House Majority Whip Steve Scalise has found himself in questionable racial territory once again, this time for not voting for a resolution to apologize for slavery in his home state of Louisiana back in 1996:
“Why are you asking me to apologize for something I didn’t do and had no part of?” Scalise is quoted as saying in the newspaper. “I am not going to apologize for what somebody else did.”
That’s right, Scalise. Let’s not acknowledge what this country was built on. Add these recent findings to Scalise speaking to a white supremacist group and voting against Martin Luther King Day, and it seems like you have a bonafide racist. Just the type of guy you want as number three in the Republican party.
Team Blackness also discussed the lack of coverage around Boko Haram, Charlie Hebdo and the concept of satire, and an actual positive story around the homeless in New Orleans.
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Sad_Dem
And in other news: Father and son turned away from “Muslim-free” Hot Springs gun range for being brown.
Zam
I’m pretty certain the resolution was not asking him to personally apologize for slavery but for the state of Louisiana to officially apologize. Why do they take it so damn personally?
SatanicPanic
@Zam:
I’ve always wondered about this. Just spitballing but I think it’s because if you go around generalizing about other people you are more likely to think people are doing that to you.
ronin122
Eh, red herring. There’s enough wrong with this asshole, the above story is just typical faire for conservatives. Not right but nothing out of the ordinary. Bigger fish to fry, and all….
Violet
You can, but he’ll say he’s not and his Republican gang members with their red, white and blue gang colors, elephant gang symbol, and thumbs up gang signs will continue to have his back.
CONGRATULATIONS!
I certainly would not personally apologize for slavery.
But that’s not what they were asking the little Klansman to do, now was it?
Violet
@Zam:
It’s harder to play victim if you don’t take it personally.
Patricia Kayden
Scalise probably scores some points with his base for refusing to apologize for slavery.
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/03/15/1729331/cpac-slavery-minority-outreach/
Belafon
We’re starting to approach the terrority where a Republican Representative is going to say “Yes, I am a racist, if that’s what making sure that people only get what they have rightfully earned is called.”
kc
But . . . the resolution wasn’t for Scalise to personally apologize, it was for an apology for the state, right?
Is he just dumb?
Violet
@Belafon: So they’re going to take back the word racist and try to turn it into something positive? I can see them doing that with a major assist by the MSM.
Amir Khalid
I’m not sure why anyone should feel sorry for this weepy cop. He seems to have shot an unarmed man on reflex rather than judgement. I’m shocked that he wasn’t charged.
kc
@Sad_Dem:
That’s too bad.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@Belafon: It hasn’t been said publicly. God knows I hear this kind of shit every day in private.
But yeah, I think you’re right, that day is coming and soon.
buddy h
I’m disappointed that david duke hasn’t started singing like a canary, like he promised.
Or has he? I’d love him to start naming names.
SatanicPanic
@Amir Khalid: I read that he shot a man in 2013 too, so uh, yeah, not really feeling the sympathy either
Cacti
No, because Al Sharpton.
buddy h
@Amir Khalid: He’s just part of a media push to swing public opinion away from the outrage over ferguson and staten island. I’m seeing more and more news items about cops handing out twenty dollar bills, raising money so a single mom can buy eggs, and crying when they shoot someone (see?! they have feelings, too!)
I can usually tell when I’m being manipulated.
rikyrah
of course he’s a racist
MomSense
I think the Republicans new schtick is that they can’t be racist, they can only be race carded. Media only too happy to oblige this.
“Obama playing the race card?”
/msm news
Amir Khalid
@Patricia Kayden:
Why isn’t this reported in the mainstream media? (he asked innocently.)
Buddy H
Re: lack of coverage of boko haram; I watched bbc news on PBS, they spent twenty minutes talking about events in Paris, showing footage of the funeral for the jewish delicatessen victims, interviewed an israeli who criticized obama for not showing up in paris…. then Katy took a deep breath, spent ten seconds talking about Nigeria, then moved on to a report on Ukraine.
The leader of BH, the dude with the stick in his hand… I never see any coverage of exactly who he is.
Is this because reporters are terrified to go anywhere near him? All I see are brief clips of him talking, crazy-eyed. He seems weirdly charismatic, insane, but there’s never any discussion in depth.
And the thing he waves around… one reporter called it a bone. Another one called it a tooth-cleaning stick.
What cause justifies strapping bombs to children? I hope someone stops him and his organization soon, he really is monstrous.
shelley
And why should reparations been made to the survivors of the internment camps of Japanese-Americans? Heck, I didn’t put them there. Besides , it’s all in the past and lets let bygones be bygones……..
Lynn Dee
@Zam:
Exactly. No one’s asking him to apologize personally. The apology would be issued on behalf of the state.
Lurking Canadian
As far as I know, it is still not proven that he had anything to do with the death of Medgar Evers, so…
Roger Moore
@Zam:
Because making it personal gives them an excuse to avoid action. Denying that they are personally responsible for slavery also implies that blacks today were not personally harmed by slavery, so there’s no need for the government to do anything about the disadvantaged position blacks are in. It’s all part of the general plan of denial.
ecks
there was a great Chris Rock interview a short while back… quite long, but the line that stuck out to me was about whites having to deal with the reality of race in America. Paraphrasing: “yeah, it’s not fair to take responsibility for things you didn’t do. It’s not fair to inherit a lot of money you didn’t earn, either.”
Ben Cisco
@Buddy H:
He’s a black guy, in a black country (remember, to the true ‘Merkan patriot, the whole of Africa is but one country), killing black people. Our current crop of Neo-Confederates and their courtesans in the press would probably pin a medal on the bastard if they could get away with it.
hells littlest angel
Actually, he had me convinced at spoke-to-a-white-supremacist-group.
But, with the indifference to fixing the Voting Rights Act, I’ve got to say, it’s not him, it’s his whole rotten fucking party.
Tree With Water
The term “political correctness” is theirs, born of necessity, and wielded as a cudgel in reaction to the civil rights gains of the 1960’s. But the wink-and-nudge days about race are over in the GOP. They’re not embarrassed about anything anymore. They no longer feel the need to pretend. Which makes Scalise a fat fish in a small barrel, but only if congressional democrats refuse to pull their punches. That mans’s political destruction- and the attendant damage it would inflict on the republican brand- should be a priority.
Waspuppet
@SatanicPanic: The simpler explanation might be that on some level they know they’re not very bright, and any deviation from the fanatically enforced norm that the wealthy and powerful are better and smarter than the rest won’t end well for them.
As to Scalise’s point: Who cares about a bunch of old white guys from more than 200 years ago and they wrote? It’s not something I did.
Yatsuno
Don’t be silly Elon. You can’t call out Scalise as a racist. By even bothering to point this out you show yourself to be uncivil and possibly the real racist.
Citizen Scientist
Many times when I see Scalise’s name, my brain transposes it with Tony Scalia’s. I wonder if there’s a reason for that?
Villago Delenda Est
@ecks: Hey, man, we’re talking about MONEY in the later case!