Posted on 07/10/2009 9:53:00 AM PDT by Jim Robinson
Yesterday, theHalfrican posted a link to the Free Republic Website where several of its regular members were bashing Malia Obama for wearing a peace symbol t-shirt. The thread had several derogotary, racist, and sexual remarks about Malia. It also included a picture of Michelle Obama speaking to Malia that was accompanied with a racist caption.
I wrote the media contact at Free Republic yesterday, kristinn@bellatlantic.net, questioning the nature of the posters and the site:
Hello. I am an independent writer developing a book about the grassroots conservative movement online, of which your site, Free Republic, is included as a primary online gathering place for conservatives.
Could you please tell me how the owner of the site feels about posts like this one:
http://www.freerepublic.com/...
...in which conservatives who post regularly at the site make several racist statements about the 11-year-old daughter of President Obama for wearing a t-shirt adorned with a peace symbol? Remarks included the following:
"We’re being represented by a family of ghetto trash." "Looks like a bunch of ghetto thugs. A stain on America."
"Looks like a typical street whore."
"What we now are sending the ghetto over to represent us. and if so who the hell is that flea bag who looks to be dragged from the trash dumpster."
"you could go down any ghetto right now and see exactly the same."
"could you imagine what world leaders must be thinking seeing this kind of street trash and that we paid for this kind of street ghetto trash to go over there"
"the world must be laughing like mad right now at that we have this kind of street trash in our white house."
"Wonder when she will have her first abortion."
"sad isn’t it that we now have ghetto street trash over there representing us in Europe."
"This disgusting display makes me more and more eager for the revolution.
"They make me sick.... The whole family... mammy, pappy, the free loadin’ mammy-in-law, the misguided chillin’, and especially ‘lil cuz... This is not the America I want representin’ my peeps."
In addition, the thread includes a picture of Michelle Obama speaking to her daughter with the caption, "To Entertain Her Daughter, Michelle Obama Likes to Make Monkey Sounds."
Before you dismiss this as only a minority of posters at the site, out of 100 posts on that thread I found only 1 that criticized such remarks. This is not the first time I have seen such an exhibition of blatant racism at Free Republic by members who regularly post there.
Here are my questions:
Does Free Republic condone this type of exercise in free speech?
Are these the type of participants Free Republic is happy to have posting at its site?
What is Free Republic's policy about posting racially offensive comments?
What is Free Republic's policy about making sexual insinuations about minors (particularly relevant in light of the David Letterman/Sarah Palin brouhaha)?
Does Free Republic believe its membership accurately represents the conservative movement?
Does the owner of Free Republic believe this kind of discourse is helpful to rebuilding the Republican Party and furthering its goals?
Thank you for your time, and I look forward to your responses.
went back to the site today and saw that the offending thread has been pulled "pending review."
http://www.freerepublic.com/...
I do note that Free Republic has a disclaimer on the first page that claims it does not condone this type of post; however, I am not sure when the disclaimer was added. Does anyone know?
From the disclaimer:
Opinions expressed on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Free Republic or its operators.
Please enjoy our forum, but also please remember to use common courtesy when posting and refrain from posting personal attacks, profanity, vulgarity, threats, racial or religious bigotry, or any other materials offensive or otherwise inappropriate for a conservative family audience.
Free Republic is a site dedicated to the concerns of traditional grassroots conservative activists. We're here to discuss and advance our conservative causes in a more or less liberal-free environment. We're not here to debate liberals. We do not want our pages filled with their arrogant, obnoxious, repugnant bile. Liberals, usurpers, and other assorted malcontents are considered unwelcome trolls on FR and their accounts and or posts will be summarily dismissed at the convenience of the site administrators.
Free Republic does not advocate or condone racism, violence, rebellion, secession, or an overthrow of the government.
So, the site will readily delete posts from liberals just because they are liberals and therefore everything they say is automatically considered "arrogant, obnoxious, repugant bile."
But comments calling an 11-year-old black girl "ghetto trash" and a "whore" are pulled "pending review." What is to review? Your site either supports that kind of rhetoric or it does not. Which is it?
If the Free Republic's "conservative family audience" consists of people who say such things as they often do (like yesterday), how conservative are they? And how family-oriented are they? Where were all the posts from other Free Republic regulars or from the owner of the site decrying this kind of racism directed at a child for no apparent reason than the fact that a peace symbol t-shirt inflamed their hatred to disgusting depths, like a red handkerchief in front of a mad bull?
Conservatives continually reinforce the fact that the only families they care about are conservative ones; the only troops they support are ones that do not vote democratic; the only children whose lives they value are the children of conservatives or unborn. How many of those aborted fetuses they claim to hold so dear would they trash had they been born and grown into a pre-teen who wore a t-shirt with a peace symbol or supported a liberal president? Or was gay?
The truth is that conservatives do not know the meaning of Jesus' words despite how much they love to use them when it suits their inner hatred of all those who are different. Worse, they lack basic human decency, as they demonstrate time and again.
I understood your point, and I'm contradicting you. History doesn't take sides or play favorites. Anthropomorphizing it into a witness for the prosecution/defense is a mug's game, one beloved of scientific-materialist Communist theoreticians and propagandists.
People just make their moves, and other people make other moves. That's history.
As for who's been where on "civil rights", see my last.
In order to get the black vote, they have enacted policies that have destroyed the black family, murdered millions of unborn black babies, enacted AA ("the soft bigotry of low expectations") ....
As far as recent history is concerned, you won't get an argument from me on that subject. The performance and delivery of many parties involved in the "civil rights movement" has been disappointing, but then we're dealing with people, not plaster saints. That's why conservatives are so dry, when liberals are so sanguine and damp.
...your points seem to be more about north/south than Republican/Democrat, and I made no reference to that geographical difference....
That's just how things have played out in U.S. history. That division was key to the destruction of the old Federal Republic and the substitution of the new centralized nation-state that has hypertrophied into the self-validating, self-constituting, omnicompetent, omnipresent, overweening superstate that we rightly deplore and fear.
That analogy does nothing for me. Care to try another, one that perhaps I can latch on to?
Lincoln was a Republican, Woodrow Wilson a Democrat, the sole Justice opposing Plessy vs. Ferguson was a Republican, it was Republicans who had the votes to carry the Civil Rights Act, and appoint Thurgood Marshall (not necessarily a good thing). The only present SC Justice (and one of the most conservative) was nominated by a Republican President. The only KKK member in the Congress is a Democrat. Democrat political and social policies (welfare and abortion) since the 1960's have harmed black families and killed a disproportionate number of black babies, and AA is fundamentally racist.
Those are historical facts. I gave the obvious disclaimer that there were exceptions, but it seems that your passions lie in other areas, so that you adjusted the focus of what I said to "contradict" what I was saying, even though what I was saying is historically accurate.
I don't know you, but I would guess from your posts that you are not a Republican so don't want to give Republicans credit, and that you are a southerner still angry about the Civil War. And/or that you are just being contrary for its own sake.
Nice discussion, lentul. I learned quite a bit from your comments here, some good, some not so very much....
The only present black SC Justice (and one of the most conservative) was nominated by a Republican President.
Is that why you continued it?
.....it seems that your passions lie in other areas....
You analyzing me now? Fresh.
Why are they "passions", by the way? That your liberalish way of sneaking up on saying I'm mad as a hatter -- "a little bit nutty and a little bit slutty", to borrow the old Clintonian version -- and don't make sense?
Why can't I have "interests" or "perspectives" or even, persish the thought, a "point"? A point that is not reconcilable with your own worldview? A point that you haven't accounted for in your paradigm, and can't?
Ciao. Have a good one.
My goodness, isn’t this a blast from the past. Things not so lively over at the WAmbulance, or what? Is Howlin coming back, too? Let me get my earplugs, lol.
Thanks for the conversation.
Nice to be back in the land of the liberals.
(Funny that you and your little boys' club remembers me when I have no clue as to who you are. You're all so..........forgettable. :)
No more posts to me, whoever you are. And keep your imagination to yourself, OK?
Hmmm, I didn't analogize. I just said that we are dealing with people. People disappoint constantly. That's why conservatives are so much more realistic than Mr. Rogers liberals.
Conservatives could have told you in 1964 that the supporters of the Civil Rights Act would disappoint. That black civil-rights campaigners would turn out to be closet racists themselves, that they would use the laws liberals gave them to screw innocent people because they were white.
People are people. Give them stupid laws, they do mean and stupid things with them.
You’re quite the bitter pill, oWf. Memory loss, too. But, nobody does wrongheaded high moral dudgeon quite like you, and nobody shreiks like your bff Howlin. Together, you got quite a few people banned, back in the day.
So, here’s a hearty “welcome back,” with trepidation.
You’ll have no problem with any further response from me, lol. As I mentioned, I’ve got my earplugs at the ready.
You do me a favor, and do not post to me again either, mkay? Thanks!
You are making all of that up, and are clearly delusional.
(btw, my leaving temporarily had nothing to do with Howlin, and I have no idea where she is, so you can lie about someone else).
Don't worry that I will be posting to you, however. People who make up their own "truth" and put it on the internet like you just did are no different than liberals, even if they claim to be conservatives. I don't know who you are, but now I know you are a liar).
Good bye, lefty.
And you're clearly menopausal.
You posted to me again, after I clearly requested that you not do so. That was a bannable offense, according to you, under your previous reign of error.
Double standard?
Let's keep this factual, shall we? (Can you?)
What I said in my previous post is the absolute truth. In addition, I am a very happy and contented woman who is not menopausal ( you little misogynist you! :)
Now if this problem of making things up in your head persists, might I suggest your seeking psychiatric help? It might help.
Be happy, RC. I am. :)
You get your own opinions, and like pieholes, you clearly have one.
You don’t get your own facts, however.
You have a nice evening. Sticking your head in the freezer worked for my mom. Maybe that’ll help.
I'm here posting on the subject of the thread, you come along and make up all kinds of imaginary accusations that bear no resemblance to reality, and now you say I don't get my own "facts."
As long as you are lying about me, I will defend myself.
As a Christian, the truth is important to me. I don't know who or what you are, but as long as you lie, I will speak the truth. So stop lying, and I will stop posting back to you.
For all who happen to be lurking, everything this person has said is untrue. He doesn't care, but I do.
Now cut it out. You don't have the right to blindside me with lies, so just stop it.
btw, I have had conversations with dozens of wonderful freepers since I've been back, but there are about five who are seemingly insane, and you are one of them.
I repeat........stop lying and this conversation will be over. It's your choice.
I’m not lying, oWf. And, for those who happen to be lurking, being called a liar when simple disagreement was the case, was SOP for oWf, and apparently still is. You have anger management issues and control issues, oWf.
Good night.
I get it. You lie. I laugh at you. You call me ridiculous names, and insult me with nasty accusations. I laugh again.
And then you accuse me of having "anger management issues."
You have some set of "ethics" RC.
I know you expect me to get emotional because you keep saying such stupid things, but I'm not. I'm calm, and I'm going to bed with my gorgeous, sexy, mature (and sane) husband now, and we will laugh at you together.
Good night...............whoever you are.
That’s alright, oWf, have the last word. You’ve got my permission, lol.
Everyone who has an ethical base can figure out who's got the problem here, and it sure ain't me.
Hijack away, RC. And do have a wonderful night. Don't forget to say your prayers.......and make sure you include confession.
Hijack of thread by RegulatorCountry done.
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