Saturday, February 21, 2009

Playing The Race Card Again

Will stories like this ever go away? Maybe they will when people who remember the pre-1964 (Civil Rights Act) days are all gone. Or maybe I'm just hopelessly naive.

The highest-ranking black congressman said Thursday that opposition to the federal stimulus package by southern GOP governors is "a slap in the face of African-Americans."

U.S. Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., said he was insulted when the governors of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and his home state, which have large black populations, said they might not accept some of the money from the $787 billion stimulus package.


He was insulted because some governors didn't want to burden businesses with the additional requirements that would come with the money--the concern given by (ethnically Indian, dark-skinned) Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal. I notice Clyburn didn't seem to have a problem with Alaska's Republican governor's not accepting the money. Why can Alaska legitimately turn down the money, but not Southern states? Yes, we already know the answer.

Gotta read down in the article, though, to find this bit of spin:

Clyburn spokeswoman Hope Derrick later said Clyburn didn't mean he thought those governors were racially motivated in their opposition, but that rejecting stimulus money would hurt black residents.

I'm calling BS on that. This idiot was playing the race card, pure and simple.

Hey, Clyburn! Get this through your fat head. It's not all about your skin color, dude. That's so 40 years ago.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Why would it hurt black residents of those states if the stimulus money isn't targeted to specifically help African Americans in the first place? So, is that what he's saying? If so, what about the other about 75%-80% (I'm not sure of what the actual statistic is) of the population that isn't African-American? Is there any legislation for them?

Ellen K said...

Mark my words, when the federal funds for all these pork packages have dried up, the Feds will come and take money from the state treasuries. Sure, they will label is national security or somesuch, but it is going to happen. Have you noticed how "racism" is the magical invocation for any opposition in this administration? As if Holder wasn't enough of an ideologue with his preaching to all of the white folks on how we were all cowards. Wow, isn't prejudice when you assume that stereotypes are real? And yet our Attorney General stated ideas that are clearly based on the assumption that white folks are a bunch of red necked yahoos. How is that any different than the way any racist group views minorities? And that is no way to get support for your ideas.