Sandy Hook

Sandy Hook

Sunday, October 03, 2010

"I'M NOT A RACIST"

Was just getting ready to take a few zzz's when I came across this on Crooks and Liars (HERE). A 90-year-old caller to C-Span asks why "colored people" aren't more grateful for "free everything" and ends by saying she's not a racist. At least she didn't use the N----- word.
CALLER: I'm 90 years old and I just wanted to ask the colored man, why don't colored people instead of saying what we did to them, why don't they say what we did for them? They talk about the slavery but since then they have been given welfare, free medicine, free everything.

HARLESTON: Ma'am I think this is more of a conversation about the relationship between the administration and the people on Wall Street and not necessarily one that's based on race.

CALLER: Oh, okay. I'm not a racist. That was my comment. Thank you.




Even though I was brought up to respect my elders, all bets would have been off in this case. I can almost guarantee that I could not have handled the situation with the dignity and diplomacy exhibited by Harelston.

22 comments:

  1. I hear that and one of the problems is that there are millions just like this women who aren't close to being damn near a hundred years old who think identical.

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  2. You beat me to it. I was just about to post the same clip.

    I tell you, though. "Free everything" - I've got to become one of these "colored people" and get in on that.

    Wait! I am! Beige is a color, right?

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  3. sadly OF is right, millions just like the old gal. I don't get C-Span as of this week! Just C-Span 2 and 3! What am I gonna do without my C-Span??!

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  4. Racists in America don't think racism is still alive in America. They think America has done too much to re-pay the debt of slavery, in fact we never should have done anything to equal the races.
    In fact they believe blacks are still inferior to whites. They think the blacks are ungrateful for what the whites have "given" them.
    Hopefully, maybe in another 100 years, we will eliminate this thinking, but I doubt it. There will always be those who think they are better than others based on the dumbest criteria (like skin color).

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  5. One Fly: And I hear it from people on disability who are getting food stamps. Grrr.

    NC: Go ahead and post it. The more it gets around, the better and we all attract different readers.

    Sue: How was the wedding? Or should I ask. I've never received C-Span - just Fox - but I check out their web site on a regular basis.

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  6. the wedding was nice, thanks for asking! :-)

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  7. That old bat made me cringe.

    True story: We have a young, college-age, african-american guy working in our office. One day last week, he was talking to the guy who comes around and swaps out the print cartridges - this guy also is black, and about - oh, early 40's. One of the high muckety-mucks walks up and goes to our temp: Hey, is this your dad?

    Because, you know, they all look alike

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  8. Harleston: "Would you mind removing the white hood so I can hear you better? It is muffling your voice. Thank you."

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  9. "I can almost guarantee that I could not have handled the situation with the dignity and diplomacy exhibited by Harelston."

    I don't believe that you SHOULD handle this person with dignity and diplomacy. These people spew their hatred and then expect to be treated with decency and respect. They are not decent people and until they are treated as such they will continue to feel entitled to their evil attitudes.

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  10. Am having probs with leaving comments. Will try again tomorrow. Thanks everyone.

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  11. Forgive me if this sounds racist or insensitive but life is helluva lot easier as a white guy in America.

    At least it is from my white guy perspective. I live in a nice house. Nobody gives me dirty or suspicious looks when I go into a store. I don't see any welfare recipients living in my neighborhood or the real expensive neighborhood across the street from me.


    I wonder if that elderly idiot wants to trade places with a black guy?

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  12. No one ever told that unfortunate old bigot that it was not she who gave our African American citizens anything. It was the Constitution.

    It just took hundreds of years for the white people in this country to understand that.

    And some still believe that A.A.s should be grateful to them for the unalienable rights that a bunch of white guys in the 18th century said the Creator endowed to ALL human beings.

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  13. Every time I tried to post a response yesterday I'd get an error message and whatever I wrote was wiped out. Think it was because someone else was trying to comment at the same time. Am going to try to get in the habit of copying my comments before hitting publish. Anyway . .

    TOM: I think you're right. Throughout history there has been racism and discrimination. But you would think that in a supposedly civilized nation in 2010 we would have moved on. I think the anger that has been building since the passage of the civil rights bill has erupted much as a volcano would and everything in its path is being destroyed.

    Bee: There are these types of ignorant goons everywhere I'm afraid. And they don't have enough sense or manners to keep their mouths shut, another signal that blacks aren't human.

    dmarks: You have that one right.

    GE: A few short years ago I might not have agreed with you - the old "I don't want to sink to their level" kind of thing. After listening to this kind of crap for two years, I'm not sure I don't agree with you.

    Aya: LOL. People like her couldn't survive an hour wearing a black skin. They're too used to being pampered.

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  14. Growing up, I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard another Texan start a sentence with "I'm not prejudiced, but..." When someone says they're not racist, it's aside bet that they are.

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  15. That old woman probably doesn't get out much any more. She probably doesn't see African Americans at work everywhere work is being done, from construction projects to professional offices, from teaching to technical specialties. She probably hasn't noticed the number of blacks who have started or bought businesses.

    Come to think of it, though, that woman probably does get out now and then to a hospital or clinic where African Americans take time out from collecting welfare to help care for the ill, injured and the old. You know, doctors, nurses, technicians and other slackers.

    It's tempting to say that, after all, she is old. The thing is, ignorance and prejudice are as ugly in an old person as in anyone else. It's never too late to learn to treat others the way you want to be treated.

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  16. Good Afternoon Leslie!

    Sound's to me like the caller got mixed up as far as saying what folk's should be thankful for and welfare, free this, free that. Because those are exactly the trait's of "Wall St" and former "Gruesome Twosome" .... Fuzzy(Bush) and Slick Dick(Cheney) ... along with their personal accountant former Secy Teasurer Hank "Bank of Hank" Paulson ... who should be dropping to their knee's in praise of all we gave these freeloader's ... in fact ... a year before the bailout, I was posting about how, and why and what they were going to do ... most American's to this day dont know how much they were milked for ... such as the lady who called in ... and by who. As far as this lady being racist? Heh, heh, heh, heh, heh ... maybe a lil out of touch with the current reality ... like 50 year's out ... :) I mean ... I have talked to real 21st century racist's ... the real thing ... like member's of the White Aryan Resistance, and the National Socialist Movement ... as well as even Tom Metzger himself ... so I know "real" racism ... and believe me ... this lady would be scared shitless if she talked to some of the folk's I have, Especially if she seen their arsenal's! heh, heh, heh, heh, heh ... These pop culture racist's are silly like teabagger's, they never even read book's like the Turner Diaries ... just a bunch of hillbillies in clown outfit's.

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  17. Just for the record ... I'm a Texan .. but NOT racist (just a lil humor for "K", I know he used to live in Texas) :)

    But all caca aside ... there is no biological difference to support any diffence in this species, in other word's we can interbreed, and exchange body organ's etc, and the pigment variation's took 100's of 1000's of year's, migration etc ... just like when the asian/ indian's migrated recently to the America's when the Bearing Straight was still iced over,etc. We like any species simply adapted to our location's/ enviroment's on the globe. As I have said time and again, we are still a tribal species, even though some of us think we are the pinnacle of universal knowledge, and we dont realize how our culture's and religion's have stagnated our evolution. A story I have but never shared, here is a preview ... The real upsurge of anger and inequality in the near future will rise, when the new species start's to evolve, that will be part biological and part engineered with our tech's ...a "new" science if you will ...then all us old timer's of all color's, will really feel like neanderthal's. :)

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  18. Everyone has already summed up my feelings, damn its really difficult sometimes to deal with those people.

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  19. K: I still hear it. I have a neighbor who is the female equivalent of Archie Bunker. She's originally from PA. Hates everyone, including white southerners.

    SW: To this day I hear and see whites exclaiming that a black man who works from sun-up to sun-down in the hot sun is one lazy n----r. When I worked the phone bank for the Obama campaign I had to call people in NC, VA and Ohio. You would be appalled at the amount of really hostile racist comments some people made. Others had enough "southern breeding" to be courteous but I knew damn well what they were thinking.

    RC: "The real upsurge of anger and inequality in the near future will rise, when the new species start's to evolve, that will be part biological and part engineered with our tech's ..."

    An interesting thought and I'm sure you're right. Regrettably I think we're already seeing signs of this. I'd like to see that story whenever you post it.

    BB: I'd really love for you to meet the neighbor I mentioned in my response to K. I'm sure you'd chop her up and tear her to shreds. And I would love the show.

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  20. My first wife's "granny" lived to be 95. She was the most bigoted, vile human being I have ever met. She was proud of the fact that her antecedents owned slaves, and felt that they not only were entitled to, but it was the best thing for blacks. She referred to blacks as darkies and on many occasions talked about how they all stunk. There was no reasoning with her. It was embedded in her pea brain, and there was no changing it.

    It was because of this woman that I came to the realization that just because someone outlives their peers, it doesn't mean we owe them our respect. Evil has a long life sometimes.

    I still have no patience for this kind of crap.

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  21. "She referred to blacks as darkies "

    I cringe when I hear anyone used a variation of colored (colored people, of color, etc).

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