Thank you, Jon and the The Daily Show writers.
Part 1
Part 2
by Imani Gandy (ABL)| 31 Comments
This post is in: Kiss My Black Ass, Assholes, I Hate All of You
Part 1
Part 2
Sean Hannity is a racist asshole who associates with proud white supremacists. Once you understand that fact, you understand why this man has no capacity for honesty or shame. He routinely lies to paint Obama in a bad light, by shortening clips, taking comments out of context, and flat-out making shit up. This is what Fox News does. And this is why they must be stopped.
[cross-posted here at ABLC’s House of Colon Blow]by Imani Gandy (ABL)| 75 Comments
This post is in: Kiss My Black Ass
Michelle Obama is working to raise a healthier generation of children by shoving fruits and vegetables down your childrens’ trap — under penalty of death. (Well, that’s the Teabilly take on it.)
In reality, she is simply trying to get people to understand that childhood obesity leads to adulthood obesity and maybe if we help kids understand the value of a good diet and some exercise, they won’t grow up to be a prediabetic cookie-eating blogger who refuses to go to the gym because gyms are really gross and smell like sweat and ass.
Um, what were we talking about?
Michelle is really getting into the groove, as it were, teaming up with Beyoncé to get kids to shake their asses rather than sitting on them:
This week, Beyoncé surprised a bunch of crumbsnatchers at a school in Harlem:
The performer surprised a squealing class of middle-school students at PS 161: Pedro Albizu Campos middle school in Harlem. The students were in the gymnasium, dancing to a choreographed routine to a remix of her hit, “Get Me Bodied.”
The singer, wearing sky-high heels, skinny white jeans, and a “Let’s Move!” top, joined 85 starstruck students to dance up a storm to the song she adapted for the workout, called “Move Your Body.” Despite the appearance of the music icon, the kids kept their cool and kept on dancing — and Beyoncé barely stole the show from these talented dancers-in-training.
Middle schools across the country participated in the “dance-in” — all part of first lady Michelle Obama’s anti-obesity campaign Let’s Move!. And let’s just say, with those moves, Beyoncé is on board.
The school kids, who had the routine down, certainly got a kick out the star’s high kicks. One seventh grader told CBS News, “It was amazing. Beyoncé came out of nowhere and started dancing with us. That made me so happy.”
Michelle Obama also surprised students and showed off her “Dougie” in a D.C. area public school celebrating the day of fitness.
First, Michelle is CLEARLY a better dancer than Barack. I saw them dance at the Western inaugural ball, and homeboy has two left feet. Yeah, I said it.
Second, I LOVE HER.
Third, it is fucking fantastic to see some soul in the First Family. Say what you will about Obama’s policies, I am proud that there are black people in the White House and that they are the face of this country right now. If a lovely couple hadn’t already adopted me 36 years ago, I might ask the Obamas to adopt me. Just like my parents, the Obamas are still in love. Just like my parents, they are a model for family values.
When was the last time you could say that about a first family? When was the last time you could say that about any prominent politician and his or her family? Yeah, get back to me on that one.
Between hiking trails in South Carolina, acting the fool in Nevada like John Ensign, getting blowies in the White House, having illegitimate children while your wife has breast cancer, tap dancing in bathroom stalls, divorcing sick wives for rich wives, or playing grab-ass with a bunch of congressional pages, it’s pretty clear that there aren’t a lot of families like the Obamas out there.
I love the Obamas and I don’t care who knows it. Flame away if you must, but I’m face-first in a bowl of Honey Nut Obama O’s™, and I’m lovin’ it like McDonald’s broccoli.
[via Let’s Move]
[cross-posted at ABL’s House of Hyperbole]by Imani Gandy (ABL)| 83 Comments
This post is in: Kiss My Black Ass, Assholes, I Hate All of You, Seriously, Somewhere a Village is Missing its Idiot, Wingnut Event Horizon
Renowned Orange Supremacist Donald Trump was slated to drive the pace car for the 100th anniversary Indy 500, but fans — led by Indianapolis attorney Michael Wallack — raised a stink about it, arguing that he is “too politically motivated.”
Wallack had this to say about Trump:
I have no problem if Trump dislikes President Obama or his policies. But to step over the line into the realm of conspiracy-mongering is not good for politics or for America. And it should not be rewarded with the honor of driving the pace car at the Indianapolis 500.
Indeed.
Jalopnik reported earlier today that the Indy speedway folks were trying to figure out a way to dump Trump, after Trump claimed that he wouldn’t go quietly.
But, apparently, now that he has decided that he really is running for President, like ferreals ferreals, Trump has bowed out of the Indy 500 festivities:
“I very much appreciate the honor, but time and business constraints make my appearance there, especially with the necessary practice sessions, impossible to fulfill,” Trump said. “I look forward to watching the race from New York.”
Regarding whether the criticism lobbed at Trump was politically motivated, one of Trump’s aides was all, “DUH!”:
Earlier today, an aide to the New York real estate developer said Trump would not give up the pace car post and said the criticism was politically motivated.
“Of course it is, of course it is,” said Michael Cohen, an executive vice president and special counsel to Trump, said in an interview this morning with The Indianapolis Star.
Although there have been political figures (like Colin Powell) serve as the celebrity driver, there has never been an active prospect for president drive the pace car. Cohen said Trump has not officially declared his intention to run for the office.
Cohen also took issue with a group of local Baptist ministers who want Trump replaced because of what they say are his racist comments related to Trump’s push for President Obama to release his birth certificate and school records.
“This debate stems from unfounded, incorrect and malicious lies that Donald Trump has a racial bias toward the president,” said Cohen. “Nothing could be further from the truth; Donald Trump doesn’t have a racist bone in his body.”
Yeaaah. He’s not racist at all! Except for when he is! Which is, like, all the time!
I haven’t been able to figure out the timeline of events regarding the Indy 500 shenannies (time stamps on blog posts are quite unreliable), but it seems that the decision to give Trump the pace car gig was not made by Indy 500 muckity-mucks, but rather by Chevrolet and Izod, the companies sponsoring the race. And just as Groupon pulled its advertising from the website for The Apprentice due to consumer outcry, it is likely that Chevrolet and Izod would have gotten an earful from consumers. I imagine that Trump pulled out rather than being kicked out. One might say that there would be hell toupée if Trump hadn’t pulled out.1
…aaaand now I have to go vomit a little for using the term “pulled out” in conjunction with “Donald Trump.”
Oh, I swear to blog — I’m gonna be sick — I gotta go…
::sploosh::
1 I’m not even sorry for this pun. So there.
[via Jalopnik]
Donald Trump Replaced as Indy 500 Pace Car DriverPost + Comments (83)
by Imani Gandy (ABL)| 257 Comments
This post is in: Kiss My Black Ass
I’m peacing outta here for a while. “Hooray!! some shouted, fists pumping in the air. “Boooo!!” some hissed, latching on to my leg.
There, There, little one. You know where to find me. (Or not.)
GBCW! ::dramatic faint:: -ABLxx
His words rang out with an unmistakable certitude.
“This is the most racist place I’ve ever lived,” said the man sitting across from me, a black writer and poet whose acquaintance I had only made earlier that day.
His expression made it clear that this was no mere hyperbole spat out so as to get a reaction. He meant every word and proceeded in about twenty minutes to lay out the case for why indeed this place where we were talking — San Francisco — was far more racist, in his estimation than any of several places he had lived in the South.
Worse than Birmingham.
Worse than Jackson, Mississippi.
Worse than Dallas.
San Francisco. Yes, that San Francisco.
From police harassment to profiling to housing discrimination to a persistent invisibility he’d felt since first arriving, there was no doubt that the ostensibly liberal enclave was head and shoulders above the rest.
And it wasn’t his opinion alone. I have heard similar feelings expressed about the Bay Area by peoples of color many times since, as well as about Seattle, Portland, and any number of other supposedly progressive paradises where various “alternative” types (of white folks at least) seem to feel at home. Even those who wouldn’t rank a place like San Francisco as the most racist city in which they’d lived, are often quick to insist that its racism is comparable to what they’ve experienced elsewhere, which is to say, no less a problem.
When I’ve recounted these discussions with folks of color living in “progressive” cities to my white liberal friends, they have usually recoiled in shock, followed by a kind of white leftie defensiveness that was, sadly, unsurprising. Their responses to the news that black and brown folks don’t find the history of the Haight-Ashbury district, or the Summer of Love all that inspiring — after all, when Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead were entertaining white hippies in the Fillmore, black folks were fighting for their lives across the way in Oakland — often suggest a desire on their part to believe that the people to whom I’d spoken were seeing things.
Unfortunately the pattern is all too common. If people of color complain about racism and discrimination in rural Georgia, no one is surprised. In fact, to many the image is comforting as it fulfills every stereotype, regional and political, that so many folks continue to carry around regarding who the bad guys are.
But suggest that racism and discrimination are also significant problems in more “progressive spaces,” even among self-proclaimed liberals and leftists themselves — and that it might be unearthed in our political movements — and prepare to be met with icy stares, or worse, a self-righteous vitriol that seeks to separate “real racism” (the right-wing kind) from not-so-real racism (the kind we on the left sometimes foster). And know that before long, someone will admonish you to focus on the “real enemy,” rather than fighting amongst ourselves. “What we need is unity,” these voices say, “and all that talk about racism on the left just divides us further.”
[read the rest here]
by Imani Gandy (ABL)| 183 Comments
This post is in: Kiss My Black Ass
As some of you may know, I recently got into a little kerfuffle with Joan Walsh on the Twitterz (of all places). [The Chirpstory can be viewed on the next page of this post.]
You see, on Wednesday I wrote a rant about the looming irrelevancy of the Professional Left aka firebaggers aka Obamabashbots. It was one in a series of screeds I have written about the destructive tactics of these self-appointed leaders of the left and their firebagger minions. It was also part of a collection of screeds written by liberals of all colors, each of whom views the attack dog tactics of the Professional Left (and the resulting rancor among the Professional Left Commentariat) as damaging to not only the President, but also the country.
These screeds are penned by those who genuinely are interested in advancing liberal policies in this country, policies which will ameliorate gender inequality, extinguish racial disparities in access to healthcare, family planning services, education, raise consciousness about climate change, and beat back the plutocratic tide that threatens to drown us all. These screeds tend to be penned by bloggers who do not blog for pay and who do not blog in order to increase their advertising revenue; these are bloggers who are not attempting to leverage their seemingly self-proclaimed status as guardian of the progressive movement into television appearances on MSNBC, CNN, and Fox.
All one has to do is a simple Google search using the search terms “Joan Walsh” and “Democratic base” or “the base” and you will notice that she, like Hamsher and others, have routinely and endlessly complained that they are “hippies” being punched by Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and famously Rahm Emanuel.
Take a famous example: Fucking RetardedGate:
Rahm Emanuel made his famous “fucking retarded” comment, and the Professional Left got itself in an uproar, even though any sensible reading of Rahm’s comments could not possibly lead to the conclusion that he was referring to a couple of bloggers as being “fucking retarded,” or that he was referencing liberals as a whole as “fucking retarded.”
The friction was laid bare in August when Mr. Emanuel showed up at a weekly strategy session featuring liberal groups and White House aides. Some attendees said they were planning to air ads attacking conservative Democrats who were balking at Mr. Obama’s health-care overhaul.
“F—ing retarded,” Mr. Emanuel scolded the group, according to several participants. He warned them not to alienate lawmakers whose votes would be needed on health care and other top legislative items.
So while, Emmanuel did use the term “fucking retarded” and yes, using the term “retarded” is ableist and offensive, all the Professional Left could think about were their huwt feewings and the crumpled tissues soaked with tears of disappointment, even though they had to misrepresent the context in which the statement was made in order to include themselves among the hippies that Emanuel had so brutally punched.
Incidents like the above fomented a shift in Netroots Nation. Due to the growing sense that places like FireDogLake, Salon, and Daily Kos seemed more invested in endlessly criticizing the president than promoting a useful discussion about the ways in which liberals could advance their policy goals, people who were tired of surrounding themselves with nothing but negative commentary decided to branch off and form their own blogs. In these smaller communities, it is not considered a character flaw to express one’s support for the president. In these smaller communities, one does not have to qualify every expression of support for the president with “but I don’t agree with everything that he does.”
It is in these smaller communities that those of us who know how to walk and chew gum at the same time are able to support the president generally, while not supporting each of his policies specifically. It is in these smaller communities that people who, ironically, refuse to see everything in “black and white” are comfortable with infinite shades of gray.
Perhaps it is because of the smaller communities that have been formed over the last year that minorities who typically are ignored until we become convenient for political strategy have found our voice. As more and more people take advantage of the platform that blogging can provide, and of the communities that form in the comment sections of those blogs, more and more people are beginning to vocally express their opposition to the primarily white progressive movement which often purports to speak for all “progressives.” Indeed, in some of these communities the word “progressive” is rendered in quotation marks precisely because of the negative connotations associated with the word.
To paraphrase Justin Timberlake, we’re bringing liberal back.
Yet we, obviously, do not have the platform that the “Professional Left” does. We don’t have a voice in the base. We are shouted out of comment sections, our comments are moderated out of discussions, until all that remains are comments full of anger and irrational hatred; hatred and anger which all too frequently becomes impossible to differentiate from outright racism. We are palpably frustrated. That frustration came to a head this week.
Obama 2012
On Monday, Obama announced his reelection campaign. Twitter and Blogistan were twitterpated and generally broke into the firebagger/obot camp. The firebaggers derided the Obots as cultists; the Obots derided the firebaggers as purists. The firebaggers, presumably, continued their ruminations regarding who should run against Obama in the Democratic Primary. The Obots united behind the President and began to discuss how to hit the ground running.
Of course the Obots were met with jeers:
“Obama is going to raise a billion dollars from corporate donors. Small donors won’t make a difference this time.”
“We need to unite around policy goals, not around a cult of personality.”
And we got this from Ms. Walsh herself:
Finally, if progressives organize independently, perhaps President Obama might do something about the stunning economic inequality corroding our nation, as he woos our votes to get reelected. I still have a gut belief that Obama shares our values, and he might show us that in his second and last term. But we’re more likely to push him that way if we work to build a constituency behind policies that make this country work for everyone again, rather than flock to join a corporate juggernaut masquerading as a grass-roots movement in Obama 2012.
Thus I have other political interests and priorities beyond Obama 2012, for now. And I think I’m going to have a lot of company. [In other words, I’m a disgruntled white progressive and I’m going to try to teach Obama a lesson because he doesn’t share our values now, but maybe with our help, we can help him see the light. -ed.]
It is against this backdrop that the Twitter Race War That Never Was must be viewed.
OMG TWITTER RACE WAR LOL!!1one
Rather than make any good-faith attempt to understand POCs’ concerns about the behavior and constant anti-Obama criticisms of the professional left, Joan Walsh does exactly what all privileged people do; she dismissed out of hand the concerns of the minority, refuses to actually confront those concerns, and then when it became apparent that she’d pissed some people off, she offered platitudes to the people voicing their concerns—patronizingly maternal pats on the head coupled with a soothing “there there.”
In so doing, she ignored the words of the very people who were expressing their concern, put words in their mouth, casually dismissed them, and then accused them of race baiting. She did not for one moment make any effort to understand what her critic was trying to say. She crouched into a defensive posture and started swinging. She did not attempt to get past whatever words she found “toxic” to get to the heart of the issue, which is that POCs have felt entirely excluded from proclamations from on high about The Base.
A review of the Chirpstory (you can find it on the next page) will demonstrate that Joan Walsh’s only concern was restoring whatever loss of goodwill or integrity that the Twitter War engendered and making me and Walsh’s other critics look like angry lunatics. [Note: I realize how convenient it is for Joan to include my Twitter name in her article, because it seems to reinforce the idea that we black folk are angry and irrational. The Angry part of my name has nothing to do with race and everything to do with this bastard of a tumor that is in my brain, fucking up my hormones and lady business — nice stereotyping, though. -ed.] And, if she needed to cherry pick tweets to rehabilitate her image, then dagnabbit, that’s what she was going to do. Somebody might have called her racist. And if there’s one thing that nice white ladies hate, it’s being called racist. This is her reputation we’re talking about here!
If Joan Walsh had any sense she would have left well enough alone. I have very little sense and even I had the sense to leave well enough alone; I was poised to publish the Chirpstory (view it on the next page!) , but I decided against it. What’s the point? It would be of interest to only a handful of people. I don’t care if a few idiots on Twitter think I’m trying to make a name for myself. I have a day job, yo. I don’t need to make a name for myself.
The horse was dead. We’d beat it to death on Wednesday. Walsh reanimated that horse today; I guess that leaves me to beat it again. I assume she believed that because she has a larger platform, she would be able to absolve herself of her transgressions and be welcome into the warm open embrace of her commenters who would surely cheer her on, having been fed half the story with pretentious garnish. It would have been easier to admit two days ago that her tweet was poorly worded, to apologize for it, and to move on. But noppppe!
I’m a well-known Twitterholic, and Wednesday night I was going back and forth with my Twitter friends Andrew Jerell Jones (@sluggahjells) and Melissa Harris-Perry1 (@mharrisperry) about Melissa’s and my Wednesday “Hardball” star turn defending Planned Parenthood. Ironically, at the time, we were joking about race: @sluggahjells called Melissa and me “the best black and white female duo since”… and then he linked to this clip from Sister Act, with Maggie Smith and Whoopi Goldberg (and a gang of other nuns) singing the Temptations’ “Ball of Confusion,” that great anthem of 1970s social and racial strife. You remember: “Why? Because of the color of their skin … Run, run, run cause you sure can’t hide …”
[I’m astonished that her opening gambit is “I have a black friend.” What is it with white lefties who feel the need to trot out their black friends and colleagues as some sort of force shield against any offensive and obnoxious statements they may make as if simply knowing or having had a conversation, dinner, or a drink with a black person earns you some sort of gold star. The purpose of her first paragraph is to set herself up as a friend to black people. “I’m one of the good ones, Negro! Never fear!” -ed.]
Who knew I’d be living it shortly? [Haha. Totally. Having a handful of people criticize your stupid statement while you sit behind the safety of your monitor is the same as… as what… being Whoopi Goldberg? Being a part of 1970s social and racial strife? What the hell does this even mean? -ed.]
Kidding! #whitegirlproblems [HA! Good one. It’s always a good idea to throw a joke about how you know you’re white and that you’re only kidding except really you’re not. Racism is hilarious, isn’t it? -ed.]
What happened next was surreal, though, and led to the lovely Atlantic Wire headline “Joan Walsh Sparks Twitter Brawl Over Obama and Race.” In the middle of that really fun Twitter stream, out of the blue, [Imagine that! Getting a twitter message from one of your readers out of the blue! It’s not like Twitter isn’t one big morass of people yelling shit out of the blue. It’s not like you have expressed your concern about staying in touch what with all the various social networking platforms out there. No! You were just having a good time with your black friend and some reader rudely interrupted you! -ed.] I got these messages:
truthrose1
@joanwalsh read your article, I resent white progressives who pretend they are the base of Dem party and ignore AA’s, we are eventruthrose1
@joanwalsh PBO is not your lap dog, thank god Gibbs called out the liars in the progressive media, u have done nothing but act like baggerstruthrose1
@joanwalsh the divisive ones are the racist ex libertarian, ex repub, ex green, fake Dems who want PBO to fail. The real base supports PBOShe was referring to my article “Wisconsin, Obama and the Democrats’ future.” It was the second of two pieces in two days in which I explained why, despite my criticisms of the president’s centrism, I thought a primary challenge from the left was destructive.
Now here is Walsh’s first sleight of hand comes in to play. She received these messages out of the blue, you see. And yes, the three tweets when, taken out of context, certainly seem rabid.
I wonder what happens if you put the tweets in their proper context, you know, in the order they were tweeted. Suddenly Joan isn’t the victim of some angry race-baiter. Indeed she becomes just like so many other privileged people who are uncomfortable examining their own biases or their own language and why that language is perceived by people of color to be offensive.
truthrose1
@joanwalsh read your article, I resent white progressives who pretend they are the base of Dem party and ignore AA’s, we are eventruthrose1
@joanwalsh PBO is not your lap dog, thank god Gibbs called out the liars in the progressive media, u have done nothing but act like baggersjoanwalsh
@truthrose1 Not saying white progressives are THE base; opposite. But I resent African Americans who say THEY are THE BASE. Wrong.truthrose1
@joanwalsh white progressive voices use the term “the base” carelessly that is my pointtruthrose1
@joanwalsh AA’s are not the entire base, however, white progressive voices ignore us and act as if we don’t existjoanwalsh
@truthrose1 No, I don’t. That’s insanely unfair. Talk to a person, not your stereotypes. Please. Tiresome, really.truthrose1
@joanwalsh history will show how the so called “progressive” wing of the Dem party was a toxic and deceitful bunch of back stabbers.joanwalsh
@truthrose1 You’re toxic, I’m sorry. Jesus. Get some help.
Paints a different picture, doesn’t it? Not the picture of some angry black person barging in and ruining her fun twitter party. You see truthrose tries to explain her concerns to Walsh – namely that white progressive voices ignore black people and act as if we don’t exist. (I have repeatedly voiced that same concern.) Walsh’s response – were she at all interested in unity, as she later claims to be – should have been “I don’t think that I do that. Can you explain?” Or, if Walsh was “off-the-clock” she should have ignored the tweet until a further time when she could address it appropriately. She could have started an open thread on her blog and actually gotten her hands dirty in the comment section.
These would have been perfect ways to open up a useful dialogue about the way black folks have felt excluded from The Base. But instead of doing that, she gets defensive: “I don’t do that.” She reflexively plays “the race card” — “talk to a person, not your stereotypes” — all the while implying that it is truthrose who is playing that card. And then the coup de grâce — just to show how disinterested she really is in having this discussion: – it’s so tiresome. Really.
Walsh deftly dismissed truthrose without ever having to respond to her. Truthrose is being unfair. She’s angry. She’s toxic. It’s as if Walsh fell out of the Privileged Tree and hit every derailing branch on the way down. (The extremely useful Derailing for Dummies: Making Discrimination Easier site does a wonderful job summarizing these derailing techniques.) She hits the “You’re Too Angry” branch:
This one is particularly effective because it really pushes home a sense of futility and hopelessness to the Marginalised Person™. Remember they should never get the impression they can win one of these arguments, because you should be consistently implying that there was never anything to argue over to begin with.
If you’ve been following the steps correctly so far, by this point any reasonable person is going to be feeling pretty angry. This anger could lead to them being more aggressive and abrasive. The Marginalised Person™ has possibly even decided that you’re simply too obnoxious to waste patience on and is venting their sense of frustration.
This is when you whip this step out!
You can use it to disregard everything they’ve said to you and just not deal with the issue, in particular ignoring your prior behaviour that led to the anger. Conventions of social conduct hold civil discourse as the ideal at all times. When people get angry, it gives you a convenient “out” without having to concede to any of their objections or acknowledge their pain.
Furthermore, with this one you can make it seem as though you were ready and willing to listen, but then they ruined it. This way you can leave them with the sense that if only they’d been a good little Marginalised Person™ and toed the line, then they may have won someone over to the cause!
It just adds a particular distaste to the whole affair that no derailing should be without!
Also, truthrose is talking to a stereotype and Walsh isn’t like that — Walsh is a person. This is the “Stop Stereotyping Me!” branch:
Personalising anything the Marginalised Person may say is a great way of distracting attention from the issue at hand, forcing the Marginalised Person to soothe your wounded feelings or sense of indignation rather than concentrating on the argument they were making.
Rather than simply listening to criticism of a group of Privileged People with respect and consideration for the Marginalised Person, you must immediately take offence and leap in to defend yourself.
For example, when queer people are crticising the tendencies of some straight people, jump in and say something like:
“Not all of us are like that – you’re prejudiced against straight people! You’re judging straight people the same way that they judge you, and it’s hateful! We need to not categorise people and make assumptions about them based on their identity! I resent feeling like I’m part of a group that oppresses you!”
– even though the criticism was very explicitly leveled at a specified behavior. (ie.:, “I don’t like straight people who do ________.”)
But of course, this can work in many different situations where Privileged behaviour is being deconstructed or criticised. Its resonance is in its lack of acknowledgement of the balance of power by suggesting that reasonable criticism of oppressive or discriminatory behaviour is equivalent to the oppressive and discriminatory behaviour itself. Remember that while the Marginalised Person’s criticism can never adversely affect your life in significant ways, you must rank the discrimination they face – which does significantly affect them – as equal to the discomfort of your wounded feelings, to demonstrate how highly you rank yourself and how lowly you rank them.
And finally, truthrose and the others who retweeted Walsh’s dumbassery were interested in getting riled up because it’s fun, you see? This is the “You’re Just Looking for Reasons to be Offended Because You Like It” branch:
You really need to make sure the Marginalised Person knows you consider their issues to be completely trivial. It’s insensitive in the extreme – it also exemplifies your lack of awareness and empathy.
By demonstrating you have absolutely no concept of what a particular issue or point may mean to them both within their conversation with you and beyond it, you get to show off just how cocooned and protected in Privilege® you really are. Remember how maddening this is for a Marginalised Person™ – it’s a Privilege® they do not share and will probably never know so to witness it being so blithely owned and used to diminish their experience is bound to get their blood pumping.
But absolutely best of all, you are being obnoxious and hurtful enough to tell them outright that they enjoy facing discrimination and prejudice. Enjoy it so much, in fact, that they “look” for reasons to be hurt and offended! Wow. This one is almost breathtakingly perfect as a derailment tactic, it lacks any sort of conceivable class and humility and goes straight to smug viciousness. The very idea that anyone enjoys being hurt and discriminated against as a daily practice is so preposterous it could only be believed by a Privileged Person® who’s never really experienced or known what it’s like.
The fact is, many Marginalised People™ go out of their way to avoid these sorts of debates and confrontations because it’s such a painful and unenjoyable experience. Those you are encountering in this circumstance have likely made a conscious choice to do so, even knowing it will probably go bad. For you to spit in the face of their choice in putting themselves on the line by suggesting it’s all fun and games for them just adds a particularly piquant insult to injury.
In short, truthrose was toxic. Probably mentally ill. Walsh doen’t need to engage with a person like that. Phew! That was a close one.
Setting Straw-Men on Fire
My first reaction to the Tweet Heard ‘Round the World was “‘RESENT’ seems like a strong word.” Several times I stated that I thought I understood Walsh’s point, but that I don’t know of any black person who has claimed that black people are THE BASE (exclusively). So I read Walsh’s article, “Wisconsin, Obama and the Democrats’ Future” wherein she states that despite her criticism of the president’s centrism, she thought that a primary challenge from the left would be destructive. [Can you tell some of your nutjob friends, please? -ed.]
Progressives have many other ways to advance their agenda, and demonstrate their disapproval of the president’s record, besides backing a primary challenge to Obama….Let me be clearer about how I believe a primary challenge would hurt Democrats: I think many, maybe most [definitely most -ed.], African American Democrats would stay with Obama, and the racial tension that made 2008 painful would be radioactive this time around.
On the other hand, let me say this: I deeply resent people [what people?] who insist that white progressives who criticize Obama are deluding themselves that they’re his “base,” [you are deluding yourselves. -ed.] when his “base” is actually not white progressives, but people of color. Ishmael Reed laid out this pernicious line in December, in the New York Times [no he didn’t. -ed.], after many progressives, of every race, criticized Obama’s tax cut compromise. Reed compared “white progressives” who wanted more from Obama to spoiled children, compared with black and Latino voters “who are not used to getting it all.” I’ve been getting a similar message from some of my correspondents, and it’s depressingly divisive.
And this is where Walsh’s intellectual dishonesty is laid bare. First, notice that she does not link the Reed article. That’s a dead give-away. If someone purports to draw a quote from another source without linking that source, you can bet your sweet ass that the person is not representing the information in that source accurately.
And so it is with Walsh: Nowhere in Reed’s article does he lay out the “pernicious line” that white progressives are not the base. Nowhere. Read it for yourself. Walsh simply makes this up, presumably so she can vent about her “resentment” towards black folks and then blame us for the current fractured “progressive wing.”
Because it couldn’t be that the reason for the divisiveness — the reason that folks have flocked out of places like Salon and Daily Kos — has anything to do with her and her ilk (the Professional Left) who have endlessly criticized the President, and written about the President and his supporters with sneers firmly carved into their faces.
Oh no. It’s the black folks who want to have a voice that are causing problems.
Walsh continues:
And I stand by that. Notice that when I wrote that I “resent” people who make that case, I didn’t specify African Americans, because progressives of all races make that case. And it is depressingly divisive. I also loathe the term “professional left,” and just can’t connect with folks who compare progressives who have questions about Obama to “baggers.” So I replied the way you do in 140 characters: With shorthand:
@truthrose1 Not saying white progressives are THE base; opposite. But I resent African Americans who say THEY are THE BASE. Wrong.
Later, people I respect would say it was those four words strung together — “I resent African Americans” — that made some folks see red; they didn’t see context, let alone go read my article. Point taken. Someone suggested I might have written “I don’t appreciate” rather than “I resent” — but that’s 10 more characters! If I got a mulligan, I’d go with: I resent anyone saying African Americans alone are THE base. Or something. But it’s Twitter, that’s how it goes.
Get it? She “loathes” the term “Professional Left” (which was coined precisely to describe persons like Joan Walsh), and “can’t connect with folks who compare progressives who have questeions about Obama to ‘baggers.” You see what she does there? First, she ignores the message because it contains language she doesn’t like, and rather than state that: “Hey, I really want to talk to you about this, but can we do it without the name-calling? Let’s drop the Obot/firebagger crap and try to figure out what’s at the root of this division,” she fired off a shorthand reply. (Certainly, she has no problem calling the Tea Party “teabaggers” because teabaggers are racist and not her.)
Further, she claims that her tweet was shorthand. Please. As a self-described Twitterholic, she knows damn well about such things as Twitlonger, or writing tweets in multiple parts, or, you know — not responding. Moreover, her attempt casually to dismiss Twitter as something silly and immature with the @s and the shortened words (despite the fact that she is (as I am) a Twittering fool and neither of us (as far as I can tell) tweet in text speak) is disingenuous, especially given that contributors on her blog have lauded Twitter as the dawn of new social media, and that she has been tweeting for at least two years.
And finally, notice how she slips in the bit about “progressives who have questions about Obama,” the implication being that we “Obots” don’t have questions about the president or his policies. We are blind followers. Zombies. Unquestioning idiots. Off the cliff like lemmings, we go!
So after she has set this false backdrop to her offensive tweet, she finally tells how she Averted a Twitter Race Brawl LOL when cooler heads prevailed — people who weren’t riled up agreed with her — despite the fact that NO ONE DISAGREED WITH HER IN THE FIRST PLACE BECAUSE HER “BLACK PEOPLE CLAIM THEY ARE EXCLUSIVELY THE BASE” CLAIM WAS A LOAD OF CRAP.
People were retweeting things I said that they found offensive, trying to rile others up, but gradually, others came in, not riled, but with insight:
ReasonVsFear
@AngryBlackLady @joanwalsh @Johnswilson1 @cindyloveseric @truthrose1 Agreed. The base is all of us. Even when we disagree. :)
And I replied:
@ReasonVsFear @AngryBlackLady @Johnswilson1 @cindyloveseric @truthrose1 Thank you, that was my point, made more elegantly by you! Good night
Whew! Race riot averted. I’m leaving out a lot of stuff because…it went on for hours and it makes Twitter look insane, all those @s and shortened words, when I think Twitter is awesome, even after all this. Also: I feel bad calling out one Twitter person, but those Tweets touched off an explosion as well as the Atlantic Wire piece; plus, I’m leaving out people whose narcissism and divisiveness would only be further inflamed by direct attention here [I wonder who those “people” are. -ed.].
Everything seemed right in the world again until someone started it up Thursday morning. I’m not going to reprise it, the Atlantic Wire does it just fine. Here is my answer, in more than 140 characters:
[read the rest here]
Say It Loud!
Joan Walsh is a privileged person. There is nothing wrong with being a privileged person. The trick is to recognize one’s privilege, wrestle with it (it’s uncomfortable, I know) and then try to move forward in a constructive way. Joan Walsh did the exact opposite of that, both in her Twitter responses and in her post.
I am extremely troubled by her dismissal of Twitter as an Unserious Mode of Political Discourse. Her response to truthrose’s explanation as to why she believes black folks have been more vocal as of late is steeped in privilege:
truthrose1
The only place AA’s can speak the truth/have a voice is on Twitter, welcome to what is called push back from AA’s
joanwalsh
@truthrose1 Good night, life is too short for race baiting!
Really, Joan? When truthrose explains to you her belief that the only place black people can speak the truth and have a voice is on Twitter, and tries to engage you on Twitter in a discussion about the marginalization of black voices, you dismiss it as race-baiting. Life is too short. Mouthy black folks are the worst.
I had no intention of getting into this any further. After initial hostilities, I attempted to understand her point. I gave her the benefit of the doubt. Aside from an admittedly snarky tweet about white progressives being unable to elect their preferred candidate without us, I tweeted an “amen” in response to her kumbayah tweet; I threw in an amusing Third Bass video (after multiple Twitter cries of “I’m the base! No I am!”); and passed her a virtual peace pipe.
I was ready to drop it even though she failed to produce any evidence that there were any black people laying exclusive claim to THE BASE crown. I felt that I had made my point and that there was no reason to pile on any further.
But she wouldn’t let it go. In her mind, my attempts to engage her were themselves divisive. Indeed, it is Twitter discussions like that described in this post which are the reason that Conservatives are kicking our ass. It’s so tiresome and depressingly destructive. It’s much easier if we all let Walsh and her ilk tell us who the progressive base is after systematically excluding us from proclamations of who the base is. See how it works? We shouldn’t be complaining. We should just show up and vote when we’re supposed to and leave the thinking to the adults.
Having to read and divert your attention to POC concerns really does assail the white sensibilities, doesn’t it? Why, even bringing up such concerns is race-baiting. And heavens to Betsy, if a black person shows anger or resentment at being ignored, you should just dismiss them as toxic and insane and congratulate yourself for having averted a race riot lol. Those black folks sure are angry. Bitter. Not to be listened to. Incapable of rational discussion.
I’m done.
Joan Walsh and the people she publishes, most notably Glenn Greenwald, feel that it is their important journalistic responsibility to constantly criticize and critique Obama from a self-appointed position of speaking for progressives. Greenwald does not even identify himself as a Democrat, though Walsh appears to.
But when people, in this case people of color, who are part of the most cohesively loyal of Democratic constituencies push back against either of them, or dare to suggest that their relentlessly negative commentary about Obama is damaging to him and to the Democratic Party’s efforts to hold back the rabid, frothing monsters of the GOP who are hellbent on implementing a theocratic fascist state, we are either slimed as Obama cultists, called stupid, docile or insufficiently intelligent to grasp their superior knowledge, or dismissed because we sound angry when we speak back to them.
I guess I should thank her for recognizing – in more than 140 characters – that black people have been “the most loyal and long-suffering Democrats, and they are key to the base.” Indeed, one could replace the word “Democrats” with the words “people living in America.” I would caution her, however, to remember that fact, the next time she writes another post about “the administration’s persistent impulse to insult the most loyal Democrats.”
Sure, Biden and Obama have been telling these folks to stop whining. But you know what? So have the “most loyal and long-suffering Democrats.” Check out W.E.E. See You, The Reid Report, The People’s View, Zandar versus Stupid, and The Only Adult in the Room. Non-“long-suffering” Democrats are also pissed off: Eclectablog, Rump Roast, and Extreme Liberal’s Blog.
It seems to me that Walsh views black people as part of the base for strategic political purposes, when it’s time to crunch the numbers and figure out where the votes are coming from. (Data is very important to privileged people and the balance of Walsh’s post is a testament to that. She entirely ignores the actual issue raised, which is POC feelings of exclusion from proclamations regarding “insulting the base,” and lays out a bunch of statistics about voting blocs to buttress her case. It is convenient to do so, because the alternative — actually listening to what multiple POCs are saying — is uncomfortable.)
We count too. We are active during the interim years between congressional and national elections, and with new social media platforms, we have been able to find one another and band together.
There are many of us who do not have the luxury of blogging for pay, so we squeeze in time to blog during our personal time. And it is disheartening that despite our efforts to amplify POC voices in the online progressive community, people like Walsh view it as divisive and narcissistic. I haven’t foregone sleeping more than 5-6 hours a night because it is my dream to “incite race riots on Twitter” (which, really? We black folks can’t have a discussion without it turning into some sort of looting/riot bonanza?) I have foregone sleeping because I recognize the importance of this moment. (Take a hint: J/K jokes about race wars are jokes that white folks can’t make. Full stop. Minority membership has its privileges.)
It seems obvious that Walsh felt it necessary to whitewash the events that lead to the Twitter debacle, so that she could demonstrate to her (probably) predominantly white readership how disorderly we black folks are because she has no intention of doing any self-reflection about the issues raised, and small blogs like this one are cropping up because we feel we’ve been kicked out of The Progressives’ He-Man Obama Hater’s Club.
We are pushing back, and we will be pushing back for the next 18 months.
A wise man once said: When the shit goes down, you better be ready.”
I’m ready. Are you?
1 I want to express that I have nothing but the utmost respect for Melissa Harris-Perry. I’m so sure she’s fretting about it, but still.
[I’ve made various small edits since this post was published. None are, in my view, of much import. In the words of Bill O’Reilly, “Fuck it! We’ll do it live!” -ABL]
[cross-posted here at ABLC. i’m checking comments there. i’ll drop in here… eventually… i guess. -ABLxx]
by Imani Gandy (ABL)| 82 Comments
This post is in: Kiss My Black Ass, Vagina Outrage, Assholes
Damn, y’all. I don’t know what to do. White people keep giving me mixed signals. First they’re all, “Hey! Stop having so many abortions! Abortion is black genocide! Your snatch is the deadliest snatch in all the land! Quit aborting all the future Obamas!”
So I’m like, okay! I’ll start breeding! And I did. I had five little spite babies (I was supposed to have six, but I aborted one because it got a little too familiar in utero, if you know what I mean and you probably don’t).
I’m thinking, “Sweet! I hit the black lady sweepstakes! Finally the GOP cares about me and my snatch!”
But then Newt’s little pet organization, the American Family Association1, decided to open its mouth, and now I’m all confused again:
“Welfare has destroyed the African-American family by telling young black women that husbands and fathers are unnecessary and obsolete. Welfare has subsidized illegitimacy by offering financial rewards to women who have more children out of wedlock. We have incentivized fornication rather than marriage, and it’s no wonder we are now awash in the disastrous social consequences of people who rut like rabbits.” – American Family Association spokesbigot Bryan Fischer, earning his hate group stripes every day. And all of the GOP presidential candidates continue to appear on his radio show.
Look, I don’t know what you people want us to do. You’re sending us mixed signals. But, it’s like I done told ya: We will outbreed you. We have the technology. We have the woman-power. Just give us a signal and it’s go-time.
1 Newt Gingrich donated $125K to the American Family Association and claims — nay! insists! — that it is a Christian organization even though the Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled it a “hate group.”
Oh, also, too:
(no reason.)
[via Joe.My.God; via Think Progress]
[cross-posted in my uterus]American Family Association: Black Bitches Be Breedin’ Like BunniesPost + Comments (82)
by Imani Gandy (ABL)| 57 Comments
This post is in: Kiss My Black Ass, Vagina Outrage, Assholes
Good news, y’all! Life Always, the Texas-based (but not reality-based) anti-abortion group responsible for the black genocide posters (pictured here) which were slapped up all over New York City a few weeks ago, and which prompted this bit of hilarity from Kristen Schaal and Larry Wilmore, are back in business!
Some 30 billboards declaring “Every 21 minutes our next possible leader is aborted” [laying it on a little thick, dontcha think? -ed.] are being placed in predominantly African-American neighborhoods in Obama’s adopted hometown.
They are being displayed for free after the group’s controversial billboards declaring “the most dangerous place for an African-American is in the womb” were taken down following protests in New York.
The Texas pastor behind the campaign by Life Always said he wants to “encourage reflection” about the high abortion rate among African-Americans.
“For too long the scourge of abortion has been hidden behind political correctness,” said Stephen Broden, who is African-American.2
“Liberal interests have deceived our women into believing that the answer to poverty is to murder their babies.”
In a statement, Planned Parenthood of Illinois called the billboards “an offensive and condescending effort to stigmatize and shame African-American women while attempting to limit their ability to make private, personal medical decisions.”
The New York posters, you see, used a stock photo of a little black girl (needless to say, the girl’s mother was not jazzed about it). After the posters were taken down, these forced-birth religious nutbags thought it’d be a good idea to slap Obama’s face on there, because why the fuck not? Let’s really show those stupid black ghetto hos what could happen if they don’t stop getting abortions every third Wednesday!
Except these twatwaffles forgot one tiny thing: OBAMA’S MOTHER WAS WHITE.
Jesus Jones — I can’t handle this much stupid in the span of two days. It hurts my brain.
Seriously, y’all. Can we all get a grip here? Can we render unto one another multiple breaks? I can’t take it. It’s too nice out and I have too much shit to do.
1 I bet you 1 ha’penny and 6 hot cross buns that when these ads get taken down, the jackwagons at Fox are going to start talking about “Chicago Abortion Politics.” Just you wait and see.
2 You’re not helping.
[cross-posted here at Angry Black Lady Chronicles]