One year later: Right-wing media routinely call Obama racist
On July 28, 2009, Glenn Beck called President Obama a "racist" with a "deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture." While Beck has reportedly lost more than 100 advertisers since he made those comments, right-wing media figures now routinely call Obama or members of his administration "racist."
Advertisers drop Beck's show
At least 100 advertisers have reportedly dropped Beck's Fox News show. At least 100 advertisers have reportedly dropped their ads from Beck's Fox News program since he called Obama a "racist."
Right-wing media now routinely call Obama "racist"
Beck distorts Obama's comments to accuse him of "racism." On the June 14 editions of his radio and television shows, Beck misrepresented comments Obama made during a 1995 interview to claim Obama did not want to meet with BP CEO Tony Hayward because he is a "white CEO" and that those comments were "code language" that "sounds like racism," "stereotyping," and "profiling." However, as Obama's full comments make clear, he was actually discussing personal responsibility on the part of both blacks and whites.
Limbaugh calls Obama administration a "racist" "regime" During the April 26 edition of his radio show, Rush Limbaugh discussed Arizona's controversial immigration law and claimed that "not everybody thinks that civil rights are the end-all and be-all of every single issue." Limbaugh then cited a campaign video in which Obama discussed voter turnout, including among minorities and women, in 2010. Limbaugh then said, "This is the regime at its racist best.
Limbaugh calls Obama "the most-racial president" During the July 22 edition of his radio show, Limbaugh said, "So we're supposed to have a post-racial president. Instead, Barack Obama is the most-racial president."
Breitbart, Asman agree Obama is "defending racism" in New Black Panthers case, which is "virtually the same" as being racist. On the July 6 edition of Fox Business Network's America's Nightly Scoreboard, Andrew Breitbart agreed with host David Asman, who stated that while it "may or may not be true" that Obama is a racist, "in letting the Black Panthers off," Obama "is defending racists," which is "virtually the same."
Discussing New Black Panthers case, Severin rants about Obama being "demonstrably a racist" During the June 30 edition of his radio show, Jay Severin discussed the New Black Panthers and claimed that "as long as Barack Obama is president, there is a complete double standard, and a lot of it is based on race" and that "Barack Obama is a racist." Severin added, "Barack Obama is -- the president of the United States is demonstrably a racist."
Hannity defends Beck's statement that Obama is "a racist" During the March 9 edition of his Fox News show, Sean Hannity questioned whether Beck had said anything "over the top." Democratic strategist Penny Lee cited Beck's statement that Obama was racist. Hannity responded, "But wait a minute. Wait. Hang on a second. When the president hangs out with Jeremiah Wright for 20 years, I'm -- can one conclude that there are issues with the president -- black liberation theology?"
Blogger Pamela Geller called Obama racist. A March 23 post on Pamela Geller's Atlas Shrugged blogged was headlined "Racist Obama will not be photographed with Jewish prime minister of Israel."
Right-wing media call administration officials "racist"
Limbaugh accuses Eric Holder, DOJ of racism During the July 21 edition of his radio show, Limbaugh discussed the "amazing story of Shirley Sherrod," asking, "If we're going to fire Shirley Sherrod on the basis of racism, then why the hell does Eric Holder still have a job?" Limbaugh later claimed that Holder "has ignored the voting and civil rights of white people in Philadelphia all because the perpetrators of the voter intimidation, the New Black Panther Party, were black."
RedState.com accuses "African American Attorney General" Holder of "blatant reverse discrimination." In a July 7 RedState.com post on the New Black Panthers case, Dave Poff wrote:
It's impossible to believe that President Obama and his Administration actually buys in to this idea that we have moved beyond race and into a new generation of a color blind society, when you consider the blatant reverse discrimination his Attorney General (yes, his African American Attorney General) Eric Holder has been pursuing in the name of leveling the playing field in matters of Justice. Holder, it would seem, is still judging people by the color of their skin. [emphasis in original]
Gingrich: Holder "should certainly resign over the racism inherent in the Black Panther case." On the July 19 edition of Fox News' Hannity, Newt Gingrich said Holder "should certainly resign over the racism inherent in the Black Panther case."
Wash. Times: "[I]t is only under the Obama administration that top appointees have allowed and even encouraged race-based enforcement as either tacit or open policy." In a July 6 editorial headlined "Black Panther case: Racism rules," The Washington Times parroted the discredited claims of former DOJ attorney and right-wing activist J. Christian Adams that the Justice Department "announced that civil rights laws would not be enforced to protect white voters," which the Times wrote was proof that the Obama administration has " allowed and even encouraged race-based enforcement as either tacit or open policy."
You call us racists and we're gonna call Obama a racist...
Well... if you have a substantive point, why don't you try making it?
If there's a scrap of evidence to support your claims, why don't you present it?
And when it's pointed out that you are LYING (not racist - LYING) and that your "evidence" is completely, demonstrably FALSE, why don't you stop telling LIES?
If you don't want to be called racists, stop saying that Obama is a racist when the only evidence you have to support it is, "He's Black, so he must hate white people!"
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They're racist, yes. But also breathtakingly dishonest and mind-bogglingly stupid to boot.
I of course, disagreed, calling them instead a racial organization, with is much different than a racist organization.
He of course, sees no need for them any longer, because we have a black president...
This reverse-racism meme has worked well on the extreme right. It is their perfect excuse to justify their own racism. Finally, Fox can just come out and say what they have only been implying for years. it really is what watching Fox is all about...codifying your own beliefs regardless of truth.
My husband and I were with relatives recently when we were told that we as Americans have "helped black people all they need" and that we should turn our beneficience towards "American Indians."
How do you argue with logic like that...we just walked away so as not to have to engage.
A lot of people do not understand the difference between racism and racialism. The United States is a racialist society, which means that in our society there is an emphasis placed on race by the majority in our society. Most American citizens are decent and upright, but there are racists in our society. This MMFA article provides the evidence of said racism, and who the perpetrators are from the right-wing.
As you indicate, the NAACP is a racial organization committed to fight racism in a racialist society. As racism continues from the right and elsewhere, the NAACP will always be needed to serve the needs of African Americans, and their other supporters including white citizens. The NAACP is open to all races who believe in fighting for equality.
Surely that is the next theme to spew from the vomit-box that is Fake News.
The current right wing ideology, often called neo-conservatism, was developed around the idea of empowering those who already were wealthy and powerful. A philosophy driven by the ideas of Ayn Rand, Milton Friedman, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan.
We've given their ideas about three decades to work and it's resulted in massive national debts, societal and family breakdown, a weaker middle class, and a worse deal for just about everyone except the wealthy elite.
The Republican party continues to push this ideology on behalf of the ultra wealthy neo-conservatives. They have no new ideas so they resort to tactics of division, distortion, and demonization. Outrageous claims like President Obama being a racist are part of this strategy of appealing to the worst aspects of our national psychology. We're so busy focusing on a daily barrage of outlandish claims and hateful attacks that we can't come together to diagnose and fix a badly broken system.
It would be nice to think that people have evolved enough now, 2,000 years later, to actually be able to keep a democracy.
As far as they're concerned, he's exotic, "the other," maybe not born in the USA.
But getting a political foe to recoil in anger . . . that's another matter. John McÇain, whose fuse is legendarily short, fell victim to the strategy in the 2000 Republican primaries. George W. Bush strategists (read: Rove) phoned South Carolinians, asking what they would think if they learned McCain had sired a black child. At the same time, the McCain entourage included a dark-skinned girl, the McCains' adopted daughter from Bangladesh. Wow -- did that ever work!
That was an example of using racist tactics on a Caucasian candidate. Getting a black candidate or office holder to recoil in anger could pay even larger returns. That, I suspect, is what's behind Fox News' racist push against Obama:
push him over the edge.
Instead, he disarmingly calls himself a "mutt." How frustrating that must be. Look for Fox and friends to keep on pushing. Someday he could rise to the bait.
Incidentally, when the talking heads confront one another on the racism issue, the first utterance is usually, "Now I know you're not racist, but . . . "
Obama's attackers may not be racist by upbringing. But if they resort to asking "Who does he think he is?" (code for "Why is he so uppity?"), that is racism -- pure and simple.
Jerry Elsea
push him over the edge.
It must frustrate the right wing media greatly that Obama won't play his proper role as a evil liberal scary black man. It doesn't stop them from giving his image a death by a thousand cuts though.
They want to feed into the we are under attack hysteria they have been building. It definitely has a "Who does he think he is?" aspect to it. First off, how dare he not be conservative and be in office. When they bring in the racial element it morphs into, how dare he not be white and not act black. The expectation in their media portrayal that he follow their stereotypes reveals this attitude. What they won't say openly is: How dare he be black and not conservative and not follow the stereotype that reinforces our media campaign.
Like so many other concepts in our culture, the right wing media machine has led the mainstream media around by the collar in changing the "rules" of what constitutes racism now. It appears the definition has been narrowed(dumbed) down to include only the utterance of specific racial epitaphs or a direct and unequivocal admission that you have used your position to harm someone of another race directly, because they were of another race to qualify as racism.
The concept of white privilege and institutional racism is not allowed in the narrative any longer. Creating villainous threats and conspiracies from those with different ethnic, religious, and racial backgrounds, or different sexual orientation is not racism or discrimination any longer either.
No, it seems because it suits the agenda of the money making media machine, only the most stupidly blatant examples of racism are called out for what they really are any longer.
The right wing media has followed his lead, and drug the discourse even further down into the muck.
And that stat isn't made up, it's the truth.
They are a part of a large corporate media enterprise that is pushing a political agenda. They, like you and me, have first amendment rights but they also have a responsibility as media celebrities with a nationwide audience to present honest, fair, factual analysis and reporting.
They don't represent anybody in this country. They hold no elected office.
They obviously are representing someone. They get paid handsomely and have the support of their networks. They probably have more influence than any single elected official.