I have seen the future.

They don't. This is dog-whistling - the insertion of a statement with special meaning to the followers, but that can be defended as being "perfectly reasonable" to the rest of the people. You can see it all the time in Bush's speeches when he uses crazy evangelical codewords.

In this case, Buchanan has his huge list of "unfair" programs that he implies are directed solely towards blacks, and he mentions how much those programs are costing good white people like himself, and then he says they aren't working *and so that's the fault of the black people*.

This is Buchanan calling blacks lazy and greedy and incompetent to self-govern, while simultaneously arguing that slavery was a good thing because it "civilised" blacks until they screwed it up for themselves by demanding a self-governance that they are institutionally incapable of handling.

From:

ed-dirt.livejournal.com

*barfs*

From:

redtheda.livejournal.com

Yup... it's okay for white preachers to make whatever extremist statements they want, but not black ones. McCain can cuddle up to Rev. Hagee, who has been guilty of all kinds of egregious statements, and nobody calls for him to distance himself, yet Obama's supposed to genuflect and beg our forgiveness for someone he happens to know making extreme statements. It's such a hypocritical double standard.

From:

paoconnell.livejournal.com

Fortunately Buchanan (who is not a preacher, but is a lousy politician) is a nonentity in politics these days.

I don't think it's right for any preacher or politician to make stupid bigoted statements, no matter what the "race," nationality or whatever referred to.

From:

kadath.livejournal.com

ortunately Buchanan (who is not a preacher, but is a lousy politician) is a nonentity in politics these days.

Now that Nackey Loeb is dead, they don't even invite him to write editorials for the Union Leader anymore.

From:

http://users.livejournal.com/_jeremiad/

That's fucked up.

Do you have a link to the original news article or speech? The link posted resembles a blog.

From:

The original link *is* to a blog: Pat Buchanan's blog. That's where he said it.

From:

http://users.livejournal.com/_jeremiad/

Ohhhhh.

That wasn't immediately clear to me. Thanks for clarifying.

From:

pope-guilty.livejournal.com

The toleration of racial supremacy is a sick thing for states to involve themselves in.

(deleted comment)

From:

Well, to be fair, I rather wish we COULD get over the we kidnapped your ancestors in the first place mentality. I didn't do that. you didn't do that. Nobody did it to them. No white person living today was a slave owner and no black person living today was a slave.

I don't constantly hold the actions taken against my ancestors against anyone (the south, the English, the French, the Germans, the Japanese, Walt Disney...). The inability to let that shit go is the first roadblock we have.

However, whites have done more than any other group to uplift black people? How about ... black people? I think they've done a considerable amount. And the fact that we do lots to uplift is irrelevant if we're still doing the most ot push them down at the same time, it becomes a zero sum game.

From:

eididdy.livejournal.com

The inability to let that shit go is the first roadblock we have.

No, the inability to address it properly is the first roadblock we have. While all of what you said is true, the problem is that all of it affects where we are today.

From:

hmm ... I'm not sure I see the point. Are you saying we ignore racism as it currently exists or are you saying that the fact that my grandfather was racist (he wasn't, but you get the idea) somehow taints me currently and that his old racism needs to be addressed?

From:

It still happens, and the effects of the past racism are still being felt.

Simply ignoring it lets it perpetuate.

From:

I get that. Ignoring current racism is dumb, but I'm not sure that constantly talking about how bad past racism was helps us today. Sure, know your history so we all learn how bad slavery and jim crow laws were, but I'd rather see us spend more time talking about how to fix modern racism than harping on how bad it was when some nameless ancestors did it. I think that bit is just misplaced guilt for actions we can't undo.

From:

I think three comments up (where you used the word "addressing" rather than "harping on") is a better idea.

Knowing where something comes from does help you spot it and weed it out.

From:

I agree. Knowing the past is a great idea. But while little jim-bob's racism may have - in the long haul - come from decades of racism and hate passed down as a family value by his father, grandfather, and so on, I don't think the solution is to go back that far.

I'm pretty sure that the solution to racism is to look at the reality of the world we live in now and to teach people how utterly insipid racism is.

Knowing the past is crucial. A lot of the anti-gay sentiment we see now is identical to anti-black sentiment from decades ago and it's still relevant to learn. But I was taught not to be a racist before i knew any of those things. I think most people should be. And I don't know that the history lesson will solve the problem, though it can't hurt, I guess.

From:

I was thinking in a more institutional sense. Knowing where it comes from helps you spot where it *is* now, and may get you thinking about it, cause you to notice it, and hopefully cause you to speak up when you spot it.

(*If* you spot it; while the study

theweaselking cites is depressing, it's not exactly the kind of thing that's visible without a study. I mean, I honestly really doubt that all those realtors and bankers were consciously thinking "Oh, those black people can't afford this place" and were deliberately out to give a worse deal. Unexamined preconceptions are a bitch to dispel, and the greater the education--which *does* cover history, in the hopes of giving some idea exactly how through-going and pervasive and prone to showing up in unexpected, non-obvious places the racism is--the better the tool available for examining them.)

From:

http://users.livejournal.com/_jeremiad/

1) It isn't as if racism stopped with the Emancipation Proclamation. Jim Crow anyone?

2) Calling a society or a system racist is not the same as calling individuals racist. The first is true, the second may or may not be.

3) It's really difficult to "let stuff go" if people refuse to even have a dialogue about said stuff.

From:

publius1.livejournal.com

there may not have been slaves, but have you forgotten Jim Crow? Segregation? This shit was going on up until forty years ago. There are definitely a shit-ton of people still alive that remember that.

From:

Agreed. It's not that it's not relevant. Knowing all that is critical. But I'm not sure it helps us move forward. I and most of the people i know learned how not to be racists (or more to the point were never taught to be racists) well before we knew about those things.

Certainly my parents did. It's important to know the history to be well educated on the subject and to understand why we no longer do things that way, sure. But the process of stopping racism is not about old laws, it's about current attitudes.

From:

publius1.livejournal.com

I think it's also important to realize that it's a regional thing. As recently as 15 years ago, I was sitting in the living room while my grandmother was talking to her sister, saying "I don't mind n____, but I'd never let one into my home."; that kind of thinking was pretty regular for that generation in the South/Southwest. Up in the North/Midwest/Mountain West, it's less prevalent, thankfully (still there; the first Mayor Daley set up the Robert Taylor homes, etc etc, in such a way that it kept the "element" in its proper place, if you know what I mean)

It's important to understand that decisions made in the past do have an affect on the present. There's a reason why there are black and hispanic ghettos; why there is black resentment; etc. Racism still exists, it's just been whitewashed (if you'll excuse the term).

From:

It's prevalent *now*. There was a study on homebuyers recently. Two couples, one white and one black, were given *identical* (fake) credit histories, employment records, etc, etc, etc, and sent to buy a house.

The realtors *would not show* some houses to the black couple, and the mortgages offered to the black couple were much more expensive.

It's become unpopular to say it out loud. That's all.

From:

true. Though racism isn't the only reason for those things and certainly old racism isn't the current reason, though it was the catalyst that lead to it.

I guess I am just more concerned with fixing damage now. As I said, understanding the past is important, but I can't be bothered to he sorry about slavery when black people are still not treated the same as white people NOW. I'd rather address that and worry about how foolish we look as a nation for having had a slave race later when we have a moral high ground to speak from.

From:

Hmh.

If you're not worried about what your grandfather (hypothetically) did lo those many years ago, why're you worried about what your nation did lo those many years ago?

It just surprises me that you identify with one nebulous entity from the past but not with another.

From:

it's not that I'm not concerned. it's that I'm concerned more with what we (and I) do now. The bad things we did years ago already happened and their only real purpose now is to serve as a learning tool to show us why we shouldn't do that again. I'm way more interested in fixing the racism that exists and the only real benefit I see to the old racism that has already occurred is to serve as an example of what not to do.

From:

elffin.livejournal.com

Only one word comes to mind.

....FATWA!

From: