Tim Wise: When are Republican Leaders Going to Reject Talk Show Hosts Stoking White Racial Resentment
By Heather Sunday Sep 13, 2009 3:00pm
Tim Wise asks when the Republican Party is going to reject the racist rhetoric and dog-whistle politics coming from the likes of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and other right wing radio and television hosts. Don Lemon asks him if they are aware that they are doing it or not and as Wise notes, it doesn't matter. They still need to be held accountable for their actions and the predictable outcomes of those actions.
Don Lemon should have known better than to have even asked that question. Of course they are fully aware of what they are doing. It is exactly what they are being paid very highly to do which is to deligitimize our President in the hopes of taking him down because he has a "D" behind his name. They did the same thing to Bill Clinton even though he could have just as well been a Republican with the way he governed, and they're doing it again to Barack Obama. The GOP has been playing the same games with the dog-whistle politics and race baiting for ages now. So to answer Wise's question about when are they going to reject stoking that racism. Never. Never, ever as long as it wins them elections.
LEMON: OK. So we are going to continue our discussion now over the health care rallies and the tone of what's going on in the country. Tim Wise joins us. He's frequent here on the show. The author of "Between Barack and a Hard Place" and among the most prominent anti- racist activist in the country. Thank you, sir. Always good to see you.
TIM WISE, AUTHOR "BETWEEN Barack AND A HARD PLACE": You, too.
LEMON: You heard the chairman from Florida say no, it is not race.
WISE: I did.
LEMON: It does a disservice. You heard David Sirota say it is the elephant in the room.
WISE: Right. Well like I said in the show before, it is the background noise of a lot of the opposition, not all of it but a lot of it. You know, when you have someone like Glen Beck saying as he did about a month ago that the health care debate isn't really about that. It is just reparations for black people, where you have Rush Limbaugh yesterday on the air saying first that community service is the first step towards fascism, which is bizarre even for him.
And then almost immediately after that saying one of the problems with America is too much multi culturalism. You wouldn't say that unless you are trying to stoke white racial resentment. And so when you say those things, I want to know when are Republican leaders going to condemn that kind of rhetoric because that is where race is being interjected. It is interjected by us, it's interested by the leading talk show hosts in this country.
LEMON: I mean, but is it knowingly or is it maybe unwittingly they're doing it and maybe they don't realize they are doing it.
WISE: Well, two things, it may be either or but it doesn't matter. I mean, racism needs to be evaluated based on outcome. If you do something which has a predictable consequence, you have to be accountable for that consequence. So for example, when Glen Beck lied and said that Van Jones was involved in the Los Angeles riots which was not true. That is a very clear, as David said, dog whistle politic moment.
You're saying that because you know that the L.A. riots are viewed as this racialized rebellion and it scares white folks to death. So you say that about this man. It isn't true. Glenn Beck had to know that wasn't true. That is a way to scare white folks. Where race comes in, it is old fashion but it's white racial resentment that they are trying to whip up.
LEMON: But you know, it is very - it is smart if you want to get your message out. So listen, as we've been saying, it's the elephant in the room. Let's talk about this Congressman Wilson thing.
WISE: Yes.
LEMON: One person wrote me on Twitter and said I think (INAUDIBLE) if it is not racism then I don't know what it is, self-indulgence, selfishness, egotism or all the traits pure lack of thought. And then one person says I'm with Ron Reagan and Bill Maher. If Obama's skin color was closer to his mom's, talking about Joe Wilson, he would not have shouted out. And I have to tell you -
WISE: I believe that.
LEMON: I have to tell you, for the first time - last night I was watching "Real Time" with Bill Maher and I was like finally someone is talking about this. Finally is talking about this.
WISE: Right.
LEMON: Do you think that Joe Wilson would have done that to a president who was of another color?
WISE: No, I don't.
LEMON: He may have done the same thing if it was a woman president.
WISE: I don't know but I know here is a guy who is an avowed neo confederate who says Strom Thurman and (INAUDIBLE) segregation was his hero. There is some racial stuff going on, I hate to say it, with this congress person and it makes me wonder with that kind of background. It makes me wonder.
LEMON: But isn't it - what is behind - I think that the thing that we are not getting to is what allows him to be - to feel that is OK to say it.
WISE: Right.
LEMON: Isn't that what it is?
WISE: I think it is what David was talking about. There is a large segment of the American population, particularly a sizable amount of white folks, frankly, and in the Republican Party who do not view him as legitimate, the Berger phenomenon. Let's be honest. If this man's name was Oshanasi or O'Malley and I made a birth certificate that said he was born in County Court Ireland in 1961, nobody would care or believe it. But if you say he is from Africa, he has an African daddy. He is from Kenya. People will believe that.
They want to point him as a foreign outsider out to destroy America. And that kind of over the top rhetoric isn't just about political disagreement, it is about an attack on his identity and his American- ness. Because some people simply can't accept that we are not the only folks in this country, we are not the standard anymore for what an American is. It is a multiculture nation.
LEMON: I hear African-Americans all the time are used to when talking about President Bush and they would say not my president. That is not right, either.
WISE: Oh, it is not right. It's not right. You know, I was at rallies where occasionally people had signs that would compare President Bush to Hitler. But you know, what, it wasn't the leading spokespeople on the left doing that. It wasn't our talk show hosts, it wasn't our authors and our columnists and our commentators, it was folks on the streets. It is not right. But it is not equivalent. That is coming from the very top of the conservative mouthpiece community.
LEMON: Hey, listen, I got to go. Do you think this is good for us so because now we can examine and talk about it? It is out there.
WISE: Oh, I think so. It is bringing some things out of the woodwork. If we address it honestly, we can move forward but if we continue to stay in denial I don't think we will.
LEMON: Denial, it is not just a river, right? Thank you. Tim Wise, it's always good to have you on. Appreciate it.
Login or Register to post comments.
Never.
i am amazed that they let these people spout their views and hold them in such high regard basically letting them run the show. they let uneducated bigotted drug addicts and dirty phone callers be their advance guard. my mother taught me to consider the source, and these people are not in any way shape or form the type of source i would ever consider.
You bet its a multi-cultural nation!
Peru had Fujimori, United States has Obama.
What's so wrong about that?
Anyone watch Redeye lately on Fox? Jesus Christ talk about stoking stupidity. This guy and his crew are as bad as it gets. They act all self-righteous but can hardly complete a sentence save make a coherent point.
Programming influencing reality or reality influencing programming?
It's their base...since '64, really...
After the civil rights act of '64 the racist Dems of the south became the racist repugs of the south.
Kevin Alexander Gray wrote a fine article in CounterPunch entitled: The Legacy of Strom Thurmond: "Segregation (and Hypocrisy) Forever" on March 8, 2004 which depicts southern politics to this day which is still full of racism. Gray also is a native South Carolinian who has burnt confeferate flags in public as an African-American man protesting the hypocrisy of that wonderful "southern hospitality." Here are some excerpts of this article from five years ago and still very appropriate for today's political climate:
.....when President Harry Truman desegregated the armed forces and announced his broad civil rights program in 1948, Thurmond could not tolerate the challenge thus posed to the "customs and traditions" that defined his deepest beliefs. Thurmond ran for President that year as the "Dixiecrat" States Rights candidate, admonishing the faithful that holding power boiled down to one thing--race and he would make sure that only white men held it. As Northern Democrats pushed for civil rights, Thurmond and his fellow Southern Democratic governors cried "states' rights" just as their ancestors did to justify African enslavement...."
"Candidate Thurmond's platform stood for segregation and against race mixing. When the votes were counted Thurmond had 1.1 million votes, won 4 states and garnered 38 electoral votes. 1.1 million Americans voted in favor of segregation--it was not enough to defeat Truman, but the Democratic Party was never the same....Eventually Thurmond was elected to the Senate as a write-in candidate in 1954, a post he would retain for a half century, until his retirement in January 2003....Lyndon Johnson's success in passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was the last straw for Thurmond. He left the Democratic Party and signed on with Republican Barry Goldwater. Upon leaving, Thurmond declared, "The party of our fathers is dead."
"...Thurmond's departure signaled a major shift in American politics. It was the birth of South Carolinian Lee Atwater, Jesse Helms, Newt Gingrich and Trent Lott's Republican Party. The Thurmond defection prompted the GOP appeal to white Southern conservatives and foreshadowed Richard Nixon's race-inspired "southern strategy." This framework exists today. Race supremacy is the ideological glue that keeps white men in the south in the Republican Party. Today they are called the "Bubba vote" and NASCAR dads, but the appeal is build on Tillmanism, the Dixiecrat Movement, the Southern Manifesto. It's almost always couched in the language of "states rights," but race and social control is the subtext...."
http://www.counterpunch.org/gray03082004.html
I can't believe Lemon could be so flaky to not know the answers to the obvious questions he asked. Hell, he's a black man and all of us know Beck, et.al are, in fact, rascist. Maybe he's just trying to be "objective" (snark)................
or, if he, like many who share our ethnicity, preferred that someone else make the unequivocal statements that we are normally condemned for making.
to that! And it happens on this "Progressive" blog too. Surprise, surprise (not)!
Howard Stern even says attacks on Obama are Racist!
I saw no reports this week saying that even Howard Stern was outraged against the senseless attacks on Barack Obama. Howard Stern on his Tuesday, September 8, 2009, Sirius Satellite radio show on Howard 100 said the attacks against Obama regarding his school speech was ALL RACISM.
Howard Stern even hung up and told his callers to shove it if they did not like his view on this one as well. Well, it has just been reported here that Howard Stern spoke up for Obama against the idiots like Glen Beck.
Kudos to Howard Stern!
I've never really been a fan of Howard Stern....I don't dislike his show, but I just have really ever listened to it.
I did gain a lot of respect for him during the Bush years because he really spoke out against Bush. He lashed out at Bush's stand on the environment, the Iraq War, and other issues. He urged people to vote for Kerry.
This is great he is lashing out against the beck. I really hope he keeps this up.
Yes, Kudos to Howard Stern!
"When are republican leaders going to..."
Never!! Oh, I'm sorry. Carry on.
"When are republican leaders going to reject..."
Always!!
Reject racism??!!!? They would sooner cut off their left nut with a rusty spoon. It is their hole card for stirring up the base.
Didn't Michele Bachmann say that we had to investigate members of Congress to "find out if they are pro-America or anti-America"? Some, like Wilson, seem to make an investigation unnecessary. Limbaugh, Beck, et al should heed the old right wing bumper sticker that said, "America, Love it or Leave it."
I think the media needs to do an expose on members of Congress to find out if they are racists or not racists; I think the media needs to do an expose on those same members to find out if they are guano crazy, or if they are not.
All of those members in Congress who are racists and/or guano crazy need to be scooped up like the pile of dung they are and be thrown out of office. Same with the beck, insannity, limpballs, and the rest of the lying, hating, racist talking heads.
The public would love to see such an expose.
We elected a black President so racism was over. All this did was prove that racism in the Conservative party and the South is alive and well. They're not even hiding it anymore. Well, they're hiding behind a deficit that was started by Reagan and inflated by Bush. Shame on this country. The greatest country in the world? Not by a long shot.
When Barack was elected President I was so proud of this country. Today I can't tell you how disappointed I am in this country. When will this country see beyond the color of a person skin? Will we ever be like the civilized nations? The only glimmer of hope is that the old racist southerners are dying off and there's only so many teachers of racism left. Let's hope racism dies with them.
I was pleasantly surprised when Obama was elected and I am still proud of the country for doing that. I never imagined for a second (I teach race and ethnicity) that we were over racism. What has happened since does not surprise me in the least and I expect it to get worse. We are still in a much better place than I could have imagined growing up with Jim Crow and segregation in Oklahoma in the 1950s and 1960s.
Don't get to comfortable. they are conservatives.
n/t
"That is coming from the very top of the conservative mouthpiece community."
He's right about that. The beck, limpballs, insannity, wiener savage.....the last 3 have the top three rated radio talk shows in the country (how sad and scary); and the beck gets quite a large audience as well.
There is no comparison at all. These top rated conservative SOBs are whipping their rabid listeners/viewers into a frenzy of hatred. Lemon should have pointed out that death threats on Obama are up 400% over those on bush. No comparison.
I wonder if the death threats are up for beck, hannity, limbaugh and savage? Just askin.
One of the most major influences in the Rwandan genocide was media. Specifically hate radio. Words do matter. But money matters more when it comes to the Beck's and Limbaugh's.
Great point!!!!!!
That caught my attention as well.
Wise very shrewdly pointed out that although some Liberals have certainly compared Bush to Hitler,this stuff was rarely coming from the top of the Democratic Party.The inverse simply cannot be said for Republicans who not only have refused to reject this talk show venom,but instead are often guilty of repeating the very same talking points,if not actively creating them.
He's BLACK and he's a DEMOCRAT!
OH MY GOD! TWO SIDES OF THE SAME SCARY EVIL COIN. So far as they are concerned.
AND he RESPECTS his WIFE AND DAUGHTERS? That's JUST NOT RIGHT!
Actually, I think that may have been the REASON they ALL Hated Clinton so much BEFORE Monica! It was the "two for the price of one" comment that turned both Clintons into targets that are still painted on them both!
That and the fact they were not YET millionaires. That was a HIGH priority and the reason so many of the haters were on the Democrats side.
You're kidding right?
My debate team has used his books to point out the inherent racism in debate. He speaks truth in a simple, accessible way. The racist element of the dissent is very real, and very much core to the concern that many on the right have.
Sometimes I think these guys like Don Lemon asks these kind of questions just to get the point across, to get the person to comment on a certain point. At least I hope so because I can't imagine Don Lemon doesn't know the answer to a question like this.
... I think that is exactly what it is.
By the way, I so love Tim Wise! He's been taking apart right wing b.s. for a long time now!
December 24, 2002
Lessons From the Fall of Lott
To the Editor:
Re ''Changing of the Guard'' (editorial, Dec. 21):
If it leads to an unflinching dialogue, the nation will be better off for the verbal slip by Senator Trent Lott that cracked the Republican facade of probity on civil rights.
The painful affair presents an opportunity for Senator Bill Frist to bring together his G.O.P. colleagues and African-American leaders to cast some cleansing sunshine on the murk of racism in segments of the Republican Party and in our country.
Homeland security begins at home. We will be a stronger people if Dr. Frist and his colleagues set an example by correctly diagnosing and treating the lingering malady that afflicts their party.
JEFFREY R. STONE
Normally I think Tim Wise is a big of an alarmist crank but in this case he is dead on. You have the crazy Ron Paulers, your normal conspiracy nuts and whites upset that we have a black President. There is of course overlap among these group.
Basically the Republican Party is split in two: Corporate Republicanism, abetted by weary Democrats, who use the government to transfer public wealth (tax revenue) to private wealth (corporate bailouts, subsidies, and favors). And the Obama lynch mobs who want "their America back" (white faces, male leaders).
The lynch mobs are stooges for special corporate interests, but they get their emotional/revenge needs met by making Americans cynical about government's ability to solve problems. The populist right has become the bother who licks his brother's cookie just so he won't eat it. Neither one gets the cookie, but it feels so good to do that licking.
Lemon is black and had to ask that question, or he would appear in the tank. Of course he's awar.
is the racism blacks are subjected to. The reason it seems so awful and surprising is because white men always ran the country. There was no contrast. Now we see it, shoved in our faces everyday. So how does it feel America to realize what a racist nation we still are?
I'm not buying into the memes and soundbites. I still support my president, he has a tougher job than any president, ever. He has to work twice as hard to be half as good.
too.
And they shove it in the brown faces too!
Coincidence. Hardly. More like the nature of the beast.
"...I know here is a guy who is an avowed neo confederate who says Strom Thurman and (INAUDIBLE) segregation was his hero..."
Try "an ardent segregationist"? I caught it the first time.
I was getting ready to retire at the time I was with a friend and we were traveling the back roads between Mannheim and Heidelberg, we stopped ay a Gasthaus to have something to eat and drink a beer, while there a local asked if he could join us and talk sure. any way after awhile this person made the hair on the back of my neck stand up, he asked if we remembered Mr Kruschef miss spelt sorry)we both said yes, he asked if we remembered his speech at the UN banging his shoe on the Table saying we will bury you then the man calmly stated we will bury you, here is how.
America cares about three things Money, White people and Christianity, and that is what we will use to bury you in America YOU MUST be WHITE and Christian. This is how we will do it.
Now we have the Supreme Court APPOINT our president, turns America over to the Capitalist that Rape and Steal.
Now we have a Black PRESIDENT ELECTED, not APPOINTED and what are the NSN and the right Wing Wackos talking about Racial Hatred and Religion. That was told to me 24 years ago and I chuckled you know what I am NOT chuckling now as the finance markets are moving to bankrupt America and the Right Wing Hate mongers are lying and manipulating every word that comes out of the presidents mouth, the Racial Hatred and Torch is even carried OPENLY by Elected SC officials. With NO condemnation from the Main Stream Media.
When Texas freezes over?
Yes Tim, I'll take
"UNTIL PIGS LIVE IN TREES" for $5000 please... final answer.
I'm embarrassed when I hear the vitriol that spews from much of the conservative, so called Christian, commentators. It's hatred and fear and it's devolving this country. They are absolutely playing on fears that some whites in this country have that they are becoming the minority, and that they may one day be treated the way they've treated every other minority group to ever land on these shores. It's shameful, and it takes away from genuine conversation.
As an individual with both conservative and liberal beliefs on various issues, the unsympathetic, uncaring, "me first" speak that has come to categorize the republican party keeps me on the outskirts.
The whole charade is sickening, and I wish people would open their eyes.
DeniseD
www.reallybadboss.com
Login or Register to post comments.