Forget the polite discourse of educated difference. I have used that language myself. Calling things Racialized rather than racist in order to foster and maintain dialogue. It doesn’t apply here. The birther movement is a movement based on the race of the President, the “exotic,” nature of blackness, and the inability of certain parts of white America to process that a black man is president.
That is why I don’t give Mitt Romney a pass on his Michigan “joke.” He might as well have said, “two black guys walk into a bar.” Would we call a joke like that hate speech? Or, would the same apologists for Mitt be saying, black people don’t really have a sense of humor.
"No one's ever asked to see my birth certificate.” Mitt Romney in Commerce Michigan 08/24/12
Hate speech disguised as a joke. I shouldn’t be surprised that Mitt Romney, whose campaign is in such disarray after the Ryan pick that Rush Limbaugh is conceding the election, would go for the cheap racist laugh. But, I am. Really surprised. The GOP has no shame.
Let’s start with a basic common understanding. Birtherism is racism by another name. I make this assertion for two reasons:
First, John McCain, who ran against the sitting President in 2008, was born in Panama. While the President and other US Senators unanimously voiced support for McCain, stating as a matter of the Senate record that he was a Natural Born Citizen – Article II of the constitution states, “No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty five years, and been fourteen Years a resident within the United States.”
McCain’s birth in Panama’s Canal Zone, which at the time was under the control of the U.S. doesn’t mean that he is a Natural Born Citizen. The Washington Post points out that scholars disagree about whether control of the Zone is enough. Further, the Post concludes that either the Supreme Court or a Constitutional Amendment, would be needed, actually, to resolve the McCain issue.
Know why you didn’t hear birthers talking about McCain? Know why these, “concerned citizens” weren’t out protesting McCain? Why active duty and retired military personnel weren’t arguing that a McCain Presidency would be illegitimate? There is one glaring difference between John McCain and Barack Obama. Race. If this were a true concern of people it would be universal not targeted towards one person. This is an artifact of racism and even if the GOP pretends not to know this, the Media does and should say so.
The second reason is that no amount of truth or proof is enough. Holding to a flawed point in the face of demonstrable proof and information isn’t logic, it is an ideology of hate.
Forget the polite discourse of educated difference. I have used that language myself. Calling things Racialized rather than racist in order to foster and maintain dialogue. It doesn’t apply here. The birther movement is a movement based on the race of the President, the “exotic,” nature of blackness, and the inability of certain parts of white America to process that a black man is president.
That is why I don’t give Mitt Romney a pass on his Michigan “joke.” He might as well have said, “two black guys walk into a bar.” Would we call a joke like that hate speech? Or, would the same apologists for Mitt be saying, black people don’t really have a sense of humor.
It is incumbent upon the media to clearly state for the record that Birtherism is Racism. That such a conflation prohibits people of disparate viewpoints from simple disagreement. Donald Trump, Chief Birther, is overtly playing in a racialized discourse. He is actively engaged in dehumanizing and alienating the sitting President of the United States and the fact that NBC sees fit to give him a show while he does that, is disgusting. The fact that it allows this race baiting, hate speech without consequence, is disgusting, and the fact that the media is complicit in this overt racist dogma and remains in denial about what this discourse means in everyday lives, is disgusting.
Mitt Romney joined with the bigots of today. He allowed himself, either by choice or by advice to tell a black joke to an all-white or majority white audience, and to laugh while the crowd, or mob, depending on your viewpoint, laughed with him. Telling an n-word joke shouldn’t get a free pass. Somehow, it has and, yeah, I’m shocked.
J