Hillary Clinton is doing a WILLIE HORTON LITE on Barak Obama. Let’s call it what is. The poster who called it RACISM named the pink elephant in the room. If the bigot pandering crap coming from Hillary Clinton's campaign came from a Republican candidate I am sure the racism of these smears would not even be up for discussion.
As an African American who also had a Muslim grandfather I have been made to pay the bill to many times for politicians that play the bigot card, who then latter, after it is all over want to shake hands like ladies and gentlemen as if this was all within the normal bounds of politics –"nothing personal". Every time Hillary and her scumbag surrogates trot out Obama’s teenage drugs use, make the ludicrous implications that he was a drug dealer or emphasizes his Muslim middle name they make it just a little bit more acceptable to tell Black jokes, to pick on the Muslim child in school, to not hire the qualified candidate because they have a Black or Muslim sounding name, to make it just a little more plausible that the people standing on the roof tops during Katrina really are murderers and thieves who don’t deserve our help. If you think this is hyperbole well I have seen each of these very things happen as a result of racist stereo types perpetuated through the media.
I will not vote for Hillary Clinton for anything ever. I don’t care if she gets the Democratic nomination. A vote for Clinton is a vote to perpetuate my own disenfranchisement as an African-American. A vote for Hillary Clinton rewards race baiting and sends the signal to all politicians that even in this day and age when your polls are down, inflaming people’s bigotry is just another campaign tool. I have voted Democratic my entire 38 years because capitalizing on racist stereo types that damage the fabric of our pluralistic society and cause real damage to living people is what the Republicans do. Since Hillary Clinton has chosen to use racism as a tool to advance her career she is a Democrat in name only as far as I am concerned.
The Black vote is not monolithic and was not unified behind Barak Obama. It will be now. The racism emanating from Clinton’s campaign is something that most Black people recognize for what it is because it is something that all of us have had to deal with in many aspects of our lives. When Black voters complain that the Democratic Party takes the Black vote for granted we have not acted on it. If Hillary thinks that we will all magically shake hands and come together if she wins the nomination she and the Democratic party will be in for a unpleasant surprise.
Update [2007-12-17 20:39:26 by TMP]:
Just a couple of points:
A number of people have commented that the "drug dealer thing"," madrassa thing", the "Muslim middle name thing" and Clinton speaking to and about Obama as if he was a little boy is just a natural process of the primaries and that if Obama can’t take it now he won’t be able to "stand up" to the Republican attack machine in the general election. I fully expect pandering to racist fears from the Republicans and I am pretty confident that Obama is fully prepared for that. His people are to smart to make this a race issue. This diary isn’t even about Obama per se. My diary is about who we are as Democrats and what types of behavior we should expect from a top tier candidate of our party – a person we should expect to embody the values of our party. I am a lifelong Democrat and my commitment to the Democratic Party is based on, among other things, that exploiting racist fears and Islamophobia stoking is not a legitimate strategy for attacking your opponent. These are things as Democrats we are against and distinguish us from Republicans. I realize that sometimes all candidates have to get down in the mud but pandering to racist fears is not what Democrats do. I did not become a registered Democrat 20 years ago so one Democratic candidate can "test" another candidate by exploiting racist stereotypes that causes real world damage on the lives of all African-Americans.
While Hillary Clinton had not been my first choice for nominee overall I would have been happy to have her as the Democratic standard bearer until she stooped to pandering to racist impulses. My first choice has oscillated between Obama and Edwards. I am not voting for based on race solidarity.
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A point of clarification: While I don’t have any hard proof (links or otherwise) to back me up I doubt that Hillary Clinton has any personal racist feeling towards African-Americans. What I do know is that she has made the calculation that capitalizing on racist fears will benefit her personally. If this impacts the lives of African-Americans then ...well... she has the spirit to win and you got to do what you got to do. Hillary Clinton is a first tier candidate in the primary for the President of the most powerful nation on the planet. For her to traffic in these types of stereotypes are reprehensible.
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