Posted on 01/10/2010 8:37:47 PM PST by nickcarraway
It may not have been PC, but the majority leader may simply have been honest about how voters react to skin color.
CNN is aflutter. Bloggers are calling it a "big-time" mistake. Newspapers describe the "racially tinged" remarks as "sensational." What is this "juicy revelation"? Apparently, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid privately told two journalists in 2008 that Obama was more electable because he's "light-skinned" and lacked a "Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one."
With the publication of Reid's impolitic quote in the new book Game Change, journalists John Heilemann and Mark Halperin have landed a PR coup. By revealing Reid's racial faux pas, they've also set in motion the now tediously familiar process of a media frenzy, an inevitable apology from Reid acknowledging "deep regret," and an equally inevitable gracious acceptance of the said apology from Obama.
Lost in all the handwringing and shock, however, is any clear explanation of what's wrong with Reid's comment. Clearly, using "Negro dialect" is about half-a-century behind the times, but does anyone think Reid meant ill by his anachronism? Moreover, as the recent kerfuffle about the 2010 Census revealed, "Negro" is still used by a non-trivial number of older black folks. In 2000, for example, more than 50,000 people went the extra effort of writing-in that they identified themselves as "Negro" (over-and-above the millions who checked the box for "Black, African-Am., or Negro").
And what term would you use? Ebonics, a neologism coined in 1975 from ebony and phonics, is now laughably dated. Linguists currently refer to "black or African-American vernacular English," but that hardly rolls off the tongue. Yes, Reid (and the Census) should get with the times, but using dated language with no bad intent should hardly be grounds for days of media analysis, conscience-stricken mea culpas or organized damage control. And, more importantly, the substance of Reid's comments is spot on. Research strongly suggests that white voters do favor lighter-skinned black candidates. Political scientist Nayda Terkildsen studied the effect of skin color on white voting preferences in her 1993 paper, "When White Voters Evaluate Black Candidates: The Processing Implications of Candidate Skin Color, Prejudice, and Self-Monitoring." In an experimental study, she presented a random sample of adults descriptions of "one of three fictitious candidates running for governor." Each candidate was described in identical terms with the only difference being an attached photograph of either "a white male, a light-complected black male, or a dark-complected black male." Terkildsen found a statistically significant effect that "black candidates were penalized by white voters based on the candidate's race, skin color, and individual levels of racial prejudice."
Put another way, when presented with otherwise identical candidates, white voters generally preferred the white candidate to the black candidates and the lighter-skinned candidate to the darker-skinned candidate. (Terkildsen's analysis only looked at white voters, but perhaps Reid's remarks will encourage someone to study the effect of skin color on candidate preferences among blacks, Latinos and Asians, too.)
Similarly, black English is regularly associated with negative perceptions of blacks. John Edwards (not the candidate, I assume), writing in 1999 about "Language Attitudes" in the Journal of Language and Social Psychology, notes "hundreds of experiments have revealed negative reactions toward Black English." Though there don't appear to be any academic studies on the effects of black English on voting, it ain't much of a stretch to think such attitudes would extend to candidate evaluations and voting booth behavior.
Further, Reid's statement that Obama could choose to use a "Negro dialect" is Linguistics 101. Everyone "style shifts" or switches their manner of speech depending on the context, politicians especially so. Given American history, such color and culture hierarchies in voting preferences should be unsurprising. That Reid would highlight these advantages for Obama's candidacy merely reflects the fact he's a savvy politician (if not a savvy commentator about race). Pointing out political realities is not the same as endorsing them. Moreover, as CNN Political Analyst Roland Martin noted, Reid's comments would have been entirely unremarkable in a discussion among a group of adult African Americans, almost all of whom have seen and experienced forms of color and language bias.
Even a cursory knowledge of black history suggests colorism shapes which blacks attain leadership positions (I'm looking at you Booker T. Washington, Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois and Douglas Wilder). So, given all the evidence that Reid was right, what's he apologizing for? Perhaps, Reid's real faux pas was talking about our "post-racial" America as if race still mattered.
0be’s a mulatto American-African, w/o slave blood.
I actually do not see anything wrong with what he said. He was basically stating the facts and the obvious ones at that.
What he should’ve said was ‘the problem is, the guys an inexperienced moron’.
But no matter, now he’s an experienced moron.
"Texas Radio And The Big Beat" I wanna tell you about Texas Radio and the Big Beat Comes out of the Virginia swamps Cool and slow with plenty of precision With a back beat narrow and hard to master
Some call it heavenly in it's brilliance Others, mean and ruthful of the Western dream I love the friends I have gathered together on this thin raft We have constructed pyramids in honor of our escaping This is the land where the Pharaoh died
The Negroes in the forest brightly feathered I wanna tell you 'bout Texas Radio and the Big Beat Comes out of the Virginia swamps Cool and slow with plenty of precision With a back beat narrow and hard to master
Some call it heavenly in it's brilliance Others, mean and ruthful of the Western dream I love the friends I have gathered together on this thin raft We have constructed pyramids in honor of our escaping This is the land where the Pharaoh died
The Negroes in the forest brightly feathered They are saying, "Forget the night. Live with us in forests of azure. Out here on the perimeter there are no stars Out here we is stoned - immaculate."
Listen to this, and I'll tell you 'bout the heartache I'll tell you 'bout the heartache and the loss of God I'll tell you 'bout the hopeless night The meager food for souls forgot I'll tell you 'bout the maiden with raw iron soul
I'll tell you this No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn
I'll tell you 'bout Texas Radio and the Big Beat Soft drivin', slow and mad, like some new language
Now, listen to this, and I'll tell you 'bout the Texas I'll tell you 'bout the Texas Radio I'll tell you 'bout the hopeless night Wandering the Western dream Tell you 'bout the maiden with raw iron soul
barack is bino.(black in name only).
THE NEWS IS THIS : REDI WAS CAUGHT TELLING THE TRUTH
HE should know better than that- Never let them negreos know how you feel, right Harry?
Show me one republcan (those EVIL RACISTS) ever caught saying that.
And senator Byrd is the ONLY KKK member in the senate!! (also a democrap)
The offense is the historical parameters of propriety regarding referencing a black man - THEY defined this as 'racist' when said with exactly the same intent and the same meaning by a conservative. Therefore reid has committed the greater sin than Trent Lott, because his is excused by virtue of the fact he is democrat, and lot is a conservative. Hypocricy damns Reid, not these words.
Remember Warren Beatty’s BULWORTH ? This was a leftist wet dream, and the title hero engaged in down and dirty race talk. Small change in plans.
maybe PHYSICALLY....
Didn’t Biden make a similar remark when he was a candidate?
“I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” Biden said. “I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”
Reid doesn’t think he was right — Reid apologized.
That’s right. I had forgotten all about “Bullworth.”
I wonder how many Obama supporters will want their vote back now.
Obama yesterday accepted Reid’s apology for the remarks, in which he said the U.S. was ready to elect a black president, especially someone like Obama who is “light skinned” and speaks “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.”
Actual blacks with nothing but Negro dialect should be outraged. They have been fooled by this White man in light Negro skin. It’s an outrage
thanks nickcarraway.
Harry Reid: I’m not going anywhere (Claims Republican partisan witchhunt)
Politico | 1/10/10 | Manu Raju and David Rogers
Posted on 01/10/2010 1:41:14 PM PST by Sub-Driver
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2425350/posts
This might fall into the category of things blacks can discuss, but whites cannot discuss. The term "good skin" has long been used in the black community, and it means about what Harry Reid said.
But it was still a very dumb thing for a politician to say. We all know what would have happened if a prominent Republican had said the same thing that Reid or Biden said.
I’m 53 years old. I am so, so, so very tired hearing this same kind of argument over and over and over again - always the same thing about this skin tone and that skin color and what is better and what is not as it concerns the amount of skin pigment. God, it’s tired. It is so, so, so very dull. The news that the left and Democrats are pigment obsessed is also so very dull and very obvious that it simply bores the living crap out of me. When I read this comment from Harry Reid, it tells me that he’s a man of moderate to minor intellect, unable to get beyond the surface of things, a mediocre giant. He should return to Nevada, where he can drink bourbon in the shade of an old shack, skin gritty with alkaline dust. Otherwise, we’ve talked race into dust. I’m sick of it. Time to move on.
Start at 5:25
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