Posted on 01/20/2011 2:48:19 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
The impenetrable stupidity of Sarah Palin knows no boundaries. She wallows in mediocrity. Palin is the queen bee of a cult of personality where to be anti-intellectual is a trait to be rewarded. Ultimately, she presides over a confederacy of dunces.
People of color have many a shared experience that comes from being racially marked in a White society. One of my favorite examples of this social reality is the moment when a crime is announced on the evening news and we collectively grimace with the thought, "I hope he or she isn't black/brown/yellow/or red." I must also imagine that in a post 9/11 world, my Arab-American brothers and sisters likewise have a similar moment where they hold their collective breath in dread upon the announcement of some act of terrorism (real or imagined, in any part of the world).
Question: Do white people lower their heads in collective shame when they listen to Sarah Palin? Is there a moment where white folks shake their heads in mass and say to themselves, "Lord, I wish she weren't white?"
To be White is to be "normal," "invisible," and quintessentially "American." It is also the freedom to be an individual. When crazy white people bomb buildings, kill cops in the name of radical right wing politics, go on shooting rampages, or more generally just act like fools, it is never framed as a "White" problem. I would suggest that these actions are rarely, if ever, interrogated for what they reveal about Whiteness and/or white folk at large. In short, there is no "I hope that person isn't white" moment. Why? Because a given white person's actions are usually a reflection of their individual shortcomings, not a commentary on white people as a whole.
Efforts to communicate the essence of white privilege in American society are often made difficult because of the denial, fear, and vulnerability that comes from self-reflection about power. Moreover, in a time of economic calamity, white Americans are probably (and quite understandably) resistant to hearing about some "unearned privilege" when they are fighting for their financial lives. Surely, this is a time when conversations about the deep linkages between race, wealth, and white supremacy in the United States are an increasingly hard sell, even in so far as they remain especially true (as the old saying goes, "When White America gets a cold, Black America gets the flu...or worse").
Nevertheless, the need to discuss how race structures life opportunities remains necessary--and perhaps even more so--during our Great Recession. As opposed to the heavy theory and abstractions often favored by academics, scholars, and public intellectuals, I prefer practical common sense examples to prove my point. To that end, Sarah Palin is a perfect object lesson.
So, let's play a game of fill in the blanks. I will start:
If Sarah Palin were black she would have disappeared into obscurity long ago.
If Sarah Palin were black, her daughter's out of wedlock, "baby daddy drama" would have been presented as an example of both pathological behavior and a dysfunctional family that is symbolic of the social problems in that community. If Sarah Palin were black, never would the poor decision making by the Palin family be marked off as challenges overcome, or deeds to be valorized.
If Sarah Palin were black, her neo-secessionist husband would have been the death knell for her political career, because as we all know you can't trust "those people."
If Sarah Palin were black, her lack of intellectual curiosity, willful and cultivated ignorance, and lack of grace both written and spoken, would not be taken as "folksy." Instead, Palin would be viewed as unqualified for any public office.
If Sarah Palin were black she would be tarred and feathered as an "affirmative action baby."
@@@@
Tell me, how would you fill in the blank? If Sarah Palin were black she...
I doubt it, but I do know that when I come across vapid foolishness such as this I tend to point and snicker...;-)
Sarah Palin is also, last time I checked, a WOMAN.
Not only is the Left racist, they are also misogynist.
**The website is called “We Are Respectable Negroes”?**
Read a bunch of the comments after that article... after cleaning off the keyboard, I’ve come to one conclusion..
If that’s the way they want to think... I want Nothing to do with any of them.
Obviously this idiot never really listened to Sheila Jackson Lee..
She makes your eyes roll with slow head turn..
She does have a “mixed-race” husband: Todd (and therefore all of her children, as well) are part Eskimo.
That’s my mistake. Cut & paste wasn’t working with the title.
Breathtaking that a racist democrat hack is not called out by the press.
Thought I’d give you an opportunity for a hearty laugh, at him, not with him.
Of course Carol Moseley-Braun, Maxine Waters and Shelia Jackson-Lee each raise the IQ and tone of any room they enter. (Or was that leave?)
This is why Gov. Palin is feared by many:
her conservative/constitutional priorities which are...
God first, Family second, Service third, and self last.
This is a terrifying combination for those whose priorities are exactly opposite: self first, service second (career, job, etc.), family third, and any kind of god as a talking point. This being the value set for hardcore progressives, who actually probably only account for about 20% of our population!
They just seem like they are equal in number to conservatives because they are **well placed** in visual and vocal positions and they work in **unison** like all good communists do. They must operate as a **whole** in order to survive.
Look for matching messages...this article is following the same line as many others...the progressive line.
The majority of Americans at their core were raised with the first set of priorities, that’s about 65% of the population, however, about 35% of those have weakened their commitment to these. Hardcore progressives consider the weakened to be on their side.
In 2012—the only question which will need answered will be this:
A. Will you vote to continue the great American experiment
or
B. Will you vote to be part of a new progressive experiment with communist leanings?
If you share the values Conservatives share, you will vote A. If you share the progressive values, you will vote some approximation of B which includes RINO’s who have unclear leanings.
Chauncey de Vega is a racist.
“The impenetrable stupidity of Sarah Palin knows no boundaries. She wallows in mediocrity.”
Which is she? Mediocre or stupid? I’ve always thought of mediocrity as being in the middle, so-so, ordinary, unexceptional, average, and so on, whereas stupidity is doubtless below average. What gives?
I’ve noticed a few sites seem able to disable “cut and paste”.
Gee, who is it that keeps electing idiots like Manny Cleaver, Barbara Lee, Maxine Waters, and “Queen of the DumbMasses,” Sheila Jackson Lee? Not Palin supporters, I think...
Mark
If Palin were Black and as circumspect as Obama and had Obama's team, she'd be president. She wouldn't need to be that much different than she is in her personal qualities. She'd just have to learn to make the noises the mainstream media wanted to hear and keep quiet the rest of the time and she'd be thought a genius.
If Palin were a typical African-American politician, she'd find a constituency, but not get any further than, say, Congresswoman. Certainly, Palin's already shown that she has more on the ball than Maxine Waters or Sheila Jackson-Lee or Carol Moseley Braun or Eddie Bernice Johnson.
But even a trashy blogger may hit on something once in a blue moon: If one likes Sarah and Bristol and feels for Bristol's problems, one would probably go easy on the Black illegitimacy thing, right? Say that these things happen in all kinds of families and not go out of one's way to stomp on that?
“When crazy white people bomb buildings, kill cops in the name of radical right wing politics, go on shooting rampages, or more generally just act like fools, it is never framed as a ‘White’ problem”
If I had a dime for every time I heard someone (black or otherwise) point out that serial killers and mass-shooters are always white—specifically white middle-class males—I’d have, like, a dollar. So there.
By the way, and for the record, serial and mass killing is a “black problem” too, though you’d be hard pressed to think of a media darling like Manson, Dahmer, or Bundy among their ranks. Remember the DC snipers? Neither do I. Ever heard of Coral Eugene Watts, Howard Arthur Allen, Jake Bird, Andre Crawford, Lorenzo Gilyard, Carlton Gary, or Chester Turner? Me neither.
Heck, the FBI even went so far as to include whiteness in the profile for serial killers. Which makes some sense, as since whites make up a majority of the population the average killer probably would be white. Alls I’m saying is, for the crazies that grab nationwide headlines (though not, I suppose, for day-to-day news and the publics general concept of Crime), blacks get off really, really, extremely easy. You shouldn’t complain.
Profoundly depressing.
“Question: Do white people lower their heads in collective shame when they listen to Sarah Palin? Is there a moment where white folks shake their heads in mass and say to themselves, “Lord, I wish she weren’t white?”
Only the liberals. They are racist fools who would gladly give up their ability and responsibility to be individuals.
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