So all day today the people on the tee vee machine have been all "a twitter" about Senator Harry Reid's comments. I am all for a constructive discussion on race and on what Harry Reid said. I am not for cutting out of the press briefing because the reporters were talking about stuff like the Economy, Yemen, and Wall St. Bonuses (you know, stuff people care about) because the WH Press Corps was actually talking about the ISSUES instead of the tabloid issue of the day. The anchor (I forget who it was) literally said "we'll pay attention and cut back in when they are talking about something relevant to what we want to talk about today."
Considering how fascinating our press finds race and racial issues when someone says something stupid, you'd think they would want to advance the dialogue beyond "he is/isn't a racist".
I don't think Harry Reid is a racist. I think he said something rather inartfully that I've heard other Black people say. As Balloon-Juice points out, the Republicans are talking about this issue as if Flava Flav could be elected President (and personally, I think Flava Flav is just about as bad a representation of the Black community as you can find, not because of his skin tone but because of his shows on Vh1).
The whole thing is just silly, and I honestly wonder what Republicans think they are accomplishing. The African-American community is able to tell the difference between someone using a dated term and someone pining for the days of segregation, so they will not be convinced that the GOP is all of a sudden the place for them. The only thing this is doing is building another wing in the cocoon, further insulating the GOP from the rest of the country. The only people they are going to convince that the Democrats are the "real racists" are themselves.
They want to say it's a double standard, but John Marshall of TPM clearly pointed out that what Senator Reid said is in no way analogous to what Trent Lott said. I think if someone advocates segregationist views then they should be "run out of office". The situation is more analogous to Michael Steele saying "honest Injun" last week. This entire non-troversy is just a way for the media to advance their narrative that Democrats are in trouble in the 2010 elections. If Harry Reid loses his seat, it won't be for some thoughtless comment that he made.
Another thing about the "double standard", I happen to think that intent plays a role in how people interpret what is said. It's one thing to be thoughtless or careless with your words, it's quite another to be malicious.
But in the meantime, let's not talk about important stuff like Healthcare, or the economy, let's talk about some insensitive comment made by Harry Reid over a year ago.
Now if we want to talk race, let's talk race. I think having a SERIOUS discussion about race can really help this country along in racial relations. Chasing a shiny object for a few days does nothing.
Update [2010-1-11 20:19:43 by Muzikal203]: Just to be clear, I don't think the comments are defensible, they were stupid. They are just as stupid when I hear Black people say them. But all of this manufactured outrage (seriously a whole day of it NON-STOP) is unnecessary. If we are going to talk about the comments, let's have an intelligent conversation, let's not just run around labeling people "racist." Let's stop chasing the shiny objects.
Update [2010-1-11 20:19:43 by Muzikal203]: President Obama weighs in during an interview with Roland Martin for TVOne(looking for video):
"Harry Reid is a friend of mine," Obama said. "He has been a stalwart champion of voting rights, civil rights. He is spending a lot of his political capital in the middle of an election to provide health care to every American, and that is going to have a great impact on African Americans and Latinos around the country."
More: "This is a good man who has always been on the right side of history. For him to have used some inartful language in trying to praise me and for people to try and make hay out of that makes absolutely no sense."
And: "He has apologized recognizing that he didn't use appropriate language, but there was nothing mean spirited in what he had to say and he has always been on the right side of the issues. And the fact that we spend days o this instead of talking about the unemployment rate or talking about how we deal with critical issues like energy and health care is an indication of why I think people don't understand what is happening in Washington. I guarantee you the average person -- white or black -- right now is less concerned about what Harry Reid said in a quote in a book a couple of years ago than they are about how we are going to move the country forward. And that's where we need to direct our attention."