Lauren Victoria Burke
+ FollowRepublican Candidates’ Consistent Contempt for Black Folks
Ask yourself: Would you want to be a member of a political party whose members said the following about a racial group to which you belonged?
“Really poor children in really poor neighborhoods have no habits of working and have nobody around them who works. So they literally have no habit of showing up on Monday. They have no habit of staying all day. They have no habit of ‘I do this and you give me cash,’ unless it’s illegal.”
That’s what a Republican candidate for President said three weeks ago.
A second Republican candidate said: “I don’t want to make Black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money. I want to give them the opportunity to earn the money and provide for themselves and their families…”
A third Republican candidate for president published a newsletter in his 50s claiming that “racial violence will fill our cities” because “mostly black welfare recipients will feel justified in stealing from mostly white ‘haves.’”
A fourth Republican candidate for the presidency signed a pledge claiming that African American children were more likely to grow up in stable families during slavery than in contemporary times.
A ffith Republican candidate said: “many African Americans have been brainwashed into not being open minded to not even considering a conservative point of view…” two months ago.
There are 40 million Americans of African descent in the U.S. and the five GOP presidential candidates know every single one of them – you know, having spent all that time in Iowa and all. They have “no habits of working” says one. Blacks are “brainwashed” says another. Perhaps more noteworthy is the silence amongst peers. The left has become use to these comments and the right either agrees or doesn’t care. The result is a long cowardly silence. Perhaps Governors Mitt Romney and John Huntsman have it right as they steadfastly avoid the subjects effecting 40 million Americans entirely.
That former Sen. Santorum brings up Blacks within the context of poverty is telling. Though 10% of whites in the U.S were in poverty in 2010 you’d never know it listening to Republicans running for President. There are 223,553,265 non-Hispanic whites in the U.S., 10% of whom live in poverty. That’s 22,355,326 people. Yet when poverty comes up in GOP political discussion it’s in the context of Blacks and Blacks only. Blacks are the racial punch-line in the GOP joke of poverty. Though the U.S. is experiencing record poverty with 1 of 7 people living on the financial margins no GOP candidate has offered a single word of policy on the subject.
What we have instead is another GOP candidate, this time Rick Santorum, mentioning Black Americans as a device to motivate whites to believe their hard earned tax dollar is being wasted on lazy Negroes. Therein lies a familiar role for Blacks in GOP “discussion.” Never mind that $1 trillion in tax money spent over 8+ years in Iraq and Afghanistan. Never mind the $800 billion handed to bankers. Someone’s collecting $240 a month on food stamps and Santorum is on it. You see, your money is being wasted on “them.” Sadly the “welfare queen” role remains the primary function of Blacks in GOP political policy discussion 35 years after Ronald Reagan coined the phrase.
GOPers often speak on the goals and virtues of a “colorblind” society and use MLK’s “content of character” phrase often. But when it comes to negative references regarding 50 million Americans in poverty suddenly the focus is on one color. “I don’t want to make Black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money…” says Rick Santorum. Lord knows, with a never before seen 50 million people in poverty none of this color/race/ethnicity stuff should matter anyway. But it’s interesting to see over 22 million White people suddenly vanish when GOP candidates talk on the issue of poverty. Meanwhile, typically invisible Blacks are suddenly granted rare attention.
With Newt Gingrich’s assessment that poor kids have, “no habit of ‘I do this and you give me cash,’ unless it’s illegal,” and Santorum’s underlying assumption that Blacks are living on “somebody else’s money…”, the trajectory is clear as is the reason the contemporary “party of Lincoln” has failed to attract Black participation. Does anyone even become surprised anymore by the occasional racist e-mail here and there by party “leaders” Need a reminder? Read this…. Did anyone within the party even bother to criticize Rush Limbaugh or Ann Coulter? Nope.
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21 Responses to Republican Candidates’ Consistent Contempt for Black Folks
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Total distortion, as usual. If you want to believe their bigoted, I can't stop you, but it is totally untrue. It's sad for you. I might add that it shows real contempt for African Americans when Democrat leader, Harry Reid says he is relieved that Obama was "light skinned" and had "no negro dialect." It also shows real contempt when a former Democrat President says Obama "would have been bringing us coffee a few years ago." You guys are so blind to real bigotry, you just buy the Democrat propaganda. It's astonishing to me.
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Tee-Kay says:
No, ma'am. I think you are mistaken just like the Republicans mentioned in the article because apparently you cannot hear, see, taste, feel nor smell the blatant bigotry and the plain ol' ignorance oozing out those direct quotes. I'm sad for you.
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dee303 says:
First Blacks complain no one cares about their issues…then someone mentions positive ways to help…as in teaching a man to fish as opposed to continually giving him a fish so he can keep coming back fo9r more and then they complain some one said "Black people". Yes, he said it because he was trying to acknowledge the need for help and his willingness to help. Black people have staeyd at the bottom of the totem pole for decades and still follow the same people who keep them there. "If you want something y9ou have never had before, you will have to do something you have never done before". Think about it. Why are you following someone who has not gotten you anywhere substantial in years? Really…think about it!!!
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SouthernGirl2 says:
You're being willfully ignorant.
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If anyone is interested in the truth, here it is: http://hotair.com/archives/2012/01/03/did-santoru…
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ingrid says:
It would probably help if you turned up the volume on the video that you posted. he did not stumble, stutter, clear his throat or any such thing….he clearly used the term "Black people"…. It just is what it is. It was in his thoughts and it came out of his mouth….
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Are you interested in the truth? Use your own brain!
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ReThugs say Blacks are criminal, lazy, immoral, & dependent on whites for money. It is the same BS that has been around since Lee Atwater & the Southern Strategy. Republicans love to this rhetoric as noted in the last two posts. It is like they anti-black OCD. How any black person can support them besides coons like Herman Cain & Michael Steele is beyond me. Do poor whites have different reasons for their poverty based on their whiteness? Why don't the Rethugs go lecture all the poor whites instead of masturbating with their anti-black cohorts and leave black people the hell alone?
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Zack says:
Kat McKinley apparently doesn't see the difference between two people's isolated stupid remarks and an entire, decades-long electoral strategy. If anyone is REALLY interested in the truth, here it is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Strategy
(By the way, it's "they're", not "their", dumbass.) -
Robert Brooklyn NY says:
Rascism is so freakin scary because it is still so masked. God please bless my children with the discernment necessary to navigate this country and live peaceful productive lives!!
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Pingback: CBS News smears Santorum with racism because he is anti-welfare « Wintery Knight
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malcolm says:
you hit the nail on the head…it's ingrained in that environment, brother from a different mother et al…
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I listened to the video ( volume up to ensure I hear every word with clarity ) in the link that Kat McKinley put up in defense of Santorum's comment. He did not a stumble, he did not hesitate, he did not clear his throat or anything else….it is clear…he said the word "black" in the phrase "Black people's lives….". Note that the welfare roles in Indiana are comprise 90+% of whites. So ….just who does he think is the beneficiary of government programs in Indianan???? Can we at minimum have honest dialogue!!!!
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Diane Lane says:
Well, in actuality Mr. Santorum is right and I must admit in line with what our forefathers taught. This Social Welfare system was introduced by the Democratic Party in the 60's in under Lynden B. Johnson. Before that time, Blacks were dependent upon themselves and PROVIDED FOR THEMSELVES TREMENDOUSLY!!! So consequentially, Santorum is saying what needs to be said for Blacks to wake up and be accountable to themselves…NOT THE GOVERNMENT! If it hurts, so be it because our race has been in a plantation stupor from the the slavery days…..
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hobama has been a superb republican!
http://aliciabanks.xanga.com/755316183/cbc–cursi… -
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I will be surprised if African-Americans are surprised that these attacks are still common place in the US, because their history in this country reflects that such attacks have always been common place. The social structure here in the States is not designed to foster AA aspirations. Hence, AAs must refrain from being hyper-sensitive to repeated attacked on their character and focus on economic empowerment. Only a proactive approach to their problems will succeed where their reactive approaches have failed.
P.S. AAs may also want explore the viability of any "leader" who promotes such hyper-sensitivity.