Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

All your base are belong to Tunch.

Bark louder, little dog.

Americans barely caring about Afghanistan is so last month.

After roe, women are no longer free.

We still have time to mess this up!

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Why did Dr. Oz lose? well, according to the exit polls, it’s because Fetterman won.

The next time the wall wtreet journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

This fight is for everything.

You are here: Home / Civil Rights / LGBTQ Rights / Gay Rights are Human Rights / Hard Working White Americans Hard at Work Making Life Miserable for Minorities

Hard Working White Americans Hard at Work Making Life Miserable for Minorities

by | 57 Comments

This post is in: ,

I’m cursing whoever brought up that damned phrase from election 2008 (I think it was Kay), but I think it is important to remember what was so god damned offensive about the phrase- the Clinton statements were made right before the primaries through a swath of Appalachia that included places like this:

A small Pike County church has voted not to accept interracial couples as members or let them take part in some worship activities.

The decision has caused sharp reaction and disapproval in the Eastern Kentucky county.

“It’s not the spirit of the community in any way, shape or form,” Randy Johnson, president of the Pike County Ministerial Association, said of the vote.

The issue came up at the Gulnare Freewill Baptist Church, said Dean Harville, a longtime member who serves as church secretary and clerk.

Clinton made those statements because she wanted to scare primary voters who weren’t racist to vote for her because racist scumbags would keep a Democrat out of the WH in 2008. That’s what was so damned offensive about the remarks.

Another point- I’m betting almost everyone here, when they read about this church, thought to themselves “You have to be fucking kidding me. It’s 2012.” That’s good- you should be horrified by this. But you know what? Change “interracial” to “gay” and this goes on every single day somewhere in America, and not just backwater shit holes in Kentucky.

Reader Interactions

57Comments

  3. 3.

    The Moar You Know

    I bust my ass making life hard for minorities. That is hard fucking work. Day in, day out, but the worst part is that no one even says “thank you”.

  5. 5.

    sb

    The vote passed 9-6, there are only 40 members in the church and according to the article “hundreds” of in the community disagree with the decision.

    Seems to me the “backwater shithole” agrees with you more than you think, John. But I’m sure calling the place a backwater shithole helps. Or is it shit hole?

  6. 6.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    My dear old Mum says to me at least once a week on the phone “it is a scary country Daughter, me and your sister worry about you living there” This on the week that my cousin Lucy is marrying her long time girlfriend. A proper wedding too, with invitations, a proper service, reception, gifts and guests. I am only sorry that I will miss it.

  10. 10.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @arguingwithsignposts: a few years ago, Newsweek IIRC had a cover with the headline “Is This The Face of Jesus?” A twenty-something Palestinian kid with a scruffy beard. I think if they tried that today, Tina Brown would have to flee the country

  12. 12.

    Darnell From LA

    Regarding Hillary, in spite of the myriad racist dog whistles employed by her campaign during the primaries, in spite of the loathsome toad Mark Penn being the head of her campaign, in spite of her voting for the Iraq War, in spite of her husband’s administration gutting welfare, signing DOMA and DADT into law, and declaring that “the era of big government is over”, and employing Dick Morris, David Gergen, and Lawrence Summers as their most senior advisors, in spite of all of this, I refuse to believe that Hillary Clinton wouldn’t have been “liberal Jesus” if she had been elected.

    So say we all.

    * This Snark has been brought to you by “Snarktopus!” coming this Spring to NBC! Be there!

  13. 13.

    JGabriel

    A small Pike County church has voted not to accept interracial couples as members or let them take part in some worship activities. … The issue came up at the Gulnare Freewill Baptist Church.

    I think there’s a fundamental misunderstanding of the word “Freewill” in that church. Definitely falls into the category of “I do not think that word means what you think it means.”

    You wouldn’t think a “Freewill” church meant the right to stomp all over other people’s free will.

    [Tilts head to side, thoughtful pause.]

    Maybe they’re libertarians.

    .

  14. 14.

    Mnemosyne

    For the life of me, I can’t remember who said it (and I can’t Google ’cause I’m at work) but someone pointed out that the last bastion of segregation is in churches. It’s vanishingly rare to have integrated churches even today.

  15. 15.

    Unabogie

    Every kid I know has friends of every color. The Teabaggers hold on the psyche of this country is slipping and one day we’ll look back on the first black president like we do on Jackie Robinson. We’ll say “damn, that was racist!”

  16. 16.

    Zandar

    And living in said backwater shithole state of Kentucky, and being a mixed-race individual, there are counties in Eastern KY that I would not set foot in.

    Pike County? Real damn high on that list.

  17. 17.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @Mnemosyne:

    It’s vanishingly rare to have integrated churches even today.

    The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., once said “it is appalling that the most segregated hour of Christian America is eleven o’clock on Sunday morning.” How much have things changed?

  18. 18.

    Mnemosyne

    @JGabriel:

    Again with things I remember reading but can’t remember where, I think the Freewill Baptist sect are sometimes derisively known as “Footwashing Baptists” since one of their big things is re-enacting Jesus’ foot-washing at Easter.

    I remember them doing it a few times at my Catholic church, but apparently it’s a big thing with Freewill Baptists (or used to be, anyway).

  23. 23.

    Darnell From LA

    @JGabriel: I hate to bring up the treasure trove of horror that is “The Good Book”, but….

    Numbers 25:6-8

    25:6 And, behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

    25:7 And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from among the congregation, and took a javelin in his hand;

    25:8 And he went after the man of Israel into the tent, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her belly. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel.

    I’m sure if you really cornered the church folk on their actions they would justify them with a whole host of biblical verses like these. And frankly, solid biblical grounds. Moral grounds? Nope. Biblical grounds? Yep.

  24. 24.

    Linda Featheringill

    This is a Freewill Baptist Church. That means it is not affiliated with a national organization like Southern Baptists or something. These little dinky churches can be strange because the members are too eccentric to fit in with the larger sects.

    And their theology is often very “individual” too.

    If the mixed race couple in question wish to go to church, they probably should try a place more mainstream, like Methodist or Church of Christ or even a Southern Baptist.

    ETA: There are many other denominations, of course. I mentioned these three because they are usually represented all across the south, even in tiny little towns and villages.

  25. 25.

    gnomedad

    Gulnare Freewill Baptist Church

    Kind of an ironic name, really. Are there Determinist Baptist Churches?

  28. 28.

    The Spy Who Loved Me

    I guess Cole has forgotten that he lives in a state as full of backwater shitholes as Kentucky. Why even post about this? Does anyone really care what some podunk tiny church anywhere does? It’s like carping on the crazy Phelps family about the membership makeup of their “church”. Seriously, given its size, this church isn’t even a pimple on the ass of a gnat.

  29. 29.

    Marc

    Most of this post is truth, but:

    Clinton made those statements because she wanted to scare primary voters who weren’t racist to vote for her because racist scumbags would keep a Democrat out of the WH in 2008.

    I have to say, if you’re “not racist,” but you’re thinking and talking and voting the same way those other, racist folk are… what’s the fucking difference?

    “I’m not racist, but I’m doing this because I’m afraid of OTHER people’s racism.” Hey, at least the open racist has the honesty of his convictions.

    Is it far enough past the 2008 primaries that I can say I always thought the biggest source of John Edwards’ appeal was with voters who were too afraid of “other people’s” racism and sexism to vote for the black guy or the woman? Yeah, probably. Thank god that turned out the way it did.

  31. 31.

    Darnell From LA

    @Jenny: I’m sure Chris Matthews will say he just can’t connect with those hard working white people.

    Speaking of pundits with abnormaly large heads of an avian variety, remember when Tweety Matthews was apparently so impressed by President Obama’s 2010 State of The Union speech that he said he “forgot he (Obama) was black for an hour” on national TV?

    Ahhhh, good times. But how will he connect with the hard working whites? I dunno, Chris. I dunno…

  33. 33.

    Karen

    @Jenny:

    Did you know that the head of the RNC is offering $100 to anyone who can provide a picture of Bob Casey with President Obama?

  34. 34.

    Darnell From LA

    @Karen: The media is trying to sell the “Obama is doooooomed in Pennsyvania” meme to anyone who will buy it. Why? When the best the GOP’s “most electable” candidate (Romney) can do at present is TIE the Prez in the state? And with Obama beating Gingrich in PA by 6%?

    Anything to keep the “close race” narrative alive.

  35. 35.

    Cacti

    Clinton made those statements because she wanted to scare primary voters who weren’t racist

    Well that’s one way to look at it.

    Another way would be that it was a dog whistle to voters who are racist.

    “Hard-working whites” as opposed to ________ non-whites.

    Who wants to fill in the blank?

  37. 37.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Karen: No bashing, just using the term in all innocence because she is a muslimah and has no idea that it might be fraught with years of innuendo. I haven’t seen the term used since I read Ivanhoe where even as an eleven year old I knew Ivanhoe picked the wrong girl.

  38. 38.

    PhoenixRising

    @Zandar: No worries, my man! My 5 year old already integrated the nearest Sprawl Mart to this particular Pike County shit hole, 7 years ago this week.

    Right after that I explained to my sister that god love the NHS, she was sure as hell getting out of southeast KY as soon as her loan repayment came through. Yes, even these people need doctors, but there is a number of times you tell an expectant dad to take his buck knife back to the truck because we don’t allow any weapons in the clinic that makes me nervous.

    I have never seen little children that filthy getting out of pickups that clean, dragged along by mothers that doped up. And my people come from Appalachia. It takes a lot to shock me in the irresponsible ig’nant white trash department, but south of Prestonburg, all bets are off.

  39. 39.

    ruemara

    I think that was when I made my choice to not support Hillary for Prez. I have good hearing. Dog whistles are audible.

  40. 40.

    ChrisNYC

    @Mnemosyne: Strangely enough I googled and it was an Episcopal minister named James PIKE. (Pike County. Ha ha God/the universe/whatever has a huge sense of humor.)

    It was Episcopal Bishop James A. Pike who first said, “The 11 o’clock hour on Sunday is the most segregated hour in American life” (quoted in the May 16, 1960 issue of US News & World Report), a phrase echoed later that decade by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

  45. 45.

    pseudonymous in nc

    I wasn’t far from Pike County not long ago, visiting the Cumberland Gap. One of the poorest parts of the US, and it fucking well shows. Utterly abandoned. Main agricultural product? Illegally grown weed.

    The vote passed 9-6, there are only 40 members in the church

    And that’s probably counting the vote of Whiskers T. Williams, the cat who shows up sometimes on Sundays, who is listed as a member to ensure the church maintains its tax-exempt status. There are a lot of odd microchurches in Appalachia: I saw one on Hwy 25 just on the Tennessee side with a huge-fuckoff “REPENT” sign, but the church itself was a shack. Snake-handling country.

    I think that was when I made my choice to not support Hillary for Prez. I have good hearing.

    It was then that I had a spat with Digby, who, after she’d made several posts earlier in the year correctly noting that many of those ‘legacy Democrats’ in Appalachia were basically Republicans, wasn’t prepared to admit that Hillary was making a politically fucked-up dogwhistle appeal for their votes.

  46. 46.

    TenguPhule

    , and not just backwater shit holes in Kentucky.

    I thought that was the entire state, you mean to say there are worse places there?!

  47. 47.

    Caz

    Shouldn’t the church be allowed to prohibit people who don’t hold their values? If interracial marriage violates their religious values, then they should deny them membership. If you don’t like it, then don’t go to that church, simple as that.

    Why don’t you write about the history that provided the impetus for the 80’s rap group NWA. Just as outrageous, but equally lawful.

    You can’t force people to have your set of values. Everyone has their own set of values and none are better such that they should be imposed upon all of us.

    Live and let live. Worry about your own values and let these people worry about theirs.

  48. 48.

    pseudonymous in nc

    @Caz:

    If interracial marriage violates their religious values, then they should deny them membership. If you don’t like it, then don’t go to that church, simple as that.

    Uh huh. Except that as a tax-exempt non-profit — churches are presumed 501(c)(3) until proven otherwise — the Gulnare Freewill Baptist Church is getting a free ride on our backs, and with that special privilege comes a few conditions.

    There are distinctions between a tax-exempt non-profit with membership rules that go beyond what the law otherwise permits, and a tax-exempt non-profit that violates fundamental public policy. (The Warren Jeffs polygamist forced-marriage church was also presumed tax-exempt; Jeffs’ charges included tax fraud.)

    That’s why Bob Jones U got kicked in the nuts by SCOTUS when the IRS pulled its tax-exempt status on account of its ban on interracial dating.

  50. 50.

    AA+ Bonds

    That’s the thing about free will, isn’t it? You can choose to go to Hell. We just don’t have to help you pay for it with tax breaks.

  52. 52.

    Pococurante

    I was born in Pike County – I remember my grandfather bragging to my six year old self then that in Pikeville they always “ran the n*rs before sunset” and beat the crap out of anyone they found.

    So yeah I’m not surprised – just because the ran a highway through that morass of backwardness doesn’t mean the uphill folks changed.

  55. 55.

    NCSteve

    John? Come on, you’re from West by-God Virginia. You know full well what it means when the words “freewill,”Baptist” and “Pike County, Kentucky” mean when they’re in close proximity. It means “We’re Bugshit Crazy!”

Comments are closed.