”The top Democrat in the U.S. Senate apologized on Saturday for comments he made about Barack Obama’s race during the 2008 presidential bid and are quoted in a yet-to-be-released book about the campaign.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada described in private then-Sen. Barack Obama as “light skinned” and “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.” Obama is the nation’s first African-American president.”
Now which part of Reid’s comments were false? Light skinned? Of course. Negro dialect? Perhaps Reid should have said “Black smack” or some other reference to ghetto-speak. But it's obvious what he meant, and he did not mean genetic language skills. Perhaps "Negro" is now a forbidden term?
Such PC traps are set for unsuspecting novices. It’s amazing that Reid allowed his own foot into such a trap.
7 comments:
I'll agree with you, at least partly: what Reid said is not false. But so what? Why should someone's race or dialect be an issue at all in an election, unless you're a racist?
I'm not sure it was an "issue", more than just an observation, naively made in private, but then stupidly disclosed.
I am more disgusted at Steele's attempt to make political hay out of it. And of course, Reid would have made hay of it if someone else had said it. The entire Democrat congress would have censured the hapless party, just as they did "you lie!" Joe.
Well, we have common ground here, Stan- many politicians will use any means to gain power, fair or foul. That's the way the world works, unfortunately. But I would not exempt Republicans from the accusation of using this kind of tactic.
If you're ever out this way, drop me a line, and lunch is on me.
cheers from snowy Vienna, zilch
Speaking as a black man, I'll certainly give him light-skinned, but what exactly is "Negro dialect" supposed to be? And "Black smack" just made me laugh. lol
Kevin Jackson, in his book, "The Big Black Lie", discusses the subject of black dialects, black racism, and so on. His explanation comes from experience, and was quite interesting to me. Here's his website:
http://theblacksphere.blogspot.com/
I'm not sure it was an "issue", more than just an observation, naively made in private, but then stupidly disclosed.
I am more disgusted at Steele's attempt to make political hay out of it. And of course, Reid would have made hay of it if someone else had said it
I agree here. It was a stupid comment, should have been kept private, but not surprised that politicians would try to profit from making it public.
Is this a example of political correctness? Well, maybe - but I happen to think politicians are forced to pander in order to get elected. It's hard to think of PC as "ideologically flawed" in a system where such flaws are the means by which people get elected.
The instant when a majority of people care more about substance than sound bytes, political correctness will become irrelevant.
Whateverman said,
"The instant when a majority of people care more about substance than sound bytes, political correctness will become irrelevant."
Well said.
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