Nice direction the show is taking these days. Now, if you're not FOR Obama or validate his damage control speech today, you're a racist. Talk about getting unhinged. Tell us again folks who is playing the "race" card? Bill Clinton?

Wow.

We could see this coming, talk heads on progressive radio taking sides to early, staying away from our issues, splitting the party! Now, instead of hitting the neocons on FISA, the occupation of Iraq, Iran attack plans, the economy, we are bashing each other! I emailed ED on this many times but he is helping to tear this opportunity to take back our government. I can support either Hillary or Barack, but I can't listen to ED rants!

That is correct. If you say anything negative about Obama or his pastor you are a racist to many here.

No.

Only when you say racist things.

-P

Which to a liberal is saying anything negative about Obama or his pastor.

People here don't seem to have an issue with constructive criticism. On the other hand labeling Rev. Wright a Marxist is neither accurate or constructive.

Keep trying.

I'll ban you yet...

-P

Fact is a lot of folks are racist and they admit it and they try to be better about it.
Then you have those guys like the caller who said he likes to listen to 'the other side' and he lists Sharpton as the other side.

So who is his side? Rush Limbaugh???

Why does he pick the most extreme example as the other side????

Most people probably still are racist but if they have any compassion they look before they leap and think before they judge.

The racist ones who are problematic won't admit to it and then proceed to show, example, speak and act out the reasons that show that they are racist!

If that guy had 'listened' to what Obama said today instead of allowing his racism to close his mind, there might be hope for him.

Instead he chose to lump people in a category, a category that Obama denounced and yet understands.

Yes there are racists out there...

What will you do to make it better?
I think Ed makes it better by not falling for people who only see one side of an issue.
These people who only see issues as black and white are keeping us from moving on to a place where all men are created equal.

1984 was a warning...not an instruction manual


It has been pointed out before that just because you belong to a church and you know how that church stands on certain issues, you are not accountable unless you yourself preach those same stands.


How many gays go to catholic church?
How many pro choice folks go to catholic church?
How many folks who support a right to die go to a catholic church?


Was Kerry Catholic? Why did the church have to warn folks not to give him communion?
I am sure he still considers himself a catholic
and he is!!! despite what the priests/pastors/nuns/elders/deacons/monks say!

Even Mother Teresa had her own doubts about God!
Should she have been kicked out...should she have announced it to the whole world that she was quitting cuz she didn't 'really' believe???

Now you're playing the "reverse" racism card? You've been racist a lot longer than you think baby! We've had fierce discussions about racism before, long before this, or don't you remember. I get just sick of the racists on this board who think it's fun to piss everyone else off.

Don't tie this one to current events...you've had this problem for a while.

exactly.....he started it in s. carolina....man...talk about attention deficit...........

Amen Bro......

Unfortunately, this campaign has broadened the definition of a racist. It seems adult discussion on race is no longer possible. We've fallen into grade school name calling. Everyone needs to take a deep breath.

The other thing we seem to be missing these days is the understanding of the word context. Webster's defines this as "The part of a written or spoke statement that surrounds a word or passage and that often specifies its meaning." Context is everything. Context is more important than the individual phrase itself. Yet we always seem to miss that point.

Well, Big Eddie was on Larry King last night with Blitzer. What was really interesting was the show had 4 Black Americans and Big Edddie talking about Rev. Wright and Sen. Obama in the first segment, then 4 White and no Black Americans talking about the economy in the second segment. I'm pretty sure the guests from the first segment were just as qualified to give opinions on the Fed bailout of Wall $t., probably more so than the second segment guests.

I just heard (on the west coast) Ed's statement that if you disagree with Sen. Obama's speech you are, unequivalently, a racist. I posted this comment in another thread earlier today before hearing Ed's statement, and I stand by my original comment. I am re posting a slightly abridged version here because this seems to be the thread most relevant to the topic. I stand by my comment and I REFUSE to allow anyone, especially Mr. Ed Schultz to paint me or anyone with a contrary viewpoint as a racist. In fact Ed's blatantly ABSURD comment is diametrically opposed to Senator Obama's call for honest conversation without the kind of name calling and innuendo we heard on the radio today. Ed says he is willing to have a discussion - but how is that possible if anyone with an honest opinion enters the discussion already slammed and labeled with a epithet like that?

Ed blames everyone and anyone with this crisis for Obama - especially the "Clintonistas". Do we want a serious discussion or just a political fistfight? You can't have it both ways, and Ed's words put him squarely in the fistfight arena. It would be wrong of me to say anyone who simply supports Obama is a demagogue - but that is the same parallel we heard today on the radio. My suggestion to the Obamanisas - tone it down and have a conversation - or have it simply with yourselves if that's your goal.

my earlier comment:

"... I think most don't realize that while Obama's speech on race was candid and sought ways to find common ground it was in fact a slick political misdirection of the real, deep-seated divisions between Blacks and Whites in this country. I agree with you that politically the way Wright's remarks are being used, and will be used, qualifies as an "electronic political lynching", because we are taking those videos of Wright without understanding the context, that of "Black Liberation Theology" that he espouses and should be the much larger topic at hand. So if racism is real, if Rev. Wright is speaking to truth, and if he really represents the deeply held beliefs of the Afri-American (not a mispelling) community - which I believe he does - is it not fair to say that Obama's speech on race was that of an "electronic Uncle Tom"? Was not that speech designed to calm the fears of white voters? Was the speech designed to sweep under the rug and keep hidden a belief system that white voters know little of. Wasn't Obama saying to ignore the "crazy uncle", I'm a harmless, safe black man? Wasn't Obama playing into the very racism that allows for "electronic lynching"?

Have I dared open myself to criticism by even addressing the issue, am I guilty of Ferraroism by even questioning the motives of a Afri-American candidate? A fair question, Am I even allowed into the game?

While the MSM and fawning white voters see Barack Obama as a victory over bigotry, that is not the conversation that is being held in barber shops and beauty parlors in black communities - the OPs comments are a reflection with that, where in fact Obama felt "forced" to betray his ancestors and abandon Rev. Wright's clarity about the Black struggle in America. Unlike the melting pot of opportunity that White voters think is more representative of Obama's candidacy, Blacks continue to see racism as systematic and pervasive throughout our culture with coded and subtle but still powerful language (Ferraroisms), and invisible to most liberals, including the Clintons, and thus the Ferraro flap.

Lets remember that Obama did not abandon his membership in the Trinity Church of God. Why? White's don't get it. Whites are not privy to the barber shop discussion (perhaps it's time to invite us in?). Whites are seen to have displaced this issue by demanding that Obama lie and deny black perception of the violent history of our country, a typical stunt out of the "play book" of racial politics to silence Obama. We demand he recreate himself in order to maintain white acceptance, and in the speech he did, but at the same time used his own codes, his own playbook to signal the Black community that he is still walks the walk.

So are whites continuing to play the race card to ease our own mental disorder of being racist? It all depends. As a white voter and a Clinton supporter, I see this entire event as mere political jujitsu that stays within the boundaries of political advantage and disadvantage - I expect that should Obama win the nomination I will endorse and support his candidacy, not because of his race, but because of his politics. I found little of Wright's speeches having any bearing on Obama as an individual or a candidate, and I thought it was beneath Obama to have to address the issue with more then an refutation. Now as a partisan, i revel in the fact that my candidate of choice can make political hay while the sun shines, I am not apologetic of the fact, nor do I feel pangs of guilt to see Obama enmeshed in a mess, in part, of his own making.

However, I believe that within the context of the history of the Black American experience we need to recognize the context of what is happening to Barack Obama and by extension due to racial association to Afro-Americans (not a a misspelling). We are all diminished as human beings when the majority community allows Ferraroism to go unchallenged, because it was that ugly legacy that Obama's minister referred to. There is a double standard in America that allows for Whites like Ferraro, and typical right wing punditry, a freedom of expression that at the same time sends a message to Blacks to do as we say, not as we do.

When it comes to racism, Obama's speech allows Americans to once again act as spectators, and that's a shame. As a Clinton supporter - Yeah baby! However, I extend the hand of friendship to the Obama camp, as someone who can understand the language and pain of the past."

I tell you what, markvm, let's HAVE a conversation on race. The first thing is you have to understand where blacks come from and where whites come from. This cartoon does a great job if illustrating the problem:



GoU

"If he were white, he would simply be one of nine freshmen senators, almost certainly without a multimillion-dollar book deal and a shred of celebrity. Or would he have been elected at all?"

Regardless of his race, Barack Obama is a very intelligent man who would stand head and shoulders above the vast majority in ANY race. With his community organizing experience and motivation, Obama would have been elected if that is what he chose to do. We are very fortunate indeed to have this man serving in our national government at this time in our history.