Thursday, February 17, 2005

 

Mau Mauing The "Black Bashers"

Howard Dean, addressing the Democratic Black Caucus (his first day on the job at the DNC, I believe), had the following to say:

“You think the Republican National Committee could get this many people of color in a single room? Only if they had the hotel staff in here.”

In response, of course, the GOP deployed two members of its tiny Burnt-Cork High Dudgeon Disinformation Squad, to deliberately misinterpret Dean's words, and then feign outrage over their misinterpretation:

Maryland Lt. Governor Michael Steele and former Oklahoma Congressman J.C. Watts have issued a statement calling for Howard Dean to apologize over remarks he made while addressing the Democratic Black Caucus last Friday.

From the Steele/Watts release:

We are simply outraged over recent racially insensitive remarks made by Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Howard Dean. In his comments to the Democratic Black Caucus, Dean equates African-Americans who support Republicans to 'hired help.' This kind of backward thinking reminds us of a horrible time in history when blacks were only seen as servants.

Democrats wonder why they are losing electoral ground among African-Americans and other minorities. They need to look no further than the comments of their newly elected leader.

We are demanding that Howard Dean apologize for his racially insensitive and intolerable remarks.

Funny, I don't remember hearing a peep out of either Steele or Watts when Shannon Reeves -- a prominent California Republican and head of the Oakland chapter of the NAACP -- made precisely these points (both what Dean actually said, and what the GOP pretended he said) back in 2003, in an open letter to the leaders of the state Republican Party:

When I travel to speak at Republican conferences and events around the country, wandering through hotels, convention centers and social clubs, as I approach the rooms where I'm scheduled to speak, I am often told by Republicans that I must be in the wrong place. While boarding a shuttle bus to a national convention a few years ago, an attendee who was already on the bus introduced himself to another white guest who was boarding, took one look at me and, in an attempt to be helpful, told me I was on the wrong bus. As a Bush delegate at the 2000 convention in Philadelphia, I proudly wore my delegate's badge and RNC lapel pin as I worked the convention. Regardless of the fact that I was obviously a delegate prominently displaying my credentials, no less than six times did white delegates dismissively tell me to fetch them a taxi or carry their luggage.

Why the selective criticism, I wonder? Could it be that commonsense observations on race are only allowed to be made in public any longer by people of the right party, and the right color?

posted by Michael 9:19 AM