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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsI'm so tired of stupid, angry white people
It's been a long week, and I've kind of had it.
My last nerve was activated when I picked up my local paper on Wednesday to see pictures of the contentious county BOE meeting ... the room was packed with local tea partiers lobbying to make it HARDER for all of us to vote early. "Don't waste our tax dollars on off-site voting." Translate: Let's make sure that ALL of us need to wait in long lines to vote early. These weren't wealthy people ... they are the very people off-site early voting is for. The idea is to make it convenient so that working people will have an easier time voting. But, no, don't waste tax dollars on something that will benefit all of us because ... I don't know why.
The president visited my community last week and stayed in a local hotel. Oh, my. HOW DARE HE! He required SECURITY! THAT COST TAXPAYERS MONEY!!!! He apparently had a motorcade (duh) that inconvenienced people going to work. He sure had nerve (at least that's what I read in the LTTEs this week.) Silly me. I was so excited that the president visited here I sent all the articles to my children living out of state.
In addition to today's LTTE complaint entry about President Obama's visit, I learned that Mitt Romney has EVERY right to do exactly as he pleases with his money. It's his right. Taxes are bad. I also learned (something I read at least 3 times per week) that Obamacare is BAD and will kill business (and the bill is has too many pages). And Representative Betty Sutton hates business and hurts our local economy. (Hello? Remember "Cash for Clunkers"? That was Betty Sutton ... yep, she sure has done NOTHING to boost OUR local economy.)
I see a common thread in much of this .... the divide and conquer that Scott Walker boasted of in Wisconsin. The angry white people are SO afraid that some of THEIR money (which many don't have enough of to live comfortably) might go to someone undeserving (translate: person of color) It angers them that an African-American PRESIDENT gets "special treatment." They are so angry that they are irrational. It just wears me out dealing with the anger every day ... in the newspaper, on the job, and out in the community.
The Magistrate
(95,247 posts)kardonb
(777 posts)don't get angry , get even at the voting booth . Laff at the contortions the repugs go thru to be so hateful .
RagAss
(13,832 posts)BeyondGeography
(39,374 posts)White folks, don't take it personally. My life has been whiter than Wonder bread. But white Americans of the sort so well identified in the OP, are the main thing standing between us and a better nation.
lunasun
(21,646 posts)a better nation.
These people have a very narrow view of what can make a great nation and can never adapt to our modern day America or get along in it peacefully
To them I say 2 things > America 2012 Love it or leave it!
Plus, Mr Peabody does not really have a Way Back machine so stop your dreaming dummies
XemaSab
(60,212 posts)regardless of race.
It's killing us as a country.
TreasonousBastard
(43,049 posts)Stupid is as stupid does and it comes in all shades.
99Forever
(14,524 posts)And I find it somewhat disconcerting being broadbrushed as this OP does. I have a newsflash, there are also ignorant, selfish, bigoted, angry people of color too. Stupid is non-discriminatory disease.
I'm white and I'm angry, but it sure as heck isn't at the things the OP points at. Maybe a stronger disclaimer might be in order?
hfojvt
(37,573 posts)Because there is lots of ignorance - everywhere.
Even you, I would imagine are ignorant of many things, such as say, the atomic weight of beryllium and the winner of the 1949 World Series and the flight speed of an African swallow.
Is it really killing us? How?
I also think it is wrong to blame the people for their ignorance.
For a simple example, my local newspaper recently ran an editorial about how Congress finally got together and passed a bill for highway construction and student loans. Congress was applauded for finally compromising and accomplishing something.
However, the newspaper did not bother to mention that our own Congressperson was one of just 45 who voted against that bill, and so was one of our Senators.
If people are ignorant, one reason is because a place they turn to in order to get informed - does not inform them.
amfortas the hippie
(46 posts)and, yes...these are the folks most in the way of a better world. always have been, I guess. I grew up here, so I'm perhaps a little biased.
As a white dude(I prefer "Pink" , I never really thought much about race. I rode the(rural) school bus with lots of Black Folks...never understood them, but we were always friendly. My Brother had a best friend that was black...he really educated us on what it meant to be Black in Texas.
But it wasn't until I was the only white person, at a catfish place/club where I worked, that I really got a feel for things.(the (I think it was) Ice Cube concert was particularly harrowing...my Black coworkers protected me from the less enlightened customers.Glad I had my Sociology Hat.
Now, I'm married to a Mexican(13 yrs), 2 "Half breed" boys...in a little town where Brown is Black...lots of unacknowledged racism, just below the Quaint Patina.
Walk a mile, and all...Racism is Stupid, but it's very real.Especially if yer on the receiving end.
The white folks referenced above likely won't change, inwardly, where it matters...no matter if they gain a black/brown/purple daughter in law...or "half breed" grandbabies.Just outwardly.
it's in the younger folks where we must place our hope, in this area.
In Texas, see Demographic Trends...not only more "Hispanic" Folks...but more intermarriage...like Us. My boys think racism is dumb...plain and simple, and with no prompting...and it's amazing how hard it was to explain it the first time they were aware of such things.
ladym55
(2,577 posts)although your sons sound like they get it!
I work at a public university and am in a position to hear the opinions of many of our students who have shared ...
"There are no poor people in this country ... only lazy ones."
"We don't have poor people in America ... everyone has big screen TVs. Now, Africa, THAT has poor people."
"I don't want welfare cheats wasting my hard-earned tax dollars." (Ronald Reagan's mythical welfare queen is alive and well.)
And that's not counting all the ones who have NO clue who any of our elected representatives are.
Welcome to DU!
amfortas the hippie
(46 posts)since I married into a Mexican Familia, I've learned what it's like. I was, for a long time, Pinche Guerro. I kept it close to the vest that I spoke Kitchen Spanish, and could understand them.lol.
It really does go both ways...and folks are sometimes slaves to their upbringing...seeing no reason to change such behaviour.
Dyedinthewoolliberal
(15,577 posts)'tis folly to be wise"
I feel for ya Lady
Zalatix
(8,994 posts)The fact that we didn't do that (except a few of us in this area) in 2009 and 2010 is why we lost so much ground in 2010.
Voters are swayed by massive protests. And counter-protests.
Presence
Is
EVERYTHING.
steve2470
(37,457 posts)virgogal
(10,178 posts)Zoeisright
(8,339 posts)That's why, when they are stupid, the effects are worse.
That's the point.
CakeGrrl
(10,611 posts)...as it's what sends the Rs to Congress to do the damage.
Tsiyu
(18,186 posts)Most of us can smell the BS emanating from the media's continual lies,
distortions and stochastic ( sp? ) bellowing.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of lazy minds out there who never question what that bejillionaire on TV tells them.
On other forums, they litter the places like poster children for bath salt abuse. Nothing but pissed off, insulting, childish, racist, homophobic trash. They have no ideas ( but lots of pictures of guns they wish they had ) and they cannot engage in normal social discourse. They are like the Taliban.
They really need to go find someplace barren and rocky and live in tents and just trade insults with each other all day long while they clean their guns and take turns masturbating to their Sara Palin/whatever-female-Repukes-masturbate-to-don't-want-to-sully-my-mind-with-the-thought glossy 8x10s. They have nothing else to offer society.
Reading their posts, I think each one believes they will be the hero of some civil war fantasy they entertain, where they alone are left standing on the hill, their bible in one hand and their gun in the other and plenty of freeze-dried food and Glen Beck reruns. Maybe Reagan will rise up on the Third Day and help them burn all the bodies.
They have no idea what war really means because most don't go into the military; they merely worship the military from their basements. Just like they don't read the bible, but they damn sure believe in whatever it supposedly says about all the people they hate.
And they fucking love medicare and social security - but only for themselves.
They are pretty useless in their little rages.
We live in a society that they despise for no reason than the TV and Rush have told them to. They really are lost.
D23MIURG23
(2,850 posts)AJTheMan
(288 posts)eppur_se_muova
(36,266 posts)Welcome to DU !
Solomon
(12,310 posts)really trickles down is racism. The more they feel comfortable bashing Obama, the more crap everyday black folk have to take. We are who they take it out on since they can't get rid of Obama. I'm just about sick of it myself.
emilyg
(22,742 posts)racists?
Solomon
(12,310 posts)If you can find a way to stop being so defensive about racism. you might actually learn something. Nobody called you or anyone else here racist, but somehow you twisted and turned and brought Romney in to it to defend ... er ... what exactly?
No matter. The trickle down effect of what I'm trying to tell you, is most definitely being discussed in the black community precisely because we are experiencing it.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)They have bought into the notion that the white race was beaten down at some time in the past and they want to take their rightful place again. I mean, what the f@#*&k are they envisioning? Lounging around by the pool and being waited on hand and foot by servants just for being white and being worshipped by the "lesser races" because they're god's favorite people?
Talk about a sense of entitlement....
Skip Intro
(19,768 posts)What a racist OP.
Nye Bevan
(25,406 posts)Give him credit for that.
emilyg
(22,742 posts)just1voice
(1,362 posts)Remember when people asked questions like that, I do.
Major Nikon
(36,827 posts)If you do a role reversal and it sounds racist, it was just as racist before.
amfortas the hippie
(46 posts)distinguishing a group, partly by their ethnicity/race is not, necessarily , racist.
generalising, negatively, all people of a given ethnicity/race, is.
I am white. am I, therefore, a self hater?
The group we are talking about are, generally, white...and define themselves as such. Their whiteness is not what we have issues with; it is merely a commonality they happen to share.
Please lower your sensor attenuation.
lunatica
(53,410 posts)I agree with you. The OP was not racist. It was a rant against a way of thinking.
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)the fact that they are Republicans. Why avoid the single commonality that all of them share, including the Alan Wests of this world, that commonality is membership in the Republican Party, not being part of a racial group. This OP does not even use the word 'Republican' at all. That commonality is not so much as mentioned and another is put forward as the defining characteristic of those on the right. The priorities seem out of whack to me as a person who is opposed to Republicans.
Major Nikon
(36,827 posts)is the silliest thing I've heard in a while.
TwilightGardener
(46,416 posts)pecwae
(8,021 posts)Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)Not a racist OP.
entanglement
(3,615 posts)hate. It isn't even new - see "Southern Strategy", but its advocates are more brazen now.
ladym55
(2,577 posts)And in late middle age. Where I live, Republican tea partiers are not very subtle in their racism. I had to tell more than one acquaintance that I didn't enjoy all of their "funny" Obama jokes involving pimps and 'ho's.
I live in the rust belt. We need jobs. We need ACA. And I am frustrated because with attempt at conversation with a tea party Republican, I hear, "Well, I don't want MY tax dollars being used to benefit someone not deserving." (It's isn't too hard to figure out who that someone not deserving might be.)
It's a common thread where I am. The powerful use racism to convince the poorer whites to vote against their own best interests.
Skip Intro
(19,768 posts)Last edited Mon Jul 16, 2012, 05:32 PM - Edit history (3)
How is it not racism to describe a group of people based largely on the race of those in the group?
How is it not racist to say "stupid angry white people" when the phrase "stupid angry black people" would surely shut a thread down in no time here. As it should be. Substituting white for black doesn't make it ok.
Does the fact that you're white give your comment some added...something? I don't care what color your skin is. Why do you feel the need to mention it? Do you think your whiteness gives you some right to speak for anyone other than yourself? You say, in essence, "oh this is all fine, I'm not offended in the least...and I'm white, so therefore I speak for all white people..." No you don't.
I've lived in South Carolina for years. Find me a more conservative and reliably red state. And I have yet to experience the kind of "evil white southern republican" you speak of. Just haven't. Had some dramatic debates with repub friends, but never knew anyone to be a sleazeball.
But I do know what a racist rant looks like, and the OP is a racist rant.
RKP5637
(67,111 posts)hearing baggers and the like whine and whine. They remind me of the ones I've worked with that get nothing done, just whine and whine. Now they can't stop whining about the black man in the WH, whine whine whine. It's like broken records, same old whining crap over and over again.
Kablooie
(18,634 posts)That's why I voted for O.
NashvilleLefty
(811 posts)I'm angry at the same STUPIDITY that you are angry about.
alp227
(32,027 posts)Those kinds who wish "Leave It to Beaver" and the Bible were reality. Who would not explicitly say "I want Jim Crow laws" but balk at the idea that they are no more human than a black person. Who see racism not as part of society but "I didn't get a job but a black person got hired instead!" or "a black kid once teased me in middle school." And more recently with this fantasy of America being a white Christian nation but who are too cowardly to admit the Constitution does not mention white men or Christianity.
Furthermore, the right wing has actually become shameless in admitting they have a near-pornographic fetish for hating black people and looking for anything to confirm their prejudices. Look what happened in summer 2011 after the birther nonsense came to a screeching halt after the White House finally released Obama's long-form certificate, and Orly Taitz had that famous embarrassing interview on Lawrence O'Donnell's show, the right wing had to find a new way to gin up empty hatred towards blacks. Check out this excellent article "Here We Go Again: The Ginned Up Race War of 2012" breaking down how stories of inner-city violence (often involving mobs of black youth) became sensationalized among sites like Drudge. As ConWebWatch exposes, now WorldNetDaily has jumped on the "black on white" scare story bandwagon. (Seriously one of the WorldNetDaily "journalists" actually wrote an entire BOOK, White Girl Bleed a Lot, projecting his fetish for black-on-white crime...and he's such a loser he could only self-publish that screed.)
In modern America, it's become IMPOSSIBLE to talk about racial issues without being accused of "HATING WHITE PEOPLE AND AMERICAN VALUES AND GIVING UPPITY BLACKS A HANDOUT". Especially among people who came of age after the mid-'60s and not having first-hand knowledge about the civil rights movement and thus having the impression that race isn't really a problem anymore.
lunasun
(21,646 posts)alp227
(32,027 posts)I've broken it down here. According to the book The Age of Austerity by Thomas Edsall, a survey on the website YourMorals.org found that conservatives were more likely to agree with the following statements:
- "If certain groups stayed in their place, we would have fewer problems."
- "Some groups of people are more just more worthy than others."
- "It's OK if some groups have more of a chance in life than others."
- "If certain groups of people stayed in their place, we would have fewer problems."
amfortas the hippie
(46 posts)it makes me crazy , sometimes...that one cannot even talk about race, without devolving into absurdity.
sad...because it's an important topic...which should be horribly obvious, after the last few years...all the witch-doctor imagery, and other inanity.
If we are disallowed from even talking about such things...rationally and respectfully...nothing will ever change.
>>>
My (Mexican) wife has told me quite often,"oh, but you're not "white""...when lamenting the assholery of somebody in town...
who did something obviously racist, and it was ignored by the community.(2/3 white) Majority of People are on Automatic Pilot...they simply do not Think. That goes for White and Brown, here....but from different perspectives. My Brown neighbors and Familia, it's largely Reactionary. without them even realising it(until they remember that I'm white,lol).
Doesn't excuse it, in the least. I think the key thing, there...is their forgetting that I am white. I find this all very interesting.
Patiod
(11,816 posts)She was a hairdresser whose insurance was never covered by the salons where she worked. She had fibroids, and almost died of blood loss because she couldn't afford surgery to correct them.
She finally found a Pennsylvania plan for low-income people (back before PA cut all those programs)and got a hysterectomy to correct the problem (less drastic options weren't covered).
She eventually left hairdressing and went to work for a convenience store that provided health insurance. She can't afford to live on what they pay, but fortunately, she is able to live with an elderly parent.
And...she posts anti-Obama, anti-ACA screeds on her FB page.
Makes no sense at all, but I'm guessing that it's a Angry Poor White thing.
Divide and conquer indeed.
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)Your post is the first in this thread to mention the word 'Republican'.
Patiod
(11,816 posts)I'm not beating her up for being poor and badly educated. There are lots of good Americans out there who are both.
I'm beating her up for being a Republican and disseminating Republican crap on Facebook even though she benefited from government help with her OWN health care.
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)You called them by their name. I support that. It is truthful. Now the OP and the entire thread spoke of many groups but no one called them by their actual name, Republicans.
treestar
(82,383 posts)I posted back - do you realize the Republicans would like to do away with Medicaid?
underseasurveyor
(6,428 posts)White, black, brown, blonde, redhead, brunette, red, green, christian, atheist, left, right, tall, short, thin, fat, etc.....
I'm just tired of stupid
Romulox
(25,960 posts)Oh, wait...that would be wildly inappropriate...
Bluerthanblue
(13,669 posts)I could offer some words of solace.
We aren't alone in our weariness. What is it going to take to open peoples souls.... I say that because it is deeper than the mind, or the eye- So many people seem so stuck in hatred, anger, selfishness and .... underneath it all... fear.
It is hard not to fall into the pit of hoplessness. But it is essential that we hold on tight to the truth, and keep on keeping on.
We can make a difference.
Romulox
(25,960 posts)hatred are essentially universal traits--it doesn't really seem to matter who the target is.
busy being free
(24 posts)who tire you...
Progressive my arse!
just1voice
(1,362 posts)It makes it clear who hates white people.
emilyg
(22,742 posts)unrec button - alas not there.
flvegan
(64,408 posts)I appreciate your sentiment, but your aim is terrible. Try again.
amfortas the hippie
(46 posts)about this thread(The Names of Love).
The wild chick says,"the day there's nothing but half breeds,there'll be peace".
Her and her guy were lamenting being only half french(she, algerian;he , a jew)
...so they don't know where they come from.
I'm married to a Mexican Girl, my brother married a Columbian Girl...none of which would have been Legal, in the recent past.
Rambling Pain Day...just think it's interesting.
cbrer
(1,831 posts)Are equal opportunity!
Hey lady, we have laws on that!
ieoeja
(9,748 posts)At least 24 posts in this thread refer to to the OP which trashes racists as being ... racist.
Racist Rhetoric for Dummies
Turn it back upon them. Your accusers can not accuse you of being racist without using racial language in the process. This permits you to pretend to be outraged by painting their racial language as being racist itself. Be the victim, not the bigot!
I see a lot of DUers have mastered this book.
Skip Intro
(19,768 posts)If I posted a thread about "angry stupid black people," do you think it would be locked because it would be deemed overtly racist?
I think we both know that it would be, and should be.
How is it magically ok, then, to post a thread using the same terminology, except replacing the word "black" with the word, "white?"
Is it racist to judge a group of people by the color of their skin? Of course it is.
What makes it ok when it comes to whites?