Ripping the mask off

Did you think they thought any
differently?

Oliver Willis posted this up.

August 14, 2006
The Weekly Standard's Bigot Eruption

Conservatives cannot help themselves. They try, time and time again, to excuse themselves from their movement's racist past. They try to deny that the foundation of the current Republican party came about as segregationist racists were turned out of the newly progressive Democratic party in the wake of the Kennedy and Johnson presidencies.

Conservatives wonder why Americans of all stripes idealogically and racially don't buy their protestations that they aren't racist. But it is because of the behavior - in this instance exhbited by The Weekly Standard - that constantly denigrates anyone who isn't a rich white Christian male. The right looks down their nose at anyone who they consider "different" and wonders why the perception of them is so at odds with the world they've built up in their own minds.

It wasn't enough for the Weekly Standard to speak about their disagreement with Ned Lamont, his supporters or even the controversial politics practiced by Al Sharpton (who I happen to disagree with). No, the Weekly Standard, said by some to be the favored political journal of the White House and a major player in conservative politics via editor-in-chief William Kristol (former Dan Quayle chief of staff) - chose to depict the African-American Sharpton as just another white gloved chaueffeur, subserviently ferrying around his white "massa" Ned Lamont.

What the hell is wrong with these people? It shows the lack of moral compass they've exhibited for years now, and displays that it is so ingrained in their system and the world they live in that there's nothing apparently negative about depicting a black person - even one like Sharpton - as just a modern day Step N Fetchit.

See, Oliver half gets it, making sure that his readers know he isn't like Sharpton, while disagreeing with the open racism

Only problem, this feeds right into the kind of racism the conservatives use. I don't feel the need to announce I disagree with Sharpton on some issues. It's not "even one like Sharpton" Because they will do that to ANY black person. Not just Sharpton.

You ask me about Sharpton, I'm going to explain where I agree with him first. Why? Because it's not my job to demonize him