Racist, Indeed?
by John Weckerle
We find ourselves today shaking our heads over another Sandia Tea Party article titled “Racist Indeed,” posted January 19. In the article, Edgewood Town Councilor and official Sandia Tea Party internet spokesman Chuck Ring states that the word “racist” “has lost its meaning except as a buzzword which progressives and other detractors of conservatism love to throw to see if it sticks to the wall like so much scat.” Mr. Ring provides two links to the same “Real Clear Politics” article in which former Bush press secretary Ari Fleisher and Democratic strategist/Obama 2012 pollster appear on CNN with Anderson Cooper. In the video, Mr. Belcher states:
“First of all, do you think you’re going to invite me on the show and then I’m not going to talk about the ridiculousness of that statement? Two things. One is a great way to sort of get people on your side and win voters is to attack their intelligence. So great job there. Really sensible, Herman Cain.
The second part here is, it’s really a teachable moment. You know, if I came on your show, Anderson, and I said, all Jewish people are brainwashed, I probably wouldn’t be invited back to CNN and I assure you the condemnation would be swift and it’d be powerful and be strong. What Herman Cain said was a racist, bigoted statement and he should be treated like a racist and bigoted person who makes those racist and bigoted statements.”
He goes on to say:
“What is the definition of – of – of “racism” or “bigotry”? It is in fact putting a blank statement on a whole group of people. And again, Anderson, I guarantee you, if I came on your program and said that all Jewish people were brainwashed, you wouldn’t invite me back on this program – on CNN. I would not be back on CNN. I’m sure of that. There’s a double standard here. And I think this is – this is a teachable moment.”
And continues later:
Ari, I think I’m not going to be bashful about calling them a racist or a bigot. And it’s a bigoted statement, when you’re calling all black people brainwashed – that’s a bigoted statement. That’s a bigoted statement, Ari?”
Before we get started on the main topic, we’d like to address what is probably a minor issue. We’ve never thought much of the all-too-frequent scatological references that pepper the author’s writing, and we’re starting to find his fixation with feces a little disturbing. We can imagine that this kind of thing plays well to a certain audience, but we consider it crude – and while a little crudeness never hurt anybody, a whole lot of it raises questions regarding the mentality producing it.
Moving onward…
We’re going to start right out and dismiss the issue of whether or not Mr. Belcher referred to Mr. Cain as a racist and then later said he had not. Neither assertion is at issue here, because both are true. Nor are we going to deny that Mr. Belcher is a Democratic strategist involved with the Obama reelection campaign, or theorize on what extent to which his remarks were or were not motivated by those positions. What we are more interested in is Mr. Ring’s apparent characterization of Mr. Belcher’s comments as simply gratuitous accusations to smear a “conservative.”
Mr. Belcher was not making a general statement about Mr. Cain’s character; his remarks were in response to specific statements made by Mr. Cain. As is often the case with these articles and the associated videos, however, some important information is missing, and what is missing in this case is any direct reference to the statement by Mr. Cain to which Mr. Belcher was reacting. This was not hard to find, and is as follows:
“Because many African-Americans have been brainwashed into not being open-minded, not even considering a conservative point of view. I have received some of that same vitriol simply because I am running for the Republican nomination as a conservative. So it’s just brainwashing and people not being open-minded, pure and simple… Now, the good news is I happen to believe that a third to 50 percent of the black Americans in this country, they are open-minded. I meet them every day. They stop me in the airport. And so this whole notion that all black Americans are necessarily going to stay and vote Democrat and vote for Obama, that’s simply not true. More and more black Americans are thinking for themselves. And that’s a good thing.”
Now, acknowledging that some portion of Mr. Belcher’s apparent outrage may have had an political/ideological basis, we can say that we can understand where some people might be justified in considering this statement bigoted and/or racist – most notably, the people on the receiving end of Mr. Cain’s apparent observations. Mr. Cain negatively (and unfairly) characterizes an entire ethnic group – African Americans – as brainwashed and not thinking for themselves. We consider the characterization insulting, and see little credible argument against Mr. Belcher’s description of these remarks as “bigoted and racist.” We would, however, be gratified if Mr. Belcher and everyone else would limit themselves to using such terms to describe statements and positions, and not move past that to applying them to individuals – which Mr. Belcher did in this case.
As for the trivialization and/or of the word “racist,” we’d like to remind our readers of the Sandia Tea Party spokesman’s past involvement (and that of his favorite sources of “information”) in this regard (see examples in our prior articles here, here and here).
We’re not sure why this months-old exchange has become of such interest to the Sandia Tea Party. Mr. Cain has been out of the race for some time. We can understand why the Tea Party would like to wish the word “racist” out of the dictionary: fairly or unfairly, the word has been very often applied to the Tea Party in general, and we can see why they’d be uncomfortable with it.
We find the Sandia Tea Party assertion that the word “racist” has lost its meaning to be false. The word, and the related “bigot,” “bigotry,” and “racism,” are as ugly as ever. They should not be used lightly, or carelessly, as a means to dodge/deflect criticism, or as a way to smear those with opposing ideologies, no matter what those ideologies may be. However, the fact that the words are ugly does not mean that they never apply. Those who make blanket negative statements about groups of people – ethnic or religious – should understand that their statements are likely to, and should, draw such criticisms. There should be no expectation of leeway simply because a person ascribes to a particular ideology, be it conservative, liberal, or anything else.
With all that said, we’d like to point out once again that “controversies” of this nature are a distraction from the real and important issues facing us. As we stated in one of our previous articles: if we focus on idiocy, then that’s what we’ll see, and we will remain distracted from and divided upon the central issues – not because we cannot find common ground, but because we were never looking for it.