Crossposted from the PeoplesView
Markos Moulitsas, the owner of the Dailykos website, took a brave stance against Pat Buchanan's racism a few days ago in his article on the front page of dailykos titled, Pat Buchanan jots down racist screeds in book, which pretty much made the case about how Buchanan, one of the most racists TeeVee personalities is able to stay on the airwaves while spewing so many racist bile and yet how MSNBC's president Phil Griffin has given Pat Buchanan a medium to parade his racism.
Markos succinctly laid it all out about Pat Buchanan's racists history in a paragraph and accurately accused the MSNBC's president Phil Griffin for being an enabler by letting hate and racist rhetoric be amplified using MSNBC's news outlet.
Apparently, the soapbox MSNBC president Phil Griffin gives Pat Buchanan on his network wasn't enough for the KKK's most "out" member. The KKK's most "out" member has used that platform to relentlessly stand up for poor oppressed white America. You can see his handiwork here, here and here. Given that he's also (literally) a Hitler apologist and Anders Behring Breivik apologist, and you've got yourself a bona fide white supremacist parading around a mainstream news outlet.
All of this is out in the open. And while MSNBC has suspended hosts for far less (and banned me from the network for making Joe Scarborough cry on Twitter), Buchanan has remained untouchable. There can only be one conclusion—Phil Griffin thinks there's a place for Buchanan's abhorrent white supremacist views.
I have to agree. Anyone who looks the other way and enables Pat Buchanan to poison the airwaves with racist bile is an accessory to the wrong doing and MSNBC's president Phil Griffin, whether it be consciously or unconsciously, is an enabler of racist pandering.
We all know Fox News outlets are glorified racist networks and seeing Fox's racism like the Dailykos Front Page article, Fox News blasts dog whistle in report on Obama's birthday party, rightly points out the business as usual racism (click the image below to see the full article) at the Murdock news outlet empire.
Often though, progressives/liberals in white dominant blogosphere such as Dailykos and other progressives sites are very quick to catch the outrage when racism is in your face from the Right but often give it every kind of excuse either consciously or unconsciously when racism comes from the Left.
Case in point is this cartoon diary on the front page of Dailykos (click the image for the diary):
This cartoon depicts a totally insensitive racist illustration of Obama in a profoundly degrading imagery used by a Dailykos's front pager to score a political point. Context matter in any kind of political messaging and trying to score a political point using a black man with big ears wearing an elephant trunk performing in a circus show looking like a clown with teabaggers jeering to some seems like it is alright and they would proudly defend it or some accuse others of spending their entire time to looking for ways to be offended but if Drudge uses this same imagery they will most certainly scream racism. I am a black man and seeing that image let alone as a front page article, in any diary to mock the President, mixing race and politics offends me. Is it too much to share my feelings about how wrong and coded that cartoon was considering our past history? I don't think so. How blatant does it have to get? Do we only pay attention when it becomes this blatant of a cartoon posted at the New York Post after the passage of the stimulus plan?
The unexamined racism is just the cream of the crop at many progressive outlets. In fact, this is what the now departed and respected moderator of Dailykos noted about the problem we see now in progressive media outlets:
There is deep-rooted hatred of Obama because he is black. [...] And, yes, some people on the left hate him because he is black, and others who don't hate him are not aware that some of their criticisms of him are based in white privilege and racist attitudes.
However, this honest truth is denied all day long in some progressive communities by some folks in an efforts to shut down discussion of racism not to mention the quick cover some people take when confronted by it, dismissing it with a typical text book response of -- criticism of the President's policy is not racist, playing dumb and ignorant when we know the criticism mixes race and policy and is beyond just policy. The majority of progressives get the nuance with that argument but some will continue to repeat such a narrative that eventually gives some folks around us an out, rather than make it a teachable moment to fighting ignorance, in the process dismissing the "white privilege and racist attitudes" within the criticism.
Well, may be some don't know but the very small percentile of African American and other vocal advocates of anti-ism bloggers swimming in a white dominant liberal blogs find such imagery and racist attitudes disturbing but feel marginalized because many don't just seem to want to make an effort to understand its offensive nature. It is not unusual to see the outrage in progressive communities like the Dailykos about the extreme racism that we see toward the First African American President but stooping to the level we see day in and day out has become unbearable to a lot of folks as they quietly disassociate themselves from such community.
A respected and seasoned white diarist in the Dailykos community noted her observation of how the dailykos community has evolved backwards sharing her frustration:
I remember when offensive comments about race, gender, sexual identity got hammered. Now it is selective. Especially regarding race because I believe it is easier with a Black President where policy and color can be merged to make a point.
//snip
I'm utterly sick and tired of the racist shite on this site which is either allowed to stand, is uprated or receives precious few HRs. I'm sick of "easy" homophobic comments re: transgenders -- the biggest target for homophobes here. I'm sick of fat jokes re: politicians when it is their policies that suck, not their weight. I'm sick of misogynistic and juvenile assaults on Republican women rather than attacking their utter lack of intellectual and political competence.
Ok, I'm about done. But, let me tell you, if you want to attack anyone regarding their race, gender, sexuality, weight, choice of music -- you disgust me.
Me too. This shit disgust me as well but you have to ask why is it allowed in a liberal website that claims to push for liberal ideology denouncing all form of -isms? Most online advocates do know that conscious and unconscious racism in progressive communities exist. Since Barack Obama became President, it seems like more and more each day there tends to be many forms of bigotry that is being mixed with policy. The moderator (sadly now the ex-moderator) of the Dailykos community knew it all too well as well but was only allowed to do very little about it since the ownership of the blog had allotted only 10% of one moderator's time (and now zero percentile) to dealing with complaint of any sort for the entire site in the process many conscious and unconscious bigotry continues to have a channel to ponder hatred and racist views in a progressive outlet. For those who think self moderation is a way to go, it obviously has not worked and you only have to ask those who have been an online activist warriors for a long time.
While in one end the owner of Dailykos, Markos, is forcefully condemning the management of MSNBC for allowing Pat Bucanan have a medium to ponder his bigotry, in my opinion, Markos does not seem too concern about what is and has been going on in his own back yard. How do you plan to be serious about weeding out bigotry if you are willing to look the other way by only permitting 10% of one moderators' time be allotted to moderate the entire site from some hateful comments that are bigoted? That would be 48 minutes of moderation in an 8 hours work day and just simple not enough to fight bigotry. Considering the departure of the only moderator at Dailykos, there is a lot of unanswered question of about what will become of Dailykos as it will remain to be seen.
As they say, "What's good for the geese is good for the gander". If one is serious about fighting the -isms at Dailykos and if Markos Moulitsas' sentiment about MSNBC's president Phil Griffin's lack of action to get ride of Pat "the fucking" Buchanan from the air waves is a true conviction from the heart and not just pondering, one must also know what must be done at the Dailykos and other progressive communities that it must draw the line for a no tolerance policy for racist attitudes that are allowed to stand or get uprated.
Moreover, would I be wrong to say the same thing Markos said about Phil Griffin regarding what is allowed to stand or get uprated here in the Dailykos community -- that, "There can only be one conclusion—Phil Griffin [Markos Moulitsas] thinks there's a place for Buchanan's abhorrent white supremacist [white privilege and racist] views" for the lack of action we have seen at his blog?
Well, that depends on who you ask but regardless, we all must be united and willing to learn and fight against racism now more than ever to nip it in the ass be it at FOX News, MSNBC or Dailykos.
Unite Against Racism! Silence is not an option.