MoDo Channels Racist Voices
By LisaB on September 13, 2009 at 2:01 PM in Current Affairs
MooDoo makes an embarrassing personal admission in today’s NYT. She’s hearing voices. She hears things that don’t exist. And, apparently, her eyesight isn’t too good either.
Her piece in today’s NYT calls Joe Wilson’s outburst during Obama’s speech an example of terrible, regional racism, where MooDoo particularly slams South Carolina, gratis. To oppose Obama and, worse, to do so openly, is to show racist colors. And Joe Wilson probably thought he was just rudely responding to Obama’s assertion that others are lying when they suggest illegal immigrants will get government sponsored health care in Obama’s plan. Clearly Wilson was confused about what the real issue is and always will be – race.
Surrounded by middle-aged white guys — a sepia snapshot of the days when such pols ran Washington like their own men’s club — Joe Wilson yelled “You lie!” at a president who didn’t.
But, fair or not, what I heard was an unspoken word in the air: You lie, boy!
The “Joe Wilson kerfluffle” continues to provoke debate. Was it the worst protocol breach in US history? How could anyone ever accuse Obama not-your-father’s-politician of lying? And while I’ve seen arguments that such a “breach of protocol” shows Obama is not as respected as a white president would be, I’ve not seen anyone yet claim the need to finish Wilson’s sentence for him.
Until MooDoo. She “heard” the word “boy.” The “unspoken word in the air” that absolutely proves it’s all about race and nothing else. That little voice in the air convinces her it has been about race all along. “Boy” was not said until MooDoo said it. Must have been in her brain, for sure. With all the articles I’ve seen on this, it has certainly never occurred to me to finish Joe Wilson’s “you lie” by adding “boy.” (That’s MooDoo’s latent racist thinking.)
I’ve been loath to admit that the shrieking lunacy of the summer — the frantic efforts to paint our first black president as the Other, a foreigner, socialist, fascist, Marxist, racist, Commie, Nazi; a cad who would snuff old people; a snake who would indoctrinate kids — had much to do with race.
———
But Wilson’s shocking disrespect for the office of the president — no Democrat ever shouted “liar” at W. when he was hawking a fake case for war in Iraq — convinced me: Some people just can’t believe a black man is president and will never accept it.“A lot of these outbursts have to do with delegitimizing him as a president,” said Congressman Jim Clyburn, a senior member of the South Carolina delegation. Clyburn, the man who called out Bill Clinton on his racially tinged attacks on Obama in the primary, pushed Pelosi to pursue a formal resolution chastising Wilson.
But MooDoo isn’t satisfied with showing how her nasty little mind works, she’s got to indulge in some classic logic errors. In print.
For two centuries, the South has feared a takeover by blacks or the feds. In Obama, they have both.
And South Carolina is particularly racist.
“A good many people in South Carolina really reject the notion that we’re part of the union,” said Don Fowler, the former Democratic Party chief who teaches politics at the University of South Carolina. He observed that when slavery was destroyed by outside forces and segregation was undone by civil rights leaders and Congress, it bred xenophobia.
MooDoo goes on to say that Obama’s clear elegance and erudition cause people to be more fearful than they should. Southerners, after all, aren’t just afraid of gun-toting gangstas, the AME church down the road and black-owned businesses; they’re absolutely terrified of walking black thesauri. Give me a break. Blaming South Carolina or the Southern US for the outburst of one politician MooDoo doesn’t agree with is a great example of faulty logic. She believes that what may or may not be true of one or some is definitely true of all – hence all the South fears feds and blacks. (But that doesn’t quite work, the South has many military bases, arguably the most diverse institution in the US. Oh, nevermind.)
Of course, if MooDoo needs a refresher in logic, she could check Wikipedia where she might find “spotlight fallacy.”
Spotlight fallacy: when a person uncritically assumes that all members or cases of a certain class or type are like those that receive the most attention or coverage in the media.
Naturally, only the South is full of racists, both historically and in the present. It’s completely within reason to blame the current political problems of a “gifted politician” on a geographical region of the country.
Of course, if you’d like a little nuance in your history, you could try Thomas J. Sugrue’s book:
Sweet Land of Liberty: The Forgotten Struggle for Civil Rights in the North.
But hey, blaming people just over the state line works too in Obama’s post-racial America.
I think the administration will be happy to use Wilson’s ill-advised outburst for some time, stoking lots of bad feelings. Obama came from Chicago, where “politics ain’t beanbag.” That means retaliation and more fireworks over this, although they’ll be disguised as other moves. SC’s Clyburn is on board with that.
Clyburn had a warning for Obama advisers who want to forgive Wilson, ignore the ignorant outbursts and move on: “They’re going to have to develop ways in this White House to deal with things and not let them fester out there. Otherwise, they’ll see numbers moving in the wrong direction.”
So, all you Southern racists hiding in your gun-filled “stars and bars” draped basements wearing gimme caps and holding hand-cranked radios tuned to Rush? Better watch your mouth. Just get out your “Bush Lied, People Died” t-shirt and leave Obama ALONE! Oh, and if you’re in Illinois, Indiana or any other state not in THE SOUTH, no worries! You’re not a racist!!
It takes a NYT columnist to use the word “boy” when applied to Obama. When this story becomes ever more about “Southern racism,” don’t forget who put that word into Joe Wilson’s – and by association, all southerners’ – mouth.
Feh.
Uh, anyone know a good neurologist for MooDoo? No doubt she’s got great insurance from the NYT. . .























