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Jim Crow's Muslim America

Watch this video and join me in saying: Wow.

When Andrew Sullivan posted the video above, his Atlantic colleague, Ta-Nehisi Coates (who is black) piped up to say he thinks it's unfair. Coates likens it to the dreaded media's televising of the most ignorant Negroes they can find whenever something "black" happens, so America can assume we're all that stupid. I dunno.

I think it's valid to discuss, inasmuch as folks like these are just the unvarnished versions of those who think Obama's middle name—hiss! boo! Hussein—actually tells you something about him. It might be that hideous things like this, from true cretins, are most useful in getting white folks to take a good, hard look in the mirror at themselves: Do I, deep down and with better than a fourth grade education, really agree with these morons? If so, what does that make me? There are plenty of well-educated folks happy to tell a TV camera that having a president with "Hussein" in his name is a nightmare. What's the difference, really? Classy bigotry versus ignorant bigotry isn't much of a choice.

Speaking of videos, you cannot miss Donna Brazile's impassioned appeal to America not to be distracted by race. She reminds us that we need to be proud of how far we've come on race, and proud enough to remember that we're better than Jim Crow. Because Jim Crow is all it is when we politely, or impolitely, demand that our fear of "Muslims" be accorded respect and deference. Let's call inveighing against "Muslims" (we're at war with them, you know) and "A-rab" middle names what it is: just another way to keep blacks and non-Christians at the back of the bus.

Like Brazile, I'm afraid that I'll wake up in 31 days knowing that I'll have to tell my bi-racial children their mother grew up under Jim Crow and they will, too. Vote for whoever you want, but here's the bottom line: If you care whether or not Obama "really" is a Muslim, however expansive your vocabulary, that hideous video speaks for you.

Comments

That's Americans for you!

Can't hold their liquor.

Can't hold back their racism.

God, please, bless America and turn the machines kerfluey only for Republicrats.

Posted by: Sarah Barracuda on 10/09/08 at 5:36 PM Respond

I remember a small child coming to get a dring of water from a fountain in a Southern town, I offered to hold her up so she could reach the fountain & her little eyes were frightened, I had no idea it was A WHITES ONLY water fountain. Never forgot that little girls eyes
How far have we come? Excuse me? We all bleed! WAKE UP.

Posted by: kindrdkate on 10/09/08 at 8:10 PM Respond

My husband & I saw this & could not get it!
WHY? What do these people have for brains? How can anyone who calls his/herself an American have so much hatred/vitrol in ones heart.No sense of decency & above all no dignity.If these idiots cared about their country they would become "human" & join the human race. What ignorance abounds in America! I WONDER IF IT'S TOO LATE FOR A UNITED AMERICA!

Posted by: marbur on 10/09/08 at 8:20 PM Respond

Let's not forget...by definition half of Americans have below average intelligence, and they get to vote too. I believe that's how we wound up with the shrub.

Posted by: well... on 10/09/08 at 10:38 PM Respond

I know people just like this. I live in Western, North Carolina. I imagine that there are people like this all over the world.

I have walked (sober)into parties that looked like a reunion of the cast of Road Warrior. Teeth optional. It was only my faith that gave me the courage to say "No" when I heard falsehood. Who among us will educate rather than condemn? Why do we work to expose an opponents lies rather than expound the truth of our hero?

The twenty-first century bigotry is mostly class-based from what I see. I try to advocate the rich to the poor and visa versa.

One "hillbilly" I know, when he is sober, is as kind and gentle a soul as you will ever meet. He has a lot of lore he has shared with me--and I will share with you when you're hungry.

"Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."

Posted by: zendeviant on 10/10/08 at 3:07 AM Respond

Juan Cole reprinted his own great piece from February about Semitic names in American history: http://tinyurl.com/49l8de.
Recommended reading for everyone.

Posted by: Tim J. on 10/10/08 at 7:46 AM Respond

Obama just can’t seem to mask his anti-Semitism. Yet some liberal Jews continue to endorse him despite that almost all his advisors are pro-palestinian and hostile to Israel. Obama would be bad for Israel. Libya's leader endorses Obama. Enough said.

Posted by: Josh Cohen on 10/10/08 at 8:35 AM Respond

You know, you can find crackheads, alcoholics, racists and pinhead inbreds all over the USA... but there are just more in states hardest hit by poverty and a lack of education.

This is, perhaps, more an argument for sex education EARLY... frankly, people like this shouldn't breed, but they do.

I know a guy in pot-growing Mendocino county that is as bad -- sober, he's a nice guy who says he's a Hillary supporter... but drunk, he's at heart an illogical racist who cannot say WHY he feels what he does... he just does.

Another woman will vote Barr because she "can't vote for a black man", but her feelings come from having been "sold" out by her father as a child -- years of abuse by men of all colors. She at least can articulate her deep-seated racism - not that it is fair to transfer that to Obama -- but at least she doesn't buy into the McCain/Palin race-baiting and plans to vote BARR.

-----

there are all kinds of people in this country. Personally, I think a lot of the division between us could be addressed by fixing issues of poverty and education -- a solution that would work here in the United States AND the rest of the world.

Just say NO to race-baiting, polarizing, incitation of violence.

America is BETTER that that.

And a good read here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-schaeffer/obama-will-be-one-of-the_b_132843.html

Posted by: MissouriMom on 10/11/08 at 8:37 AM Respond

Josh Cohen- why don't you give us an example of Obama's antisemitism?

A second point is this- Obama is running for the President of the Unites States, not the nation of Israel. Shouldn't we be primarily concerned with whether a candidate will meet the needs of our nation before that of another?

Posted by: Redleg on 10/12/08 at 11:28 PM Respond

Redleg, you are obviously an anti-Semite.

Posted by: Josh Cohen on 10/13/08 at 11:18 AM Respond

I've kith and kin as bad. If I learned anything from reading MLK it's how to deal with them correctly: tell them the truth with love for them in my heart.

Posted by: rjgarrick on 10/14/08 at 8:38 PM Respond

People who think Maria and Jo and are christian names and Aishe and Hussein turkish/muslem name? Chok! horror! what morons

Posted by: radh on 10/18/08 at 9:19 AM Respond