Posted on 04/04/2013 11:37:11 AM PDT by presidio9
You know our political discourse has lost its moorings when it’s the Republicans who play that famous race card in defending one of their own.
The person in need of defense is Dr. Ben Carson, a renowned Johns Hopkins surgeon. Carson happens to be black, Yale-educated — and conservative. After his impassioned criticism of President Obama at the National Prayer Breakfast, many in the GOP thought they’d found their 2016 standard-bearer.
But however brilliant, Carson has raised eyebrows since coming into the spotlight. Last week, he told Sean Hannity, “Marriage is between a man and a woman. No group, be they gays, be they NAMBLA (the North American Man/Boy Love Association), be they people who believe in bestiality, it doesn’t matter what they are. They don’t get to change the definition.”
This is not a surprising opinion from a 61-year-old religious Republican. Nor is it surprising that liberals revile his views.
However, the right is putting a shameful spin on it. In their telling, whites criticizing Carson are racist for not allowing a black man to express his views.
Carson apparently holds that opinion himself, telling radio host Mark Levin earlier this week that white liberals “are the most racist people there are.”
Now, the argument about liberals’ hypocrisy is valid when it comes to a black person’s views on race. Too many on the left think black conservative ideas are incontestably wrong, treating those who air them as naive at best (Herman Cain) and sinister at worst (Condoleezza Rice). I am inclined to call this dismissal ignorance rather than racism, but we need not split hairs.
However, gay marriage is not a race issue — it’s just an issue. And for white liberals to hold off on criticizing Carson’s views on it would be, in itself, a form of racist acquiescence. It would imply that a black person is not astute enough to be held accountable for his or her positions and should thus get a pass.
So what we have here is Republicans effectively chiding liberals for not being racist.
That’s especially ironic because, while Democrats tend to think they have the lock on racial enlightenment, it is actually often Republicans who have the larger understanding of what it is to assess people according to the content of their character.
Take affirmative action, for example. To proclaim that it’s okay to evaluate black and Latino college applicants partly on grades but also on their contribution to “diversity” — while white and Asian students are required to just put up or shut up — is racist.
That kind of policy makes sense only as a temporary fix, which is what affirmative action should always have been. However, to then slide into the idea that race-based admissions must continue until racism doesn’t exist (i.e., forever) is to essentially assert that blacks and Latinos are the world’s first humans to require perfect conditions to succeed.
That’s racist, and the right understands that. I highly suspect that the right also understands, deep down, that criticizing Carson for his views on gay marriage is no more racist than it is sexist to criticize Michele Bachmann for her stances.
When an outspoken black conservative comes along, there isn’t a thing wrong with Republicans seeing him or her as an opportunity to reach out to black voters.
But here’s something to keep in mind: There is a fine line between pragmatism and exploitation. Right now, there are young black people who question the Democratic orthodoxy on race, but aren’t sure they’re allowed to say so. They are watching the right turn Carson into a fool by using him to make a hopelessly flabby case about racism.
Eternally warned that the right values black conservatives only as tokens, they will see this cynical treatment of Carson as confirmation. And then, when Republicans complain (as always) that blacks don’t vote for them, they themselves will be that much more to blame.
Nevertheless, the liberal media has tried very hard to make this the defining political issue of a time when the economy is in terrible shape, we are fighting two wars, terrorism remains a very real concern, Venezuala is facing a potential power struggle, Christian are being ethnically cleansed throughout the middle east, China and Russia are flexing their muscles, and a halfwit despot is threatening us with nuclear attack. And in doing so, they compare the gay marriage struggle to the Civil Rights movement. If I were a black man, I would be outraged.
If you can get past McWhorter's brainwashed fixation with gay marriage, he DOES make some excellent points. Obviously that is not the only thing Dr. Carson has been talking about, and it is clearly not the reason why liberals have been attacking him for being a perceived traitor to his race. Still, if Republicans want to reach out to black voters, especially smart but liberal indoctrinated black voters, they have to understand that the liberal media drives the message that Black America hears.
I don't have an answer to any of this. I just think this is an interesting column.
The actual quote of Carsons was that it didn’t matter who you are,
you don’t get to change the definitions of the pillars of civilization.
So conservatives are racist for pointing out liberal racism? That’s the sort of “logic” that powers MSNBC.
Dr. McWhorter makes a fair point.
By the way, McWhorter and Carson have something in common: they are both absolutely brilliant in their fields. I listened to some McWhorter lectures on linguistics and I’ve never heard a professor who could explain things better.
It’s getting a little confusing.
I’m saying you’re a racist because you think others are racist for saying that a man of a certain race says that people who are not his race are racist because he calls them racists, because they expect a certain mentality out of everyone in his race?
Have I got that right?
To which “Republicans” is the author referring? He quotes Carson, but where are the names of the Republicans that he claims are using the race card? Did I miss something?
Of course, the left can't be racist. < /s>
Funny what happens to people when their tactics are - finally - used against them. This is the way to fight liberals. Shove it back in their face and make it hurt.
Funny. I’ve never heard these people call out the liberals on their cries of ‘racism’.
It is a race issue, the Human Race. It is the Ultimate Race Issue. Sexual deviation from natures simple and obvious path is a direct threat to the human race's survival. The disease vectors introduced to the race by such actions is a serious danger to the survival of humanity's society and biological security. Most serious plagues come from cross species transmission of viral vectors, and the STD hot spot within society that is fueled by the multiple partners of a "gay" lifestyle mixed with fecal sex is a direct biological danger to the society that they live within.
This is not about partners, nor is it about fairness, it is about attempting to normalize the indefensible and despicable behavior of people who have given themselves over to their lusts. Imagine the death toll if there were a disruption of the access to antibiotics due to war or if any of the major STD's became antibiotic resistant with such high rates of infection in society now.
Three generations ago sexual promiscuity was a self correcting problem, such life styles were short due to death by disease. Now with the combination of the wide availability of antibiotics mixed with a liberal agenda of non-personal responsibility it is a prevalent problem that is a ticking time bomb in the Human Race.
Now, the argument about liberals’ hypocrisy is valid when it comes to a black person’s views on race. Too many on the left think black conservative ideas are incontestably wrong, treating those who air them as naive at best (Herman Cain) and sinister at worst (Condoleezza Rice). I am inclined to call this dismissal ignorance rather than racism, but we need not split hairs.
-SNIP-
That’s especially ironic because, while Democrats tend to think they have the lock on racial enlightenment, it is actually often Republicans who have the larger understanding of what it is to assess people according to the content of their character.
Take affirmative action, for example. To proclaim that it’s okay to evaluate black and Latino college applicants partly on grades but also on their contribution to “diversity” — while white and Asian students are required to just put up or shut up — is racist.
-SNIP-
That kind of policy makes sense only as a temporary fix, which is what affirmative action should always have been. However, to then slide into the idea that race-based admissions must continue until racism doesn’t exist (i.e., forever) is to essentially assert that blacks and Latinos are the world’s first humans to require perfect conditions to succeed.
It's annoying, but it's also fascinating to watch how close to the truth McWhorters actually is. The left mocks Rush Limbaugh when he talks about "low information voters," but he isn't necessarily referring to ignorant people. He's also talking about extremely intelligent people who get all of their news from one biased point of veiw.
BTW, the left can validly say the same thing about some people on our side of the aisle. The only way to effect change is to truely understand how your opponents see the world.
—Sir Walter Scott
Carson is #1 on the journ-0-list “must destroy” list.
The attacks on him I’ve seen on Facebook are disgusting.
But Carson is better at selling books, and McWhorter is helping whether he intends to or not.
Dr. Benjamin Carson’s Amazing Speech at the National Prayer Breakfast
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFb6NU1giRA
Still love watching this.
Let's see, whites being called racist for criticizing a black politician's ideas and policies . . . let's see isn't that the automatic response to ANY comments by whites which vaguely question ANYTHING Obama does??
And, any black man, no matter how accomplished, how intelligent, how successful, if he espouses a little conservatism, who wanders off the plantation by questioning the out and out communism they've been spoon-fed for the last 60 years - they are automatically a “sell-out” to their race and an “uncle Tom” to whitey.
What a flaming HYPOCRITE!!
Saul Alinsky would be proud of how the left isolates and demonizes their opponents - to great effect unfortunately.
Mcwhorter is dull and off target. Never heard him complain once when the gay rights agenda was compared to the MKL civil rights era debates.
Never heard him complain when any numerous honest complaints against Obama are always met with charhes of racism.
Now he doesn’t like it when we play by the same rules? Karma is a bitch.
McWhorter completely misses the point. The racism is in the left demanding that a black person toe the liberal line to be authentically black and not an Uncle Tom. So Carson's opposition to gay marriage fits here.
All criticism of any black liberal is racist. All criticism of any black conservative is legitimate.
These are the rules, people!!
This is bunk, and you’re overselling it.
How do Republican’s/Conservatives ever get to “use” talented, conservative minorities? By letting them be the talented, thinking people that they are. Only a Liberal/Democrat, who sees all people in light of their usefullness to themselves, can see it any other way.
There’s a big Black Hole through this contorted, rambling writing, and his name is Clarence Thomas. He does more for the Conservative cause by being a brilliant Justice than he ever would as some kind of poster-child that this so-called author thinks all people can be reduced to. So, who tried to “use” him?
Conservatives can support Dr. Ben Carson because they know he is right on the issues. Whether the Liberals in the Media will let Blacks hear the message is the real issue, and this stupid author gives them a pass.
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