Republicanite overheard in Minneapolis: "Michelle Obama is...(wait for it, wait for it...)

[Lydia Leftcoast]

uppity." Yes, they actually used that word.

Due to some family issues, I didn't feel like cooking, and it being Friday night, my restaurants of choice in the neighborhood were packed, so I headed over to a barbecue joint, which serves up caloric, messy, and delicious platters.

So I'm reading my book, trying not to get barbecue sauce on it, not paying attention to the conversation of the couple at the next table, when their voices get louder.

"Michelle Obama is the one who really gives me the creeps," the woman says. "She talks like a lawyer."

"She is a lawyer," the man responds, with fairness unusual in his ilk.

"... and she's so uppity," the woman continues. "You know, I keep hearing on TV that she said she was proud of America for the first time in her life."

I turned and said, "That's actually understandable, coming from a black person."

The woman set her jaw,"No, it isn't."

"How many black people do you know?" I asked. "How many have you ever had an in-depth conversation with?"

"That doesn't make any difference." (Translation: "None, but heaven forbid that I should run off at the mouth on the basis of actual knowledge or anything...O'Reilly said, I believe it, and that's enough for me.")

I decided that these people were too dumb for words, so I went back to my book.

I bet that if someone called her out for being a racist, she'd say (wait for it, wait for it) "I'm not racist. I'm just not afraid to tell the truth."

[Muttocracy]

1. it's easy to say you're not a racist when you never interact with other types of people.

Good for you for speaking up.

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. An idiot rightie on one of the local blogs I read

just this week said he had never known any black people. He lives in a large metro area and in a suburban area that has a mixed population. Yet this idiot was dumb enough to admit he didn't know any black people.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

10. Back in my teaching days, Dinesh D'Souza came to my college to speak to the Young Republicanites

Afterwards, one of the self-styled intellectuals of the group wrote an article in the school paper about all the white students who were supposedly kept out of college by affirmative action. (Note: the only black students that college had were from Panama, Antigua, and South Africa.)

He referred to the Ivy League, and since I actually knew someone from the Yale admissions office when I was in grad school, I wrote an LTTE that explained how it worked, that Yale had so many applicants every year that it could have filled its ranks entirely with rich, white graduates of Northeastern prep schools, but that it had chosen to diversify by taking people from other countries and regions.

For example, a student from the West Coast would get points for being from the West Coast, while the Dartmouth College admissions department almost certainly gave Dinesh D'Souza points for being an immigrant. Furthermore, all the Ivies reserved a certain percentage of places in every class for children of alumni who would not qualify otherwise, so that a white student who was rejected by Yale might not have been displaced by a student of color who had to overcome all kinds of obstacles, but by an upper-class twit.

I went on to say that the black and Latino students who got into Yale on affirmative action were not street corner illiterates but high achievers.

The student wrote in the next issue, saying that he understood affirmative action for students from other regions and countries. After all, there were major cultural differences between the Northeast and the South, but there were no cultural differences between black and white Americans."

I looked the young man up in the student directory, and he came from a tiny town in the foothills of the Cascades. It was the late 1980s, so I suppose his only contact with African-Americans was watching the Cosby Show.

[d_b]

2. lol

"that doesn't make any difference". at least she's in touch with her ignorance?

[LuckyTheDog]

3. She's smart

And (dare I say it?) kind of a babe.

If she's uppity, she's uppity in a very good say, IMHO.

[book_worm]

4. to some idiots Barack and Michelle just don't know there place, but we do...

the White House!!

[Robeson]

5. Thank you for pointing out that racism is not region specific...

...it's everywhere.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

8. True; it's not region-specific

It wasn't written into the law, but it was definitely here in Minnesota, and judging form the LTTEs in the local papers, it's still going strong.

How many people know that one of the most active states for the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s was Oregon?

[RagAss]

6. Unfortunately, the nation is full of cartoons like this....n/m

[northofdenali]

9. "That doesn't make any difference."

I wonder if she'd have any objections to calling Sweet Cindy a liar? After all, she's been caught lying in numerous, documented public statements and forums.

Yes, your repuke dining-area typical bigot would be really upset and probably say,:

"That doesn't make any difference."

Get them outta my way, because the Democratic Party is going to roll over them. Repukes, hello??

[Cosmocat]

11. Of all the nonsense floating around, THIS...

runs through me the most ...

Michele Obama is THE american story ... A middle class girl made good, faithful wife and mother ...

Her counterpart - a TRULY, the very definition of a child of privilege, a woman who stole another woman's man - not to mention her substance abuse issues ...

But, MICHELE OBAMA is "upity" ...

You know, THAT makes it hard for ME to be proud of my country ...

[Lydia Leftcoast]

12. That's why they're using the racist codewords

because they know they have nothing to offer.

[Berry Cool]

18. But being a faithful wife and mother isn't enough to make you a good person

Not if you have the audacity to want a career, too...especially if you want a career while being black...now THAT's an "uppity woman"! :rofl:

I mean, she TALKS LIKE A LAWYER!!!! What more do you need to know????

[Honu one]

13. Very few people think they are a racist

because they know someone much worse and that person is a racist.

[gblady]

14. damn....

I thought you were going to say she's preggers!
Now, that would be fun!

[NatBurner]

15. i rarely try to speak for all Black folks...

but from all of us? thank you!

thanks for calling these pod people out when they show themselves; they say the stupidest things when they think they're among "friends", don't they?

but really though, hug yourself for me :)

[GoesTo11]

16. Not that, but there are a lot of things to call Michelle

smart, powerful, cool, attractive, committed, trustworthy, charismatic, ...

[tosh]

17. It would be amusing were it not so scary....

that so much ignorance has spewed forth during this race.