Conservatives and rethugs claim they are not racist. I beg to differ.

[Hugabear]

If you spend any amount of time listening to RW talk shows, they're always quick to point out that they're not racist. Yet, it seems like whenever there is an African-American accused of something (OJ, Wesley Snipes, Barry Bonds, Michael Jackson, etc etc), these folks will almost always assume the person is guilty. Yet when it's a white person involved (ie the Duke Lacrosse players), they're quick to say "innocent until proven guilty".

It's not just that, but it's their policies as well. Taking money out of inner-city schools, being against affirmative action, idiotic drug laws that seem designed to target young black men, etc. They claim that they'd rather people help themselves, but then they take away the tools that would allow them to do just that.

It just seems to me that on any given issue that involves race, they will almost always come down on the wrong side. I'm not saying that every single conservative or rethug is a closet racist - but their party and their policies sure as hell are.

[opihimoimoi]

1. The many pubs here will not respond to threads like this...

They are ashamed and in denial

Some are on a mission to destroy the Dem Party/Candidates

They will not admit CONSERVATISM is Evil and Selfish....the MEism Complex personified...

[MedleyMisty]

2. Even worse is when they claim that there's some sort of mass prejudice against white dudes

I can't imagine the cognitive dissonance it takes to pull that off.

[opihimoimoi]

3. LOL, its called DELUSION

[Jamastiene]

9. I can't stand it when they claim that.

Oh, like they've EVER been turned away from something they needed just because they are white males. :eyes:

[IndianaJones]

4. goofy. nt.

[The Magistrate]

5. As A General Rule, Sir

The statement "I'm not a racist, but...." is followed by a racist statement: it is right up there with "Trust me...." as a warning signal.

"The louder he spoke of his honor, the quicker we counted our spoons."

[Hugabear]

6. Or if they say they "have black friends"

I wonder how much those black "friends" secretly loathe them.

[angrycarpenter]

7. I know it is in the south

Haven't met a die hard conservative here who isn't. Being white many just assume that I will agree with them when they utter some hate filled diatribe about how the blacks and mexicans have ruined this country. They always look at me as a traitor when I take the progressive view and tell them that they are full of it and why.

I don't know how it is up north but here (Florida) there is no question that conservatives are racially motivated. Don't believe them when they say otherwise.

[Jamastiene]

10. I can attest to that as well.

The same method of operation among conservatives goes that way here in North Carolina too. The truly sad part is that they preach those racist diatribes to me and I'm part black. My skin is just very light in color, so they assume entirely too much. :eyes:

[angrycarpenter]

12. Me and my brother

grew up in Alabama. I was beaten once for saying that MLK was one of the bravest men ever. My little brother went a different way and is the typical Texas conservative. We do not talk often but when we do I want to jump through the phone and choke some compassion into him.

[Jamastiene]

13. It's like that with members of my family too.

I can't even be around my biological grandmother because of her use of racial slurs. It just drives me crazy.

[Hugabear]

14. Let me guess - that's "just the way it was when I was growing up"?

I have some older family members who will drop racial slurs every now and then. They'll apologize for it, but then add "That's just how it was when I grew up."

[noamnety]

8. idiotic drug laws

that seem designed to target young black men ... ?

Are you talking about republicans? Or Bill Clinton?

[Hugabear]

11. Just look at the prison population in this country

There's your answer.

There is a very highly disproportionate percentage of African-Americans in prison, and a large number of those are because of the insipid "war on drugs". These drug laws give police the excuse they need to harass and intimidate young black men. If you're a young black male driving an expensive car, the assumption by many white cops is that it must be related to drug money. That driver is much more likely to be pulled over and his car searched than would be a conservative looking young white male.

[noamnety]

15. I've written about that some myself here

- the whole DWB thing. My point is that Clinton's war on drugs was devastating to the black community - more devastating than Reagan or Bush's war on drugs. This isn't an issue where we can back off and say "oh, the republicans did it." It's one of the issues where we need to take a long hard look at our own party, and hold them accountable for actions that destroy our neighborhoods and make sure that's never allowed to happen again.

Meanwhile, the number of federal criminal investigators increased from 1 for every 30 federal employees in 1992, to 1 for every 20 twenty employees by 1999. Measured in constant dollars, from 1993 to 1999, spending on the Environment Protection Agency declined 15 percent, the Energy Department was down 28 percent, and NASA dropped by 21 percent. During the same period, spending on the Justice Department rose by 72 percent, leading the pack of a handful of federal agencies that had saw their budgets rise.13

In the last days of his presidency, President Bill Clinton told a reporter from Rolling Stone magazine that mandatory minimum sentences were "unconscionable" and "we really need a re-examination of our entire prison policy."14 With a state, federal and jail inmate population that has grown by over 673,000 inmates since 1993, President Bill Clinton managed to contradict the last eight years of his stance on crime control in one sentence. President Clinton devoted two consecutive campaigns to "getting tough on crime," signing into law a bill that included the largest increase in crime control funding ever,15 and promoting measures that revoked sentencing discretion from federal judges.

http://www.cjcj.org/pubs/clinton/clinton.html