Posted on 12/30/2002 8:30:41 PM PST by chance33_98
Media Cleans Up Strom Thurmond's Racist Quote by Hazel Trice Edney NNPA Washington Correspondent Originally posted 12/16/2002
WASHINGTON (NNPA)—In the wake of the controversy surrounding racist language recently used by former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, news outlets and web sites have focused on the words spoken in 1948 by retiring Senator Strom Thurmond.
Publications such as “The New York Times” and the “Washington Post” and all national news networks have purported to quote Thurmond’s views at the time regarding “the Negro race.” There is only one problem—that’s not exactly what Thurmond said.
According to an excerpt of the speech, which was posted on NPR.org, Thurmond says:
“And I want to tell you, ladies and gentlemen, that there’s not enough troops in the Army to force the Southern people to break down segregation and admit the nigger race into our theatres, into our swimming pools, into our homes and into our churches.”
That speech was made July 17, 1948, as Thurmond championed his platform of racial segregation. At the time, he was accepting the presidential nomination of the State’s Rights Party, more accurately called Dixiecrats.
Lott is far from being the only Republican under scrutiny for racist statements.
Rep. Cass Ballenger (R-N.C.) reportedly told ''The Charlotte Observer'' that some of his constituents might empathize with Lott’s original sentiment about segregation. He also said Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.) once made him so angry that, “I must admit I had segregationist feelings.”
McKinney, known for her outspokenness, lost her bid for re-election.
“If I had to listen to her, I probably would have developed a little bit of a segregationist feeling,” Ballenger was quoted Friday in the Observer. “But, I think everybody can look at my life and what I’ve done and say that’s not true…I mean, she was such a bitch.”
McKinney could not be reached for immediate response.
Thurmond's speech was resurrected after Mississippi Sen. Trent Lott wished him a happy 100th birthday by saying America would have been better off had Thurmond been elected president.
“It shows exactly what Strom Thurmond represented and what Trent Lott endorsed,” says Julian Bond, chairman of the NAACP’s board of directors. “The raw language, while properly not used in every day conversation, ought to be used in this context.”
Bond is not the only one who feels that way.
A. Peter Bailey, who teaches a journalism class at the University of District of Columbia in Washington, says he first heard the recording last week on “The Joe Madison Show” on WOL-AM in Washington, D.C., hosted by civil rights activist Joe “Black Eagle” Madison.
“The thing that the newspapers do that absolutely violates Journalism 101 is putting it in quotes,” Bailey says, referring to the word Negro. “They might say, you know, ‘We didn’t want to use the n-word’ or whatever. But there are times when you have to tell the truth.”
Why are some people deliberately lying about remarks made 54+ years ago, in a manner calculated to inflame others, and more deeply divide both Republicans and Conservatives? If there is any justification for this tactic, I cannot begin to grasp it. But it becomes more and more obvious, that there are those who will stop at nothing in their efforts to isolate the defenders of American tradition.
We are being subjected to precisely the same tactics of demonization that the Communists used for a Century and a half to demonize their enemies; that the Nazis used for 20+ years to demonize their enemies. And it is not unreasonable to inquire why? We all understand that both of those totalitarian movements believed that the end justifies the means; that any lie was legitimate if it would advance their agenda. The question is just what is the end sought by America's liars on the Left--just what is the agenda they would advance?
It is patent that it is not an agenda of good will among the American people.
William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site
I was at my self-storage facility in the Bronx, and heard (couldn't help it due to the decibel level) some fine gentleman yelling "Hurry up, nigger...c'mon you lazy ass n!gger piece of sh*t". The other gentleman responded "F**k you n!gger, I'll kick your black n!gger ass" The forbidden word was used perhaps another 200 times again in the subsequent 15 minutes.
How can blacks feign such outrage at the "N" word, when they themselves use it constantly in ordinary conversation, contrary to Julian Bond's belief?
I have never heard Jews calling each other "k!kes" or Hispanics calling each other "sp!cs" in ordinary conversation. This idea that the "N" word is so "horrible, hateful and destructive" is absurd. Just put on any Rap CD track and wait 15 seconds. What a double standard, as usual.
Indeed, and it does permeate all those 'special' groups. I posted an article sometime back about a gay org that canned one of the co-founders be cause she was bi-sexual and lesbian. Seems it is ok for them to discriminate based on sex.
I hear him say the other one fairly clearly.
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