Whether one is weak or strong is irrelevent. What matters is whether they are right or wrong. The strong thing to do, if you are wrong, is to appologize. It takes more guts to admit you are wrong than it does to deny you were wrong. Do you really think pictures of white people in black face mocking blacks or joking about the KKK really has a place in the Republican Party of the 21st Century? Black people are not going to magically disappear from the United States and the more that conservatives do to alienate them, the less likely it is that they'll escape the spiral of poverty and crime that is not only a problem for blacks but for all Americans. Are there bigotted blacks? Sure there are. But the answer is not to show how bigotted whites can be in return. Attack ideas, not race.
I certainly agree that "joking about the KKK" has no place anywhere. That is disgusting. But all I have to go by are 'reports' about pictures on a website, and I do not know if there truly was "joking about the KKK" at this party, or if so, what the context was. (Was it "illustrating absurdity with absurdity" by deliberately portraying a despicable stereotype that way too many blacks have of Republicans? I do not know.)
But I do know that the one guy who was in "black face" with a bicycle chain was deliberately mocking a certain campus black activist who was convicted of stealing a bicycle. Fair game, in my opinion, and no need to apologize. (A little over the top, I agree - - I wouldn't have done it myself....)
But again, please see the last part of my previous post. It would bother me to know that Battaglia posted those pictures with the idea of picking a fight. That would be as stupid as Rush Limbaugh making comments about racial/political issues on an ESPN football pregame show, for crying out loud! (I admire the heck out of the guy, but what in God's name was he thinking??)
By the way, I do not ever wish that black people would "magically disappear from the United States" and I resent the inference. It so happens that a large bulk of my business brings me into contact with individual black clients every week and most of them are the nicest, hardest working people I get to meet. I agree that the Republican Party better go after black voters. Republicans certainly must have a better idea than the Democrats' destructive welfare-state/vote-buying scheme that has all but destroyed the urban black family unit.
Regards,
LH