People, mostly on Facebook, have objected to me pointing out the racial “dog whistles” being uttered by the COP candidates, and telling me I’m wrong, and that racism is fading in this country.
Take a look at just some of the comment posted at Fox News regarding the death of Whitney Houston. Those dog whistles are being heard, and they are taken as encouragement by these troglodytes.
You can find the link here.
If one were to measure by the amount of name calling one hears in “polite” company one could measure racism as going down. When I grew up, I heard the various words for minorities as much in the North East as I did in the South. However that has changed. I know that in the South it is much less likely to hear the words though I am constantly shocked by the amount one hears in the North still. Now they haven’t gone away. People still are going to be racist but have gotten more likely to hide it or say it in safe company. The internet is a great place to do this because a) you can do so without being called for it, and b) you can create many (10+) identities to show that you aren’t a minority by egging yourself on (this has been found the case with many of these posters that they sock-puppet themselves to try and shut up others by appearing as a virtual majority). Add into the fact that our brains have various polarization filters to make potential threats more menacing than actual threats… and the ugliness looks much worse.
So in the end, as much as there are a lot of jerks out there.. there are not as many as our brains would want us to think there are. Secondly those jerks are being jerks because they feel safe, and they get off on knowing that they make others disgusted or afraid of them. We can’t ignore them but we can easily say “look you are a crappy person who is really pathetic. We don’t need you and will be better off without you. Goodbye”
The supremacist oligarchy that has ruled this country through the tyranny of oppression is now in danger, which is why the people who are afraid of what they will lose w/ the changing face of America implement their desperate tactics of guttural, racist hate. You are quite correct in asserting that this has obviously trickled down to all aspects of our culture who have achieved great success, like Ms. Houston.
We’ve seen it countless times before.
It’s the same people who compare Mrs. Obama to a gorilla.
& call her daughters little whores who will be pregnant sooner than Bristol Palin.
The same hatemongers that email photos of the President of the United States as a chimpanzee or a witch doctor w/ a bone in his nose.
& the White House lawn filled with watermelons.
The representatives who create songs like “Barack The Magic Negro”, which their radio personalities herald as art & tell certain callers to “take the bone out of their nose” & now that Barack Obama is president “we need segregated buses”
These are the people who call the POTUS a socialist Marxist Kenyan & constantly doubt his place of birth even when he’s produced BOTH forms of birth certificate.
These are republican senators, members of Congress , GOP leaders, former Speakers of the House & activists. These are Governors who now think they have the right to shake their finger in the face of the leader of the free world because of his race when they would never do it to a white man.
They exist. To write them off as harmless jerks who, if you just ignore them they will go away, is to give them credence & credit for destroying what progress we have made in this country towards equality. & deny the history of how this behavior has on more than 1 occasion killed hundreds of thousands & brought this country to ruin.
The internet is simply a free zone for what a great deal of the American population really believes & thinks.
Until this ingrained, intrinsic fear & hatred is eradicated & not to be tolerated on any level, if not deemed illegal just like lynching or Jim Crow, it will always be part of the American landscape.
Note how it’s now rearing its evil head in other contexts like homophobia,women’s contraception rights & immigrant bias.
I applaud you for continuing to stand up for what this bigotry really is & refuse to allow anyone to downplay it.
I’m just devastated by all of this. The assault on women’s rights (Oh, Santorum has now stated that _no_ insurance policy should provide contraception), the vile “jokes” and hateful remarks. The fact the troglodytes feel comfortable saying these things, even in the “safe” zone of the internet makes me so sad and depressed. I really thought (foolishly) that we were growing beyond this. I feel very naive. I was getting angry, but the level of bile out there has started to just beat down my spirit.