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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsReagan's racist call with then-President Nixon released by National Archives
In a newly unearthed audio clip, then-California Gov. Ronald Reagan disparaged "monkeys" from African countries in a phone call with then-President Richard Nixon, according to the former director of Nixon's presidential library, who published his findings in The Atlantic.
Tim Naftali, who directed the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum from 2007 to 2011, writes that Reagan -- who would later become the 40th President of the United States -- called Nixon in October 1971, the day after the United Nations had voted to recognize the People's Republic of China. In the call, he says, Reagan is heard apparently referencing the way the Tanzanian delegation started dancing in the General Assembly when the UN took the vote to seat the delegation from Beijing instead of Taiwan.
Reagan, Naftali writes, is heard saying to Nixon, "Last night, I tell you, to watch that thing on television as I did."
Nixon interjected: "Yeah."
Reagan continued, "To see those, those monkeys from those African countries -- damn them, they're still uncomfortable wearing shoes!"
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/reagans-racist-call-with-then-president-nixon-released-by-national-archives-ex-reagan-library-director-says/ar-AAF6F60?li=BBnb7Kz
Trump's just continuing a long Republican tradition.
Celerity
(43,485 posts)?width=800
lunatica
(53,410 posts)Its a sickness of the soul. A rot. A contagion among the barely human.
Its tragic that it thrives so well among sociopaths who claw their way up the ladder of success and obtain power over others. There is something deeply wrong in our priorities as a society when the psychopaths among us run the country and we accept it as normal.
misanthrope
(7,422 posts)you would find sociopaths and psychopaths are especially optimized for ascension to power. Be it in 20th century America, 15th century Italy, 10th century India or ancient Mesopotamia.
lunatica
(53,410 posts)Once you see this human pattern our violent history makes sense. Instead of thinking that people naturally rise to power because of their intelligence and their better angel motives, they rise because theyre little more than bullying thugs wanting power over others. Not all of them, of course, but enough to cause the misery and wars that have plagued us in human history.
misanthrope
(7,422 posts)is that they want it so very badly. Leadership and structures of self-governance are a Catch-22, for sure. They require rational thinking and diligence for all to thrive.
sandensea
(21,657 posts)Once, when an African president came to visit, Reagan was said to be fond of telling the Black-man-and-the-parrot joke.
You can look it up.
Docreed2003
(16,869 posts)In the town where three voting rights advocates were murdered. I'm not shocked in the least that Reagan would say this to Nixon.
Catherine Vincent
(34,491 posts)Smh.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)Kid Berwyn
(14,951 posts)kairos12
(12,869 posts)book_worm
(15,951 posts)mahatmakanejeeves
(57,586 posts)How long until @DineshDSouza tries to claim that Nixon and Reagan were Democrats? (cc: @KevinMKruse)
Link to tweet
LudwigPastorius
(9,166 posts)Are you telling me the Grandfatherly Gipper was a vile, purulent, slimy racist scumbag?
Next thing you know, you'll tell me that he hated gays, women, and working class union members too!