Obama get's apology for "Tar Baby" remark:

[SteveM]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/02/doug-lamborn-tar-baby-obama-apology_n_916017.html

[Taverner]

1. I'm surprised he apologized - - his constituents eat this shit up

If anything, more Klansmen in his district will vote for him BECAUSE he said this

[frazzled]

2. ..."for a term some find offensive" ??

Some? Some find it offensive?

What an apology. I'd knock the block off anyone who thought that counts for an apology.

[Cool Logic]

3. I didn't even know it was a racist term...

I thought it was about catching Brer Rabbit...or something.

I also think Kerry used it to describe the sticky situation that little george had gotten us into in Iraq.

[SteveM]

5. Perhaps, though Molly Ivins did as well....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=1632965&mesg_id=1633524

[Cool Logic]

6. I don't know...I suppose some people can create problems where none exist...

and meaningful issues out of meaningless minutia.

Those who speak Spanish should be advised that the word they use to define "black," is also considered to be a racist term.

[SteveM]

7. The race card is pulled very frequently on DU, usually against fellow members.

[fishwax]

12. It's not people creating a problem where none exists. It's been used as a slur for decades.

Just for the record.

[Cool Logic]

14. Well, then, that settles it...

When the ignorant misappropriate a term, it is unacceptable to "steal" it back.

[fishwax]

16. I'm not quite sure what you mean

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

17. Pretty sure he's making the point that the term.....

....use to mean something different (in the story of Brer Rabbitt, to wrestle with something that will not fight back and just get you dirty) and it's meaning was ruined by some ignorant bigot who simply thought it was a good slur for a black person. Like how Sarah Palin simply made up a word and now it's in the dictionary.

The ignorant are ruling.

[tblue37]

8. It isn't racist unless it is used as a way to describe a Black man!

The words "monkey" or "chimpanzee" are not racist, either, but the history of their use as racist descriptions of Black people means that under certain circumstances, using them would almost certainly be racist.

For example, if a Democratic senator or representative said, "Bush doesn't understand the budget process. Discussing it with him is like discussing it with a chimpanzee," that remark would be a deliberate insult, but no one would imagine it to be racist.

But if a Republican senator or representative said the same sort of thing about Obama, it would certainly be considered racist, because of the way such terms have often been used as racist insults against Black people.

Similarly, calling George Bush "your boy" when discussing him with a Republican would not be considered racist, though it would be considered contemptuous. But when Pat Buchanan called Obama "your boy" while speaking with Al Sharpton, the racist overtones of the label were inescapable. The word "boy" isn't inherently racist, but it i racist when used to describe a Black man, because that was is how it has been used historically.

[Cool Logic]

13. "It isn't racist unless it is used as a way to describe a Black man!"

Does that mean that it is not racist to use the N-word to describe a White man?

[tblue37]

15. The "N" word has no other specific meaning than as a demeaning word for Black people.

The word "tar baby," on the other hand, does have another meaning that is unrelated to the way it has been used historically as an insult toward Black people, because what it refers to is a construct made of sticky stuff (tar--the color of which is irrelevant to this aspect of its meaning) that one cannot get unstuck from. Therefore, if it is not being used to refer to a Black person, then it can be used appropriately to refer to such a situation, which we might also use the term "quagmire" (or even "quicksand") for.

Similarly, the word "boy" has other meanings, so it is not normally racist for someone to refer to someone else as a group's or a person's "boy." But because of the word's historical racist and demeaning usage, it was wrong of Pat Bucahnan to call Obama "your boy" when speaking to Al Sharpton on MSNBC.

[jberryhill]

10. .

[lpbk2713]

4. Typical.

Insult someone in public and apologize in private.
The spineless rethuglican weasel way of doing things.

[kayakjohnny]

9. If he's 'Lamborn' it must mean one of his parents had sex with a sheep, right?

Oooops, can't believe I said that. Oh well...

"I am sure that he will not take offense and he'll be happy to accept my apology because he is a man of character.”

[SteveM]

11. Ewe said it.