And the Democrats claim the GOP are racist hicks....

Patranus

Diamond Member
Apr 15, 2007
9,280
0
0
WASHINGTON – The top Democrat in the U.S. Senate apologized on Saturday for comments he made about Barack Obama's race during the 2008 presidential bid and are quoted in a yet-to-be-released book about the campaign.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada described in private then-Sen. Barack Obama as "light skinned" and "with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one." Obama is the nation's first African-American president.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100109/ap_on_el_se/us_obama_reid


Wow. This is THE TOP Senator in the Senate.
(I wonder what kind of backlash/legs this story would have if it was a Republican who made the comments)

In other news
More than half of Nevadans are unhappy with Sen. Harry Reid, according to a new poll commissioned by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
http://www.lvrj.com/news/reid-hits-new-low-in-poll-81060702.html

Remember this is the Democrats choice to lead their party (down the toilet bowl)
 
Last edited:

Craig234

Lifer
May 1, 2006
38,548
350
126
To paraphrase our righties, 'we're not saying Republicans are racist hicks. We're saying racist hicks are almost always Republicans'.
 

Craig234

Lifer
May 1, 2006
38,548
350
126
I recently saw a Boston Legal episode that did a nice job with the 'sounds black' topic.

The facts are, some blacks have more of a dialect associated with some blacks; others dont. It is a factor in politics. If Obama's accent were urban black, he'd pay a big price politically.

This is hardly the hate-based race discussion race discussion often is. Because it's at all similar, it is awkward and usually best apologized for when there's any controversy, to keep racism stigmatized.

The price for that noble cause is sometimes sacrificing or apologizing for otherwise reasonable chat.

When we were having an election in which a cnadidate could break a 100% rate over 200 yeaqrs of only whites, race was an inherently political issue, and even neutral comments could be controversial.

It's all too easy to reference race for nefarious purposes. "We disagree with the black candidate's position on welfare, and the black candidate is wrong about Iraq."

Neutral, and gratuitous, and an appeal to bigotry.

It's a tricky issue. It doesn't equate Harry Reid with actual bigots.

It's somewhat analogous to religion in JFK's race. Race now and religion then were inherently political.

It wasn't exacly going to be 'pretend a catholic or black isn't running'. They were and it was an issue for people, whether the issue was bigotry or opposing bigotry.

For JFK, like Obama, it was a contest between gaining votes to oppose bigotry more than you lose votes to bigotry.

Mentioning the issue for both was delicate. JFK had a baptist minister's speech, Obama had a race speech folllowing a controvery about Wright. They could be accused of exploiting.

In both cases, some suggested they had an unfair advantage to gain votes by appealing for the issue 'not to matter'. In each some argued they gained more than they lost.

Almost everyone agreed it 'shouldn't be an issue'.

For almost everyone it was an issue.

No one saids it wouldn't be awkrward breaking down old barriers. But catholics aren't controversial now and hopefullly blacks won't be.
 
Last edited:

Schadenfroh

Elite Member
Mar 8, 2003
38,416
4
0
Harry Reid is rather elderly. I occasionally hear elderly (70+ years old) people refer to blacks by that word and Japanese by the first three characters of the latter word. It is what they grew up calling them and sometimes their attempt to break the habit fails.
 

kage69

Lifer
Jul 17, 2003
30,986
46,547
136
Remember this is the Democrats choice to lead their party (down the toilet bowl)

So? Let them, what do you care? You are quite obviously no Democrat, so why not worry about your own?

I think Reid's comments are more related to his upbringing and generation than his political affiliation. There's a lot more missing here if someone is really trying to put him on the same playing field with say, Strom Thurmond. Heh, a half-black lovechild for one!
 

nobodyknows

Diamond Member
Sep 28, 2008
5,474
0
0
Harry Reid is rather elderly. I occasionally hear elderly (70+ years old) people refer to blacks by that word and Japanese by the first three characters of the latter word. It is what they grew up calling them and sometimes their attempt to break the habit fails.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negro

Around 1442, the Portuguese first arrived in sub-Saharan Africa while trying to find a sea route to India. The term negro, literally meaning "black", was used by the Spanish and Portuguese to refer to people. From the 18th century to the late 1960s, "negro" (later capitalized) was considered the proper English term for all people of sub-Saharan African origin.

It fell out of favor by the early 1970s in the United States after the Civil Rights movement. However, older African Americans from the period when "Negro" was considered acceptable, initially found the term "Black" more offensive than "Negro". Evidence for this is in historical African-American organizations and institutions' use of the term—such as the United Negro College Fund. In current English language usage, "Negro" is generally considered acceptable in a historical context, such as baseball's Negro Leagues of the early and mid-20th century, or in the name of older organizations, as in Negro spirituals, the United Negro College Fund or the Journal of Negro Education. The U.S. Census now uses the grouping "Black or African American." In 2010 the U.S. Census added the term "negro" in efforts to include older African Americans. This revival of the term is controversial.

To me, black:white as Negro:Caucasian
 
Last edited:

WHAMPOM

Diamond Member
Feb 28, 2006
7,628
183
106
Last edited:

Hacp

Lifer
Jun 8, 2005
13,923
2
81
Lol this is the problem with liberals in general. Ried gets bashed by his own party for speaking the truth.
 

boomerang

Lifer
Jun 19, 2000
18,883
641
126
Wait until you read the Bill Clinton quote from the book. It'll come out soon enough.

LOL at defending "no Negro dialect" in the context of "light skinned".

You guys only recognize Republican racist remarks.

But when you get right down to it, "a light skinned Negro that talks like white folk" is a pretty good description of Obama.
 
Last edited:

Zebo

Elite Member
Jul 29, 2001
39,398
19
81
Humans are a sad species all colors. I hope one day everyone looks about like tiger so we can move on to something productive right after we kill that worshiping desert mystics thing.
 

Avvocato Effetti

Senior member
Nov 27, 2009
408
0
0
I don't care at all about your race. Two of the three men I respect most of all on this earth are not of my race.

I do enjoy exposing the hypocrisy of race whores.
 

Moonbeam

Elite Member
Nov 24, 1999
74,592
6,715
126
Have you ever noticed that Obama is a light skinned Negro who speaks standard American English?

Or is he a dark skinned Caucasian that can jive on command?
 

Vic

Elite Member
Jun 12, 2001
50,422
14,337
136
Is now a bad time to mention that Harry Reid is a pro-life Mormon from rural Nevada? Oh wait... that might confuse all the partisan trolling going on in here.