Oops…
Clyburn in the New York Times:
WASHINGTON — Representative James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, the highest-ranking African-American in Congress, said he was rethinking his neutral stance in his state’s presidential primary out of disappointment at comments by Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton that he saw as diminishing the historic role of civil rights activists.Mr. Clyburn, a veteran of the civil rights movement and a power in state Democratic politics, put himself on the sidelines more than a year ago to help secure an early primary for South Carolina, saying he wanted to encourage all candidates to take part. But he said recent remarks by the Clintons that he saw as distorting civil rights history could change his mind.
“We have to be very, very careful about how we speak about that era in American politics,” said Mr. Clyburn, who was shaped by his searing experiences as a youth in the segregated South and his own activism in those days. “It is one thing to run a campaign and be respectful of everyone’s motives and actions, and it is something else to denigrate those. That bothered me a great deal.”
I haven’t been listening to black talk radio–has the Clinton line been getting much play?
January 11th, 2008 at
[...] More important to South Carolian, the NYT reports that Rep. Jim Clyburn is reconsidering his earlier commitment to remain neutral: “But he said recent remarks by the Clintons that he saw as distorting civil rights history could change his mind.” Oops, indeed. [...]
January 11th, 2008 at
I’m an Obama fan, but it’s hard for me to believe that Clyburn would take seriously the idea that the Sen. Clinton was diminishing the importance of MLK with her remarks last week.
This seems like a decision to get on a train that was leaving the station (meaning that black voters in SC are already defecting to Obama in droves, with or without Clyburn), and an effort to outflank those who might say he was awfully late in getting there.
I also think it’s a divisive way to announce his endorsement — he could have said “Barack Obama has convinced me with his poise, his policies. Maybe stress Obama’s likelihood to understand black issues and problems better.
Instead he goes out of his way to insinuate that Hillary Clinton is subtly racist and that her one-off remarks praising the accomplishments of the Civil Rights era are significantly damaging to the overall legacy of MLK.
So we’ve had Cong. Jackson questioning whether Hillary really got emotional, Clyburn saying she’s subtly racist. All we need is for Gloria Steinem to come out and say that it was a mistake to let the Civil Rights movement get going before the women’s rights movement, and we could have the bitterest, most divisive presidential primary since Bryan the fake populist outflanked the Populist Party with his cross-of-gold speech, splitting the liberal vote and pretty directly leading to the final imposition of apartheid in the American South.
Just saying. Let’s keep the rhetoric and finger-pointing toned down, huh? I think insinuating that the Clinton’s are racist is beyond the pale.
January 12th, 2008 at
hal, I do not agree, simply put. I wonder, when people say, “Don’t call them racist. Don’t call their tactics racist,” I wonder, “When should we call out racist tactics?” Only when they’re Republicans? Only if they wear white hoods?
When is it acceptable to call these things out?
How could one reconcile a political belief that racism is wrong, sexism is wrong, homophobia is wrong, that the current power structures and their corollary prejudiced belief systems are wrong and corrupt and hurting our country, and even tacit support for, and a complete lack of opposition to, tactics that use these prejudices?
This is not just about Obama and Hillary and politics. This is about, to me at least, trying to wake other progressives up to the fact that we need to start combating what is wrong once again instead of ignoring evil for political convenience. Why is THAT beyond the pale?
July 9th, 2008 at
“This is not just about Obama and Hillary and politics.” I totally agree with Colin.