Is John Edwards a racist?
Before you flame me, please read on. For most users of Daily Kos, I feel the answer should be yes, if the same standards that apply to sitting senators, shock jocks, and Fox Noise hosts apply to everyone else. Why would I even ask this question? Please read Edwards' statement below from last week, from today's Washington Post:
The idea that we can keep incarcerating and keep incarcerating -- pretty soon we're not going to have a young African-American male population in America. They're all going to be in prison or dead. One of the two.
Surprised? Take a look at his even more outrageous statement from March 2006: (UPDATE: this is from the same link, and UPDATE 2, the entire paragraph per Elise's suggestion)
The problem, however, is that he made no effort to define his terms. He claimed that the "young African-American male population" is threatened with extinction. It is hardly the first time he has made such wild generalizations. In a March 2006 speech, Edwards made the following, equally sweeping and equally erroneous, statement: "Young African American men see their options as going to prison or dying. As a result, they don't invest in their education, they don't invest in their futures and when they father children, they don't support them.
Why am I writing this diary? To point out the hypocrisy that permeates this site. Imagine if Joe Biden, Don Imus, or Bill O'Reilly had made the above claims. Just think about what the reaction would be here. Yet, because it's the favorite son, John Edwards, we hear not a peep from the masses.
Let's compare what Edwards said to the three I mentioned above.
BIDEN: When Joe Biden said he was impressed with Obama for being "articulate and clean", he was lambasted and called a racist by the throngs here who ignored his 100% rating from the NAACP. Even these days, whenever there's a presidential primary debate thread, someone always brings up the articulate and clean junk with Biden. I ask you which is worse? Praising a black man for being "articulate and clean", or claiming all blacks will soon "be in prison or dead" and that blacks "don't invest in their futures" and "don't support their children"?
IMUS: When Imus called a majority-black women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos", this web site erupted in calls for his firing and accusations of racism. Which is worse? A radio shock-jock calling a few girls "nappy-headed hos", or a politician saying ALL blacks will soon "be in prison or dead" and that blacks "don't invest in their futures" and "don't support their children"?
O’REILLY: When Bill O'Reilly (who I despise) claimed to be amazed that a black-owned restaurant was just like white-owned restaurants, and said he was surprised to not find people throwing food, this web site, and basically all left-wing web sites, exploded in criticism, and continue to do so as we speak. I thought what he said was rather ridiculous, and that it was absolutely worse than what Biden and Imus said. Nonetheless, I don't think he should be fired for it, and I don’t really think he's a racist just because he said it. And to be perfectly honest, I don't think what O'Reilly said is even nearly as outrageous as what Edwards said. I mean really, which is worse? Saying that you're surprised black restaurants are the same as white restaurants, or declaring all blacks will soon "be in prison or dead" and that blacks "don't invest in their futures" and "don’t support their children"?
Imagine if Hillary Clinton had said something like this. DailyKos.com would have needed 5000 new servers to avoid crashing as a result of the mob-like rush to post and recommend diaries bashing her. This is the hypocrisy I'm pointing out.
I leave it up to all of you. Is John Edwards a racist? Yes or No. And if No, why the double standard?
UPDATE: To the troll-raters, did you even read the diary?
UPDATE 2: To the troll-raters, did you even click the link?
UPDATE 3: To the troll-raters, I never called John Edwards a racist, which you would have seen if you had actually read the diary. The point of the diary is to expose the hypocrisy. The trollratings are just proving this even more.
UPDATE 4: My last update before I go to sleep. I just wanted to say that while I did not expect a lot of rec's for my diary, I'm rather shocked at the huge number of Edwards supporters defending his declaration that blacks "don't support their children." I mean, that's just a really hurtful thing to say. It's incredibly mean, and the fact that it's being defended, all I can say is, wow. I wrote this diary to expose hypocrisy. I exposed much more than I had expected.
Many of you have called me a "right-winger" or a "freeper" or god knows what else. For the record, I'm a supporter of Hillary for the Presidency, and yes, I'm a big fan of Joe Biden, John Kerry, and the state of Israel. I know those are not popular positions here. I can take that, we all have our own opinions, we can all agree and disagree. What I'll never understand is how support of Hillary, Biden, Kerry, and Israel, and opposition to Edwards, is "trollish" (and no, that has nothing to do with this diary--many tonight have said my previous comments, before this diary, were trollish, and that was their justification for trollrating me tonight).
Thanks again to those who rec'd, uprated, and/or defended my diary. It took courage and you had to risk trollratings to do so. I appreciate it.