Full-blooded American Bigotry

There has been some to-do around the web – although not enough – in the past week about syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker’s attack on Senator Barack Obama, an attack of so low an order, simultaneously an outrage and embarrassing, that I choked reading it.

Parker begins her column by quoting a young man from West Virginia who says he prefers Senator McCain over Obama because McCain is “a full-blooded American.” You should read the entire column to get the full-blooded impact, but here are some of her points in defense of racism, complete with well-known code words and phrases:

“Who ‘gets’ America? And who doesn't?

“The answer has nothing to do with a flag lapel pin, which Obama donned for a campaign swing through West Virginia, or even military service, though that helps. It's also not about flagpoles in front yards or magnetic ribbons stuck on tailgates.

“It's about blood equity, heritage and commitment to hard-won American values. And roots.”

“We love to boast that we are a nation of immigrants - and we are. But there's a different sense of America among those who trace their bloodlines back through generations of sacrifice.”

“Yet, white Americans primarily - and Southerners, rural and small-town folks especially - have been put on the defensive for their throwback concerns with "guns, God and gays," as Howard Dean put it in 2003.”

“Republicans more than Democrats seem to get this, though Hillary Clinton has figured it out. And, the truth is, Clinton's own DNA is cobbled with many of the same values that rural and small-town Americans cling to. She understands viscerally what Obama has to study.”

“Some Americans do feel antipathy toward "people who aren't like them," but that antipathy isn't about racial or ethnic differences. It is not necessary to repair antipathy appropriately directed toward people who disregard the laws of the land and who dismiss the struggles that resulted in their creation.

“Full-blooded Americans get this. Those who hope to lead the nation better get it soon.”

One must ask of her last sentence, “…better get it soon” or what? I suppose I’m not versed enough in the code words of white racism to know.

This is the most repellent incidence of race-baiting I’ve read in the mainstream press and I fear we will be treated to much more when/if Senator Obama becomes the Democratic nominee. It wouldn’t be important if Ms. Parker wrote for an obscure Klan publication; but she is part of the Washington Post Writers Group who is syndicated in many newspapers throughout the country.

Somehow I’ve missed Kathleen Parker until now. She appears to be an Ann Coulter wannabe without the four-letter words. Where DO conservatives find these women? And isn’t anyone embarrassed to be associated with them?

[At The Elder Storytelling Place today, Linda speaks of Penance for a transgression that will surprise you and give you a smile.]

Comments

[janinsanfran]

We get Parker in San Francisco, (the Chronicle) though I don't think we got that one.

The language of "full-blooded" is chilling -- the historic language of European racism. Blood=nation=equals only full citizens.

It would be hard to think of any conceptual framework less part of the historic U.S. pattern. Our myth is that we're a nation of immigrants, the people who dreamed and worked and came together to build our "city on a hill" in a strange continent. E pluribus unum, and all that.

This is an ugly, ugly piece.

[bill / prairie point]

Never heard of her.

But "she" is the one who doesn't get America.

[Tess]

Reading this makes me feel physically sick. Here in the UK we have a few writers who speak in the same kind of code of what it means to be British. It is indeed ugly.

[Marlys Styne]

Awful! Who or what is a "full-blooded" American, anyway? A Native American? Do my English, French, and German ancestors make me "better" than Obama? I don't think so! By the way, I've never heard of Ms. Parker.

[Steven]

I'm torn. I really want to ignore her and maybe she will go away. But, I know she won't and so we have to make her known in order to answer her lies. Darn!

[Robin]

Ugly stuff. I don't know what else to add. I'm only a second generation American with grandparents from Eastern Europe so I guess I'm not 'full-blooded' according to her thesis. Depressing that a lot of people still think like this. We in the Northeast forget that sometime.

[Rain]

What she is saying with good spelling and literate sentences (I am assuming) is being said on the lower rungs of American society by the riffraff and those who couple it with physical threats. I saw a newspaper comment section after Obama drew such a large crowd in Oregon, and it was scary enough that I wrote about it. People like this Parker are stirring up the masses and I think they know exactly what they are doing. I hope intellectuals understand that this isn't just about skin color although that is the ugliest part of these attacks. It's also going after all educated people.

I could go on and on and on, but my blood pressure is rising. Having an educated, literate, thinking man of mixed racial descent is showing up the ugliest side of America from columnists and radio talk hosts all the way down the line. I think it's very frightening; and if a violent act happens because of it, they won't be held responsible for their own culpability. ugh

[Pete]

For me at least, what is so difficult—even dangerous—about Kathleen Parker is that she isn't always so far out in right field. She's a conservative for sure, but she sometimes writes with what seems like sensitivity and wisdom.

That makes a poison pen letter like the one quoted above so unsettling. It leaves me feeling as if I have been mugged by someone I know.

[doctafill]

This woman should be drop kicked with a large native- Canadian lumberjack boot. Where does she think her roots originate? History tells us we all come from Africa. So what will she think of that? Maybe once she wraps her head around that fact, she'll take singing lessons from Aretha Franklin.

[Darlene]

Ugly, nasty, and disgusting as Kathleen Parker's hit piece is, we are (as you pointed out Ronni) sure to be in for more of it.

Ignorant people will agree with her and never look at what the consequences may be. If someone decides that it's okay to try to shoot Obama because he isn't a "full blooded American" after reading her trash will she feel any remorse?

As mentioned, the Nazi's used the same tactics when appealing to the lowest instincts in man with their talk of the "Super Race" aka white Aryans.

Parker conveniently ignores the fact that Obama is a distant relative of Cheney. (Not that that's anything to brag about.)

[ellen]

If she was a wild-eyed oddball I would not concern myself, but she's not as far off the usual as I'd wish. Here in the "flyover states" her point of view is surprisingly, and distressingly, common.

[Travelinoma]

I'm noticing bigotry a lot recently. I don't know if there's more of it, or if I'm just more aware of it because I read a variety of things on the Internet. It's an ugly side of humanity. When someone voices this view I am repulsed.

[Mort Reichek]

It is depressing to read Kathleen Parker. I never heard of her until I started wintering in Florida where I see her regularly in the Palm Beach Post. Surprisingly the PB Post is essentially a liberal paper with an especially brilliant editorial cartoonist named Wright. I guess the Post tolerates her to please the community's "upscale" Republican residents who might otherwise be turned off by the paper's excellent editorial page and the cartoonist, Wright. (I do not recall his first name.)

[Dane Wilson]

Funny - all of you rightous souls equate racism with whites only. What about Ms Obama's comments? I think we have a bunch of hypocrites expressing a lot of phony outrage here. Get a grip and........get honest folks. Oh, guess I'm one of those white racists - I love McCain.

[donna]

Oh, congrats, Ronni - you've picked up a McCain troll!

Naughty troll, though - stick to the official McCain blogger talking points for the day, will you , please?

The Issue: Partisanship
There are serious issues at stake in this election, and serious differences between the candidates. And we will argue about them, as we should. But it should remain an argument among friends; each of us struggling to hear our conscience, and heed its demands; each of us, despite our differences, united in our great cause, and respectful of the goodness in each other.

[linda-g]

Last week in Santa Monica my friend was entertaining a new client and asked me to come along. This lovely and seemingly intelligent woman from Tennessee spent most of the night telling us how much more enlightened she was than most of the people in her home State. When someone mentioned Obama her face went ashen and she said, "Oh my, we just couldn't elect a president with a name like that. It would be bad Karma!" So much for enlightenment.
Today I watched as John King (CNN) was doing his state by state analysis of the Obama/Clinton saga. While he pointed out that Obama had a command of the larger portion of the U.S, the fact still remained that Clinton controlled the area of the U.S that "usually decides who becomes President." He drew a big circle around the Southern States.
Is anyone beside me getting sick and tired of being left out of the most important decision in our country? This year the lines are not being drawn between Religious Conservatives and Secular Liberals. Now we are polarizing ourselves as populists and elitists. And, by the way, it doesn't take much to be an elitist.
Francine's blog on Stealtmode.com brought out some extreme (in my opinion) applications of the term liberal elite. It is becoming increasingly apparent that unless you engage in some form of manual labor, have a bowling average of at least 145, belt down beers with a whiskey back and sport an American flag somewhere on your car, house or person, you are an elitist and have no chance in hell of having a say in who runs this country.

[joared]

Good grief, she even slandered Hillary Clinton saying "she gets it," trying to align herself with this other Democratic candidate. Whatever Clinton "gets," I would suggest it isn't what Parker is espousing.

I am sickened by Parker's sort of rhetoric which follows the patterns of the previous two elections that focus on dividing the citizens of this country. But what her language says is really much worse than that as has been pointed out in this post and in others comments.

At best, if Parker's intent is to say outrageous words (at any cost to others) to promote herself, I would hope readers recognize the shallow, dangereous and destructive nature of such an approach. I hope people use basic thinking skills when they read the words she writes -- how can they not see the racist nature of her language?

As Madge, I think it was, noted on an earlier post, TypePad is still not remembering my personal info either, after a couple of years of always doing so.

[Lydia]

Gads, I quit smoking over ten years ago and reading the excerpt by Parker made me want a cigarette. I've got to get a grip on my reaction to such dolts now in preparation for a hot campaign ahead. Sad to feel this way when this is the one presidential campaign in my lifetime that is truly historic and absolutely awesome in the real sense of the word awesome. I'm determined to keep the goosebumpy feeling and to hell with people like Parker and those McCain trolls, too!

[Betty Reid Soskin]

Of course Ms. Parker's comments are appalling, but there's an upside to all this. My spirit is buoyed by the fact that these conversations no longer being suffered mainly by those effected, but are finally being held as public discourse. The outrage is shared by people of good will. We've finally reached a level of enough trust in our nation where we can talk about such bigotry across racial lines -- over dinner -- through the media -- and from the lecterns. They are no longer spoken in hushed tones by people of color, only. The pain is the lighter for being shared across all of the lines of separation.

It is far less lonely this way. The national "We" has been extended across the racial barriers through these remarkable political campaigns, and those who express such encoded hatred may find themselves isolated over time.

I am heartened by the numbers of thinking people who've risen in protest against such thinking.

Change is on its way!

[Judy W]

As an American I am thrilled with this election. My parents were bigots & tried to influence me. They are dead & gone....I'm still color blind...Either one of the Democratic candidates will get my heartfelt vote.

[Grace]

I am appalled. I guess white people's work is more real and imiportant than those who have darker skin. I guess the work of the pineapple plantations, the cotton fields, the railroad, the fruit farms, the laundries, the groceries, the street stands...I guess all THAT work isn't really "work."

[Dane Wilson]

think I'm gonna gag.........

[Melinda]

My sister asked me why Clinton won the W. Virginia primary by such a large margin. I said it was because Clinton is white and she pandered to the white, uneducated, unread, redneck racist bigots, which W. Virginia is full of.

These primary campaigns have enlightened many people once again to the stark racial, political, religious and class divisions in this country.
Ms. Parker's column sickens me.