Are We "Rednecks" Too?
Fri Apr 04, 2008 at 11:00:04 AM PDT
Several weeks ago, DailyKos was in a tizzy, with Obama supporters trying to deal with Reverend Wright’s use of inflammatory language to make his arguments. Two snippets of larger sermons were blasted across the mainstream media, creating easy fodder for the talking heads.
To all the Americans who were offended by the comments "God DAMN America," we saw exhortations to listen to Wright’s entire sermon before passing judgment.
Those who were offended by the statement simply would have nothing to do with the content.
We saw widespread dismissal of people who refused to "actually do research" or "put things in context" by many people here at DK. We labeled them as "rednecks" and "Reichtwingers" and said that, in the end, they would never vote for Obama anyways, and so we shouldn’t waste time with them.
Sadly, we have seen a reaction similar to the "rednecks" by Kossacks themselves....
As we all recall, two utterances by Reverend Wright in particular were blasted everywhere by the mainstream media.
"God DAMN America" and "the U.S. of KKK A."
In response, many people (including many Kossacks) argued that it was vital that the quotations be viewed within the context in which they were spoken.
As an example, "God DAMN America" was spoken during a larger sermon, in which Wright was addressing comments made by former US Ambassador Edward Peck, and, what’s more, Wright actually had taken a "faith footnote" to segue away from his true sermon, in order to bring up the Ambassador’s commentary.
To all the Americans who were offended by the comments "God DAMN America," we saw exhortations to listen to Wright’s entire sermon before passing judgment.
Sadly, those who were offended by the statement simply would have nothing to do with the content.
In light of this blanket dismissal, we saw widespread rejection of people who refused to "actually do research" or "put things in context" by many people here at DK. Kossacks labeled them as "rednecks" and "Reichtwingers" and said that, in the end, "those types would never vote for a Democrat anyways, and so we shouldn’t waste time with them."
Sadly, we have seen the same refusal to look deeper on the part of Kossacks, due to a similar offensive utterance (by me, TheOpinionGuy)....
Two days ago, I wrote a diary that really should be read and discussed for its content.
Instead, it was lambasted by scores of Kossacks because it contained a word that some people found offensive.
Among the 170 comments that diary received in two days, we saw the following:
I didn’t bother to read your diary. Your title is terrible. I didn't see the point in going further.
The original poster was saying SO much more about himself than about anyone else. Moral: Don't show your ass if you can help it. Most times, it is not as pretty as you think.
Asshole-ification of a headline
I don't know what the headline intends to convey but to me it conveys a headline writer who has made an asshole of himself. You can be as assaholic as you like but remember that people skip over diaries written by those prone to assaholicism. You make the headline the subject of numerous comments because few bother to read the rest of what you write. That is the fate of diaries by those struck by fits of assaholicism in headline writing.
Sadly, there were scores of Kossacks tipping these comments, rather than seeing the diary in a larger context.
I doubt highly that these same Kossacks were equivalently ripping into Rev. Wright for his sermons....
This selectivity (and hypocrisy) of what is "acceptable" and what is not "acceptable" is exactly the issue that the Republicants use against the Dems in every election...and WIN.
It simply must STOP.
We cannot tell the rednecks to "go out and read Rev. Wright’s speech in context" and to "do your homework," if we as Progressives will so quickly dismiss REALLY SALIENT COMMENTARY merely because of a word choice in a title.
Are we ourselves the "rednecks" that we decry so frequently?
How are our demands for a higher levels of discussion preventing us from getting there?
How are our college-educated brains preventing us from getting to this higher discussion?
I believe that Barack Obama provides an answer....
In the face of this Wright controversy, Barack Obama stepped forth to deliver one of the most important speeches in U.S. political history, "A More Perfect Union." In this magnificent speech, he stated the following:
For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle - as we did in the OJ trial - or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina - or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright's sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she's playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.
We can do that.
But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we'll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.
That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, "Not this time." This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can't learn; that those kids who don't look like us are somebody else's problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time.
In other words, Obama asked us to stand in each other’s shoes and to empathize.
I believe that Obama has called on us to stand in the shoes of the Rednecks who dearly love this country and were rightly offended by utterances of "God DAMN America" and "the U.S. of KKK A."
I believe that Obama has called on us to not dismiss the utterances of Rev. Wright merely because they contained language that initially offended us.
I hope the same standard applies to utterances by others Kossacks (including myself) as well.
I have stood in the shoes of the women out there who were offended that I chose a word that has a definition that is degrading to women. I understand their perspective, even though in my heart of hearts, I know that claims that I was purposely degrading women were not true.
Still, I understand the perspective and have scrubbed the diary of language that clearly offended people.
Here is the revised diary without the offensive language. Perhaps it can spur some discussion....
At the same time, we need to stop acting like rednecks responding to the newest snippet of Wright on the evening Faux News story. We cannot demand responses from others that we ourselves cannot wean ourselves from.
For this reason, I will leave the original diary as it was written.
Here is the original diary for those with the guts to read something that contains offense, but can still bring themselves to see the value in the perspective.
May God Bless Us All...
Permalink | 32 comments