Posted on 12/06/2011 8:32:45 AM PST by matt1234
Tacoma's Mayor Marilyn Strickland recently told students at Pacific Lutheran University that the reasons Republicans were unsuccessful in recruiting minorities was because "they are racist." When her comments leaked to the media, she said she intended to say that they were "perceived as racist."
I don't buy the idea that she "intended" to say something different. But I can accept that in hindsight she wishes she had. And that's a start. At least she acknowledges that Republicans are trying to include minorities, which is more than some Democrats have been willing to say of late. And it's good that she feels enough shame in her remarks that she wishes to modify them. As someone who speaks in public for a living, I know it's easy to say something stupid you wish you could take back.
But I wish Mayor Strickland, and other Democrats who can so easily smear 33 percent of the American population (roughly), would pause to consider that perhaps the perception they refer to is of their own making. A party that polled a majority-desire for an African American candidate (Colin Powell) long before Obama; a party that features Indian-American governor's; a party that celebrated the victory of Tim Scott over the son of Strom Thurman; a party in which an African American candidate polled in first place among GOP Presidential primary contenders-is not a party of "racists." It does not think of race in the same way as Democrats. Democrats seek to group people by their gender, race or other identity. Republicans seek to measure people as individuals.
This does not mean there is no racism--but what racism that has yet to be extinguished is the racism of individuals (in both parties of all races).
Here is Mayor Stickland's response to a listener of mine who shared his experience with the mayor's office (name withheld by request):
I wrote a very respectful e-mail to Mayor Strickland of Tacoma last night. She called me personally this morning to speak to me about it. She told me more than once that she was impressed by the respectful tone of my commentary.
She wanted to make the point that not only were her words poorly chosen, but did not convey the meaning of what she was trying to say. Her point was to say that African Americans (she actually used the term 'blacks') agree, socially, with Republicans on most issues such as abortion, the importance of family, faith, etc.... are in line with conservative voters. But that the Republican Party itself has trouble with the problem that it is sometimes "perceived" as racist.
She told me that the idea that all Republicans are racist is ridiculous and she knows that for a fact.
She truly came across to me as very sincere and apologetic for her misstatement.
I've personally chosen to trust Mayor Strickland's word and let bygones be bygones.
If you decide to mention any of this on the air, I have to ask that you omit my name. Blacklisting conservatives is VERY real, even in communities like the Pacific Northwest.
Please feel free to use any of the information provided if you would like.
I’ve had it with these idiots.
I’m becoming sexist...it appears that liberals are really vapid uneducated individuals.
And liberal women are all of the above...plus they are bimbos.
The Democrats, the party of the KKK and Jim Crow laws....Mayor Strickland THOUGHT she was off the record in her remarks...now that she’s been caught, she’s backpedalling. Democrats, like this Mayor, promote racism....and that’s the dirty little secret. They cannot abide the Plantation dissolving....for then they would not have any power.
If you have a valid point, is throwing the race card really a smart opening move?
Well, isn't that grand. She can be a say what ever she wants then also gets to judge others on their tone.
Agreed. Another reason they scream "racism" is to energize their non-white base. I expect to see this tactic used on a huge scale during this election scale.
Liberal women are the bitchiest, most self absorbed, delusional, murdering, ding bats that ever existed. True spawns of hell.
oops...”scale” should be “cycle”
She didn't mean what she said.
“Liberal women are the bitchiest, most self absorbed, delusional, murdering, ding bats that ever existed. True spawns of hell. “
That, sir, should be entered into the encyclopaedia as one of the great truths of the universe.
Add to it the fact that virtually none of them have achieved any position of real achievement through their own efforts.
The tendencies that you observe are the result of the dissonance set up in their brains/hearts between the way they were created to be and the way the world and the ‘prince of this world’ tell them they should and must be.
NO, she does not. She backpedaled only because she was caught saying something inappropriate.
WA ping, please. Thank you.
There are NO moderate, reasonable, respectable, fair-minded DemocRATS. PERIOD. There may have been at one time, but today they are extinct.
A democRAT is a loathsome creature that seeks to end liberty and everything that made America great. It spews hate at anything that opposes it and if given the opportunity, would violently purge the country of anyone they see as resisting them.
Another Thrall to the Democrat party.
“Blacks are more racist than Whites.”
~ Larry Elder, “The Ten Things You Can’t Say In America”
I understand that she has shoplifted from a video store. I have just as much basis for that as she has for any comments she has made about me.
What does this mean exactly? What do 'minorites', a misnomer, do?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.