A few days ago Democratic Underground posted a YouTube clip of Keith Olberman attacking Secretary of State Rice over statements she made in a Fox News interview. Olberman was galled that Dr.Rice seemed to be comparing Saddam Hussein to Hitler. The fact that the Baathist party which Saddam belonged to was an Islamisized National Socialist organization formed with help from the Nazis themselves is not enough to persuade Olberman that Hitler/Hussein comparisons are valid, nor I assume are the thousands of minorities murdered by Baathists in modern re-creations of Nazi Germany’s darkest days.
Olberman resorts to the kind of borderline racist insults that White “liberals” always throw out at Black Americans who aren’t sufficiently obedient to the left, thus Dr. Rice is compared to a 3 card monty player (why not some other kind of slight of hand artist?), a pickpocket (you know, because Black folk steal) and Olberman expresses his doubt that Rice’s statements could pass muster as a paper in a remedial history class at “the weakest high school in the nation” illustrating nicely how Olberman’s mind connects Black Americans, the majority of whom are in the middle class, with underperforming schools and remedial classes.
In short, Olberman’s a racist.
He’s not the only one, however, in supposedly liberal circles, and the comments on the D.U. post show White Racism at its worst. Comments like this one by a White guy accusing Dr. Rice of being an “Uncle Tom” who gets by on affirmative action (Emphasis mine):
“A SuperKeith Public smackdown of Auntie Thomasina. If only he had mentioned the pitfalls of affirmative action. The Office of Secretary of State has become a throwaway position, first a soldier with a distorted sense of loyalty–and not to the constitution, then an intellectual lightweight with expensive taste in shoes. I don’t think Cheney ever wanted anyone strong over there.
(Don’t get me wrong, I believe in affirmative action, just not for world leaders; I prefer they pass a 12th grade history test)”
Black women are of course promiscuous in the view of the racist:
“makes me ashamed to be a woman sometimes, she’s an embarrassment to all of our gender. We can look up to Nancy Pelosi with awe and adulation that she is the first woman as Speaker but KindaSleazy has tarnished Madeleine Albright’s legacy. What a whore, she’s been pimping so long now for the Bush Cabal, she’s lost her soul if she ever had one to begin with. “
Again emphasis is mine, but how does someone go from being a shill for Bush to being called a whore? I assume it has to do with whether or not the woman in question is Black. And of course being Black, how could she possibly be as intelligent as, say, Keith Olberman?
“….how in the HELL did she EVER get a doctorate in poli sci? I only have a bachelors and I knew how far off she was on her “facts.” Gads, maybe they should start a “no doctorate left behind” program in honor of her?”
Nice. It never occurs to anyone on the comments section that Dr. Rice is making a general observation about the mindset of those who oppose our continued presence in Iraq and those who wanted to leave Europe after World War II. It doesn’t occur to them that it is Olberman who’s misinterpreting (or likely misrepresenting) Dr. Rice’s remarks. It doesn’t occur to them because their hero Keith is a White guy, and she’s just Bush’s Black friend in their eyes.
It doesn’t seem likely to them that the analogy she’s making is that what will happen in Iraq if we leave is what would have happened to Europe, that a multinational Jihadist movement would move in and take over Iraq as surely as the Soviet Union would have taken over Europe if not for our presence. Did these people miss the I.C.U.’s occupation of Somalia?
Dr. Rice didn’t.
Olberman slams Republicans for the positions they held more then fifty years ago regarding WWII. What about views Democrats hold today? Is this kind of racism OK? Is it not possible to disagree with a Black woman without implying she’s promiscuous, stupid and a “sell out”? What gives Whites the right to call a Black woman a “sell out” when she disagrees with White people? I don’t expect more from the party that embraces filthy Klanner Robert Byrd, but does Keith Olberman?
I doubt it.