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  1. The Myth of a Post-Racial America

    trinilikesalt:

    Or, how Mitt Romney went and got me all riled up.

    I saw Mittens’s response to the response to his NAACP speech yesterday, and I posted about it last night while laying in bed, incredulous.  It bothered me then - but as my brain began to wake up this morning and I began to think about it some more, I got more than just bothered.  

    Mitt Romney went in front of what is arguably the most well-known and respected body of African Americans with a prepared speech that clearly was not intended to try to convince anyone there to vote for him.  He went in front of the NAACP to make a speech that was intended to demonstrate to those who would vote for him that he wasn’t afraid to tell “those people” what they needed to hear.  His response, later in the day, was intended to drive that point home to all those who think he isn’t “conservative enough”.

    Mitt Romney’s words yesterday were deliberately insensitive and manipulative.  He used, and is using, African Americans, in order to score points with another constituent.  He has no intention of even considering, much less addressing, the issues that are important to the constituent he was actually in front of - as evidenced by his complete avoidance of talking about the voter ID efforts underway in many parts of the country, which is a Republican-driven effort, and which many in the African American community (rightly) see as an underhanded effort to prevent poor minority voters from being eligible to vote.  

    Mitt Romney, the nominee for the Republican party for the office of President of the United States, and the supposed representative of those who identify with that party, got up in front of a body that purports to represent almost 13% of the population of this country, and blatantly and deliberately used them to gain favor with conservative white voters.  He did so by insulting them, and their - and our - intelligence.  He brushed aside the needs and concerns of a group with comparatively little economic and political power, in order to pander to the group that holds that power.  He sought - and seeks - to tap into and to take advantage of the deep-set (and completely misinformed) insecurity that many who might identify as conservative have about black people.  In so doing, he is promoting the idea that there is an “us” and a “them” - and he’s quite willing to use “them” so that those he actually considers important enough to care about will vote for him. 

    And then he essentially called the NAACP lazy freeloaders for disagreeing with him - literally, the oldest racial stereotype about black people in the book.

    If that’s not a racist act by a racist man, I don’t know what is.

    12 July, 2012
    Reblogged from trinilikesalt
    Notes (127)

    2. 127 notes

    1. koios7 reblogged this from aimee-b-loved
    2. oheyyyimtimi reblogged this from chimie45
    3. mechcanuck reblogged this from olivertwisted
    4. sarijw reblogged this from aimee-b-loved
    5. lucystoner reblogged this from slackmo
    6. wide-eyedwalker reblogged this from progressivehumanity
    7. blueheavensangel reblogged this from aimee-b-loved
    8. chimie45 reblogged this from aimee-b-loved and added:
      Brilliant
    9. halfbakedidea said: nailed it.
    10. tymethiefslongerthoughts reblogged this from trinilikesalt
    11. vieuxtemps reblogged this from slackmo
    12. slackmo reblogged this from trinilikesalt
    13. yperspective reblogged this from trinilikesalt and added:
      Agreed. Romney is an example of the worst things about politicians and politics today: No articulable position on...
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