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Whenever someone has pointed out the obvious fact that Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich have engaged in open race baiting, or that certain policies negatively impact the black community in disproportionate ways (criminal justice), someone else has complained that the proverbial "Race Card" has been played. Like Drill, Baby, Drill, No New Taxes, Politics of Envy, Capitalism on Trial, blah, blah, blah, the Race Card is a bumper-sticker bromide designed to deflect the argument from its substance. In spite of my view that most republicans and conservatives are not racist, I find laughably absurd the umbrage taken by conservatives whenever demonstrations of race-baiting, racial resentment and racism are pointed out and discussed. The fact that such incidents have occurred and continue to occur cannot be disputed, nor can one argue that such incidents are rare. In fact, the one thing that we have learned is that not even the office of President of the United States is insulated from the blatant ignorance of those who harbor racially-based animosity toward its office holder and those who are willing to exploit that animosity for political gain. Those who complain about the Race Card do so in willful nescience of the history and legacy of the Southern Strategy. They also fastidiously avoid connecting the many dots that are the incidents that have occurred since President Obama began running for the office. If conservatives and republicans want to stop hearing about racism within their ranks, then they should be working within their ranks to minimize acts like the few listed below:
- A picture on the Republican National Committee’s Facebook page featured President Obama eating what looks to be a piece of fried chicken with a caption that read “Miscegenation is a crime against American values”.
- When she thought she was out of the range of a microphone, Ohio republican Representative Jean Schmidt told a “birther” that she agrees with her, calling into question whether some folks believe their own denials about the impact of race in these debates.
- US Representative Lynn Jenkins shared that the GOP was looking for “a great white hope” to counter President Obama.
- Congressman Jim Clyburn’s congressional office was vandalized with a swastika.
- Congressman David Scott shared racially charged hate mail he received during the health care debate.
- Mississippi republican State Senator Lydia Chassaniol gave a keynote address to the Council of Conservative Citizens – an organization with a well-documented history of racism – saying that “seeing you gives me hope”.
- In the midst of her campaign for Chair of the Young Republicans Organization, Audra Shay, cheer-led racist comments on her Facebook page. She was re-elected.
- Michelle Bachmann led other republican politicians in blaming the entire financial meltdown on – you guessed it – racial minorities when she stated that the mortgage debacle that ignited the global crisis was caused by loans “being made on the basis of race and little else”.
- Minnesota State Senate Candidate Mike Parry calls President Obama “a power hungry arrogant black man”. He apparently prefers his black men unambitious and docile. He won the republican endorsement of his candidacy.
- Republicans in San Bernadino County published a newsletter that included “Obama Bucks”, a food-stamp with pictures of watermelon, fried chicken, ribs and Kool-Aid surrounding a picture of the President.
- A republican mayor in California distributed e-mails featuring a watermelon patch in the foreground of the White House.
- A South Carolina republican activist shared on his Facebook page that an escaped gorilla was an ancestor of First Lady Michelle Obama.
- The Tennessee Republican party distributed a collage featuring pictures of Presidents of the United States, depicting President Obama as two eyes peering out of a black background.
- Adam LaDuca, at the time executive director of the Pennsylvania Federation of College Republicans, wrote on his Facebook page that then candidate Senator Obama has “a pair of lips so large he could float half of Cuba to the shores of Miami.”
- The GOP chairman of New Mexico’s Bernalillo County said "The truth is that Hispanics came here as conquerors," he said. "African-Americans came here as slaves” and that "Hispanics consider themselves above blacks. They won't vote for a black president."
- A republican City Councilman enjoyed racist e-mails regarding the President and the First Lady so much that he thought everyone should have the same fun he was having. So he distributed and forwarded “jokes” that compared Obama to O.J. Simpson while others suggested that "n@!$%r rigs" should now be called "presidential solutions."
- Chip Saltsman, former chair of the Tennessee republicans and candidate for Chairman of the Republican National Committee, distributed a CD containing the song “Barack the Magic Negro”.
- In addition to distributing sexually perverted e-mails, Republican gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino distributed racist e-mails, including one depicting the President as a pimp and First Lady as a prostitute. Paladino still received 37% of the vote.
- When discussing the possibility of President Obama replacing Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with Sylvester Stallone and Nancy Pelosi, respectively, Larry Faircloth, republican gubernatorical candidate in West Virgina, stated that the new campaign slogan would be "Vote Sambo, Rambo and Bimbo."
- Republibaggerservative Congressional candidate Craig Huey produced a campaign ad attacking his female democratic opponent that depicted her as a pole-dancing stripper girlfriend of assault weapon wielding black gangstas.
- While wearing a wire during an FBI operation, republican official Scott Beason refers to black casino patrons as “aborigines”.
- Marilyn Davenport, a member of the Orange County Republican Party Central Committee, promoted a photograph of a “family” of chimpanzees, dressed in human clothing, with President Obama’s face photoshopped onto the head of the baby chimpanzee.
- The republican governor of Virginia claimed that slavery was not a significant aspect of the Civil War
- Rand Paul stated that retailers and restaurants should be able to discriminate against black patrons
- South Carolina official Sherry Lanford Smith, posted on her Facebook page a joke about killing President and First Lady Obama
- Kansas Tea Party group calls President Obama a skunk because he is half black and half white.
- Republican Congressman Doug Lambourne stated that working with President Obama was like touching a Tar Baby
- Fox News referred to President Obama's 50th Birthday party as a "hip hop barbecue".
- In response to President Obama signing of the National Defense Authorization Act, California tea party/libertarian candidate Jules Mason posted the hateful words "Assassinate the @!$%#en @!$%# and his monkey children"
- A tweet from the account of University of Texas College republicans president Cassie Wright says: "My president is black, he snorts a lotta crack. Holla. #2012 #Obama"
- Fox News talking head Eric Bolling claimed that President Obama was "chugging 40s in IRE while tornados ravage MO" and said that the President was hosting "hoodlum[s] in the hizzouse" in description of state visits by African leaders.
- A Fox News headline referred to the President's 50th birthday party as a "hip-hop barbecue".
- During an interview with Rev. Al Sharpton, conservative columnist Pat Buchanan referred to President Obama as "your boy".
- Rush Limbaugh referred to First Lady Obama's behavior as "a little bit of uppity-ism".
- Alabama republican officials were heard on a wire talking about how "every black, every illiterate" would be taken to the polls on "HUD-financed busses". A federal judge found that the motivations of those officials was to "increase Republican political fortunes by reducing African-American voter turnout."
- In response to a question about foreign interests, Presidential candidate and former senator Rick Santorum specifically targets black people when meandering into a discussion about entitlements - which had nothing to do with the original question Santorum stated: ”I don’t want to make black people’s lives better by giving them other people’s money"
- Kansas republican Mike O'Neal applies to President Obama a verse from a Psalm that calls for the death of a government official. He also sends around an e-mail referring to the First Lady as "Yo Mama".
- Republican candidate Newt Gingrich claims that he would tell the NAACP that black people should be demanding jobs instead of demanding food stamps, ignoring the fact that black people have been demanding jobs and have not been demanding food stamps.
- After an encounter on a Tarmac after the arrival of Air Force One where she wagged her finger in the face of President Obama, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer claims that she felt "threatened" by the President, even though witnesses from both parties intimated that the President was characteristically calm.
These are incidents that have occurred just over the last three or four years, totally ignoring the near half-century of cynical race-baiting that anyone with a marginally functioning brain knows has been going on. Thus, I believe that conservatives who complain about the Race Card are doing little but attempting to obfuscate, deflect and obscure attention away from the obvious fact that if republicans truly want to move past race, they are the ones who have work to do - in their own house.
