Code Words For Racial Setback
Lots of good PC-bashing fun over that KC Star race-baiter who informed us that when we discuss Obama’s politics, we’re racists. “Socialist” = code word for “black.”
But as ridiculous as that sounds, the unfortunate truth is that rather than bringing us forward in race relations, the candidacy of Barack Obama has brought out some of the ugliest sides of our society, and could scar us for decades to come.
No, I’m not talking about the closet racists or the brazen bigots that this campaign season has drawn out. (And no, smart aleck, by closet racists and brazen bigots I am not refering to small-town-gun-toting-religion-clinger-bashing Obama, Unproud Michelle, America-God-damning Wright, Western-Civilization-exploding Ayers or even backwoods-cracker-hating Murtha.) Because despite the best poking around efforts of the media, we really haven’t encountered much hidden or naked racism among Obama’s opponents.
Perhaps due to our tortured history of earnestly addressing its race problems, America is no fetid backwater of outdated bigotry like, say, Europe, where they still firebomb immigrant housing. You can always find some loudmouth with a case of racial Tourette’s syndrome to quote, and polling has found some vestiges of anti-black racism, though that picture may need to be more closely examined, as indicators of anti-old white guy racism and anti-old white woman racism/sexism have been largely overlooked though clearly evident in the same data. But polling has also found no evidence of the so-called Bradley factor in the Democratic primaries, where race among Reagan Democrats (code word for “Neanderthal red-baiting gap-toothed NASCAR-enthusiast other-hating throwbacks”) was supposed to be Hilary Clinton’s ace in the hole. We’ve even seen commentators reduced to saying that evidence of non-racism is evidence of racism. Tragically, the Democratic race has been rife with racism. Look at this firebrand priest, attacking racial entitlement. No, not affirmative action, silly. Hillary’s sense of white entitlement.
But I fear for my country, and the way this election has set race relations back.
We’ve seen the NAACP encouraging race-baiting … nodding with approval at one nitwit’s Halloween creche of McCain in robes chasing Obama with a baseball bat. Black rape stereotypes … strangely muted outrage on that one. Where’s Al Sharpton when you need him? The candidate himself blaming the president of the United States for race riots that haven’t happened yet.
Rather than making race something we can talk about openly, or even ignore to discuss a black man’s candidacy on its merits, this election has taken vast swaths of the English language and placed them off limits, with a goal, apparently, of preventing us from talking about the black man’s candidacy at all, in anything but terms of glowing approval.
“Socialist,” code word for “black.”
“Palling around with terrorists” and plain old “terrorist,” code words for “black.”
“Flashy athletes, Messiah and celebrity,” code words for “black.”
“Young, inexperienced, with a funny name,” code words for “black.” “Elitist,” code word for black. “Arrogant,” code word for black. “Risky,” code word for black. “That one,” code word for black. “Articulate, bright and clean,” code words for black. “Hussein” and “Muslim,” code words for black. “Pro-America” and “patriotism,” code words for not black. Here’s a good one. “Fall backward,” a tearful Hillary’s code word for black.
Some of those are harsh terms. Never mind that every one of those terms accurately describes either Obama, his positions, his close associates, his inescapable religious heritage or some aspect of the political landscape entirely independent of race, in what has been a bitter campaign with a lot of harsh, fear- and hate-mongering rhetoric in all directions on a wide variety of issues. “Old,” “white,” “male,” “cancer,” “Washington insider,” “Bush,” “100 years of war,” “corporate greed,” ”affair,” “cranky,” ”hair trigger,” “impulsive,” “panic.” “Young,” “inexperienced,” “beauty queen,” “corrupt,” “liar,” “Christian fundamentalist,” “small-town,” “mavericky,” “Fargo,” “working mother,” etc.
There have been a couple of nitwits who toss out terms like “uppity,” much as there have been nitwits on the other side who toss out terms like “redneck.”
But it’s not clear why everyone needs any code words at all. It’s not exactly a secret that Obama is … black. The charge against the McCain campaign is that, in fear America’s bigot vestiges will fail to notice that inescapable fact, it is tossing out all this coded language. That has come to include anything that could possibly describe the merits or lack thereof of the Democratic candidate, his history and his policies. It’s a neat trick that leaves the McCain campaign no alternative but to simply read from Obama campaign literature … because even quoting him directly, with terms like “wealth-sharing,” is to veer dangerously into vile racism. And steer way clear of the opponent’s resume, because it’s a minefield of racially charged terms like “community organizer.”
It isn’t like we haven’t had a slew of highly professional mayors, governors, judges and Cabinet secretaries who are black, going back four decades now. I’m afraid that thanks to the code-wordification we’ve seen both by the Obama campaign and those camp followers who would advance it, no black person will ever be allowed to run or serve on his or her merits alone. Even black Republicans, thanks to the Obamist media’s zeal to highlight the political potential of race-baiting among Democrats.
The trend is pretty clear. If Obama wins, you can look forward to any number of domestic and foreign policy terms being classified as code words for black. Thanks to the race obsession of much of the national media, a President Obama will be doomed to see all his actions viewed through a racial prism, regardless of the merits or lack thereof of his words and actions. It will not be possible for us to have a normal national political life. Not because Americans are racists. But because some of the strongest voices and most powerful gatekeepers of the national narrative have decided they are.
And if he loses, look for “Democratic candidate,” “2008 campaign,” “withdrawal from Iraq,” “negotiating without pre-conditions,” ”taxes,” “middle class,” “solar energy,” “limited offshore drilling,” ”nationalized health care,” “Kennedy-like,” “Chicago,” “Hawaii,” “Indonesia,” “grandmother,” ”turban,” “youth vote,” “generational change,” heck, “Hope” and “Change” to be placed off limits as code words for black. “Biden” and probably “hairplugs,” too. Along with, of course, the words “race,” “Obama,” and “black.”
Obama himself must be getting pretty tired of it. Even if he thinks it works to his advantage to play the race-baiting card, you’d think that, if he has any self-respect, sooner or later President Obama will want to be judged on his own merits and he’ll tell people just to shut up about the race thing.
Uh oh. I just said “self-respect.” That isn’t a code word for black, is it?
Related:
Malkin, In Defense of Pennsylvania
Oh no, this one’s gotta be a codeword-apalooza. Hot Air, The Comprehensive Argument against Obama.
Gateway’s got your hate crimes: Lefty thugs vandalize Norm Coleman’s home and Media refuses to release vid of Obama toasting his Muslim Jew-hating pal. Hang on there, buddy … isn’t Muslim Jew-hater code for …
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 11:05 am Comments (5) on Wednesday, October 22, 2008
5 Responses to “Code Words For Racial Setback”
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October 22nd, 2008 at 11:39 am
the candidacy of Barack Obama has brought out some of the ugliest sides of our society, and could scar us for decades to come.
I’ve thought this for a while now. When everything is “racist” then nothing is. I guarantee you’re about to see “Don’t Blame Me, I’m a Racist” t-shirts after the first year of an Obama presidency.
While playing the race card (and then consistently denying doing so), this is Obama’s true contribution to civil society – he and his followers have so leached the word “racism” of any meaning that the charge no longer stings.
So he’s right, he is post-racial.
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:34 pm
For a while after 9/11, Americans of all flavors were united. It felt good. But I’ve watched it all split apart over this interminable campaign season, just as if it never was. IMO, the major blame falls to Obama, the “post-racial” candidate, whose real color is greed for power.
October 22nd, 2008 at 2:50 pm
The Thunder Run has linked to this post in the – Web Reconnaissance for 10/22/2008 A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day…so check back often.
October 22nd, 2008 at 3:41 pm
[...] (h/t Lynn; see also, Jules Crittenden) Posted by Jeff G. @ 1:37 pm | Trackback SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: “Is there no word that [...]
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:01 pm
Nice. I’ve been wondering for a while now why anyone would think we “racists” need a code word for “black” in the instance of this election, when all a body has to do is LOOK AT THE MAN IN QUESTION: No code is required. He is quite clearly black. The only possible reason for declaring so many words to be racist code is to render the words themselves unusable–for any purpose. The language is debased and the plain meaning of words is destroyed. If they can do this with these words, they can do it with any words. So–now we have not only “the N-word.” We have also the “S-word” and the “U-word” and the “L-word” and all the rest, and soon there will be no words we can actually, you know, SPEAK. This is the logical outcome of classifying speech; soon we will criminalize some of it–as in “hate speech.” Then we come, logically, to thought crimes–speech being, as it must be, the exposition of thought.
Well, God help us, is all I can say. We are at war with East Asia. We have always been at war with East Asia.
The only thing Orwell got wrong was the date.