Racism and John McCain
Anyone born in the ‘old south’—say, in the mid-1940’s, for instance—and who grew up down there while racism was the requirement amid the separate water fountains, the bus station waiting rooms, the churches, the cafes, the nightclubs, the schools and for that matter, towns: (I grew up in Durham, N.C. and black children in the same town grew up in a separate place called ‘Hay-ti’) all the real things that made integration imperative to anyone with a human heart and soul—must remember the way white folks did not look directly at black folks when addressing them.
This is the embodiment of old time racism and hatred that I saw in John McCain’s first debate with Barack Obama.
I remembered the horrors of those times, even from my white, privileged perspective, and I am realizing how much John McCain ripped the scabs and scars of those times from me.
I’m white—a white child of the south whose earliest memory about racial hatred is a black child sticking her tongue out at me even though we were toddlers in our daddies arms. That was a hurtful thing—and in my child’s mind, an undeserved insult. It still is a hurtful memory, although I have tried to understand from my white perspective how it is that hatred of blacks for whites was more than deserved, and that while white dads were teaching their children to hate, black dads were teaching their children also to hate.
To the human heart’s credit, out of this learned animosity grew the civil rights movement and eventual integration of the races.
In my childhood, black folks lived in shacks—unpainted shanties, or worse. They walked the dusty southern dirt roads barefoot. The segregated schools for black children were horribly inadequate and did little more than perpetuate the injustices of segregation with a failure to properly educate those children. Jobs except those of janitor, dishwasher, and other odd jobs of that sort were non-existent.
On my last trip down south (trips I’ve made twice in 35 years), I didn’t recognize the old place. Black folks were living in nice homes, riding in nice cars, their kids were clean and shiny, and the black folks I ran into here and there were exceedingly friendly to me. There was an ease between the races that had not existed when I was growing up.
During those times, it was normal for a black person to step into the street if encountering a white person on the sidewalk; to address any white person, even a child, as ‘mistah’ or ‘ma’am’; and it was within my experience to know blacks who still shared the last name of the white farmers they worked for and to be related back to that white farmer’s original slaves.
Fear of bodily harm, indeed, of death, caused many of the traditions of black culture that white racism defines as reasons to distrust and/or dislike blacks.
I learned that black folks' use of a separate, parallel form of the English language was a survival technique developed from the slavery years so that white masters could not eavesdrop on the conversations of blacks.
I also experienced that, within the family circle to which I was accepted at any rate, blacks listened to each other. I saw that total focus on who was speaking and what was being said was required for survival; the perfect ability to communicate secretively was ingrained in the culture.
I felt that my white race was somehow deficient; that my culture was guilty not only of thousands of crimes against blacks, but also of crimes against ourselves. I have never understood why we felt so desperately that we had to separate black from white. I suspect that we white folks may have been threatened by the generosity of spirit that managed to pour from blacks even in the midst of enslavement and abuse.
Quite simply, they were better than us.
I am no sociologist, obviously, and not very well educated as to how to best put these things in perspective. I certainly do not have any evil intent to hurt any person or any race, other than white racists in general and John McCain in particular, in attempting to explain my views on race.
My point is that John McCain is, without any doubt whatsoever in my mind, the epitome of an old style Southern racist: a white man who will not now or ever look a black man in the eye.
To do so is to recognize that black man’s humanity; that black man’s right to exist; that black man’s right to be in the Senate of the United States of America; that black man’s right to be the most popular candidate for the Presidency of The United States of America since John Fitzgerald Kennedy because We, the People love him.
The People want Barack Obama to lead us out of the mire and mess caused by men (and women) like John McCain.
There are moments here and there in my life when I have wondered whatever happened to that other little girl—did she learn not to hate?
Did the black boy who was my best friend before my grandmother told us we couldn’t play together anymore because we had gotten ‘too old’ (at nine or ten years of age) and then made my young friend go to work in her house for scraps of cloth and crumbs of food—did he ever learn not to hate after he learned to hate and that hate was the correct response? Did he eventually join the Black Panthers? Did he die in Viet Nam?
Whatever happened to him?
I don’t know because I was ashamed to be interested in him after my grandmother's edicts and in my 10 year old self, I understood that rebellion against her rule would endanger my friend and his family. I loved him. I loved him, I realize now. We were mated in the soul somehow or other—as friends, if in no other way. I miss him, and wonder if, with his friendship as a constant in my life, some things might have been easier and better.
This is the cost of racism, and this is the cost of John McCain and his ilk running our country. If these racist morons have their way, progress can only move backward.
Below are articles and links to the articles on John McCain’s racism. This is not a new idea. One of these articles dates to 2000. I’m sure there are many more articles out there that I didn’t find in my search, “John McCain + racism”.
I didn’t need a search to tell me that John McCain is a racist. I just needed to see how he treated Barack Obama in the first debate.
James Fallows
The only thing I will say about the debate in real time
6 Sep 2008 10:17 pm
Unless it happened when I glanced away, up until this moment, 77 minutes into the 90-minute debate, John McCain has not once looked at Obama -- while listening to him, while addressing him, while disagreeing with him, while finding moments of accord.
This is distinctly strange -- if anyone else notices. Obama is acting as if this is a conversation; McCain, as if he cannot acknowledge the other party in the discussion.
More on non-body-language points tomorrow a.m.
Link to article http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/09/the_only_thing_i_will_say_abou.php
Copyright © 2008 by The Atlantic Monthly Group.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
John McCain's racist remark very troubling
Thursday, March 2, 2000
By KATIE HONG
SPECIAL TO THE POST-INTELLIGENCER
On his campaign bus recently, Sen. John McCain told reporters, "I hated the gooks. I will hate them as long as I live." Although McCain said he was referring only to his prison guards, there are many reasons why his use of the word "gook" is offensive and alarming.
It is offensive because by using a racial epithet that has historically been used to demean all Asians to describe his captors, McCain failed to make a distinction between his torturers and an entire racial group.
It is alarming because a major candidate for president publicly used a racial epithet, refused to apologize for doing so and remains a legitimate contender.
Contrary to McCain's attempt to narrowly define "gook" to mean only his "sadistic" captors, this term has historically been used to describe all Asians. McCain said that "gook" was the most "polite" term he could find to describe his captors, but because it is simply a pejorative term for Asians, he insulted his captors simply by calling them "Asians" -- a clearly disturbing message. To the Asian American community, the term is akin to the racist word "nigger." A friend of mine, a white male Vietnam veteran, pointed out that veterans, especially Vietnam veterans, know how spiteful the term "gook" is. It has everything to do with labeling someone as "other," the enemy and yellow. McCain sent the message that all Asians are foreigners and remain forever the "other" and the enemy.
The perception of Asians as "foreigners" or "the other" isn't new. This sentiment is what led to passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the Japanese American internment during World War II. The internment of Japanese Americans is now recognized as one of the worst civil rights violations in our country's history and a powerful lesson in what can happen when race alone is used as a test for loyalty or who is defined as an American.
We've made tremendous progress as a nation in overcoming racism. That is why it is so disturbing that a major candidate for the U.S. president can perpetuate the stereotype of Asians as permanent foreigners, hurtling us backward to a time and a place where such racial epithets were an acceptable part of mainstream discourse.
What makes this incident even more disturbing is how neither the media nor the other presidential candidates have highlighted that his use of a racist term is unacceptable.
Asian Americans are one of the fastest growing minority populations in the United States. And the media's choice to ignore or excuse McCain's behavior is a painful reminder that Asians remain outsiders on the back steps of national American politics.
McCain's main campaign message is inclusion. What his actions have told me, however, is that his inclusion does not include people who look like me.
I love this country just as much as McCain does, and I am committed to serving my community and my country. That is the reason I have entered a career in public service and why I am committed to making America a great country where equal opportunity and justice for everyone is a reality and not just a vision.
This is also why I am so hurt by McCain's comment: He has reminded me that despite my commitment to serving my country, there are still some people in this country who would first perceive me as the enemy.
Link to article http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/hongop.shtml
Katie Hong is a Korean American woman who lives in Seattle and works for Washington state government.
© 1998-2008 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
McCain: racist, bigot & homophobe
August 1, 2008 - 7:14am.
By DOUG THOMPSON
John McCain, a member of the House of Representatives in the mid-1980s, often held court at a table near the bar at Bullfeathers, a popular Capitol Hill watering hole, telling jokes and matching hangers-on drink by drink.
As a Capitol Hill chief of staff, I often drank at Bullfeathers and was invited to join the throng at McCain's table one evening. A few minutes listening to the racism, bigotry and homophobia of the Arizona Congressman told me all I needed to know.
McCain loved to tell jokes about lesbians, blacks, Hispanics and the Vietnamese community that occupied a large section of Arlington County, Virginia, just south of the District of Columbia.
Of course, McCain didn't use polite language in the jokes: He used names like "fags" or "queers" or "dykes" or "niggers" or "spics" or "wetbacks" or "gooks."
A typical McCain joke (overheard at Bullfeathers):
Two dykes are talking at a bar and one leaves. As she walks toward the door, the other watches her leave and says out loud: "God, I've love to eat her out."
Two men are standing near by and one turns to the other and says: "I'd like to do the same. Guess that makes me a dyke."
Or another (also overheard at Bullfeathers):
Question: Why does Mexican beer have two "X's" on the label?
Answer: Because wetbacks always need a co-signer.
(McCain has a documented history of lesbian jokes. He's also come under fire for other jokes about rape.)
Example:
Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly?
Because Janet Reno is her father.
Another example:
Did you hear the one about the woman who is attacked on the street by a gorilla, beaten senseless, raped repeatedly and left to die? When she finally regains consciousness and tries to speak, her doctor leans over to hear her sigh contently and to feebly ask, ‘Where is that marvelous ape?’
When he ran for the Senate, I attended a gathering of GOP operatives at the National Republican Senatorial Committee where McCain outlined his campaign strategy:
I play to win. I do whatever it takes to win. If I have to fuck my opponent to win I'll do it. If I have to destroy my opponent I won't give it a second thought.
McCain's so-called sense of humor has no limits when it comes to simple human decency. Shortly after former President Ronald Reagan announced he had Alzheimer's Disease, McCain told this joke at a GOP Fundraiser:
Do you know the best thing about having Alzheimer's?
You get to hide your own Easter eggs.
Even his wife is not immune. Writes Cliff Schecter in his book, The Real John McCain:
Three reporters from Arizona, on the condition of anonymity, also let me in on another incident involving McCain's intemperateness. In his 1992 Senate bid, McCain was joined on the campaign trail by his wife, Cindy, as well as campaign aide Doug Cole and consultant Wes Gullett. At one point, Cindy playfully twirled McCain's hair and said, "You're getting a little thin up there." McCain's face reddened, and he responded, "At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt." McCain's excuse was that it had been a long day. If elected president of the United States, McCain would have many long days.
This is the man the Republican Party thinks should be the next President of the United States. What else should we expect from a party that promotes racism, homophobia and discrimination against anyone with a different skin color, sexual orientation or ethnic origin?
So we shouldn't be surprised that McCain's campaign strategy seeks to raise racial fear about Barack Obama, the first African-American with a serious shot at the Presidency of the United States.
John McCain is a racist: Always has been, always will be. A retired Naval officer who says he served with McCain in the Navy says he treated black sailors with disrespect and scorn. McCain refuses to release his detailed military record and some sources say that record includes incidents that include issues with black sailors.
Such attitudes are part of his family history. As noted by a black poster in Talking Points Memo:
I can't love America the same way John McCain does. When his daddy was Admiral, my daddy was mopping floors. And when his granddaddy was Admiral, all the Blacks in the entire Navy were mopping floors. But they still volunteered and went to war, even when their commanders didn't think they were brave enough to fight. So who loves America more? The cook on the ship who couldn't vote in 15 states, or the Admiral who dined on the meals he slaved over?
McCain's collection of off-color jokes are riddled with racist words and sentiments. Advisors have toned down the raunchy rhetoric of his early years in Congress but close aides say his attitudes have not changed.
McCain opposed making the birthday of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King a national holiday. During his 2000 campaign for President, he told reporters on his "Straight Talk Express: "I hated the gooks (North Vietnamese). I will hate them as long as I live."
Link to full article http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cont/node/10086
Copyright © 2008 Capitol Hill Blue
The New York Times
August 2, 2008
OP-ED COLUMNIST
Running While Black
By BOB HERBERT
Gee, I wonder why, if you have a black man running for high public office — say, Barack Obama or Harold Ford — the opposition feels compelled to run low-life political ads featuring tacky, sexually provocative white women who have no connection whatsoever to the black male candidates.
Spare me any more drivel about the high-mindedness of John McCain. You knew something was up back in March when, in his first ad of the general campaign, Mr. McCain had himself touted as “the American president Americans have been waiting for.”
There was nothing subtle about that attempt to position Senator Obama as the Other, a candidate who might technically be American but who remained in some sense foreign, not sufficiently patriotic and certainly not one of us — the “us” being the genuine red-white-and-blue Americans who the ad was aimed at.
Since then, Senator McCain has only upped the ante, smearing Mr. Obama every which way from sundown. On Wednesday, The Washington Post ran an extraordinary front-page article that began:
“For four days, Senator John McCain and his allies have accused Senator Barack Obama of snubbing wounded soldiers by canceling a visit to a military hospital because he could not take reporters with him, despite no evidence that the charge is true.”
Evidence? John McCain needs no evidence. His campaign is about trashing the opposition, Karl Rove-style. Not satisfied with calling his opponent’s patriotism into question, Mr. McCain added what amounted to a charge of treason, insisting that Senator Obama would actually prefer that the United States lose a war if that would mean that he — Senator Obama — would not have to lose an election.
Now, from the hapless but increasingly venomous McCain campaign, comes the slimy Britney Spears and Paris Hilton ad. The two highly sexualized women (both notorious for displaying themselves to the paparazzi while not wearing underwear) are shown briefly and incongruously at the beginning of a commercial critical of Mr. Obama.
The Republican National Committee targeted Harold Ford with a similarly disgusting ad in 2006 when Mr. Ford, then a congressman, was running a strong race for a U.S. Senate seat in Tennessee. The ad, which the committee described as a parody, showed a scantily clad woman whispering, “Harold, call me.”
Both ads were foul, poisonous and emanated from the upper reaches of the Republican Party. (What a surprise.) Both were designed to exploit the hostility, anxiety and resentment of the many white Americans who are still freakishly hung up on the idea of black men rising above their station and becoming sexually involved with white women.
The racial fantasy factor in this presidential campaign is out of control. It was at work in that New Yorker cover that caused such a stir. (Mr. Obama in Muslim garb with the American flag burning in the fireplace.) It’s driving the idea that Barack Obama is somehow presumptuous, too arrogant, too big for his britches — a man who obviously does not know his place.
Mr. Obama has to endure these grotesque insults with a smile and heroic levels of equanimity. The reason he has to do this — the sole reason — is that he is black.
So there he was this week speaking evenly, and with a touch of humor, to a nearly all-white audience in Missouri. His goal was to reassure his listeners, to let them know he’s not some kind of unpatriotic ogre.
Mr. Obama told them: “What they’re going to try to do is make you scared of me. You know, he’s not patriotic enough. He’s got a funny name. You know, he doesn’t look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills, you know. He’s risky.”
The audience seemed to appreciate his comments. Mr. Obama was well-received.
But John McCain didn’t appreciate them. RACE CARD! RACE CARD! The McCain camp started bellowing, and it hasn’t stopped since. With great glee bursting through their feigned outrage, the campaign’s operatives and the candidate himself accused Senator Obama of introducing race into the campaign — playing the race card, as they put it, from the very bottom of the deck.
Whatever you think about Barack Obama, he does not want the race issue to be front and center in this campaign. Every day that the campaign is about race is a good day for John McCain. So I guess we understand Mr. McCain’s motivation.
Nevertheless, it’s frustrating to watch John McCain calling out Barack Obama on race. Senator Obama has spoken more honestly and thoughtfully about race than any other politician in many years. Senator McCain is the head of a party that has viciously exploited race for political gain for decades.
He’s obviously more than willing to continue that nauseating tradition.
Link to article http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/02/opinion/02herbert.html?incamp=article_popular_2
© 2008 The New York Times Company
posted by FancyRage at 3:13 PM
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