Monday’s racism roundup!
PINKO DAILY BRIEFS: There are some serious concerns that Democrats and Obama supporters are going to get complacent and blow this thing. As a little extra motivation to start the week (Colin Powell, $150 million, economy still in free-fall, blah blah blah) I thought I would scrap our usual format and just list the outrageous racism and hate being spewed against Obama. This nice man hung Obama in effigy with a star of David on his forehead from a tree in his front yard. George Will kindly noted that Colin Powell only endorsed Obama because he’s black. ACORN got calls and messages calling their staff porch monkeys and politely suggesting that black families should let their children die. Some helpful robocalls are reminding Indiana voters that Obama is a muslim, while that mavericky McCain campaign has started calling Obama’s tax plan “welfare.” Why would they do that I just don’t know. We don’t talk like that in real America. Oh, and this. Anyway, get to work!
About The Author - Ben Wyskida is a writer, activist, conscientious hedonist and political communications strategist living in Brooklyn. - Visit Ben's site.
John McCain: “Barack Obama wants to step and fetch you higher taxes!”
Ok. He didn’t say that… yet.
What really scares me about the ACORN phone messages is that — if you ignore the hateful content of what they’re saying — the tone of voice is so cheerful. I mean, they could be really charming people when they’re not talking about lynching black people from oak trees.
A few years ago, I canvassed door-to-door for gay marriage in Fresno. What really scared me … and blew me off guard … was how all these right-wing zealots who hated everything we stand for were some of the nicest, sweetest cheerful people I’ve ever met. It was really disarming in a way … here’s this woman who says gay people are sinners and will go to Hell, but she said it in such a pleasant tone.
It was really, really weird.
What I’ve learned from murderous extremists the world over, is that individuals are generally hospitable and kind and ideologies are deadly and infectious and a lot stronger than many individuals. Combine fear, desperation, and an ideology, and you have a recipe for violence. The same people that invite you in for cake and coffee, will tear your throat out with their hands or nod knowingly while someone else does it, under the right circumstances. I’ve seen it Israel, Palestine, the Congo, Kosovo, Bosnia, Rwanda, Sudan, Kenya, Burma, Germany (a group of skinheads got in a fight trying to convince me they weren’t Nazis, just before going out to harass Turkish people), and in the good old United States of America.
The good cheer is so chilling because it’s so genuine, and it’s so genuine, I think, in part, because so many people have an under developed sense of empathy. They are kind because they feel they should be; they have learned to be, not because they recognize our mutual humanity. Teaching that is the hard, and absolutely necessary part. It’s what some of these pretend religious people could be doing, and so often totally fail to do. They teach ideology rather than empathy.