Steele: My racial slur isn't the same as Harry Reid's
RNC Chairman Michael Steele offered a non-apology apology Sunday for using the term "honest injun."
Wednesday, Steele was speaking to Sean Hannity about his new book, "Right Now: A 12-step Program for Defeating the Obama Agenda." The RNC Chairman told Hannity, "Our platform is one of the best political documents that's been written in the last 25 years. Honest injun on that."
Members of his own party immediately spoke out against him. Rep. Tom Cole called Steele's remarks "unacceptable" and said, "It's an offensive phrase in the Native American community."
His mea culpa came less than a day after the revelation that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid used the term "negro" when discussing then-Senator Barack Obama with reporters.
The revelation comes as the new book has disclosed deeply damaging comments Reid made to the reporters, where he said the country was ready for a black president - particularly one that was "light-skinned" with no "Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one." Reid immediately apologized for his remarks, and Obama and other Democrats have come to his defense.
Steele said the remarks shouldn't be held to the same standard and called for Reid to resign, a stance the rest of the GOP party is only too happy to echo.
National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn (R-Texas) said it would be "entirely appropriate" for the Nevada Democrat to relinquish his leadership post over comments about Barack Obama's skin color and lack of a "Negro dialect."
And like Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele and Senate GOP Whip Jon Kyl — both of whom also called for Reid's resignation Sunday — Cornyn suggested that any Republican who said what Reid said would be under attack from Democrats, leading African-Americans and the media.
Steele called for the Majority Leader to step down Sunday. "I think he should," he told Fox News' Chris Wallace. Steele complained that former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott was forced to step down when he praised Strom Thurmond who ran as a segregationist for president in 1948. Lott said the country would not have had "all the problems" it had if more people had voted for Thurmond.
"The reality is there is this standard where the Democrats feel they can say these things and they can apologize when it comes from the mouths of their own," said Steele. "But if it comes from anyone else, it's racism. It's either racist or it's not."
But apparently that standard doesn't hold up when it comes to Steele's "honest injun" remark. "The reality of it is that's not the same," Steele told Wallace.
(Nicole:) While Steele may have a point in saying that his flippant use of an old colloquialism doesn't rise to the same level as Harry Reid's tin-eared comments, he's wrong that Reid's statements are the same as Trent Lott's wistful nostalgia for the days before the civil rights movement. There's no question that Reid's statements--in front of reporters, no less--are clunky and stupid. However, without excusing them, what Reid said is actually not dissimilar to discussions had in every campaign war room when discussing the pros and cons of candidates. There's a world of difference between that--however inartfully expressed--and praising a politician for his work to sustain the days of Jim Crow.
Between that and Steele talking about putting some HIP HOP into the GOP and using that street language? What? Is Mikey mad about the word "Negro" or the reference to "Dialog", because last I knew, the trend for young blacks, boys, girls, men and women was to make UP their own Dialog to set themselves apart. That's just as bad as when Imus called the basketball team nappy headed hos and the, normally intelligent commentator, can't think of her name just now, Amy something I think, kept saying that calling them hos wasn't that bad but using the phrase "nappy headed" was really BAD because, "That goes right to the heart of what we ARE." And what about Steele's OWN aversion and disparity of POOR WHITE people? WHAT? Did he JUST figure out he was CHOSEN to take black votes away from Obama and now the G NO P doesn't NEED OR WANT HIM any more?
I swear, if I were a Republithug, spouting off about my "FAITH", I'd be constantly on ALERT in case my "GOD" was about to send a lightning bolt my way, or open up a sink hole right under my feet, or maybe have the studio collapse on top of me every time I spouted off one of their lying sleazy talking points.
How anyone can PUT THEIR HAND ON A BIBLE that they PROFESS to believe in, take an OATH, and immediately break it, without fearing that BIBLE would burst into FLAMES, is just mind bogglingly arrogant!
Funny how lots of people are dying for a way to get rid of Harry Reid as the leadership in the Senate unless it is the Republican's taking him down.
I would have used this. . . but that's just me.
The pot calling the kettle not black?
I demand you resign!
I think Liz Cheney is being groomed to replace him.
Liz Cheney would be the perfect pick. She's as smarmy and slimy as Karl Rove, smart enough not to make the gaffes Steele makes and she doesn't have to sell her soul to the devil since Satan is her father.
But....her sister is gay.
They picking gnits off her and eating them?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bhTxvzrUFo
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Can STFU about racial slurs, their whole campaign was based on that.
Anyone talking about Obama as a muslim? Barack the magic negro? Pancake batter? Barack as a witchdoctor, replete with bone through the nose? Pictures of watermelons on the Whitehouse lawn?
Crickets...
This feigned outrage is sickening. And the silence from the dems is too.
Two wars .. (or is it three? .. or are they all one war now?)
One HUGE economic meltdown without any real recovery in sight ..
Terrorist threats ..
Melting Ice Caps ..
And they're getting picky over quaint vocabulary that doesn't quite square with somebody's notion of politeness?
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
Diversion. You think the Republicans want to talk about the havoc they've wreaked on this country and their plans for obstructing the Democrats from trying to fix it?
Its moronic.
.....and the media wonders why no one buys their papers, anymore.
Of course, burying the Bush era is not going to 'save' the repugs.
You see, Steele's not an "injun" so he doesn't see "injun" as racist. See how it works with a Republican?
When is Steele going to resign for his comment? He won't. That's called hypocrisy and that works well with Republicans too.
You have chosen your response wisely.
I'd ask Michael Steele to resign over his "injun" remark, but I actually want the bozo to keep his post because he appears to be doing a swell job in causing controversy within his own party.
is that Wallace opened the show with the subject.
opened their broadcast tonight with it too. How fucked up are the MSM?
IOKIYAR
Barack Obama: Change we can only imagine
Reid's remark was made in 2008, and I seem to recall it being covered then.
That said, please, please don't step down mikey! You're the best thing to happen to Dems since Failin' Palin!
or was he straight face serious? I don't watch this stuff.
Not that I would say, "honest injun," but I have lost track of what we call people anymore. Been away too long.
So since this is the topic. Is black taboo now? African-American, unless you don't come from America? What do we call "dark-skinned" people from Europe, or Barbadoes? African-European? Native Indian or Aboriginal? What am I, a white guy, a Caucasian, an Occidental, a European-Canadian? An English-Irish-German-Canadian? I kinda give up sometimes. I call Asians, Asians. Hope that's OK cuz I live here.
far left loon >.<
Michael "Uncle Thomas" Steele, a proud member of the party of teabaggers and the "Southern Strategy" is outraged, outraged I tell you, that a member of the party that has fought for racial equality against Republican opposition for the past 50 years would make such a comment!
Sometimes a picture's worth a thousand words.
http://www.noooz.com/Homey%20the%20Clown.png
anymore.
Strung tight, strung tense
Prickling with pretense
A borderline
You got that right. Holy mackerel. (Not intended to offend any religion or fish.)
far left loon >.<
is a pretense.
Some stuff you can't make up!
I find your comment offensive. ;)
far left loon >.<
whogivesashit.
Some stuff you can't make up!
when there's so many inteliigent people out of work.
mister man o'foot in mouth.
What a tool.
it was a statement that implied extreme honesty in a person.
no way it's a slur.
negro is no slur either. reid is old enough to be comfortable with the word used by most blacks, especially during the civil rights era, to refer to themselves. those negros included Martin L. King, Jr.
So all of it is total bullshit.
Some stuff you can't make up!
I wonder if 'honest injun' is so noble when you consider that their honesty was used against them to completely fuck them out of everything they owned (when we were to lazy to just kill them). Some how I could see lawmakers of that era using the term 'hones injun' to denote a complete and utter sucker.
While the term negro isn't necessarily derogatory, the inference that a black man of darker skin couldn't win the presidency is offensive (whether or not its true) as is the implication that what Reid takes to be normal black dialect is also disqualifying is offensive. It goes towards that whole idea that whatever is white is the norm, and whatever deviates from white is inferior.
On second thought, perhaps then neither statement is 'racist' by definition, but both are deeply offensive to people given to being offended by such things. When it comes to elected officials, they shouldn't have to resign for being offensive, or racist, they should just not be re-elected by their constituency if their constituency is so inclined.
It is all about context in my opinion. What Reid said is probably fact. The reason for it is offensive but what he said was probably true.
I still use the term black.
Remember black power
And black is beautiful?
African American somehow doesn't sound accurate to me.
Since some come from generations that have lived here
Some have recently moved from Africa,
And some from countries like Haiti, Jamaica, Bermuda, England...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
It's all so "confusing". Thanks, I say black too. I'm white and people say white all the time. but we don't say "yellow". Oh my head is spinning.
far left loon >.<
Probably because it was affixed to another word, "yellow-devil."
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
BLACK
AFRICAN-AMERICAN
AFRO-AMERICAN
NEGRO
Using an injun's honesty does not remove his/her nobility or integrity. the outrage is phony. the media is doing the repug wish of using race against Steele, it's probably rovian.
so what is reeeeely going on?
HCR - Obama is squeezing the congressional progressives and unions to get fucked and keep quiet about it.
BR - dodd is leaving, frank is faux whining, geithner helped the financial coup, but won't lose his job and the new law will have no teeth, thanx 2 dodd and barney frank
Afghan children are being slaughtered by the xtian Xe team that works with the CIA and people are being killed in acts of revenge for the 8 that were killed last week.
the war is already raging in yemen.
no one is coming home from Iraq.
the mortgage relief program is a bust.
Some stuff you can't make up!
When was the last time you heard a Republican issue an apology without using the word 'if'?
"I'm sorry IF I offended you..."
Translation: "I'm not really sorry, but I'm being pressured into apologizing. I'm going to say this in a way that makes it look like it's your fault for being thin skinned."
There are times when you have to say, "Look, what I said was wrong. I have no excuse and I am sorry." Apparently, Steele and Co. haven't figured that one out.
Remember Bush's "apology" for the government's failures regarding Katrina?
"And to the extent that the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility."
The difference between what Reid said and what the Republicans are saying about Reid is that Reid was correct. Awkward but correct. I don't think Reid is racist but I think that most Republicans are racists. Especially the white Arizonan congress jokers (Probably not McCain though).
Maybe the GOP should work on a platform for making America better rather than working on a platform for kicking THOSE PEOPLE out of office.
because what Harry Reid said is true. Who in their right mind has a problem with the word Negro. It is derived from the latin & means black in both Spanish & Portugese. Now ain't that awful? What about the old Negro Spirituals that are so historic, the Southern Negro History Books, the NAACP, etc., on ad infinitum. And it is a proven fact that light skinned blacks have it easier than dark skinned...sad statement, but a true one nonetheless. It is VERY true that if Barack Obama was a very dark black color, spoke with the heavy southern twang and/or the "accent" that many blacks use when speaking English, affected or not, he WOULD NOT have won the Presidency, probably would not have been elected Senator from Illinois. Why don't people stop hiding their heads in the sand and stop ruining decent dialoge and public discourse with their stupid assinine exploitation of the useless and counterproductive so called "political correctness.?" Grow up people, reality may suck but at least it helps us move forward to the next productive step in the real world...
Woody McBreairty
I think it was on Rachel Maddow this week she was offended that one of the race categories on the census is "Black, African American, Negro". The word "Negro" was offensive. I was a bit surprised. I think a day later somebody explained it better to her but then there was a young black guy saying why it was not a good thing. And then there was Glenn Beck saying something too. The bottom line IMO is that a lot of this stuff is way out of proportion. I'm probably wrong but that is my opinion.
How do you feel when you fill out the census and they don't have a box for roo?
Don't fuck with me...
!
"Let's talk dirty to the animals"
That's pretty funny!
Harry Reid farted in front of Queen Elizabeth. He should resign immediately!
Oh, and like I'm so sure that's something Prince Philip has never done
Or Camila Parker-Bowles...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
... admits he shit himself as he bowed to her.
if Trent and the rest of the 'boys' had their way Mr Steele wouldn't be where he is. In fact, neither would Sara Palin, Clarence Thomas, Ann Coulter, Michelle Bachman or any other non-white non-male person in power.
ugh, both "racist" remarks are so incredibly benign. people are way too sensitive. actually, people are way to critical/partisan. looking for any excuse whatsoever.
this is what the media talks about and this is how people decide to vote? on who made the most/lest best/worst benign racial comment?
how about talking about page 341 (i just chose a random number but i'm sure there is plenty they MSM could actually report on) of the health care bill?
I have to agree with barrett d that people jump on every little comment these days, just to find something that they can complain about (pardon my paraphrasing. Don't be offended.)
It takes the focus away from the real issues and problems that need to be dealt with. And the worst part of it is that the MSM just loves to jump on these things. They are complicit in cheapening the level of discourse in the country and taking energy away from solving things that really matter. In fact, maybe they are not complicit. Maybe they are the main culprits; the chief offenders.
To the rest of the civilized world, we must appear to be a rowdy bunch of hooligans, ill-equipped to handle our own affairs, much less those of anyone else.
It's difficult to be proud to be an American these days when we look so bad. I still am, but it's difficult.
Whe did Negro become a BAD word? Must have happened when I was visiting another planet.
For some strange inexplicable reason, I've always been under the impression that liberals and progressives were the ones who were supposed to believe that it was impossible for an African-American to be racist -- guess I was wrong. Now, how on earth did such a silly idea get in my head?
Besides, if memory serves, didn't Reid issue an apology for making that statement -- and something other than one of those superficial "I'm-sorry-if-I-offended-anyone" C.Y.A. pseudo-apologies?
*Sigh*...as always, this merely appears to be another conveniently self-serving attempt on the part of the Republicans to demonize Democrats at every opportunity while exonerating themselves.
(*Sung to the tune from the chorus of "Bingo"*)
"I-O-K-I-Y-A-R...
I-O-K-I-Y-A-R...
I-O-K-I-Y-A-R...
It's O-Kay If You're A Re-Pub-Li-Caaaaaaaaan!"
Never trust anyone who insists that patriotism requires you to blindfold yourself with the flag.
Keep encouraging them by saying that, they love it.
>big snark
Embrace diversity
My booboo wasn't the same as his booboo. What a MR. Dumbass. Is this jerk off for real?
I would be so ashamed if I were him. What a total ass hat.
"My racial slur isn't the same as Harry Reid's", said the self-loathing uncle-tom head of the RNC with a jackboot on his neck.
...the "apologize for saying something racist" game now do you?
Virtually every day some vile racist representative of your hateful fucking party says something that is offensive to us African Americans.
This is a Goddamn sad ass joke, with this minstrel Steele exploiting an old white man only guilty of harboring ignorant outdated stereotypes.
Actually, what Reid said was true, and I don't even see where it was so bad. People are blowing this completely out of proportion. But, then, what else is new?
I'm a somewhat light skinned educated black dude who most of my life have gotten preferential treatment from some white people who enjoy the fact that I "don't talk black" and speak in coherent sentences(I could be a fucking rapist or murderer, but I talk good so I get a strange, unearned respect) Senator Harry Reid should know better than to hold on to a 1920's mentality...he is a fucking Senator.
Steele is way worst than Reid for ignoring his party's institutional and almost daily bigotry while race carding the ignorant but not malicious Nevada Senator.
is derogatory. Wait, I bet he doesn't have any indian friends. It is indeed a racist term.
No your racial slur isn't the same - it's worse!
On top of all of that - you're an idiot!
As a person of native American descent I find the term "honest injun" highly offensive.
It implies that the majority of us are not honest, an argument that was used alongside the charge of savagery to marginalize and justify our genocide as recently as 100 years ago.
Both Reid and Steele could have calibrated their words better with their recent statements, but neither are racist or meant their words to harm anyone.
This is a dumb reason for Reid to resign, but I'd like to see him step down for his incompetence in handling health care reform, and being played by Liberman.
If progressives and Republicans unite in calling a vote of no confidence on Reid, and find other ways to pressure him he might end up stepping down for the chance to replace him with a progressive democrat as majority leader instead of one from the gutless stand for nothing wimpy side of the Democrat party.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZyPaivOARM
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Everyone is wrong. Reid was indeed racist, using latent prejudice to help Clinton get votes against then candidate Obama. That doesn't excuse the legions of teabaggers and repugnanats who are racist out in the open like scum they are. America is a sick country, insecure in it's race, vain beyond measure.
Embrace diversity
Denouncing as sick your own assumptions and projections makes one wonder what exactly you're denouncing.
Onto the ignore list you go.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
And oh yes, anyone who calls others sheeple, shouldn't denounce others for name calling.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyWOIKCtjiw
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
if this is the sort of nonsense you come up with when you're awake then I suggest you go back to sleep.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
hypocrites. I think it explains the difference between steels remarks and reids!
republicanism/conservatism is a mental illness and it is killing America!
Well said my friend.
I'd be all for Harry Reid stepping down.
I don't care. Although this seems to be the remark of a man of his era and is not politically correct, it is not the remark of an entire political party committed to being dominated by white, rich fat cats who are guily of systemic racism.
Give me a break with the rethugs new found sensitivity on the race issue. And for that Cheney woman to say she's never heard such a thing in HER circles - again, another lying Cheney sociopath.
What Reid said is true. What Lott said was a disgrace. Even Collin Powell agrees!
By the way I'm a light skinned African American who's experienced this first hand. I worked with a personnel manager who told me as much.
You've fired up your base with non PC and pro-racial profiling you just might lose them with this whole bit. Man...the republicans are desperate.
As a woman of Cherokee and Creek descent who was thrown off a forum for describing my day's duties as "squaw work", I can sympathize with anyone who falls afoul of the language police. Both blacks and many whites favor lighter-skinned African-Americans, a practice which is both racist and a profile which was politically advantageous to Obama. The "honest Injun" was precisely the profile screwed royally by Andrew Jackson and his white populists, as well as later treaty drafters and signers.
Give me blunt speech every time., so we can know who we're dealing with.
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