Over the past few months, I started noticing a trend -- diaries written by white people accusing Barack Obama of basically selling out poor people of color.
Well this all came to a head on Friday night when the inimitable Rainbow Girl played folks like a fiddle by posting a diary titled President Obama & Poor Americans of Color. Thanks to the intrepid Bob Johnson this diarist was unmasked as a 60 year old white woman posing as a "poor American of color." No one should have been surprised since no self-respecting person of color would refer to him or herself as a "Poor American of Color." Think also of the brilliance of taking on the moniker "Rainbow Girl." It plays directly into the very misguided idea that "race doesn't matter" in 21st century America. We can live as "rainbow" people.
Publishing previously under the name "linfar," the reincarnated Rainbow Girl had published "wonderful" diaries such as Obama and Oprah Show as well as these very lovely comments about Illegal immigration (h/t to Bob).
The masterful part of this person's charade was that she gave license for many, many other white people to start crying "reverse racism." In particular, I noticed that whenever any people of color would write about the realities of racism in the Obama presidency, they would be accused by some of "using the race card" to quash "dissent." Again, any time someone uses the term "race card," you need to head for the exits. It is a sign that the person is preparing to defensively deflect any discussion of the still virulent structural racism in the U.S. The term "race card" has become code for "you people of color aren't allowed to bring up racial issues anymore, slavery and Jim Crow are over."
Anyway, I found the entire Rainbow Girl masquerade to be fascinating. Here you had an unabashed racist 60 year old white woman "infiltrating" a progressive site in order to get progressives to tear each other apart. In the meantime, she got the added benefit of discrediting the black man in the White House. It was brilliant. It was Machiavellian. It was working.
I was astounded by how many people were willing to think outside of history. I had never seen so many white people suddenly so "concerned" about poor people of color. I was particularly incredulous because I had missed all of the previous diaries written by white people here fighting on behalf of poor people of color prior to about 3 months ago. Why the sudden passionate concern? It smacked of opportunism: a chance to criticize a President that many already wanted to bash. This would provide a useful cover for that bashing. It was cynical but effective.
This situation reminds me of the Brandon Darby case. Courtney Desiree Morris wrote about Brandon Darby in a widely circulated article titled: "Why Misogynists Make Great Informants: How Gender Violence on the Left Enables State Violence in Radical Movements."
In January 2009, activists in Austin, Texas, learned that one of their own, a white activist named Brandon Darby, had infiltrated groups protesting the Republican National Convention (RNC) as an FBI informant. Darby later admitted to wearing recording devices at planning meetings and during the convention. He testified on behalf of the government in the February 2009 trial of two Texas activists who were arrested at the RNC on charges of making and possessing Molotov cocktails, after Darby encouraged them to do so. The two young men, David McKay and Bradley Crowder, each faced up to fifteen years in prison. Crowder accepted a plea bargain to serve three years in a federal prison; under pressure from federal prosecutors, McKay also pled guilty to being in possession of "unregistered Molotov cocktails" and was sentenced to four years in prison. Information gathered by Darby may also have contributed to the case against the RNC 8, activists from around the country charged with "conspiracy to riot and conspiracy to damage property in the furtherance of terrorism." Austin activists were particularly stunned by the revelation that Darby had served as an informant because he had been a part of various leftist projects and was a leader at Common Ground Relief, a New Orleans–based organization committed to meeting the short-term needs of community members displaced by natural disasters in the Gulf Coast region and dedicated to rebuilding the region and ensuring Katrina evacuees’ right to return.
It is worth reading the entire article by Courtney because it is brilliant. Her argument can directly be applied to the issue of racism. The whole Rainbow Girl debacle can be renamed: "Why Racists Make Great Infiltrators?"
I doubt that finding out WHO was writing those posts and comments will cause some people to examine why they found such currency and potency in the arguments that Rainbow Girl was advancing. However it should cause more self-reflection. One can only hope...
Update:
I had to highlight this comment by Nanette K which to me captures the master manipulation in a nutshell:
most of the damage she caused (0+ / 0-)
was not about what she said about Obama. There are about a gabillion anti-Obama diaries/comments here daily, hers were just one more in the crowd.
It was the racist/racial strategies she employed that really infuriated people.
She posed as a "poor person of color" or a "poor ethnic minority" who had the credentials (she said) to not only critique Obama, but also stand as a stalwart shield between the rational, intelligent white folks who were being oppressed (essentially) by unreasonable, tribalistic folks of color who were part of some Axelrod/Obama racial propaganda scheme. A scheme that was designed to racially intimidate white progressives who critiqued Obama by calling them all racists (or some such stuff - read her first diary.)
She could, went her public statements, say the sort of things about both Obama and other people of color that white progressives could not say... because if they said them, they would be called racists.
So... you see?
Update 2:
Thanks to Seanwright for this gem from a RainbowGirl diary:
Do you think David Axelrod, a man who has apparently specialized in working with black candidates, and a man who hails from a city that is known for its racial politics, understands the political utility of the White Guilt concept?
Do you think that the purported master of AstroTurfing would understand the value in sending out people to various sites on the internet to "rein-in" those damned progressives -- many of them white -- who are incredibly upset that the man he advises, President Obama, wants to give $700 billion to the rich when people like me have nothing?
Do you think Barack Obama, the community organizer, would know if his team/supporters were using pressure tactics against supposed allies?
Do you think Team Obama -- the group that seemed to feel that Bill Clinton was race-baiting during the 2008 primary season but has since made up with Clinton -- stands on principle when it comes to matters of race? If they do, then why is Obama weakening himself by having "racist" Bill Clinton take over for him as a press conference/briefing?
These are questions to consider.
It is my contention that Team Obama is playing a very disturbing game of racial politics at the moment, in an effort to quell dissent to their obscene tax "deal." I see what I feel are instances of crude but systematized propaganda on this and many other sites. Don't ask me to name names, I have already made my feelings known in previous comments.
A common method of these efforts, I feel, is an appeal to tribalism and/or White Guilt.
Absolutely MASTERFUL... "Don't ask me to name names..." Makes the hairs in the back of one's neck stand up...
Update 3:
This is a response to one particular commenter who really seems to want me to know that Cornel West is also a critic of Obama's policies. So what? I ask. What's the argument that you want to advance by pointing to West's criticism of the administration?
Are you using him as a black validator of your own criticism of this administration as it relates to the plight of people of color? If yes, why? You don't need to. You can "stand in the shoes of your own words and ideas."
It is perfectly correct and valid to make the case that the government (including this administration) has systematically neglected the plight of poor people in general and poor people of color in particular. I personally make this case as it relates to the 21st century Civil Rights issue of Mass Incarceration all the time. However the government's abandonment of poor people and poor people of color is NOT NEW. We are a country that built its economic dominance on the enslavement 4 million black people after all. As such criticisms about the current economic plight of people of color cannot be divorced from history and from context.
Does this absolve the current administration from attending to these issues? Of course not! They need to continue to be called out and pushed to target policies to addressing the needs of poor people. That will take a mass movement though rather than quick hit and runs on television or diaries on KOS. It will take continued struggle from organizations like ACORN (which has been destroyed by Republicans with an assist from some Democrats); FAIR; the NAACP; The Urban League; as well as thousands of poor people themselves along with other allies. Barack Obama didn't cause the intractable poverty of millions of Americans but as the President he is responsible for helping to solve the issue.
So keep writing about these issues. That's a good thing. I hope that you might also take the time to do some on the ground organizing if this is an area of passion for you. That's how change happens. Merry Christmas!
