Mark Steyn: Racist dog whistles and the men who hear them

The Orange County Register ^ | August 31, 2012 | Mark Steyn

[2ndDivisionVet]

American racism is starting to remind me of American alcoholism. At the founding of the republic, in the days when beer was thought of as "liquid bread" and a healthy nutritional breakfast, Americans drank about three-to-four times as much as they do now. Today the United States has a lower per capita rate of alcohol consumption than almost any other developed nation, but it has more alcoholism support groups than any other developed nation – around 164 groups per million people. France, which drinks about 50 percent more per capita than America, has one-twentieth the number of support groups. The French and Italians enjoy drinking, the English and Irish enjoy getting drunk, and Americans enjoy getting drunk on ever more absurd stigmatizatory excess. At Walmart they card you if you "appear to be under" – what is it up to now? 43? 57? And the citizenry take this as a compliment: Well-preserved grandmothers return from failed attempts to purchase a bottle of wine with gay cries of, "I was carded at Costco! They've made my weekend!"

And so it goes with American racism: The less there is, the more extravagantly the racism-awareness lobby patrols its beat. The Walmart carding clerks of the media are ever more alert to those who "appear to be" racist. On MSNBC, Chris Matthews declared this week that Republicans use "Chicago" as a racist code word. Not to be outdone, his colleague Lawrence O'Donnell pronounced "golf" a racist code word. When Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell observed that Obama was "working to earn a spot on the PGA tour," O'Donnell brilliantly perceived that subliminally associating Obama with golf is racist, because the word "golf" is subliminally associated with "Tiger Woods,"(continued)

[kevkrom]

Lashes and chains..... I think the plan of attack is evident now.

For the leftist media, it doubles as both a political plan of attack and a shopping list for date night.

[Texan5]

I sent it to 3 co-workers as soon as I saw it-I love Mark Steyn.

[eccentric]

Alan Colmes took offense at the word ‘watermelon.’ FOXNEWS 1:20 pm CDT

[left that other site]

“Golf” = Black

OK, and

“Country Club” = White Republicans..

Aren’t “Country Clubs” where people play “GOLF”?

[bert]

———Aren’t “Country Clubs” where people play “GOLF”?——

Country clubs are where Rham Emanuel can’t go

[Texan5]

This has nothing to do with the subject, but the first variation if that tag line I ever saw was in a book my mom was reading that I saw on a chair and looked at-the line was “when you’re crazy, everyone is a communist”. I don’t remember the name of the book, but when mom saw me checking it out, she took it away from me without a word-that happened once, a couple years before, but that book was “Peyton Place”...

[Texan5]

I’m not surprised-Alan Colmes is an angry white liberal who takes offense at everything. Maybe I should take offense when someone says “taco (bell)” “enchilada” or “rice and beans”?

[twister881]

Steyn is brilliant:

1992 Democrats: “It's the economy, stupid.”

2012 Democrats: “It's the stupidity, economists.”

[Travis McGee]

No, no “racist dog whistle” in “Romney Lashes Obama.”

None at all.

[ghost of nixon]

Steyn references this gem from Taranto: “The whole point of the metaphor is that if you can hear the whistle, you’re the dog.”

[NonValueAdded]

time to update the tagline

[FrankR]

[livius]

I loved this one:

And a very rare breed at that. What frequency does a Mitch McConnell speech have to be ringing inside your head for even the most racially obsessed Caucasian NBC anchorman to hear the words "PGA tour" as "deep-rooted white insecurities about black male sexuality"? That's way beyond dog-whistling, and somewhere between barking mad and frothing rabid.

Great piece!

[spodefly]

BTTT

[left that other site]

Or as Groucho would say:
I don’t want to belong to any organization that would have ME as a member!””

[driftless2]

In the last two years my wife and I have attended concerts by Paul Simon, Elton John, Rod Stewart & Stevie Nicks, Neil Diamond, and Lord of The Dance. I’d say you could count the black people attending those concerts on the fingers of both hands. There’s only one conclusion: all the artists listed above are filthy racists.

[JLS]

Mark Steyn ping. This is a really amusing one.

Freepmail me, if you want on or off the Mark Steyn ping list.

Thanks for the ping Slings and Arrows. [I am sure those are dog whistle words but not being dogs, we can’t hear them or there secret meaning.]

[P.O.E.]

When you don't have frighteningly white upscale liberals obsessing about the racist subtext of golf, it's amazing how much time it frees up to talk about other stuff

Ay, there's the rub.

Here's a list of things Obama and his handlers don't want you to talk about. The economy is a big one, granted, but let's not forget all the myriad slings and arrows with which they have seen fit to play the tyrant.

[Servant of the Cross]

Steyn is always hysterical but this one is especially priceless!

O'Donnell brilliantly perceived that subliminally associating Obama with golf is racist, because the word "golf" is subliminally associated with "Tiger Woods," and the word "Tiger" is not-so-subliminally associated with cocktail waitress Jamie Grubbs, nightclub hostess Rachel Uchitel, lingerie model Jamie Jungers, former porn star Holly Sampson, etc, etc. So by using the word "golf" you're sending a racist dog whistle that Obama is a sex addict who reverses over fire hydrants.

To me, the word "Clint" is racist dog-whistling for "Play 'Misty' For Me," which is racist dog-whistling for "Erroll Garner," which is racist dog-whistling for "black pianist way better than Liberace." Clint took "The Bridges Of The Frighteningly White Madison County" and gave it a cool Johnny Hartman soundtrack. Clint introduced the world to Roberta Flack's killer song "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face."

"It's the stupidity, economists."

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

I don't know how it will play in the negrohoods of Chicago – whoops, sorry, I apologize for saying "Chicago" –

Only Steyn could come up with that line.