Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsObama: Rethink your biases
http://www.vox.com/identities/2016/12/13/13935884/obama-government-race-ta-nehisi-coatesHeres some real talk from President Barack Obama, taken from his conversations with Ta-Nehisi Coates at the Atlantic:
"Im careful not to attribute any particular resistance or slight or opposition to race. But what I do believe is that if somebody didnt have a problem with their daddy being employed by the federal government, and didnt have a problem with the Tennessee Valley Authority electrifying certain communities, and didnt have a problem with the interstate highway system being built, and didnt have a problem with the GI Bill, and didnt have a problem with the [Federal Housing Administration] subsidizing the suburbanization of America, and that all helped you build wealth and create a middle class and then suddenly as soon as African Americans or Latinos are interested in availing themselves of those same mechanisms as ladders into the middle class, you now have a violent opposition to them then I think you at least have to ask yourself the question of how consistent you are, and whats different, and whats changed."
Obamas basic argument: If you didnt have a problem with big federal government services until black and brown people began clearly to benefit from them, maybe its time to rethink your biases.
This isnt a straw man drawn up from nowhere. When sociologist Arlie Hochschild went to the Deep South to, as she has called it, scale the empathy wall and understand Tea Party voters for her book Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right, this was a theme that popped up again and again. Many of the Tea Party voters she talked to didnt mind using government services for themselves. (As one man told Hochschild, If the programs are there, why not use them?) But when it came to other people getting government services with heavy racial undertones implied it was seen more as the government taking the hard-working persons tax money and giving it to the undeserving.
InfoView thread info, including edit history
TrashPut this thread in your Trash Can (My DU » Trash Can)
BookmarkAdd this thread to your Bookmarks (My DU » Bookmarks)
4 replies, 1483 views
ShareGet links to this post and/or share on social media
AlertAlert this post for a rule violation
PowersThere are no powers you can use on this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
ReplyReply to this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
Rec (18)
ReplyReply to this post
4 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Obama: Rethink your biases (Original Post)
pnwmom
Dec 2016
OP
Cha
(297,774 posts)1. Thank YOu, Obama.. Thanks pmwmom
pnwmom
(109,000 posts)2. You're welcome, Cha!
Wounded Bear
(58,726 posts)4. No surprise, been that way for years upon years...