My Problem with Europe
Is that I grew up there; I have relatives who still live there; and I have experienced first hand the racism and hatred that are perpetrated against my people.
Yes, I am quite aware that I have light skin and eyes and don’t *look* Gypsy according to all y’all… so, imagine if I was a victim of racism, how much worse it is for those who are not so privileged?
I’ve had multiple emails from Czechs and Hungarians, Slovakians and Romanians all saying the same thing… that “Gypsies” are bad, bad people and they are to blame for all of the stealing, murder, rape, the economic crisis, bullying, poor education, collapse of society, contagious diseases, and even global warming…
Whenever I challenge these views with Amnesty, ERRC, news, and other reports I’m told that:
- I don’t know what it’s like to live in the country
- Oh, it’s only GYPSIES who are bad, not Romani (*blink*)
- The reports are wrong/falsified/not written by a person from ___insert country here___
- You are wrong. Period.
And there is nothing I can say to change these views.
This… this is the problem.
Many, many people in Europe are raised to believe that Romani are “inadaptable”. I’ve been asked why, if Romani are so good, did France expel hundreds of them and why did they recommend internment camps?
It’s called institutionalized racism.
According to the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights 2010):
The Roma, estimated at between 10 and 12 million people, constitute the largest minority in Europe and are present in virtually all Council of Europe member states.
This minority has been suffering profound discrimination for centuries and, even today, is still frequently rejected by the rest of the population because of deep-seated prejudices. Moreover, in these times of economic crisis, this highly vulnerable minority presents an easy target and is used as a scapegoat.
The situation faced by Roma in terms of access to education, employment, health services and housing or in terms of social integration is still very often deplorable, not to say scandalous.
But, I’ve also been told that reports such as these are not legitimate sources either—because such committees are inherently biased against the “normal” population within Europe..
but, most of these people are not taught about the history of the Romani and are bursting with privilege and patriarchy.
So, here is a brief timeline of our history:
A Brief Timeline of Romani History
997-‐1026: The people now known as the Roma/Romani/Romanies begin to leave northern India,
headed west through Persia. The last migration begins in 1192.1347: Due to plagues and wars, Romanies begin to move west again, through Armenia and Asia Minor.
1385: The first recorded transaction of Romani slaves is recorded in Romania.
1416-‐1504: The Roma are expelled from Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, and France.
1510: Switzerland imposes the death penalty.
1512-‐1538: The Roma are expelled from Catalonia, Bavaria, Portugal, Sweden, England, Wales, and Denmark.
1538: Portugal deports Romanies to the Colonies.
1544: England deports Romanies to Norway.
1589: Denmark imposes the death penalty to all Roma.
1637: Sweden imposes the death penalty to all Roma.
1721: Emperor Karl VI orders the extermination of all Roma in the Austro-‐Hungarian Empire.
1728: Last living Romanies hunted down in Holland.
1547-‐1749: The Roma are expelled from Norway, Bohemia, Poland, Lithuania, Scotland, Denmark(again), Norway (again), Belarus, and Sweden (again).
1758: Empress Maria Theresa begins a program to assimilate all Roma by force.
1783: Most legislation against the Roma is repealed.
1812: Nomadic Romanies in Finland are confined to workhouses.
1822: Turnpike Act is introduced. All Roma camping along the roadside are fined.
1830: Germany begins a program of removing Romani children from their homes to be fostered with non-Roma families.
1848: Transylvania frees the Roma from 500 years of slavery, followed by Moldavia in 1855 and Wallachia in 1856.
1849: Denmark allows Romanies back into the country.
1868: Richard Liebich coins the phrase “lives unworthy of life.” This is later used by the Nazis to destroy the Roma alongside the Jews in the Holocaust.
1872 – 1899: Roma are expelled from Belgium, Denmark (again), and Germany.
1884: A Romni, Dr. Kavalasky, is appointed Professor of Mathematics at Stockholm University. She is the first female professor in Scandinavia.
1890: Germany organizes a conference on “The Gypsy Scum.” The “Central Office for Fighting the Gypsy Nuisance” gets its start there.
1906: France hands out identity cards to all Roma.
1920s: In the Weimar Republic, Roma were forbidden to use parks or public baths and required to register with police. In 1922, Germany begins a program to fingerprint and photograph all Romani. Professor Hans F. Gunther blames the Roma for introducing foreign blood into Europe.
1933-‐34: Hitler comes to power in Germany. Romani musicians are barred from the State Cultural Chamber, forced sterilizations begin of all Romanies, Sinto boxer Johann Trollman is stripped of his title as lightweight champion, and “Beggars Week” means thousands of Roma are arrested. Romani people who can’t prove German citizenship are expelled.
1935-‐38: In Germany, all Romanies become subjected to the Nuremburg Laws for the Protection of German Blood and German honor. Roma in Germany lose the right to vote, the internment camp in Marzahn is opened, Hitler issues the General Decree for Fighting the Gypsy Menace, and the Racial Hygiene and Population Biological Unit of the Health Office opens. By 1938, all Roma in Germany are declared anti-‐social, arrested, and sent into forced labor to build the concentration camps.
In Russia, Stalin bans the Romani language and culture.
1940: The first mass genocidal action of the Holocaust takes place in Buchenwald, where 250 Romani children are used as guinea pigs to test the Zyklon‐B gas crystals.
1941-‐44: In Germany, in July, Himmler orders the Einsatzkommandos to “kill all Jews, Gypsies, and mental patients.” In 1944, the 1,400 Roma at Auschwitz still deemed fit for work are sent to Buchenwald.
The remaining 2,900 Roma attempt to defend themselves using rocks and sticks, but they are defeated and taken to the gas chambers.
1945: World War II ends, though it is still illegal to be Roma in much of post-‐war Europe.
1962: The courts in the German Federal Republic declare that the Roma were persecuted in the Holocaust for racial reasons. Romani survivors do not share in the millions of dollars of reparations given to other survivors of the Holocaust.
1966: The Gypsy Council is set up in Great Britain.
1969: Bulgaria establishes segregated schools for Romani children. Countries across the former Soviet client states follow their lead.
1970: National Gypsy Education Council is established in England.
1971: First Romani Congress held in London, England, adopting “Gelem, Gelem” as the national anthem, as well as a national flag, based on the flag of India. Other considerations include a Romani alphabet, the protection of the language and culture, and human rights issues.
1972: Czech Republic begins to sterilize Romani women. The government claims the process ended in 2007, but reports of sterilization are still being investigated and the government has refused to pay reparations to the affected women.
1977: A UN sub-committee makes a resolution on the protection of Roma.
1979: The Romani Union is recognized by the UN’s Economic and Social Council.
1981: Yugoslavia grants the Roma national status.
1987: The United States Holocaust Memorial Council appoints its first Romani member, seven years after the Council was created.
1989: Germany deports foreign Romanies.
1990: Fourth World Romani Congress adopts an alphabet for the Romani language.
1991: The Roma gain equal rights in Macedonia.
1960-‐1999: The Roma face persecution and death from attack by both civilians and governments across Europe. In 1997, Neo-‐Nazi street gangs beat and kill Roma with impunity in Serbia. Periodic altercations continue, especially in Eastern Europe, where Romani children are relegated to back rows and special education, often beaten and ostracized by students and some teachers.
1998-‐99 In the Kosovo Conflict, Romani communities are targeted by all sides.
2008-‐9: Parts of a Romani settlement near Naples are burned by a mob. Italian authorities destroy another settlement, moving Roma to temporary quarters that lack water and electricity. The Prime Minister gives local authorities powers to carry out evictions and to fingerprint people, including children.
A widespread outcry ensues, but the European Commission does not ask Prime Minister Berlusconi to end the fingerprint provisions. Romanies from other EU countries are deported without individual appeal.
2009-‐11 Neo-‐Nazis intimidate and harass Romani communities in Hungary and the Czech Republic. Repeated violence, discrimination in employment and housing, and continued harassment from authorities continues across Eastern Europe, forcing many Roma to flee to Western Europe.
2010-‐11 French police shoot and kill a young Rom at a checkpoint in the Loire Valley, resulting in riots. In response, French President Sarkozy orders the dismantling of some 300 Romani settlements, declaring the illegal camps sources of crime, and deporting Roma, most to Eastern Europe. Caught up in the police roundups are some Roma who are French citizens. Deportations do not allow for asylum or appeals. EU Commissioner Vivian Reding declares the expulsions violate EU provisions on freedom of movement, but eventually Sarkozy’s deportations are allowed to continue.
2011 In Kosovo, thousands of Romani refugees whose homes were destroyed in the War remain in refugee camps without appropriate hygiene facilities, located near or on top of rubbish heaps, which leach harmful substances into the water and soil, while other refugee groups have been given housing. One remaining camp populated by Roma in Mitrovica sits atop a heavy metal mine, leading to lead poisoning in the population.
_______
These are just some of the things that have happened. Recently a Romani family were shot, others have been raped, or forcibly sterilized or evicted. Romani are still regularly victims of intolerance, discrimination and rejection based on deep-seated prejudices in many Council of Europe member states. It is also important to note that the Roma are Europe’s largest minority without a compact territory and unlike other national minorities, do not receive any support from a kin-state. In some countries, the Roma minority is not recognised as such even though it has been established there for several centuries.
The Roma are scapegoats, convenient answers to those hard questions… a people who have for centuries been victims of brutal and sustained racism, discrimination, and oppression.
So don’t tell me that I don’t know what it’s like, I have lived in many different European countries. Don’t tell me I don’t know what’s going on, I still have family and friends there, and I read multiple reports from different agencies and news outlets every day.
If you want to read the full Parliamentary report it is here. Perhaps you should actually READ some of these reports before condemning them as biased or misleading.
My problem with Europe is it’s legacy of colonial imperialism, white supremacy, and racist ideology.
An African man gestures after his car was damaged by an Israeli mob following a rightwing rally in Israel’s capital Tel Aviv against African refugees who have settled there, on May 23, 2012. Among the speakers were Knesset Members Miri Regev — a member of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud Party — who called the refugees “a cancer in our body” and Danny Danon — also Likud — who wrote on his Facebook page after the event referring to the Africans as “infiltrators”. Interior Minister Eli Yishai said the African asylum seekers threaten “the Zionist dream,” adding, “Jobs will root them here.” (Photos: AP / Getty Images)
I remember when I watched Full Metal Jacket last summer. It was my first time seeing this film and finally found out where that phrase “me love you long time/sucky sucky 5 dollars” came from. I’m not going to lie, it was really hard to watch that film.
Random Fact:
The current version of the popular children’s rhyme:
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe,Catch a tiger by the toe.If he hollers, let him go,Eeny, meeny, miny, moe.
has about 9 different versions from Europe and South Asia. This rhyme has been around well before the 1820s. Originally, this rhyme became part of Bert Fitzgibbon’s 1906 song “Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Mo.”
Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Mo,Catch a ni***r by his toe,If he won’t work then let him go;Skidum, skidee, skidoo.But when you get money, your little brideWill surely find out where you hide,So there’s the door and when I count four,Then out goes you
Prior to the 1906 version, in the U.S. a version that is similar to it was reported as the most common version among American schoolchildren in 1888.
Eeny, meena, mina, mo,Catch a ni***r by the toe;If he hollers let him go,Eena, meena, mina, mo
(Via wikipedia)
So much for teaching this to school children.
Throughout her life, Washington was often asked if she ever wanted to “pass” for white. This was a question almost unique to United States society after the American Civil War and Reconstruction. It classified people by hypodescent, that is, mixed-race people were classified as belonging to the race of lower social status, in this case, black, regardless of appearance and ancestry. Other multiracial countries tended to recognize a wider variety of classes. Washington answered conclusively, “no.”
“I don’t want to pass because I can’t stand insincerities and shams. I am just as much Negro as any of the others identified with the race.” Fay M. Jackson, The Pittsburgh Courier (1911-1950), Pittsburgh, Pa.: Apr 14, 1934.
“I have never tried to pass for white and never had any desire, I am proud of my race.” In ‘Imitation of Life’, I was showing how a girl might feel under the circumstances but I am not showing how I felt.” The Chicago Defender (National edition) (1921-1967). Chicago, Ill.: Jan 19, 1935
“I wish I had Nina Mae McKinney’s complexion.” The Pittsburgh Courier (1911-1950) Pittsburgh, Pa.: Mar 2, 1935.
“You see I’m a mighty proud gal and I can’t for the life of me, find any valid reason why anyone should lie about their origin or anything else for that matter. Frankly, I do not ascribe to the stupid theory of white supremacy and to try to hide the fact that I am a Negro for economic or any other reasons, if I do I would be agreeing to be a Negro makes me inferior and that I have swallowed whole hog all of the propaganda dished out by our fascist-minded white citizens.
I am an American citizen and by God, we all have inalienable rights and whenever and wherever those rights are tampered with, there is nothing left to do but fight…and I fight. How many people do you think there are in this country who do not have mixed blood, there’s very few if any, what makes us who we are are our culture and experience. No matter how white I look, on the inside I feel black. There are many whites who are mixed blood, but still go by white, why such a big deal if I go as Negro, because people can’t believe that I am proud to be a Negro and not white. To prove I don’t buy white superiority I chose to be a Negro.” - EARL CONRAD, “Pass Or Not To Pass?”, The Chicago Defender (1921-1967). Chicago, Ill.: Jun 16, 1945
(Via Wikipedia)
The issue of skin color in the Philippines.
I’ll make a post on this subject at least once. From what I’ve heard my mother growing up, the most important thing for a Filipina living in the Philippine islands is to:
1. Have Connections
2. get a BA and a masters if one can afford
3. Have connections
4. dress nicely
5. pleasing personality.
For the second point, many filipinos go through a lot just to be able to go to college, from working multiple jobs and saving up for years, etc. My first and third point is highly important since nepotism is rampant in the media and in the political arena. Sadly enough, this hasn’t changed since the Philippines declared independence in 1946. Obviously if you have the connections, you must have some money to be able to put yourself together, and you must have a pleasing personality. It’s on all the application forms. Now what exactly does a pleasing personality entail? Having light skin and kissing ass. The idea of having a bright complexion goes back to the Spanish colonial caste system that was in place for 333 years. Even though, the Philippines is no longer a colony of Spain, US imperialism hasn’t made too many improvements from the now defunct caste system to how indigenous populations are regarded in society today. I can tell you about the number Mormon missionaries that work in NGOs that are trying to “help” them, but that’s a topic for another time.
The caste system was divided into 9 categories with Peninsulares, a person of pure Spanish descent born in Spain (“from the Iberian peninsula”) at the top to Negritos, a person of indigenous Aeta ancestry at the bottom. In the past I’ve used the ‘term’ tornatrás as my blog title in irony, but have been surprised that no one has asked about it’s usage.
No matter how intelligent one is, if they are darker than a brown paper bag (to borrow from old southern AA usage) your “personality” probably hasn’t won them over. In addition, attaining light skin was seen as survival during the times that my mother grew up. She would tell me stories of how she created her own bleaching products in her younger days and it would guarantee you a certain job if you didn’t have the right connections. There were women who would marry foreign men, especially European/Anglo-American men, just so their children would at least have a chance if they stayed there. Of course, what came with this was the disdain for darker skin and staying out in the sun too long, denoting one’s working class and indigenous status.
Thought-process: If an employer hires a lighter complected person, it tells society that the employee has some European ancestry somewhere down the line and some amount of money and connections. (In relations to their ancestors)Poor foreigners typically don’t go there. The employee is someone of significance and employers always want to look their very best. Even if the employee doesn’t deserve the job. They look the part.
In popular Philippine media, people of darker complexion have been the laughing end of many jokes. As Roman Catholicism is the dominant religion, pictures of a euro-centric infant Jesus and Mary herself are depicted in churches, schools, and in festivals. In many Filipino homes, a rendition of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper can be found overlooking dining room tables. Yet, irony strikes as the black statue of baby Jesus (Santo Nino) is one of the most revered symbols in the ati-atihan festival. (Another article I can write in the future!)
Black face is a problem in the Philippines as well as the social construct of what is considered beautiful and what isn’t. As a woman of Filipina (and Afro-American) descent, I can say that our colonial shackles haven’t been left behind if (controversies such as the FHM cover still occur) we constantly devalue darker complected Filipinos and indigenous (wo)men who don’t display European features. In addition, the vast majority of our celebrities are completely bleached out or are half European/Anglo-American. And a good percentage of the population doesn’t look like most of these men and women. I don’t want to devalue anyone who is of mixed race descent who is born with European features, but at the same time I don’t want someone constantly telling me that having certain features are not only better but the key to my survival and success.
So for all the non-Filipinos out there, pleasing personality = let’s go to the store to find some fast working bleaching products.
**Random: So it turns out Dove is a huge supplier…**
Random Memory: During my first year of college, I remember that my school threw a Halloween Bash in conjunction with another program in Berkeley. It was interesting being there as this was the first Halloween that most of these foreign exchange students (mainly from Europe and East Asia) have celebrated. Some of them did the traditional fun costumes, many of them were drunk out of their minds, and others…well…took it way to far. One of my hall-mates and porch mates told me about this guy from Italy who kept hitting on her the entire night. He was “dressed up” as Bob Marley, wearing dreadlocks and dark face paint, while his friend (not sure what country) was dressed as a stereotypical pimp from the 70s. Ironically, the one person he happened to try to talk to all evening was in the ethnic studies living community with me. My two hallmates didn’t really care to speak to these guys anyways, but all I could wonder about was HOW did they get away walking around like that in the East Bay (especially Oakland!) and whether blackface is a serious problem in Europe…
I just have a hard time believing that someone would be that oblivious to something that offensive and think it was OK. Especially since two guys in the exchange program were black Frenchmen, but I guess they thought it was funny. =/
![fyeahwomenshistory:
[TW: racism, abuse, sexual abuse]
pixyled:
esmeweatherwax:
racemash:
thespunkywallflower:
J. Marion Sims is called “the Father of Gynecology” due to his experiments on enslaved women in Alabama who were often submitted as guinea pigs by their plantation owners who could not use them for sexual pleasure. He kept seven women as subjects for four years, but left a trail of death and permanently traumatized black women. Anarcha was one of the women Sims experimented upon. A detailed history of this monster is in Harriet Washington’s book, Medical Apartheid.Sims believed that Africans were numb to pain and operated on the women without anesthesia or antiseptic. The procedures usually happened this way. Black female slaves who were guinea pigs would hold one subject down as Sims performed hysterectomies, tubal ligation, and other procedures to examine various female disorders.Sims also performed a host of operations on other slave populations. The following excerpt details his “practice” on enslaved infants.Sims began to exercise his freedom to experiment on his captives. He took custody of slave infants and, with a shoemaker’s awl, tried to pry the bones of their skulls into proper alignment.
You guys should really google him.
(if you click the link, I did it for you)
fucking hell I just nearly got sick.
tumblrs tuaght me so much I had NO IDEA how SO MANY THINGS we have in modern days was LITERALLY made at the expense of black women. The fact that they skip over this in things like biology classes and stuff like that is disgusting. This is just apalling](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lymopvxSfk1qlw0huo1_400.jpg)
[TW: racism, abuse, sexual abuse]
J. Marion Sims is called “the Father of Gynecology” due to his experiments on enslaved women in Alabama who were often submitted as guinea pigs by their plantation owners who could not use them for sexual pleasure.
He kept seven women as subjects for four years, but left a trail of death and permanently traumatized black women.
Anarcha was one of the women Sims experimented upon. A detailed history of this monster is in Harriet Washington’s book, Medical Apartheid.
Sims believed that Africans were numb to pain and operated on the women without anesthesia or antiseptic. The procedures usually happened this way.
Black female slaves who were guinea pigs would hold one subject down as Sims performed hysterectomies, tubal ligation, and other procedures to examine various female disorders.
Sims also performed a host of operations on other slave populations. The following excerpt details his “practice” on enslaved infants.
Sims began to exercise his freedom to experiment on his captives. He took custody of slave infants and, with a shoemaker’s awl, tried to pry the bones of their skulls into proper alignment.You guys should really google him.
(if you click the link, I did it for you)
fucking hell I just nearly got sick.
tumblrs tuaght me so much
I had NO IDEA how SO MANY THINGS we have in modern days was LITERALLY made at the expense of black women. The fact that they skip over this in things like biology classes and stuff like that is disgusting.
This is just
apalling
One of my major lessons of 2011…
never have a conversation with someone about politics who is terrifyingly pro-Zionist. I’ve never heard so much offensive jargon in my life. Then said person proceeded to tell me they were impressed at how articulate I was. -____-
Even though we disagreed…apparently, I’m supposed to be stupid. Awesome.
Pub dinner with a side of racism.
I’ve had an interesting evening. I went to a talk by John Rose; “The fight for Palestinian liberation”. It was brilliant.
A few of us went to the pub to have a few drinks and dinner. This drunk guy decided to sit himself down next to us and try to “chat us up.”
I ignored him for the majority of the night until he started having rant about unemployed people being unemployed because they are “lazy”. We were having an interesting ‘debate’. Whenever I said something, he became agitated and annoyed.
He looks straight at me and says “no offense”
And I just thought…Here we go.
He has a massive rant about all the blacks in prison, I told him to fuck right off. My friend told him to fuck off and leave the table, she made it clear we were not putting up with any racism.
He got up, screaming at us to “watch our mouthes” and “dont fucking tell me anything about the darkies”.
“the darkies”
I couldn’t believe he actually said that. I just sat there in complete and utter shock. I know I shouldn’t be, but I am.
He threatened to “slice up” my friends on the table because they dared to call him out on his racism. He told us to watch our backs, he told us he is after us. I think he was angry that my friends were supporting me and not agreeing with him, he must have seen them as some sort of “race traitors”. He almost smashed his glass into my friends face.
I sat there, thinking to myself, this is happening and nobody is doing anything. A pub full of people stayed silent while a man threatened to violently assault several women for calling him out on his racism, sexism and xenophobia.
This happened and this will happen again and nobody will do anything because they can’t bring themselves to let go of their “post racial society” illusions. They will go home, convince themselves it was an isolated incident while I walk home completely terrified— for my life.
Welcome to the lives of POC.
I can’t believe this happened last night.
One thing that really struck me about this guy, in amidst his threats to ‘cut my face open’, and demands that I ‘shut my mouth, because you know fuck all’, was the phrase ‘this is my manor, you don’t know where your from.’
And I think that’s the crux of the problem, how dare young women tell him, on his ‘manor’, that he’s got it wrong.
For instance, he made claims about France not having free health care. (This was mid-debate, before it really all kicked off) I told him he was wrong. (He is) He immediately told me to shut my mouth, and that I know nothing. I simply replied with ‘okay’, because I’m a woman, and because of that, me telling a man that he’s factually incorrect about something will never be believed. And how dare I even think to tell him he’s wrong? He can’t be! And from what did he derive this confidence that I must be wrong and he must be right? Because I’m a woman. It grinds me down that all I could do was sit there while a man shouted in my face about my stupidity, over a fact that as it transpires, I’m correct about.
Don’t like intelligent young women? Fine, but you don’t deal with that by pretending they don’t exist.
And now at the same time, I’m genuinely terrified that one day that man’s going to be wandering down Mile End Road, and he’s going to be wrecked, and I’m going to be alone, and I really don’t know what will happen, but at the same time, if I take this further criminally I really don’t think someone so angry and let down by the world will really get much out of the criminal justice system.
And yet again, we must resign ourselves that in this world, the systems creates its own problems, and then doesn’t know what to do with them.
Added commentary to yesterdays events.
I need to point out that these things happen all the time. ALL THE TIME. to PoC, not just where I live, but where you live, where anyone reading this lives. All the time.
All those isolated incidents, all those individual experiences, when taken together, form a pattern, and to deny that is patently ridiculous, and it is denial in its most basic form.
KIRYAT MALACHI, ISRAEL - JANUARY 10: (ISRAEL OUT) Israelis of Ethiopian origin take part in a rally against racism on January 10, 2012, in the southern Israeli town of Kiryat Malachi, Israel. Hundreds of demonstrators hit the streets of Kiryat Malachi, protesting what they call the discrimination of Ethiopian immigrants. According to Ethiopian residents of Kiryat Malachi, housing committees in the city have been refusing to sell them apartments. (Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)
Racism 'happens': Inexplicable events haunt GOP primary
“You start out in 1954 by saying, ‘N****r, n****r, n****r.’ By 1968 you can’t say ‘n****r’ - that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states’ rights and all that stuff. You’re getting so abstract now [that] you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites.” - Lee Atwater, former Chair of the Republican Party
San Pedro, California - It’s the darnedest thing. Republicans have zero tolerance for anything racist. They’ll tell you so at the drop of a hat. It’s liberals and Democrats who are the real racists. Just ask Herman Cain, he’ll set you straight. After all, if a pizza CEO isn’t an expert on racism, then who is?
And yet, in recent weeks, all manner of seemingly racist things keeping popping up all around the GOP presidential primary campaign, which can only be explained in terms of mysterious and malevolent forces, out of movies such as The Exorcist, or Men in Black, or more recent low-rent fare, like the SyFy channel’s Ghost Hunters “reality show”.
First there was the matter of Ron Paul’s racist, homophobic and otherwise bigoted newsletters from the 1980s and 1990s. Of course he never read them. (“I never read that stuff. I was probably aware of it ten years after it was written,” he told Gloria Borger on CNN the week before Christmas.)
What editor and publisher ever reads the words that go out under his name? Sure, he once touted them as the prime vehicle of his mission of political education. Back in 1995 he told CNN: “Long term, I don’t think political action is worth very much if you don’t have education, and so I’ve continued with my economic education foundation, Free Foundation, which I started in 1976 … I also put out a political type of business investment newsletter that sort of covered all these areas.”
But that doesn’t mean that he actually had any idea what was in them. And, yes, when their odious content first became an issue when he ran for Congress in 1996, he and his campaign defended the indefensible by saying the offensive passages had been “quoted out of context” - and then refusing to release the newsletters, thus keeping the context hidden.
Newt Gingrich accused of ‘racial bias’
According to the Dallas Morning News, “Dr Paul denied suggestions that he was a racist and said he was not evoking stereotypes when he wrote the columns.
He said they should be read and quoted in their entirety to avoid “misrepresentation”. And he went on to defend having written: “[W]e can safely assume that 95 per cent of the black males in that city [Wasington DC] are semi-criminal or entirely criminal.”
But what politician doesn’t change his story over time, hoping folks will forget what he’s done? Heck, they teach that in Politics 101. I mean, we’re talking about Ron Paul, here. The most straight-shooting of straight-shooters there is. He’ll tell you so himself.
Still, it is rather odd how many examples of racist passages there were. And how the folks Paul hired have such long histories of saying equally vile things in a wide range of other venues. And how he never noticed any of it. And how none of his friends did either, even though others in the libertarian movement were deeply troubled by the racist support Paul had built up over the years. So many coincidences, so little time. It’s a real puzzle. Must be the aliens from MiB. It just has to be.
But then along comes Rick Santorum, and he says: “I do not want to make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money. I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money.” Except, he later says, he didn’t say “black” at all, even though it’s right there on the videotape. In between, he admits he did, but then the more he thinks about it, the surer he becomes that he didn’t. Somehow, as with Ron Paul, it just happened. Mysteriously. Nobody knows how.
This is all rather curious, you have to admit. As Santorum explained things to Bill O’Reilly: “I looked at that, and I didn’t say that. If you look at it, what I started to say is a word and then sort of changed and it sort of … blah … came out. And people said I said ‘black.’ I didn’t.” Well, sure, that must be it, right? He was about to say some other word - he can’t recall just what it was, doesn’t really matter anyway, right? - and then right in the middle of saying it, he changed his mind.
Newt’s a not-racist in a class by himself
But then there’s Newt. You’ve got to hand it to Newt: He’s in class by himself. You catch Newt with his hands in the cookie jar, and he doesn’t say “ET made me do it!” No siree. He’s written a book and produced a DVD explaining how he’s saving civilisation by reducing the dangerously high density of cookies in the jar, before it explodes, sending deadly shards of glass halfway across the Alpha Quadrant. And for a limited time only, you can buy both the book and the DVD for one low price. Another $20 more, and he’ll throw in an autographed photo with you Photoshopped in right next to him. Or vice versa.
In this particular instance, Newt was riffing on one of his favorite not-at-all-racist themes, how Barack Obama - who’s actions could only be understood as coming from a Kenyan anti-colonialist mindset - is the greatest “food-stamp” president of all time. Mere mortal men might catch a wiff of racism in a statement like that, but Newt would shoot back, saying that it was bizarre to think any such thing.
there should be a ‘things white people say to mixed people video.
“so what are you?”
“why is your skin so light if you’re a quarter _____ and a quarter _______”
“so your mom is ______ and your dad is ____? whaaat?”
“that’s so conFUSING!!?!”
if you really wanna make it good, add in mixed ADOPTED folks.
“wait what do you mean you don’t have a dad? ohhhh i’m SO sorry”
“where are your parents from? oh you’ve never met your biological parents”
blah.
“So white plus Indian equals Italian?”
In some diversity class for high school I had a teacher tell me that I COULDN’T be Native American, and that I was definitely “something Mediterranean”.
“So if we had babies, our kids would be ___________, ___________, __________, AND __________. WHOA.”
“I can kind of see ___________ in your face, but not really.”
“I KNEW you were part Native because of your hair. Wait, you get your hair from your white said?”
“Are you sure you’re not part Mexican? You’re too hairy to be Native American.”
I COULD GO ON FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“You’re _____, _____ , and ____ ? That’s so exotic”
“That’s a hot mix”
“So… why is your hair like that?”
“I can never remember what your mix is….haha”
“You should marry someone _____ so then your kids will be really hot”
“But both your parents look Black!”
