CNN: Parallels to country's racist past haunt age of Obama (long)

See link for more: http://inamerica.blogs.cnn.com/2012/11/01/parallels-to-countrys-racist-past-haunt-age-of-obama/?hpt=hp_c1

A tall, caramel-complexioned man marched across the steps of the U.S. Capitol to be sworn into office as a jubilant crowd watched history being made.

The man was an African-American of mixed-race heritage, an eloquent speaker whose election was hailed as a reminder of how far America had come.

But the man who placed his hand on the Bible that winter day in Washington wasn't Barack Obama. He was Hiram Rhodes Revels, the first African-American elected to the U.S. Senate.

His election and that of many other African-Americans to public office triggered a white backlash that helped destroy Reconstruction, America’s first attempt to build an interracial democracy in the wake of the Civil War.

To some historians, Revels' story offers sobering lessons for our time: that this year's presidential election is about the past as well as the future. These historians say Obama isn't a post-racial president but a "post-Reconstructionist" leader. They say his presidency has sparked a white backlash with parallels to a brutal period in U.S. history that began with dramatic racial progress.

Some of the biggest controversies of the 2012 contest could have been ripped from the headlines of that late 19th-century era, they say: Debates erupt over voting rights restrictions and racial preferences, a new federal health care act divides the country, an economic crisis sparks a small government movement. And then there's a vocal minority accusing a national black political leader of not being a "legitimate" U.S. citizen.

All were major issues during Reconstruction, an attempt to bring the former Confederate states back into the national fold and create a new era of racial justice. And many of the same forces that destroyed Reconstruction may be converging again, some scholars and historians say.

I don’t agree with everything the article points out, but a number of the points they make and parallels they draw really make you think. Not trying to instigate any sort of ES race war with this thread, I just thought it was a really good read so I wanted to share it.

It is a pretty good read, quite fit for the fiction section in your local library. This piece teaches us an important lesson: if you have an adgenda, string together some unrelated facts, present anecdotes and opinion as evidence, stretch a little truth, and throw in a pinch of wishful thinking; you can make that essay go for the full 10 pages, like it seems he was trying to do for some teacher.

It is a pretty good read, quite fit for the fiction section in your local library. This piece teaches us an important lesson: if you have an adgenda, string together some unrelated facts, present anecdotes and opinion as evidence, stretch a little truth, and throw in a pinch of wishful thinking; you can make that essay go for the full 10 pages, like it seems he was trying to do for some teacher.

Well, I'd like to challenge you to refute and rebut in actual specific detail (and i say that with absolutely zero position on it either way, not even having read the article). I just want to see you do something different than your typical "no-meat same-side on every issue wind-up doll" routine (since some of the mods are in a culling phase).

Well Jumbo, it is a piece that comes from CNN, which is the other side of the same coin with Foxnews,

There are a lot of valid points made, but I'm not sure if it's gotten to the level of post reconstruction yet. I do think race relations have gotten worse since President Obama was elected. There is an abnormal amount of anger, almost hatred.

Well Jumbo, it is a piece that comes from CNN, which is the other side of the same coin with Foxnews,

First, I admit I am not real forgiving of misrepresentation or false equivalencies (even figuring you're likely joking).

MSNBC is the closet to "other side of the coin" of Fox. CNN is weak and lame and biased often enough, but still pales next to Fox. Competent discernment and informed self-awareness are two things I note frequently lacking in a number of otherwise intelligent tailgate politicos of any affiliation.

But on this---hey, the piece could be well full of ****, factually, for all I know. I do know 10ft from past posting and his user notes, and that classic tell of "what I choose to reply to when and how and what I don't." I will say that it seems that any piece suggesting there are still serious racial issues (including various historical parallels) that feed division in the nation's political and social discourse, consciously or subconsciously, shouldn't have to do much "stretching" of the nature ascribed to this article by the "first responder." But ****, there I go being rational.

I just wanted to see 10ft do the work and offer something different in effort than what he did, or like one of his other golden hits, below.

Aside from a few random rednecks right after 9/11, Muslims have been

overprotected if anything. Anyone with half a brain knows that you can't look

cross-eyed at a Muslim without suffering the wrath of stupid civil rights groups

and risking worldwide riots.

But he made his important drive-by and then split.

Mexican actor urges Latino vote for Romney

UPI.com‎ - 1 hour ago

Everything doesn't have to be MSNBC racism on parade every single day.

Interrupting Obama Was Blatantly Racist Says MSNBC Panel .

MSNBC's Touré: Romney Engaging In The '******ization' Of Obama ...

www.mediaite.com/.../msnbcs-toure-to-panel-romney-engaging-in-th...Aug 16, 2012 – On Thursday's edition of MSNBC's The Cycle the group discussed ... is now calling Romney a “racist” for saying the Obama campaign is “angry.

just a couple days ago:

Could Obama's struggles with white voters cost him the election - CNN

www.cnn.com/2012/10/25/politics/obama-40-percent/index.htmlOct 26, 2012 – 40% of white voters say they'll vote for President Obama-

In 2012, racism's tenacious hold on U.S. - CNN.com

www.cnn.com/2012/11/01/opinion/brazile-race.../index.html22 hours ago – Editor's note: Donna Brazile, a CNN contributor and a Democratic

MSNBC Host Actually Says Talking About Obama Golfing Is Racist ...

www.theblaze.com/.../msnbc-host-actually-says-talking-about-obama...

MSNBC's Ed Schultz Blames Racism For Obama's Debate Defeat ...

weaselzippers.us/.../msnbcs-ed-schultz-blames-racism-for-obamas-de...Oct 4, 2012 – MSNBC's Ed Schultz Blames Racism For Obama's Debate Defeat: “He Was Afraid He's Going To Be Called An Angry Black Man”

And what? 40 million Caucazoids will vote for him in 4 days.

It was a good article and makes some points. It just took a long time to read. I had no idea that there were that many black congressmen and a governor before it all went back to almost how it was before the civil war.

My only major disagreement with the article is: just because people want to make the federal government smaller and don't see the need for a lot of the things the government spend our money on, it doesn't make any of them individually a racist. The fact that real racists do take advantage of the situation is a different argument altogether. In the 1870's they had real reasons for decreasing spending just like today but then once it was done the racists took advantage of the situation. The article seems to argue that it was just about racism. The supreme court at the time didn't help either, their decisions directly reinforced the racists agenda. I don't see anything even close to that happening today.

---------- Post added November-2nd-2012 at 03:01 PM ----------

MSNBC is the closet to "other side of the coin" of Fox. CNN is weak and lame and biased often enough, but still pales next to Fox. Competent discernment and informed self-awareness are two things I note frequently lacking in a number of otherwise intelligent tailgate politicos of any affiliation.

True, I don't get MSNBC though so I didn't even think about it. I've just been watching all the hysterics on Fox and CNN and how the past few days, even reporting on the storm, it's obviously politically motivated with FOX focusing on people stranded without any help on Staten Island and CNN pretending that everything is going fine and on time. As if Obama has anything to do with the relief effort but I get the point since Bush got dragged into Katrina and he didn't help things with his attitude at the time either. I can't imagine what MSNBC is saying though lol.

And for MSNBC the "Racism" is made up out of political Want.

The Cycle co-host Toure said of Romney, “You notice he said anger twice. He’s really trying to use racial coding and access some really deep stereotypes about the angry black man. This is part of the playbook against Obama, the ‘otherization,’ he’s not like us.”

“I know it’s a heavy thing, I don’t say it lightly, but this is ‘ni**erization,’ he added. “You are not one of us, you are like the scary black man who we’ve been trained to fear.”

After playing the audio, Glenn jumped in, “You talk about a conspiracy theorist, you know, me being a conspiracy theorist, I didn’t get the decoder ring in the box of cereal.”

In the segment,fellow co-host S.E. Cupp, however, shot back “Certainly you were implying that Mitt Romney and the base will respond to this dog-whistle, racially-charged coding, and hate Obama, the angry black man?”

When Toure said that was “absolutely” what he meant, Cupp said, “Joe Biden made the overtly racial comment and has a history of making bigoted remarks. Mitt Romney was responding to the comment. Yet he is the one responsible for the whole Republican history of racism in politics?”

Every single week its being over reported, Every single week.

What do you think happens after 4 years of this? It's horrible.

This going to be like Global Warming: We all know racism is there, we just trying to figure out how MSNBC pushed it over the event horizon?

There are a lot of valid points made, but I'm not sure if it's gotten to the level of post reconstruction yet. I do think race relations have gotten worse since President Obama was elected. There is an abnormal amount of anger, almost hatred.

you are not sure?

I look forward to the day you can say someone is ****ing up w/o being labelled a racist

'All white folks are going to hell' anyway :pfft:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2226525/All-white-folks-going-hell-Cry-Reverend-Joseph-Lowery-rally-Obama.html

‘I don’t know what kind of a ****** wouldn’t vote with a black man running :beatdeadhorse:

Thiebear, you're so incredibly off topic I seriously doubt you read more than the title of this thread.

---------- Post added November-2nd-2012 at 06:48 PM ----------

There are a lot of valid points made, but I'm not sure if it's gotten to the level of post reconstruction yet. I do think race relations have gotten worse since President Obama was elected. There is an abnormal amount of anger, almost hatred.

Agreed, the national political discourse has deteriorated rapidly since Obama's inauguration. It's hard to say how much is race related, but I know they didn't hate Clinton like this.

So can someone give me the cliff notes version of this ****. I don't wanna read it, but certainly want to know what it's about.

So can someone give me the cliff notes version of this ****. I don't wanna read it, but certainly want to know what it's about.

Wait for the movie to come out then you lazy ****

Wait for the movie to come out then you lazy ****

hahaha it's a long ass read and I just got off a long ass day of work, cut me some slack! haha

Thiebear, you're so incredibly off topic I seriously doubt you read more than the title of this thread.

---------- Post added November-2nd-2012 at 06:48 PM ----------

Agreed, the national political discourse has deteriorated rapidly since Obama's inauguration. It's hard to say how much is race related, but I know they didn't hate Clinton like this.

Based on what?

Its an article that argues with itself: Are we like the old days, No obviously not we could never get to that again, but could we? No, but we do see this and we see that.

the end.

And I say we see this and we see that because there are news organizations and people that make things up every couple days that are nonsense that escalate a real issue

Racists didn't vote for him the first time around. Not sure how that's changed

I tried to keep an open mind reading this piece but my goodness, it has the feel of a freshman essay. The ending is particularly corny and overwrought. There's a reason CNN hit its lowest rating in 20 years this past summer and work like this doesn't help their case. Coincidental timeliness is just that : an Obama loss next week means we're not fully evolved in our take on race yet.

And I say we see this and we see that because there are news organizations and people that make things up every couple days that are nonsense that escalate a real issue

How about that, I agree with you 100%.

Reading the quoted part is enough to make me not want to read the rest.

Sometimes people try to hard to find historical parallels for things aren't really the same.

We're not going back to reconstruction times, we're not going back to segregation or Jim Crow laws, and these kind of exaggerated comparisons are fairly silly, other than to play to some people's fears and delusions.

(reminds me of the time I sat down with some Larouche folks and this old former civil rights leader lady they were using who kept insisting that Bush was going to bring back segregation)

Agreed, the national political discourse has deteriorated rapidly since Obama's inauguration. It's hard to say how much is race related, but I know they didn't hate Clinton like this.

Clearly, you just have no idea. At 23 you cannot have any idea of the level of hate the repubs had for the Clinton(s).

Most of the race baiting is eminating from the left. They have much more to gain from iit than the right. Need to keep the constitutens in order. Most people want to use the R word but for most it's RESULTS and not Racist.The race hustlers thrive on the ill-informed.

MSNBC should just rename the brand MSDNC. They're so blatatnt pro anything left it's nausiating. Fox is predictible but when NBC/MSNBC advocates criminality etc it really crosses the lin IMO. And for the record I watch more MSNBC than anything else. The entire MSNBC daily line-up should be considered an in kind contribution to the DNC/BO campaign.

3 episodes of KeyandPeele and you have the US down- its doesn't need Reconstruction examples..

Especially the Zombi episode when they have to make it to the Sheriffs station.

It's always kind of funny seeing white people twist themselves into pretzels about what is and isn't racism. Particularly when it comes to Barack Obama.

It's always kind of funny seeing white people twist themselves into pretzels about what is and isn't racism. Particularly when it comes to Barack Obama.

My people are wonderfully, unintentionally, self-mocking

And now...a Jumbo tradition...

Clearly, you just have no idea. At 23 you cannot have any idea of the level of hate the repubs had for the Clinton(s).

Most of the race baiting is eminating from the left. They have much more to gain from iit than the right. Need to keep the constitutens in order. Most people want to use the R word but for most it's RESULTS and not Racist.The race hustlers thrive on the ill-informed.

MSNBC should just rename the brand MSDNC. They're so blatatnt pro anything left it's nausiating. Fox is predictible but when NBC/MSNBC advocates criminality etc it really crosses the lin IMO. And for the record I watch more MSNBC than anything else. The entire MSNBC daily line-up should be considered an in kind contribution to the DNC/BO campaign.

You really think that the hate for Clinton was comparable to the hate for Obama? LOL. You're either denying reality or have a bad memory. Republicans back then actually tried to work with Clinton on some issues. Republicans now have been documented voting against laws that they themselves introduced because President Obama began to support them. I saw nowhere near the vitriol for Clinton that there is now for President Obama.

Hahaha and you say MSNBC is worse than Fox? You can't be serious. Show me clips of MSNBC blatantly lying and making up stories and refusing to say anything negative about the party they support like Fox does. If you really believe that MSNBC "crosses the line" more than Fox does, you are delusional.

They worked with him AFTER shutting the govt down and he changed direction.....and then impeached him

sounds like a love affair