is actually a misquote of a remark attributed to General Philip Henry Sheridan, who is reported to have made it.
There is an anecdote told concerning Sheridan during his campaign against the Indians. Comanche Chief Tosawi, or Silver Knife, reputedly told Sheridan in 1869, "Me Tosawi. Me good Indian," to which Sheridan is said to have replied, "The only good Indians I ever saw were dead."[44] This was then misquoted as "The only good Indian is a dead Indian". Sheridan later denied he had made the statement to Tosawi. Earlier that year, on May 28, Rep. James M. Cavanaugh said in the House, "I have never seen in my life a good Indian ... except when I have seen a dead Indian." That remark may have been mistakenly attributed to Sheridan.
Rep. Cavanaugh was only one of many who influenced ethnocidal policies towards Native Americans; the Good Indian Dead Indian theme.
For centuries we have also had the meme of the "Good Negro", mistakenly called "Uncle Tom's" (since the character of Uncle Tom of Uncle Tom's Cabin was not servile)
The Republican Party, and its rag tag collection of wing-nut rabble, are currently engaging in the manipulation of historic racist, xenophobic themes. Interestingly enough the Party of "anti-affirmative action" is all too willing to put colored faces up for public consumption in order to belie their underlying message of racial,ethnic and class hatred.
We now have Micheal Steele as a Republican counterpoint to Barack Obama. Does anyone even question that Mr. Steele's meteoric rise to the top of "the party of no" had nothing to do with his skin tone?
Alan Keyes is yet another Republican affirmative action statistic, putting real blackface on the birther meme, to rouse the rabble against the "Magic Negro" now firmly seated in the Big White House.
Republicans don't stop with just black folks like Thomas, Steele and Keyes to showcase their brand of affirmative action.
See:
Sarah Palin
Alberto Gonzales
John Yoo
Republicans are equal opportunity destroyers.
Where women are concerned "barefoot and pregnant" is their anti-choice stance.
was probably first used on August 27, 1963, by Rep. Paul Van Dalsem, an Arkansas state legislator. Van Dalsem, frustrated with the efforts of the Arkansas Division of the American Association of University Women, told a Little Rock civic club that in his home town that if a woman "starts poking around in something she doesn't know anything about," then "We get her pregnant and keep her barefoot."
Though this was mouthed by a Southern Democrat, the Republican Party is now revving up the base with its token uteruses, like Sarah Palin and Liz Cheney, in hopes of confusing the issues before us.
Whether it is the birther wingnuts, or the Sotomayor naysayers, or the "Family Values" crowd who go hiking on Appalachian trails to Argentina or are huddled in "prayer" on C-Street, or lip service towards token gays and lesbians who call themselves "Log Cabins", and phony "plumbers" named Joe to represent the working class, the Wonderbread Party seems to believe we are fools.
Allow me to use a quote attributed to a famous Republican.
"You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time." Abraham Lincoln
Let us call out the fools, and tools, and tokens.
Tokenism
refers to a policy or practice of limited inclusion of members of a minority group, usually creating a false appearance of inclusive practices, intentional or not. Typical examples in real life and fiction include purposely including a member of a minority race (such as a black character in a mainly white cast, a woman in a traditionally male universe) into a group. Classically, token characters have some reduced capacity compared to the other characters and may have bland or inoffensive personalities so as to not be accused of stereotyping negative traits. Alternatively, their differences may be overemphasized or made "exotic" and glamorous.
Tokenism can also be used in newspapers and other media. Newspapers will often only criticise a minority group by using a pundit from that minority group. An asian columnist arguing that immigration is too high, or a black pundit arguing that affirmative action is wrong could be considered a token minority.
Perhaps we need an ongoing "Token of the Week Club" discussion.
Who is your pick for Republican "top token" this week? (They haven't given us a high profile Native American token yet. I guess they assume they are all dead)
