pro-segration message.

Lott said the country wouldn't have as many problems if Thurmond — celebrating his 100th birthday — had prevailed. Lott stepped down after a tepid response from the White House of then-President George W. Bush.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100110/...VpZHRvb2JhbWFz

NOW : Reid referred to “light-skinned” Obama and “Negro dialect;” Obama accepts apology, praises Reid on “social justice”

THEN :Reid Compares Opponents of Health Care Reform to Supporters of Slavery
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid took his GOP-blasting rhetoric to a new level Monday, comparing Republicans who oppose health care reform to lawmakers who clung to the institution of slavery more than a century ago.
December 07, 2009

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid took his GOP-blasting rhetoric to a new level Monday, comparing Republicans who oppose health care reform to lawmakers who clung to the institution of slavery more than a century ago.

The Nevada Democrat, in a sweeping set of accusations on the Senate floor, also compared health care foes to those who opposed women's suffrage and the civil rights movement -- even though it was Sen. Strom Thurmond, then a Democrat, who unsuccessfully tried to filibuster the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and it was Republicans who led the charge against slavery.

Senate Republicans on Monday called Reid's comments "offensive" and "unbelievable."

But Reid argued that Republicans are using the same stalling tactics employed in the pre-Civil War era.

"Instead of joining us on the right side of history, all the Republicans can come up with is, 'slow down, stop everything, let's start over.' If you think you've heard these same excuses before, you're right," Reid said Monday. "When this country belatedly recognized the wrongs of slavery, there were those who dug in their heels and said 'slow down, it's too early, things aren't bad enough.'"

He continued: "When women spoke up for the right to speak up, they wanted to vote, some insisted they simply, slow down, there will be a better day to do that, today isn't quite right.

"When this body was on the verge of guaranteeing equal civil rights to everyone regardless of the color of their skin, some senators resorted to the same filibuster threats that we hear today."

That seemed to be a reference to Thurmond's famous 1957 filibuster -- the late senator switched parties several years later.

Reid's office stood by the remarks, with spokesman Jim Manley saying Republicans have "done nothing but obstruct health care" in the Senate.

"Today's feigned outrage is nothing but a ploy to distract from the fact they have no plan to lower the cost of health care, stop insurance company abuses or protect Medicare," Manley said.

But Republicans said they were genuinely appalled. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said Reid's remarks were over the top.

"That is extremely offensive," he told Fox News. "It's language that should never be used, never be used. ... Those days are not here now."

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who on the Senate floor read from this FoxNews.com article and asked that it be placed in the record, called on Reid to return to the floor and, if not apologize, at least explain what he meant.

Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., suggested Reid was starting to "crack" under the pressure of the health care reform debate.

"I think it's beneath the dignity of the majority leader," Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said. "I personally am insulted."

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009...ry-supporters/



See also : Bill Clinton to Ted Kennedy in new campaign book "Obama should be fetching us coffee" http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/01...-obama-should/

Some see racist theme in alien adventure 'Avatar'
By Jesse Washington, Ap National Writer
Mon Jan 11, 9:40 am ET

Near the end of the hit film "Avatar," the villain snarls at the hero, "How does it feel to betray your own race?" Both men are white — although the hero is inhabiting a blue-skinned, 9-foot-tall, long-tailed alien.

Strange as it may seem for a film that pits greedy, immoral humans against noble denizens of a faraway moon, "Avatar" is being criticized by a small but vocal group of people who allege it contains racist themes — the white hero once again saving the primitive natives.

Since the film opened to widespread critical acclaim three weeks ago, hundreds of blog posts, newspaper articles, tweets and YouTube videos have said things such as the film is "a fantasy about race told from the point of view of white people" and that it reinforces "the white Messiah fable."

The film's writer and director, James Cameron, says the real theme is about respecting others' differences.

In the film (read no further if you don't want the plot spoiled for you) a white, paralyzed Marine, Jake Sully, is mentally linked to an alien's body and set loose on the planet Pandora. His mission: persuade the mystic, nature-loving Na'vi to make way for humans to mine their land for unobtanium, worth $20 million per kilo back home.

Like Kevin Costner in "Dances with Wolves" and Tom Cruise in "The Last Samurai" or as far back as Jimmy Stewart in the 1950 Western "Broken Arrow," Sully soon switches sides. He falls in love with the Na'vi princess and leads the bird-riding, bow-and-arrow-shooting aliens to victory over the white men's spaceships and mega-robots.

Adding to the racial dynamic is that the main Na'vi characters are played by actors of color, led by a Dominican, Zoe Saldana, as the princess. The film also is an obvious metaphor for how European settlers in America wiped out the Indians.

Robinne Lee, an actress in such recent films as "Seven Pounds" and "Hotel for Dogs," said that "Avatar" was "beautiful" and that she understood the economic logic of casting a white lead if most of the audience is white.

But she said the film, which so far has the second-highest worldwide box-office gross ever, still reminded her of Hollywood's "Pocahontas" story — "the Indian woman leads the white man into the wilderness, and he learns the way of the people and becomes the savior."

"It's really upsetting in many ways," said Lee, who is black with Jamaican and Chinese ancestry. "It would be nice if we could save ourselves."

Annalee Newitz, editor-in-chief of the sci-fi Web site io9.com, likened "Avatar" to the recent film "District 9," in which a white man accidentally becomes an alien and then helps save them, and 1984's "Dune," in which a white man becomes an alien Messiah.

"Main white characters realize that they are complicit in a system which is destroying aliens, AKA people of color ... (then) go beyond assimilation and become leaders of the people they once oppressed," she wrote.

"When will whites stop making these movies and start thinking about race in a new way?" wrote Newitz, who is white.

Black film professor and author Donald Bogle said he can understand why people would be troubled by "Avatar," although he praised it as a "stunning" work.

"A segment of the audience is carrying in the back of its head some sense of movie history," said Bogle, author of "Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies & Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films."

Bogle stopped short, however, of calling the movie racist. "It's a film with still a certain kind of distortion," he said. "It's a movie that hasn't yet freed itself of old Hollywood traditions, old formulas."

Writer/director Cameron, who is white, said in an e-mail to The Associated Press that his film "asks us to open our eyes and truly see others, respecting them even though they are different, in the hope that we may find a way to prevent conflict and live more harmoniously on this world. I hardly think that is a racist message."

There are many ways to interpret the art that is "Avatar."

What does it mean that in the final, sequel-begging scene, Sully abandons his human body and transforms into one of the Na'vi for good? Is Saldana's Na'vi character the real heroine because she, not Sully, kills the arch-villain? Does it matter that many conservatives are riled by what they call liberal environmental and anti-military messages?

Is Cameron actually exposing the historical evils of white colonizers? Does the existence of an alien species expose the reality that all humans are actually one race?

"Can't people just enjoy movies any more?" a person named Michelle posted on the Web site for Essence, the magazine for black women, which had 371 comments on a story debating the issue.

Although the "Avatar" debate springs from Hollywood's historical difficulties with race, Will Smith recently saved the planet in "I Am Legend," and Denzel Washington appears ready to do the same in the forthcoming "Book of Eli."

Bogle, the film historian, said that he was glad Cameron made the film and that it made people think about race. "Maybe there is something he does want to say and put across" about race, Bogle said. "Maybe if he had a black hero in there, that point would have been even stronger."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100111/..._avatar_racism

Some see racist theme in alien adventure 'Avatar'

Some ree racisim in a loaf of bread....and/or a pile of rocks.....

O'Reilly and Juan Williams Agree: O'Donnell's Race Baiting Was Totally Inappropriate
By Lachlan Markay Tue, 04/13/2010 - 15:45 ET

NBC host Norah O'Donnell is taking it from all angles for pulling the race card on Newt Gingrich last Friday.

Speaking at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, Gingrich said "shooting three-point shots may be clever, but it doesn’t put anybody to work,” referring to President Obama's basketball skills. Norah O'Donnell embarrassed herself Friday by claiming the comment had racial undertones.

Since then, commentators on the left and right have criticized O'Donnell's race-baiting. Bill O'Reilly and Juan Williams have both condemned her remark, and Gingrich himself has repudiated the accusation.

"The left is becoming a parody of itself," Gingrich said Tuesday morning. He added that "it's relatively hard to go from 'we need someone who is a good president more than we need three point shots' to" racism.

O'Reilly blasted O'Donnell on his Monday evening "Talking Points Memo" segment. He said that the racism charge "is destructive to the country. There are enough legitimate issues to debate without degenerating into personal attacks, especially where racism is invoked."

During the same episode of the "Factor," O'Reilly asked Juan Williams, an African American contributor to NPR and the Washington Post, about O'Donnell's comment. Williams let loose:

Here is the serious point, Bill. This is an example by Norah O'Donnell of crying wolf. And when do you that with regard to race, then people who come along with serious racial concerns about racial inequities in this society that still exist, they can't have a conversation. Suddenly you say "no you are always talking about race. We are sick of race. We don't want to hear about race." That's what happens when you use it cheaply.

And the second thing to say is, guess what? There are lots of people in the black community who think President Obama should be doing more about the high rate of unemployment in the black community. That's -- so for him, for them to say "oh, he is shooting baskets, instead of paying attention to the economy," you might get the same criticism from several people out of several people the black community today who want him to do more to address high rates of unemployment.

In other words, Gingrich's point is completely valid, and O'Donnell needs to put away the race card. Please.

O'Reilly, for his part, also noted that he has become wary of even covering events revolving around black people or the black community. He told Williams,

In a serious vein -- and we talked about this with the infamous Sylvia’s deal a few years ago -- I, and many other white journalists, now don’t do nearly as many reports on African Americans or their problems because we don’t want to be put in a situation where our opinion is taken out of contest, rammed down our throat as Media Matters and all these other sleazeoids do. If it’s a big thing or optional thing, I’m not doing it anymore.

O'Donnell's accusations cheapen the political discourse not only by distilling meaningful objections down to base bigotry, but by discouraging discourse in the first place.

Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/lachlan...#ixzz0l1FaIlnb

I think this is merely indicative of most of the liberal media - it is simply their own racism they're projecting on others. O'Donnell equated basketball with Blacks, no one else did. And in doing so, she denigrated one or the other by suggesting Gingrich's use of the analogy was somehow derogatory.

The racism charge is only made by people claiming to be able to read other people's minds, when in fact, they are likely reading their own.

Who is really the racist.... the one who makes a comment about the president's priorities, or the one who tries to make it a race issue? Norah O'Donnell really doesn't even qualify as a journalist. She's just a parrot in a cage yacking the liberal line. Kinda reminds me of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. If they didn't perpetuate and profit from race-baiting, they might have to go out and get a real job.

'Judge me by the people with whom I surround myself.'
---Barack Obama, 2008 Presidential Campaign

Ex-mentor: Sharpton is Obama's link to the streets
By Verena Dobnik, Associated Press Writer 2 hrs 44 mins ago

NEW YORK – The Rev. Al Sharpton is a "lightning rod" for President Barack Obama on inner city streets, Obama's former Harvard mentor and friend said Saturday at a forum in Harlem. But Sharpton, who led the event, told The Associated Press that America's first black president "has to work both for us and for others," and that if Obama were to push a race-based agenda, "that would only organize the right against him."

Sharpton spoke on the last day of an annual conference organized by his National Action Network. Speakers included three members of Obama's Cabinet and Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, as well as Charles Ogletree, the president's Harvard Law School professor, now a friend. "Al Sharpton has become the lightning rod in moving Obama's agenda forward," Ogletree told the AP, describing Sharpton as a conduit between the disadvantaged and powerful leaders. "And he has access to both the streets and the suites, to make sure that the people who are voiceless, faceless and powerless finally have some say."

Standing at the back of a balcony overlooking Harlem's ornate First Corinthian Baptist Church, the 57-year-old lawyer said that some black Americans may be disappointed the president they helped elect isn't doing more for them. "And President Obama expected to do a lot more," said Ogletree, referring to the challenges Obama faces in two wars and the struggling economy. Still, he predicted, the new health care law would affect uninsured black Americans more than any other segment of the population.

But clearly, Sharpton was at the center of this forum. Saturday, the front page of The Washington Post featured a photo of him with a headline that read: "Activist Al Sharpton takes on new role as administration ally."

Sharpton chuckled at the notion. "I've been as much in this White House as I was in George (W.) Bush's — it's only when Bush invited me to the White House, it was him reaching out; when Obama invites me, all of a sudden, we're allies," Sharpton joked during a break, sitting in a pew on the altar that served as a high-tech stage.

Amid a heated national debate over whether black leaders should align themselves with the president, Sharpton has defended Obama against criticism from television host Tavis Smiley that "black folk are catching hell" and Obama should do more to help them.

Black Americans, Sharpton said, "need to solve our own problems."

Sharpton told the AP that he is working to expand his Harlem-based organization to 100 cities from the current 42, with about 200,000 members, "and to really deliver against unemployment that is disproportionate in the black community, and for health care and education reform."

The four-day conference, focusing on a 12-month plan of action for black leadership, brought together prominent figures from dozens of fields, tackling topics as diverse as finding jobs for men leaving prison and federal subsidies for black farmers.

Sharpton's "12-month action plan" to better life for black Americans measures its success by individual goal-setting — "every day, every week, every month," said Mayor Michael Nutter of Philadelphia.

Nutter has a big goal: to reach and teach a half million adults in his city who are considered "low-literate," which means they can read, technically, but have difficulty understanding a newspaper article or even a utility bill.

"It is impossible for parents to help their children if they can't read," said Nutter, who leads the largest American city with a black mayor. "It is almost impossible to lift yourself out of poverty if you can't function at a high enough level."

On the Net: National Action Network: http://www.nationalactionnetwork.net

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100418/...NsawNwcmludA--