Etymoronology
Apparently “socialist” is another code word for “black.” Kansas City Star:
By Lewis Diuguid, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
The “socialist” label that Sen. John McCain and his GOP presidential running mate Sarah Palin are trying to attach to Sen. Barack Obama actually has long and very ugly historical roots.
J. Edgar Hoover, director of the FBI from 1924 to 1972, used the term liberally to describe African Americans who spent their lives fighting for equality.
Those freedom fighters included the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who led the Civil Rights Movement; W.E.B. Du Bois, who in 1909 helped found the NAACP which is still the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization; Paul Robeson, a famous singer, actor and political activist who in the 1930s became involved in national and international movements for better labor relations, peace and racial justice; and A. Philip Randolph, who founded and was the longtime head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and a leading advocate for civil rights for African Americans.
McCain and Palin have simply reached back in history to use an old code word for black. It set whites apart from those deemed unAmerican and those who could not be trusted during the communism scare.
Shame on McCain and Palin.
Either that, or it’s a code word for “wealth-sharing enthusiast.” W.E.B. Dubois and Paul Robeson were socialists. A quick google search indicates Randolph was, too. Some dispute about Martin Luther King Jr. Apparently some people advised him to steer clear of socialists, and he had a fondness for socialist ideas. KC Star scribbler doesn’t get into what Hoover might have meant when he called white people reds. Code word for socialist?
Now, some people say J. Edgar Hoover thought “sexy” was a man in a dress. But I’m not getting that off Obama, even though I’ve heard that some people think he is. Is sexy, I mean.
But I wasn’t thinking of J. Edgar Hoover or the civil rights movement at all when I heard Obama let slip that bit about wealth-sharing and I thought, much like Joe the Plumber and John McCain, hey, that sounds like a code word for socialism.
Anyway, I’m going to have to call “Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist” code words for “moron.” It’s beyond moronic. To paraphrase MLK Jr, it’s tragic that, at this late date, we cannot judge a man by the content of his political utterances without being accused of talking about the color of his skin.
Eric at Classical Values is stunned to learn he’s a racist. All this time, he thought he was just a capitalist pig. Observes that if “socialist” is code for “black,” then “National Socialist” is apparently code for “black Muslim.”
Don Surber: Darn! Now we need a new code word.
OTB: Karl Marx was black? Whatever, we’re all socialists now.
Etymoronologist Comments from Left Field, longwindedly: “Socialist” and “welfare” … racist dog whistles!
Says he’s hyper-sensitive to racial bigotry, which is an understatement. More like hysterically sensitive to racial bogustry. But hey, dude, what you got against dogs!?! Anti-caninist whistle-hater!
Hang on, I feel a haiku coming on.
Racist dog whistles
“Soci-a-list” and “welfare”
Talented canine
Related, though largely unremarked upon: NOYF, “Murtha Clarifies Again: Pennsylvanians Are Toothless Cousin-Humping Mongoloids”
While we’re on the subject … socialism, that is … here’s a view from Europe, hotbed of social democracy on recent expressions of Democratic socialism. Poligazette.
Topics: linguistics, racism
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:09 pm on Tuesday, October 21, 2008
7 Responses to “Etymoronology”
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October 21st, 2008 at 8:43 pm
Lewis Diuguid, you have beclowned yourself.
October 21st, 2008 at 8:48 pm
By the way, I had a slightly longer comment, but the filter called it spammy. Like other posters have mentioned, there was nothing spam-like about it. No links, no naughty words, nothing. I even tried changing some of the words around, but no luck. It wouldn’t post until I limited it to just the sentence above.
October 21st, 2008 at 9:09 pm
If socialist is off limits, I guess I’ll just go full out and call Obama the Communist that he is. As I said to a very liberal friend of mine that point out that Obama is half black and half white. It’s not the black or the white, it’s the red that worries me.
October 21st, 2008 at 9:45 pm
Silly me. I always thought it was a code word for “Jew.” I guess I need a new, updated, politically correct decoder ring.
October 21st, 2008 at 11:41 pm
Maybe we should all just stop using words. Then we wouldn’t be uttering racist code words since, apparently, everything is a code for racism or black.
October 22nd, 2008 at 3:19 am
Hello!
(Codeword=racist)
October 22nd, 2008 at 5:21 pm
Duiguid is one of the main reasons my father and I both cancelled our subscription to the KC (Red) Star. The guy’s a moron, but he fits right in over there.