February 28, 2009
Republican National Committee Chairman Micheal Steele was on DL Hughley discussing the two parties and the black community. Selected quotes - see transcript for the whole show.
HUGHLEY: I really do. I think you’re a really bright guy. And they hired both of us because we have a black president.
STEELE: That’s right.
HUGHLEY: You don’t have to go any further than the Republican National Convention. It literally looked like Nazi Germany. It literally did.
[...]
HUGHLEY: You, me, Bobby Jindal, we’re all working because of the brother in the job.
STEELE: That’s right. All the brothers in the same room, right?
barry is responsible for the accomplishments of two high-ranking Republicans? It’s goes beyond ludicrous to demeaning.
HUGHLEY: A lot of the things I see Republicans do specifically are reactionary. They’ll go, you know what, they don’t like Hillary? Let’s give them Sarah Palin. They voted for Obama. Let’s give them Michael Steele. And the other guy who we don’t know who he is yet. It is always so plastic, that you go, wow, is this what they think? They think that — they’re missing the entire point of what happened during the Obama transformation. They missed the entire point.
The “Obama transformation”??
STEELE: There was a Michael Steele before there was a Barack Obama. The reality of it is, I had established — I was the only black lieutenant governor in the country at the time. I was the only statewide black elected official when I was governor of Maryland from 2003 to 2007. And then Obama got elected from 2005. So that wasn’t about, oh, geez, let’s do this because of Obama.
Note: Burris was Illinois’ first statewide black elected official (Comptroller) in 1979 making the way for barry, who is now totally snubbing Burris.
Steele was also was the first to be named Chairman of the Republican Party in any state (2000) and he did the GOP rebuttal to barry’s DNC speech (2004). So his being named as RNC Chairman was not based on barry.
Gov Jindal has been around the national seen as long as barry and he’s 10 years younger. They were both sworn in in 2005 - Jindal as a US Representative and barry as a US Senator. Jindal was elected governor all by himself and to somehow say it was because of barry diminishes Jindal’s own hard work and talents. He was a Rhodes Scholar and was accepted to both Harvard Medical school and Yale Law school and chose politics instead, getting his PhD from Oxford. And instead of just talking about ethics reform he is actually doing something.
It’s like Spike Lee saying time will be marked: “before Obama and after Obama”.
Hip-hop legend Chuck D then joined the discussion and brought up the “articulate” reference that is supposed to be a racial code word. In reference to Hughley and Steele’s conversation:
CHUCK D: It was so exciting, just eloquence across TV.
HUGHLEY: He’s an eloquent man. I don’t know that I necessarily agree with him but I can honestly say that I never heard — never heard the Republican agenda articulated so accessibly.
Then Hughley disses Steele to his face.
HUGHLEY: Like Rush Limbaugh, who is the de facto leader of the Republican Party.
STEELE: No, he’s not.
HUGHLEY: I will tell you what …
STEELE: I’m the de facto leader of the Republican Party.
[...]
HUGHLEY: You know what, there’s no doubt that you’re worthy of respect. But this does seem like a common situation when you get in trouble, always bet on black men. You know what I’m saying! You know what I’m saying. I’m just saying. Hey, Michael, hey, listen, they didn’t just do it to you. The whole country went, we’re in trouble. Let’s get a black guy. Always bet on black. We’re in style now, baby!
STEELE: Wait a minute, D.L., when you bet on black, don’t you win?
HUGHLEY: Absolutely! You better come to our side. Michael Steele, Chuck D.
Then Hughley showed a snippet of Alan Keyes’ made for videotape tirade about barry being a “radical Communist” and he remarked:
If you’ll excuse me, I hear the Massa calling me. This cotton won’t pick itself.
Then he proceeded to posit that the white man sitting next to Obama during the Stevie Wonder’s Lifetime Achievement Award performance at the White House - somebody he doesn’t even know or even name - somebody who is doing nothing but sitting there - is thinking:
HUGHLEY: Eight more years of this. Jesus, when did the White House turn into “Soul Train”. ‘When did the White House become Soul Train.’
And then he goes back to Gov Jindal.
GOV. BOBBY JINDAL (on videotape): Some are problem the government will rescue us from the economic storms raging all around us. Those of us who lived through Hurricane Katrina. We have our doubts.
HUGHLEY: For the last time, no, I’m not the kid from “Slumdog Millionaire”!
Why are these ok?
Comparing the people in the Republican Convention to Nazi Germany? Automatically assuming that the white man can’t enjoy Stevie Wonder and that because he is white he is thinking derogatory comments? What does that say about Stevie Wonder’s music?
Hughley was making snap judgments solely based on the color of the man’s skin.
How is that not racist?
Will anyone be calling for his firing tomorrow?
Imagine if it were the other way around.
And the most curious part is how the black community continues to take credit for barry being in the White House when 8 Million eligible black voters couldn’t be bothered to register to vote for barry. That means 1/3 of the eligible black voting population did not find it important to get out and vote for progress in America. Only 2% more black voters came out after 8 years of Bush to vote for the first biracial president in history.
Where was that discussion?
The black vote made the difference in the primary because barry used the race card at every turn. In South Carolina - where barry had already prepared a memo painting ‘The Clintons’ as racists - barry’s policies suddenly became enticing? The same policies that were not attracting black voters at a >95% rate up until that very moment?
No. barry made it about race - the man who claimed to Unite! and Transcend Race! used race to win.
How was that not identity politics?
So why would 95% of white people voting for Senator McCain be considered racist?
Because it’s the Double Standard.
And until it is addressed and abolished, race relations in America will remain the same.
You can’t have it both ways.
It can’t be ok to be racist in one direction and not in the other. There cannot be an exception for one skin color over the other.
Prejudice is prejudice.
Bigotry is bigotry.
Small mindedness is small mindedness.
Making snap judgments based on the color of a white man’s skin is just as unacceptable as making comments about black basketball players’ hair.
Either both are ok or neither.
***
Rev Lowery: “When white will embrace what’s right”
Eric Holder: “[The USA] continues to be essentially a nation of cowards”
John Ridley: “Are you black enough to be part of all this”
