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Subscribe to RSSAfter coming under fire yesterday for his remarks about the civil rights movement, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour has issued a statement to clarify his recollections of "Citizens Council" groups and segregation in the South.
Barbour said that the council groups were "indefensible" and called segregation "a difficult and painful era for Mississippi."
Here's Barbour's full statement:
“When asked why my hometown in Mississippi did not suffer the same racial violence when I was a young man that accompanied other towns’ integration efforts, I accurately said the community leadership wouldn’t tolerate it and helped prevent violence there. My point was my town rejected the Ku Klux Klan, but nobody should construe that to mean I think the town leadership were saints, either. Their vehicle, called the ‘Citizens Council,’ is totally indefensible, as is segregation. It was a difficult and painful era for Mississippi, the rest of the country, and especially African Americans who were persecuted in that time.”
In the article in the Weekly Standard released yesterday, Barbour described a distinction in his hometown between the "Citizens Council" organization and the Klu Klux Klan. "Where I come from it was an organization of town leaders," he said. "In Yazoo City they passed a resolution that said anybody who started a chapter of the Klan would get their ass run out of town. If you had a job, you’d lose it. If you had a store, they’d see nobody shopped there. We didn’t have a problem with the Klan in Yazoo City.”
Speaking about the height of the civil rights movement in the piece, Barbour said, "I just don’t remember it as being that bad."
The comments drew skewering from historians, who noted that the Citizens Councils were anti-integration entities founded in opposition to the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954.
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This guy is a racist through and through. Go ahead, Republicans, nominate him in 2012. Better yet, nominate him AND Palin. Then we'll see how long your hold on power lasts!!!
Randy from Maine.
Do you know Mr. Barbour? You are making a ridiculous statement. I submit that you are a bigot and a racist by your statement. I find it hillarious that you can make such a statement about someone you don't know. Have you ever been to the South?
Of course it has a racist history, but over the years there have been many people (Republicans in the 60s) that have tried to improve that area of the country. Many of the posters on this site will not live in the present, but only in the past. Well then lets live in the past. Democrats in the 60s battled AGAINST CIVIL RIGHTS. Remember George Wallace and Strom Thurmond? Therefore, I will assume that they have not progressed in any way. All democrats are racists I don't care what part of the country they live in.
See what a ridiculous statement that is, we all know that the democrats have progressed as a party in the last 50 years. Haley Barbour was a teenager during the time he was speaking about, I'm sure that he has progressed over the last 40/50 years.
So instead of making ridiculous statements like "the guy is racist through and through" try to use a little more intelligence in your statements. If you have specific examples of him continuing to be a racist, I 'm sure MSNBC and MoveOn.Org would love you to supply them. It would be nice if you could just supply them to this site
Randy, once again someone from the left demonstartes how easy they will throw out the "racist" card everytime some one says something they do not like. Please point out how Haley is a racist through and through. And, did you call Obama a racist when he mention the "angry white voters"?
I disagree, Randy; I'm no fan of Barbour, but I am willing to take him at his word that he believes in Civil Rights (at last, now he does; we don't know for sure back then). I suspect that Haley's problem is one of perspective. Conservatives are not known for their ability to empathize and sympathize with other; on the contrary, this is two areas where they are devotedly against. Since he is white, he cannot/will not be able to understand the African-American plight (unless, forced to by politics -- like today).
TOO LATE!!.. Barbour can FORGET ANY dreams of EVER being POTUS!!
It's simply ASTOUNDING how politicians think that they ONLY need to only appeal to their loony fringe base... and STILL run for the HIGHEST positions in this country - which is why repubs/gopers/baggers/wingers like Barbour needs to stop using that "funny math" to figure out your votes.
Ya just can't insult an entire race of people, and think that it's alright.
And one more thing... Barbour, like many of his fellow racist nutjobs need to remember never to liquor or dope up and get in front of a TV camera or microphone. If they could read, they would know that liquor and dope makes you lose your inhabitions and gives you false courage to say anything and everything you have rattling around in that pointy skull.
Barbour: "Huh? You didn't like what I said? Well then, I obviously didn't mean it."
Of course, that same sentence could be uttered by 99.9% of our politicians...
That original blind eye was incredible. A 5th grader could have given a better account of 1960's Mississippi than he did. He gave us a good picture of his youth: Overprivileged, shielded young white man more interested in stalking girls than the violence and history making moments happening all around him.
And here I was praying for a Boss Hog/Slaugherhouse Sarah ticket in 2012!
Have you clubbed a fish to death or shot an innocent for a photo op today?
"....Don't ya'll worry.....you just keep on talkin Boss Hogg.... Rocoe P. Coltrain will bring the big white Caddie convertable 'round back, then we jump in and haul butt down route 6, after them danged Duke boys what done caused all this here trouble in the first place, ya hear?..."
If Red hates him,he's OK with me. I hope he does get to be POTUS.He couldn't be any worse than the Clowns in office today.
Mississippi remains today a very backward, good ole boys club kind of state.
I am required on occasion to go there to conduct business, and have been in and out of Mississippi since 1996. It is not a place I find safe, friendly, or in any sense advanced. Let Haley Barbour stay there.
Janet,
You are comparing apples to oranges when you compare Barbour to Thurmond and Wallace. Barbour is a living, breathing human being in today's world who has aspirations of being our president. Thurmond and Wallace lived and breathed in a time when their support of segregation, although wrong, was widely more accepted. Even Wallace came around, even if only for political gain, about segregation.
Honestly, how much has Barbour progressed if in this day and time he makes a comment that he doesn't remember things being that bad concerning Civil Rights where he came from. Seems like he's the one living in the past.
Janet, get a clue or get off the Vine!
Don't like "racist"? Sorry. How does "knuckle-dragging turd" work for ya!!???
Auntie, are you refering to Obama, who himself refered to some on the right who opposed him as "angry white voters"?
Anna Bananna. Please name one teenage boy (under 16) in the 60s that would have been more interested in the speech than checking out the girls. Be specific
Sarah I knew Daisy Duke and your no Daisy Duke!
Most of you ranting against Barbour make me laugh.
You don't even know the man, yet you call him a racist and make deragatory comments about what he said.
You might want to take into consideration the fact that the man was only a teenager in the 60s, so his memory of the time is obviously a little fuzzy after 40+ years. I would imagine that your memories of 40+ years ago are just as fuzzy, if you were even alive back then.
You might also want to take into consideration that the man was talking about violence in his town back then. He was not referring to the Civil Rights movement as a whole. At least that is the impression I got from the article. He was specifically referring to his hometown of Yazoo City and that he didn't remember there being much violence there in relation to the Civil Rights movement.
Since none of you even know the man, you might want to put your obvious hatred towards people you disagree with back wherever it came from. It serves no purpose but to make you look childish and ill-mannered.
Ike,
I am not comparing Apples and Oranges, Barbour lived during the same time frame as Wallace and Thurmond. It was 40 freaking years ago. He was a teenage white boy, of course it wasn't that bad for him. He wasn't black so how would he know it was bad. Quit applying our freaking standards we have today to the past. We as a society have progressed to a different point in time. He was simply being honest when he said that. Now you on the left want to demonize him.
Let us not forget who the true racists of the 50s and 60s were, they were DEMOCRATS. They fought civil rights tooth and nail. I'll say it again, you'll only give democrats credit for changing but not republicans. Its time for you to grow up and study history and realize that there are people in the south that truely want to move forward, but people like you will never allow it.
Idaho Dragon
Is that a Grand Dragon of the Klan? You and your comments in several articles now lead me to believe your are from the home of White Supremacists in northern Idaho. Barbour would probably fit right in with you.
Another example of a revolving politician. Whatever it takes to buy an office, whatever it takes to fool enough people to satisfy his enormous ego. This guy is as racist as Hitler was. He is being set out front to see where their "next" candidate can go without having the racist name attached to their name. Republicraps will stop at nothing to finish off this country. They have a good plan started already, climate change (fossil fuel company"s) financial collapse ( Goldman Sachs), war (George Bush) and obstructionism (congress).. The tea bag movement used just like the "moral majority" was used to further their goal of use and abuse our society. I believe that subliminal suggestion is being used on certain FOX(FAKE)NEWS programs as the article's stated seem to be true, but in reality is a calculated way to make the truth unbelievable. Wake up or we are furnished!
Gary-302710
Auntie, are you refering to Obama, who himself refered to some on the right who opposed him as "angry white voters"?
#1.13 - Tue Dec 21, 2010 2:25 PM EST
Yeah, real cute!! No, but I could be referring to you!
And now the racists who are fighting progress tooth and nail are the republicans!!! So what's your point? The Democrats evolved unlike the repukes.
Idaho, Janet
I was a teenager during the 60's and lived in Utah and even I knew how bad racism due to forced segregation was. I saw it on the news, read about it in the paper and was taught the truth in school. That in addition to the lessons I learned in church and at my family dinner table.
There is no reason that a mentally capable person beyond infancy would not know what was happening in that time, white or not. Yazoo City is in Mississippi and Mississippi has a tragic history of racial violence over many decades prior to and following the 50's and 60's.
I see an amazingly stupid statement that it happened in the 50's and 60's so it should be forgotten or ignored. Also a comment that the racists in that time were Democrats, as if that makes it ok to be in the practice of rewriting history. Or at least trying to until upon being called out on it, backpedaling as fast as possible with a new load of crap.
Ron Houston,
And your childish comments lead me to believe that you are about 13. Grow up little boy.
As for Mr. Barbour, I don't know the man. I am merely taking his comments at face value until I have more information to go on than a comment made in an article in a magazine. That is what an intelligent person does.
Unfortunately, you are obviously not an intelligent person, since you seem only capable of insulting others and making snide remarks towards them. And yes, my comment towards you is also meant to be insulting and deragatory.
What can I say? I hate jackwagons like you who prejudge others without bothering to THINK first.
People who did not grow up in Mississippi should not judge a person from Mississippi... especially if they do not know the person. I grew up in rural Mississippi and I had a similar experience. When we desegregated, the adults did a bunch of "Yah yah" because they had grown up the very segregated South, but there were no major protests in our town. We left all the protests to be covered by the main stream media. In fact, the younger folks in our school slowly accepted the blacks that came over from the other school and in many cases became friendswith many of them. They worked with the new classmates based on their actions, not their color. Jerks were treated as jerks. Achievers were treated as achievers. Athletes were treated as athletes. An interesting story from that time was that Robert Kennedy came down to my area to "prove that all Blacks were starving in Mississippi, but he could not find any example to use so he got Black family, hauled them out to an old dilapidated shack that no none lived in, pinched the kid to make it cry, and filmed his documentary used very publicly to "proved his case." That is how a lot of Northerners viewed the South and how we responded to desegregation. At first, it was very bad, but like most Americans, we adapted and found the good people even in all the situation. I am very proud of my Southern roots! And i am very proud of positive industry building initiatives that Haley Barbour is building in Mississippi. I you Northerners would drop your own biases for just one minute, maybe you could learn something from us Southerners! Maybe your too easily thrown "BIGOT" characterizations would be bounced right back at you!
Chris Gilliard
And now the racists who are fighting progress tooth and nail are the republicans!!! So what's your point? The Democrats evolved unlike the repukes.
Chris
I refuse to believe those exclaming Haley Barbour is not a racist are naive. Simply put, they are liars and hypocrites.
There is no way any one can justify Haley Barbour's affection for a White Supremacist Group.
President Obama never agreed with Minister Louis Farrakan ;although Farrahkhan embraced the President. As far as Rev Wright, it was the media that had a problem with Black Liberation Philosophy. There are some whites who belonged to his Church. If Rev Wright was such a racist how could they sit there.Rev Wright's speech was taken out of context and played everyday, all day by an unrepentant bigot, Sean Hannity.
Speaking of Hannity, now that some people are waking up to Fox's bigotry maybe his back can get some rest from carry all that water.
[snippet]
The trend has been manifesting itself increasingly over the past couple of months, embodied in the way former Republican National Committee chair Haley Barbour has played footsie with the white-supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens, as well as the use by both Barbour and the GOP's candidate for lieutenant governor of the Confederate flag as a symbol of their campaigns. As I've noted previously, that flag is not just a symbol of "Southern heritage" but of white supremacism and racial intimidation everywhere, and the use of the flag makes clear that the GOP is aligning itself politically in that direction.
Barbour and the GOP are now openly embracing the symbol:
Barbour's campaign office in Yazoo City has also been distributing "Keep the Flag. Change the Governor" bumper stickers ahead of the Tuesday ballot.
"Our campaign is not paying for them, but our volunteers just love them," Barbour said in a recent interview.
Recall, if you will, that when the news first emerged that Republicans were dredging up the flag issue in the campaign, party officials denied they were doing anything other than identifying potential voters:
"It is not unusual to ask people how they voted on various issues," Herring said. "That's pretty much it. That's what you call voter-identification calls."
Uh huh.
Republicans have been pretending, ever since Trent Lott was officially wrist-slapped and sent down to the second team on the Senate bench, that their days of courting white supremacists, a la the Southern Strategy, are now officially over. The GOP is the party of inclusiveness, they tell us. And in a way it's true; why, if the Republicans refused to pander to white supremacists, they'd really have no place to go. It's just too bad that no one with colored skin wants to share that Big Tent with them.
http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2003/11/identity-politics-and-gop.html
This guy is a racist through and through. Go ahead, Republicans, nominate him in 2012. Better yet, nominate him AND Palin. Then we'll see how long your hold on power lasts!!!
Randy from Maine.
Why was this comment collapsed by the community?
Because the right wingers can't handle the truth!
Beverly in Chicago: Byrd was a complete party hack. Why would I be surprised that he endorsed Obama, the candidate of all party hacks? You're from Chicago. You should know all about party hacks, right?
Beyond that fact, what did Byrd's endorsement of Obama do for the people that he wronged as a member of the KKK? You lost me. I grew up in the North and experienced numerous instances of racial hatred and segregation there as a kid. I am totally appalled by the hypocrisy and phoniness on this comment board, especially with highly charged, bigoted comments by northern leftists against the South. You people don't know anything about the South. I've had more than enough with you leftist bigots and hypocrites for one day and am now signing off. Over and out. Aloha.
Janet:
Yes, Southern Democrats in the 60s were very anti civil rights. But it wasn't that they were Democrats that made them that way. It was because they were from the South. And, once the legislation passed, what did every last one of them do? Switch to the party that felt the way they felt...the Republican Party.
Every democratic adviser warned LBJ, and the party, that if they stuck with civil rights, they'd loose the South for at least 50 years, probably longer. And what did the Democrats do? They stuck to their principles and did the right thing, even though the cost to them is almost incalculable.
I'd like to see one example of the Republicans doing the same: Back an unpopular position because it generates the best end result for everyone.
Go figure... People are taking a small portion of a discussion, and analysing it in the context of their choosing. Then issuing a public statement from their professional assessment. You people (that's right I said you people) are just about as bad a politicians. As everyone reads these posts policitcians know they have you by the short and curlies because they know you will believe everything they tell you as long as they have a little ass... I mean donkey as their mascot.
By the way (BTW, for those who don't speak English), I would love to hear the thoughts that ran through peoples' heads when they were the age this guy was back in the 60's. I am sure they all were much more down to earth and righteous.
Janet,
If Barbour has progressed from the 50's then why did it take a backlash of negative criticism for him to reverse course? maybe we are looking at this from a difference in personal opinions, but it sure seemed like to me he was defending the Citizens Council of Yazoo City in his original statements. I would be as critical towards anyone who made such assenine statements regardless of political affiliation. Besides, show me a democratic politician who has made such an insensitive statement concerning Civil Rights in the last year and I will be the first to join the bandwagon of criticism. Also, from what I've read, most Southern Democrats switched parties when the party as a whole defended Civil Rights. Even Barbour admits he grew up in a democratic family.
I'll say it again, GET A CLUE!
@fed up senior!! I have been to Mississippi several times and i will agree with John A. Mississippi is still a very backward good ole boy state. I have a friend that lives in Jackson, MS. I always ask him what in the hell is up with these poor dumb people here putting that stupid arse Gov of theirs in Office. To tell you the truth Nothing really has changed there Mississippi has a very big poverty rate and people are still living in shacks down there. To say that Barbour is building something is B.S. People there are still living below the poverty line and are not that educated. If Barbour is building something its not for the benefit of the people of Mississippi, its for the benefit of Big Business and keeping people working for peanuts.
Is there anybody out there who truly believes this man has the ability to be President. As a teacher I have done tons of research on the impact of the civil rights movement on the children of the south. What planet is this man living on? Further, did any ever see the movie "Mississippi Burning? Worth taking a look.
According to the Times, Barbour "warned that if the aide persisted in racist remarks, he would be reincarnated as a watermelon and placed at the mercy of blacks."
Naw, he's not a racist.
Guess what Mr. holier-than-thou, had you lived in the South during a certain period of our history you would have fought to help preserve slavery. Don't point fingers at people for the surroundings of where they grew up. You people who think that had you lived "back in the day" that you would have been different make me sick. We all live, learn, and hopefully become a little more enlightened each day.
People stating Barbour is not a racist need only go into his office where he sports a confederate flag and has a picture of Jefferson Davis proudly displayed in his office. Jefferson Davis...you know...the confederate president of 1861. The man is a racist living in the 19th century still. He will never ever be my president.
I ought to "know" Barbour before I pass judgment?
This is enough for me:
Click here. (Will open in a new window).
Racist bastard.
Randy from Maine.
Which party is standing in the way of civil rights today? Who votes 'NO' just because the other votes 'YES'? Of course MS has vestiges of racism. The older generation that were alive during that period still live. But MS does not corner the market on racism. I can cite examples of it from all fifty states, but we all know the news. I've lived in MS a large part of my life. You dolts that want to bash an entire state and call it racist obviously are not intelligent enough to understand. Less than 5% of the population owned slaves and some of those were free blacks that owned their own slaves. I can point out several northern presidents that were also slave owners... Washington, Jefferson, Grant.
Know the facts:
Most plantations were owner-operated and the planters themselves often worked in the fields. Of the total southern white population of 8,099,760 in 1860, only 384,000 owned slaves. Of these, 10,780 owned fifty or more. It was calculated that about 88 per cent of America's slave-owners owned twenty slaves or less.
The wealth of the South was concentrated in the hands of around a thousand families. These large landowners would usually own well over 100 slaves and relied heavily on overseers to run their plantations. In 1850 it was estimated that these thousand families had an income of about $50,000,000 while the remaining 660,000 families received only $60,000,000.
www.slavenorth.com
of course it wasn't that bad, he was a redneck white guy!
John B.
This guy is a bigot and fraud and now he is trying to walk back his repugnant position. Sorry, it is already on the record with other comments of a similar nature.
So was the Grand Wizard (Senator Robert Byrd). Look; a lot of shyt went on back during that time in history that many would like to forget. He was just like anyone else living in that era in Mississippi.
There are just as many racist with a D behind their name also and most of them are rednecks too. I am a blackman and realize this. There are a lot of Democrat strongholds in the U.S. but just as Republicans how many blacks are U.S. Senators?
Is this story about Byrd?
dbo
certainly could be, but no this one is about Barbour
drive-by -- no...but, they need something to deflect attention from and excuse the fact that THEIR guy is a racist.
Carianne,
It's not a matter of deflection. It's a matter of perspective. It's also a matter of pointing out how some people seem to be such hypocrites on this issue. Democrats call Republicans racists, and yet they don't bother to acknowledge that many of their own were or still are racists. Or if they bother to acknowledge it, they try and downplay it or explain it away, which is a joke and nothing more than intellectual hypocrisy.
Democrats have racists in their ranks. Republicans have racists in their ranks. Maybe the idealogues on both sides should try to grow up and act like adults...though I don't see that happening anytime soon.
That takes more maturity than most people have.
JohnB1943... He still is a redneck white guy. That creepy state was and remains FULL OF THEM!!
I have many many times and some parts of it have never been able to get past losing the civil war, pridefully fawning over their long extinct 'confederacy'.
Some cities have become more tolerant of other races...but get into rural south and little has changed. I have personally witnessed the intolerance, hate and continued racist language every time I go there. To be fair I also see peolpe who have evolved beyond the bigotry.
No this story is NOT about Sen. Byrd, nor does his life and career resemble in the least bit the bigotry exhibited by Mr. Barbour. Sen. Byrd sincerely regretted his brief membership in the Klan, not just with a hollow retrenchment when challenged, but with the way he lived his life.
Shame on anyone who links this great man with the shallowness of the Barbours who inhabit this world.
What are you smoking? Bigotry?
daryl,
Why should I bother to take any part of your comment seriously when the first thing you do is try to imply that I'm a white supremacist? And please don't insult my intelligence by trying to claim otherwise.
People like you are a sad joke daryl. You're a joke because you can't make an intelligent argument without resorting to insults and derogatory statements throughout it, which tends to eliminate any good points you might actually make. You are sad because you blatantly reveal your own hatred and bigotry towards people you disagree with.
Grow up and learn how to intelligently have a discussion without resorting to implied insults and name-calling right out of the gate. Good luck.
Tim-Seattle: What about the bigots whom I know from Seattle? Do you recognize them at all?
Feisty: Could you document the instances in which Byrd worked to the betterment of those whom he had wronged as a Klansman? I'm very curiois about this. The fact is that his state, West Virginia, has very few African Americans, and he was mostly in the business of pork barrel legislation so that the hard-earned tax dollars of the rest of us could be spent on his predominantly white state.
The racist bigots in the republican party used to be thr racist biggots in the democratic party. A distinction without a difference. The racist biggots are still here !!
Waterdog49
Feisty: Could you document the instances in which Byrd worked to the betterment of those whom he had wronged as a Klansman? I'm very curiois about this.
Here's one, it's not bad for a former KKK
On May 19, 2008, Byrd endorsed Barack Obama (D-Illinois). One week after the West Virginia Democratic Primary, in which Hillary Clinton defeated Obama by 41 to 32 percent,[42] Byrd said, "Barack Obama is a noble-hearted patriot and humble Christian, and he has my full faith and support."[43] When asked in October 2008 about the possibility that the issue of race would influence West Virginia voters, as Obama is an African-American, Byrd replied, "Those days are gone. Gone!"[44]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Byrd#Public_service_records
[snippet]
The trend has been manifesting itself increasingly over the past couple of months, embodied in the way former Republican National Committee chair Haley Barbour has played footsie with the white-supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens, as well as the use by both Barbour and the GOP's candidate for lieutenant governor of the Confederate flag as a symbol of their campaigns. As I've noted previously, that flag is not just a symbol of "Southern heritage" but of white supremacism and racial intimidation everywhere, and the use of the flag makes clear that the GOP is aligning itself politically in that direction.
Barbour and the GOP are now openly embracing the symbol:
Barbour's campaign office in Yazoo City has also been distributing "Keep the Flag. Change the Governor" bumper stickers ahead of the Tuesday ballot.
"Our campaign is not paying for them, but our volunteers just love them," Barbour said in a recent interview.
Recall, if you will, that when the news first emerged that Republicans were dredging up the flag issue in the campaign, party officials denied they were doing anything other than identifying potential voters:
"It is not unusual to ask people how they voted on various issues," Herring said. "That's pretty much it. That's what you call voter-identification calls."
http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2003/11/identity-politics-and-gop.html
daryl,
The "Dixiecrats" aren't gone and they aren't in the Republican part either. They are closeted in the Democrat Party where they always were. They just outwardly changed "tunes" once they realised segregation and "Jim Crow" were going to end. They realized that Black were going to get the right to vote, and if they wanted to maintain their power they better "tap" the huge mass of ignorant, weak-minded, willingly dependent voters. Every Democratic "social Welfare" program like the Great Society and War on Poverty were designed to do two things: 1) Destroy the black family unit, and 2) destroy or dismantle the black communities social institutions. After over 50 years, the evidence is quite clear. At the end of segregation, 1 in 10 black children lived in single parent home, today it is 1 in 3; then 1 in 6 black children lived in "poverty", today it is 1 in 4. Blacks have highest rates of teen pregnancy that is over double every other group in US. They have highest rates of incarceration, Highest rates of obesity, highest rates of single parent house-holds. Lowest marriage rates and highest divorce rates. All produced by Democratic government "Programs" that we were told were to "HELP" them.
I lived in a town in MS for several years that didn't have the violence during the 1960's either. It's population was split about 50/50, not the standard 80/20 or 90/10 of most communities. From what I learned from people on both sides was they didn't have "race" trouble until things like MTV and BET came in decades later and TOLD the African-Americans that they should be "Angry" at "white people" and should be "Gangsta" and such. If you look at the "violence" of the civil rights movement it was almost always started by "Outside Agitators" from the North-east traveling down to the south to either directly challenge local laws or encourage locals to do so, i.e. stir up trouble. Once those "Outside Agitators" had stired up the "Hornets Nest", they quickly got back in their cars and went back home to safe, liberal, rich, New York lives, and patted themselves on the back for all the "good" they had done.
I dont have an issue with Barbour being a racist, or a republican, or a racist republican...as a bleeding heart liberal, im more than aware of the blue-dog democrats, half of which are racists to the core...the other half, moonlight as racists when the votes are needed.
What I take issue with is Barbour, and many other people like him, attempting to re-write history. The Virginia governor celebrating "confederate history month" and stating he omitted slavery because he wanted to only include issues "significant" to virginians...or the Texas schoolboard referring to Slavery as "The Atlantic Triangular Trade" and rewording "american imperialism" to "american expanisionism".
Something is seriously wrong when the schoolboard downplays Thomas Jefferson, and adds Phyllis Schaffly, and questioning whether or not the founding fathers really meant seperation of church and state (though, we definitely know they were talking about ALL GUNS when they talked about arms, so, no debate can be had here!)
Yes, im tired of history being re-written, even though im frustrated that its already been poorly written to begin with. I have no problem with correcting it when we realize its been falsely stated in history books, but offering your own personal slant because you view the world through weird lenses, isnt the same thing.
Im sorry, I dont want to teach my kids that hatred is less because someone opted not to string a black person up in a tree, but rather just sought to run them out of the town, state, country...hatred is still hatred, last time i checked.
ITM
Byrd said his actions were wrong many times over, but for Barbour to deny the ugliness of that period, so many years later, is pathetic.
Yeah. I remember Newark burning down in '67 and people dying in the streets because of segregation in the North. That wasn't in Mississippi. Bunch of hypocrites!
Sheila, MD
I always wondered why my father who grew up in McComb Mississippi, was so fearfull of the civil rights movement. he always told me that MLK was doing noting but sturring up trouble for the people still living in MS. he and my mother would have heated arguement about this, my mother was born in chicago and never could understand why my father was the way he was toward whites in the south.
My dad was scared to death of southern whites, his mom & dad came here in 1949 with 9 kids. my grandfathers brother was already here, he came here after the war. right away my dad was in love with chicago particially the north. he could go to shows with out being segerated. he could have a general conforsation with a white woman with out being lynched. it was not till they went back down south to visit, my mother who was pergant with me in 1962, that my mother understood. my dad did not want to make the trip, he never wanted to go south ever again once he left but wanted to show my mother how jim crow was, and after that she completely understood,
Barbour can say it was not that bad, but he was white, he may or may not have been a racist I'm not here to judge him, but he was white. southern whites back then blamed blacks for the civil war, they blamed black and northern liberal for ruinning there way of life as my dad use to say, the code of MS was to keep your Ni**ers in line. they had a deep hatred for MLK causing trouble, as my dad use to say, MLK can come there, make speaches, and then go back to alabama, alabama was not near as bad for black as MS, its bad enough.
it took me years to understand my dad, and what Barbour has said explains why so many black left the south, its was not so much the jobs, but what it was, being treated like human beings.
i went there about 15 years ago, and even them the still hate northern black, & whites, to them we are all the same, i was there for a family reunion, my dad had passed and i wanted to see his upbringing, i wanted to try and under stand for my self why he was so scraed of southern whites, i was only there 1 day and i was stopped for no reason because i had illinois plates, the cop went out of his way to make me feel as unwelcome as possible. It worked. I will never ever go back to MS.
IntheMiddle say what you want, but and please don't take this the wrong way, but you are programed to accept treatment like this from whites in the south or former slave states, just like my dad way. so instread of blasting black in the large citys understand why we came here.
i was watching a doc about MS and they still have segerated proms.
Jeff, thanks for your excellent post. I am a white, senior woman, who grew up in Ohio, where in grade school we were taught about the underground railroad, that helped blacks to escape from the south, and became intersted in civil rights at the age of nine. I brought a little girlfriend home after school for cookies and milk, I'll never forget her name, Jo Ellen Hyatt, she was a little black girl I loved to play with at recess. My mother met us at the door, and said to me, "She can't come in here". I was so saddened when Jo Ellen, just smiled, and shrugged her shoulders and walked away. This was not the first time she had been rejected because she was black. I grew up to be a marcher in any and all civil rights marches I could find. I knew what my mother had done was wrong and mean. My mother was an uneducated woman, never went past the sixth grade, and grew up on a farm in Missouri, a southern thinking state. My mom's concern was that the neighbors would see Jo Ellen come into our house. Years later, I moved to northern Florida, and to my surprise, you can drive through many rural communities and find the confederate flag flying in the front yards. I have heard black men called "boy", and I've heard the "n" word thrown around to this day. Yes, racism is alive and well in the South to this day. Just the other day, my neighbor, who is retired from Michigan, refer to Pres. Obama, as a "n-gger", I told him that I find that word offensive, and he laughed and called my a "liberal", like that is a dirty word. All I can say is, some people try to be politically correct sometimes, but the hatred is right under the surface, and after all these years, it saddens me to see how far we still have to go, as a nation, to really accept people as they are, and to know, God, created us all equal. But, someday, "we shall overcome", I do believe.
Michelle,
Thank you for sharing - the unfortunate thing is there are millions of stories like yours out there!
As much as I love my step-father he's still a racist and refused to vote for President Obama (even though he's a Democrat) based SOLELY on the fact that he couldn't bring himself to vote for a *gasp* black man!
Since I volunteered for President Obama's campaign... you can only imagine some of our dinner conversations...
Senator Byrd lived a long long long time and he did change his thinking and lived the life of a good man who did know what the South went through was shameful and terrible. He turned away from his past and lived a good life as a Democrat.
Fiesty in Chi Town, yes, I lived in Melrose Park when I was first married, and racsim was clearly evident there, too. It's everywhere, the big difference being, northener's hide it better in public. lol
Funny you should mention Melrose Park - my step-dad is actually from Cicero! Which was even worse... back then! YIKES!
michelle-1073610
Fiesty in Chi Town, yes, I lived in Melrose Park when I was first married, and racsim was clearly evident there, too. It's everywhere, the big difference being, northener's hide it better in public. lol
Michelle, to a certian degree, my grandfather bought a house in a south side hood in 1957. they made it very hard for him to buy, he had to put 5,000 down in a 13,000 house. once he moved in his white neighbors would not aknoledge him, even thought he paid more for his home then they did, well his next door neighbor moved and that home went empty for almost a year till he could sell it. that man lost thousands of dollars to keep from living next to a black man.
this was normal, gospal singer mahalia Jaskson owned a home in that same hood, it took old man daley to keep cops parked in front of that home for almost a year to pervent people from busting windows, and setting it on fire in order to get her to move, she was a rich woman but that ment nothing, blacks rich or not, to them we were all the same. Michelle with in a year the whole block was black, except one family. John Johnson owner of edony jet owned a home there as well as politicans business owners. one neighbor was the owner of one of the biggest taxi companys in the city and to day his famly still lives there.
After my mother died we sold the house and what my grand father paid 13,000 for we soid for 175,000.
As MKL once said, chicago was the most segerated city in america.
Yeah, nice one Haley.
What's that saying...you can take the boy outta Mississippi, but you can't take Mississippi outta the boy...
Reminds me of Trent Lott's comments when Strom Thurmond died. Geez, what a buncha maroons!!
I believe you meant "moron". If you are going to call people names, please at least get the spelling correct.
I believe they meant maroon, as in this clip of Bugs Bunny: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_Kh7nLplWo
If you're going to criticize someone, at least keep up on cultural references (and this one's been around a loooong time.)
sHE WAS QUOTING BUGS BUNNY WITH THE "what a bunch of maroons!"
Excellent retorts!
BTW... For future reference Auntie is a he! ;0)
Southern Belle:
You obviously don't get the humor...
We can call people maroons if we want.
Right, but he said that segration wasn't that bad, of course not he's White!!
A backward, dimwitted, Rethuglican bigot? Umm, gee, how shocking.
Just like Byrd.
So then, this story IS about Byrd? And he was a Republican??
Yeah, just like Byrd. Except for the part about Byrd spending half his life repudiating his past and apologizing for it at every opportunity. And the part about being born 30 years earlier than Barbour and raised in poor, rural coal country in West Virginia rather than in privileged, upper class Mississippi. But other than that, exactly like Byrd.
Sounds like IntheMiddle,TX didn't think things were that bad either. Haley Barbour's comments are indefenseable, just as the Citizens Councils were. No need to compare Barbour to Byrd. It doesn't justfy his racist views. This article is about Barbour!
The point, drive-by, is that Democrats forgave Robert Byrd for his past racist affiliations and indicated he needed to be that way to become elected in his neck of the woods so it was OK because he changed.
Senator Byrd also apoligized for his error(s) and spent the majority of the rest of his career working for the betterment of those he had wronged...
Unlike Boss Hog who got BUSTED and then had to crab walk it back with the typical 'that isn't what I meant BS'
Actions DO speak louder than words...
So...Byrd being a rascist is appalling, but it is OK for Barbour? It's pretty two-faced to defend Barbour by denouncing Byrd. One would think, if you are going to pretend to abhorr rascism, you would condemn BOTH. (by the way, Byrd was repentant and now he's dead. Barbour is deceitful and he's alive. Pretty slick and spineless to go after the dead guy....).
Apparently Barbour expected that only tea-vangelicals would read the fluff piece in the Weekly Standard...he didn't actually expect one of them yankee educated liberals to do a little research.
And, this article is about how Barbour condemns the KKK and segregation. You probably gave bird a pass when he said, long after his days in the KKK, that he's "seen a lot of white @!$%#s in my day" because he was making up for the past.
But if you aren't a democrat you can't progress and change over time. Don't forget the last race riots were in Boston. They want you to believe there is no racism north of the Mason/Dixon Line. Let me tell ya its alive and doing very well in Illinois
Byrd belonged to the KKK, Barbour does not
Right Janet... except for the fact that Barbour's comments were made in the last couple of days...
It took Robert Byrd years to undue the damage...
Apples & Orange honey... apples & oranges... lol
I have to say how entertaining it is watching you loons try to defend Mr. Pale - Male & Stale!
Popcorn anyone?
Yes... I believe we've already established that...do try to keep up hon!
To my post at 5.8, I don't use the "N-word" other than in quotes. It appears this site does not allow for quoting what someone else said and therefore it was changed to @!$%#s.
Robert Byrd made those comments in 2003. What did he mean and did all of you decrying Barbour also decry Byrd back then or did you give him a pass because he brought home the bacon to his state.
Racism is alive and well throughout the country. A question to ponder: why did the Tea Partiers start yelling "Give me back my country" literally within days of Obama's inauguration? Nothing had changed except a black man elected president. What happened? I think Barbour's comments are typical for the Partiers, most, not all, racists.
Lol@Janet Racism is alive and well in Illinois. In the Southern part. Which abuts Kentucky. Southern Illinois IS the South.
Ron,
Maybe one of these constitutional conservatives could enlighten us as to where their country went for once!
I've been asking for an answer from these mental midgets for years and all I ever get are *crickets*
Amazing that it only disappeared AFTER the black dude took office!
Don't take their only argument away. It took them hours to come up with it.
WOW................in a post where feisty is lambasting Barbour for being a racist.....................feisty calls him Mr. Pale -Male & Stale.
She is racist and a bigot.......your on a roll feisty
us independents love this stuff.
OK libs, we all know the GOP is nothing but a bunch of hateful race-baiters.
How about the Black Panthers? Maybe a little-too-serious off shoot of the Boy Scouts? Inner City welfare workers? Voting rights advocates?
How about when some homie comes diddy-bopping up and says "OK honkey MF, give me all your $$ or I cut your white ass up!" Racist? That time of the month? Needs an Advil? What say?
The Only reason Byrd back-pedaled like he did is because he could see the writing on the wall. You can't trash half the population of the South and still get elected.
Personally, I think EVERYBODY should get over it and get on with their lives. If you refuse to climb out of the septic tank, your feet are gonna smell.
Good Point Chris! I notice they've scattered... lmao
Last time I checked Haley is a HE, he's also white and a life long member of the good old boys club!
So what's your point again?
My point, cerebral challenged feisty, is that you are a hypocrit and a racist and a bigot and a sexist.
But everybody here already knows that so my pointing it out is of little value. I apoligize for mentioning a fact well known by all here.
Perhaps their point is that you seem to have nothing to say beyond insults and derogatory comments. Your own hatred is on open display for all to see, and yet you try to claim that you aren't doing anything wrong.
Can you say hypocrite?
Book'em....as to your post 5.8: Applauding the Citizen Councils while condemning the KKK is very much like condemning Dunkin' Donuts while eating at Winchell's. The sprinkles may be different, but it's all empty calories fried in lard.
...and Janet...no one knows who is who under those hoods.
Every time I think that janet is done showing us how little she knows about history, she slides just a little further down that hill. janet, as usual, you are factually incorrect about the history of the Democratic Party and racial parity, and the role of people like Thurmond. Thurmond was a Dixiecrat. Do look the word up. It was a branch of the Democratic party that moved away from the party due to Truman's desegregation of the armed forces. When LBJ signed the Civil Rights Legislation, he knew and said at the time, that he had lost the South for generations. Do get a clue, janet, you sound ridiculous. Barbour IS a big ol racist and always will be. He can just remember to hide it sometimes. Anyone who makes an excuse for the Citizens Council ought not to be in politics. The goals of Citizen Councils INCLUDED runnning out the KKK, since they were perceived as being bad for the local economies. What the Citizen Councils did was threaten blacks and freedom workers by jobs and economic deprivations to keep their powers as white leaders intact. Real heroes, right janet?
Feisty
Right on! I have NEVER heard any of the "Gimme back my country" types intelligently explain where it went so quickly after January 20, 2009. Suspicious that is soooo close to Obama becoming POTUS.
At times, the written word does not fully express what is thought. I am purely basing my opinion on much of this on what is int he FR article above.
In his retort, Barbour is stating the Citizen Councils were "not saints" and that segregatin was/is bad policy. His comments from the day before, in reading the quotes, simply state the Citizen Councils, as he recalled, ensured the KKK was not in his town.
Please forgive my ignorance about this as I was born in the north after that period and don't recall any of this coming up in any class. My point basically is that it is hypocritical to say that Robert Byrd was a changed man and that Haley Barbour is a continued racist without knowing either or them personally.
Who will ever forget those hideous & hateful signs they waved around!
Obama as a witch doctor - Obama as Hitler - Michelle as a monkey and the not so subtle watemelon & fried chicken postcards & e-mails!
What's funny is I've been referred to as a racist - bigot - sexist etc from the peanut gallery above because I have the tenacity to ask TOUGH questions and all these cowards have proven is they don't have the b@lls to answer them!
So I ask again... WHERE DID YOUR COUNTRY GO?
NDD: That Janet is a sneaky one isn't she? lol
Well, said, newdayD, because we have a lot of people who were taught history light; or, if they are from the South, history as written by the state.
And, Feisty, as a pale person, I constantly call these GOBs "male, pale, stale". It is a solid historical fact that the whites ruled here and the boys have a hard time even letting white women have a say. Their concept of a "race card" is one that is not a lottery winner for other whites.
Byrd - for all practical purposes, was a dixiecrat who refused to switch parties when all the other racists did. true, he eventually "saw the light" perhaps, but he never overcame who he was to the core, and the "white n*****" comment in 2001 highlights that you can never really unlearn all that you've learned, nor will anyone truly ever grasp how choice of words matter, especially when you're on the national stage...and you're an elected leader.
Yep, Feisty, janet IS a sneaky one who ought to read up on American history. Thanks, RaisedbyWolves. I agree. There are an awful lot of people who like to skip over the parts of history that destroy their point.
Let's see...
How about Bush as Hitler. Bush as a monkey. Bush as Satan. etc. etc.
If you're going to be a hypocrite at least try not to be so blatant about it. lol
Into the hands of the libs who are so jealous that someone may have a nickle more than they do they'll do anything to take it from them.
liberals love class warfare. It's almost a hobby for them.
It's just still wierd that they learned nothing about how much the country has rejected their agenda after the midterm smack-down. Well, as they say, "Ignorance is bliss." lol
Couldn't have said it better myself..........
A 2010 "Macaca" moment. Hope it works as well for Haley as for Trent and George.
Randy207 & jon b-194... - different times, different attitudes and beliefs. In 50-60 years what will those born and raised in the 90's and later recollect about their ideas of illegal immigration or the growth/death of islam in the US?
I'll probably remember all the hatred and xenophobia. So is it OK that Barbour doesn't?
American - see my comment @ 1.38 and watch the clip. His views date back to at least as recently as the 80s. Like many of his time, Barbour may have learned his racism in the 50s and 60s, but one would hope, with education, tolerance, and Christian teachings, he would change his views. He has not.
He gives tacit approval to the so-called "birthers." He opposes the Mosque near Ground Zero. Indeed, I find opposition by Christians to the Ground Zero Mosque curious (well, not really, since it goes right along with the racism).
Christians have been quick to point out that Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church, protesters of military funerals, do NOT represent Christians - but these same Christians are equally quick to smear all Muslims with those murderous acts committed on 9/11. And they're more than willing to violate the Constitution by denying Muslims a place of worship if they believe, simply, "it doesn't belong there." And we're not just talking about Ground Zero. Opposition has grown to mosques in general around the country.
There's a thread here. Racism is an integral part of that thread. Intolerance is an integral part of that thread. And you want to put prayer back in schools? I dun thin so Lucy.
Randy from Maine.
Awwight, bowa- yoo inna heap uh trubbil, now, heah??
Backpeddling!!! He is toast for running for president!!
The reality of living in the South during that time was different dependent upon your position within society at the time. I think that it is refreshing that Barbour tells people exactly how it felt from his perspective while he was growing up, with his further recognition that there was obvious things that he neither experienced nor understood until he grew into adulthood. It is easy to call someone racist, both black or white, unless you understand from where they grew up.
this is something I agree with, the way we perceive events, and interpret them are different. When someone is raised with this type of idea, it may not have seemed that bad, where as for a person who was black it must have been inconceivable to understand why these people were so ignorant towards them.
The fact that his recollections were, "things weren't that bad", regarding Civil Rights does not excuse him from picking up a book and learning another person's perspective. The struggle of the black community, especially in the South, during the Civil Rights Movement can only be contstrued as "not that Bad" by someone with some serious racist tendencies or at least the ignorance of not being able to learn the truth.
For Barbour whose entire career has been in politics to still believe it's OK to express such garbage, whether in pubic or in private, is incredible to me.
Somehow a lifetime spent in Mississippi has spared him any awareness of the horrors of racism. (Oh, wait, he's WHITE!)
This clown -- who supposedly entertains ambitions for the Presidency -- thinks because he didn't personally witness the suffering and injustices heaped upon African Americans, segregation wasn't that bad.
Unbelievable.
I wonder how the Citizens Council of Yazoo City would have reacted if a black person had opened a business in direct competition to one of it's members?
Ike0716
I wonder how the Citizens Council of Yazoo City would have reacted if a black person had opened a business in direct competition to one of it's members?
well that would not happen because black were not allowed to own businesses, my grand father was a carpenter in mcComb MS. the only way he could make a living was to work for whites. one tiime he was refinishing a panio, his boos found out and instead of paying my grand father, the person payed his boss.
This is not about the west during the 50-60's, this is the south. He told as he saw it from his perspective as a child during that time. There wasn't a lot of TVs and most boys didn't worry about the news. From his point of view, he didn't see much wrong. Remember he was a white kid and the civil rights movement didn't effect him. He said that in his town there was no problems so who are we who did not live there call him a liar or a racist. Did he say that he agreed with how things were or that he didn't see a problem with it? He wasn't an adult so he couldn't change how things were. I see a lot on here putting down the south and yet you don't live here. I remember as a child the whites had one area of a restaurant and blacks ate in the back area. I was a child, did I see anything wrong with it? Not really because that was the way it was. As an adult, I can see that it was wrong but as a child I didn't know that it was wrong. I was born in Miami but moved to Alabama where things were totally different. Schools were just starting to integrate and there were a lot of problems. Most of the problems were not white on black but black on white. It was like they were pissed at us kids for the political problems. Did we make the laws? Hell NO!! We were children. That is like folks blaming the white people of today for slavery. I didn't own anyone so why blame me. In fact, my father's family didn't even come to the United States til the early 1900's. I found more racism from northerners when I was in the military than I did from people that lived in the south. Northerners talk bad about the south claiming that we are uneducated hicks and racist yet you don't know all of the people from here. How can you class a whole group of people by the example of a few?
There is no doubt that one's personal perception of events has a lot to do with the environment they experienced those events in. However, "recording" that as fact for all time is the problem. A wise man looks back and realizes the "flaws" of how he remembered things.
At this time of year, many of us probably remember past events we experienced related to Santa Claus and how we felt about him. Chances are, most of us have rethought those perceptions and realize they didn't reflect reality.
Barbour could have easily made his statement about how he remembered things at the time, while stating also that he realizes that doesn't really reflect reality. He did not do that. He only rethought his recollection after it was pointed out that he conveyed a very skewed picture of the Citizens Councils which were clearly racist organizations.
Robert,
I don't agree with the racist, liar comments coming from some posters on the Vine as it does nothing to move the conversation forward. However, as you state, once you became old enough you realized it was wrong for blacks to have to sit in the back of the restaurant. Mr. Barbour, on the other hand, did not mention how indefensible the Citizens Council were until a backlash of criticism was unleashed in the blogosphere world. For a person with presidential aspirations this was probably a huge error in judgement and the death of his chances of even being nominated let alone elected. Whatever the intentions of his remarks or his current beliefs he came across as someone defending the Citizens Council.
TRANSLATION:
Lynchings In Town = Illegal
Lynchings Outside Of Town = No Problem
Da Noid, do you facts to back up your translations from this town in that era? Interviews from the time?
Gary,
Nope...but facts have never been the GOP's strong suit.
They've never been the strong suit of the Democrats either, so your comment is absurd.
Idealogues on either side don't worry about facts. The truth doesn't enter into their perceptions.
Since when do facts matter in pushing a "liberal/progressive" agenda? That mean old Barbour would probably have the news edited and screened in order to facilitate an erroneously positive image of himself, just like our current....; well, anyway, he'd have an openly racist organization show up at voting sites, probably wielding clubs, to make racist slurs and to threaten voters that might not vote for him, just like.....; umm, he would likely be supported by brain washed minions that would endlessly throw the label "racist" at anyone that disagrees with anything he says, not unlike.....; oh, never mind.
A white man, Barbour said, "I just don’t remember it as being that bad." That is incredibly funny.. sad but funny! SMH
He should have just started out by saying the standard " I don't mean to offend anyone but......."
Not racist necessarily but certainly clueless to struggles of others.
Caution, wide load backing up!
Nice try....another bigot revealed. walk back indeed.
This guy is a former head of the RNP as Chairman, Republican Governors Association Chairman...and current Governor of Mississippi. Is there any doubt about the hearts and minds of the upper echelons of the GOP!! The Tea Party...
I grew up in a small Georgia town but you know what - white people who broke the law were treated the same as black people who broke the law. There were not two sets of laws for the citizens. As is obvious from that statement, I am old enough that I lived and understood the civil rights movement which did not come a minute too soon. I understood then and I understand now where no town wants the media rushing in to exploit every incident that happens, whether it be with civil rights or whatever. I don't know what's in Haley Barbour's heart, but I do know that EVERYONE is entitled to equal rights. I for one am tired of fighting the Civil War. I did not own slaves, would not have condoned anyone owning anyone, and I am ready for us to deal with the here and now. Don't we all have enough problems in this day and age to occupy our best efforts without delving into a past over which we have no control? There is good and bad in each of us. Good and bad does not recognize color. Neither does God.
Unless you're under 30, if you grew up in a small Georgia town there definitely were two sets of laws (rules) for blacks and whites. Either that or you grew up in some as yet undiscovered Shangri-la of Cum by Ya.
I still remember traveling through that part of the country with my black co worker/roommate in the Air Force in the 80's who was from that part of the country and watching him quiver wide eyed if we dared stop for services in any small town.
I lived in Atlanta as a child and one of my most vivid memories was a redneck cuffing me for mistakingly drinking from a water fountain not marked for "Whites only"
Let's not try to whitewash the reality of the past.
@joan, well stated for the most part. I do have to take exception that there was/is the same treatment for blacks and whites. Sorry, it wasn't so, and isn't so.
I visited Savannah GA in the early 90's quite a bit. I took my sister's mother-in-law to the the MVD to get her driver's license. I sat in the parking lot and watched the white people fly right through their driving tests. I also witnessed several black girls berrated and harassed to the point of tears. I was so shocked. I also vividly remember the shocked expression of an elderly black lady when I held the door open for her at the grocery store. That's not how I was raised and I had no idea at the time things like that still occur here in the USofA.
We as a nation still have a long way to go...let's start with letting go of judgement and bigotry, and try some acceptance and compassion..
We as a nation still have a long way to go...let's start with letting go of judgement and bigotry, and try some acceptance and compassion..
What you hope for will never come to be. There will always be judgement and bigotry in people, for humanity is ruled by its emotions and not its intelligence. Consider the posts on this article for example. I've seen a lot of judgements made on here, some good and a lot bad. Most of them are not based on any kind of critical thinking though. They are based on emotional viewpoints, anger, hatred and distrust of others.
On the other hand, the kind of racism and bigotry that used to be so common in the USA IS slowly disappearing. It takes a long time for a society or a people to overcome their latent racist tendencies, and this is true of all races, whether they be white, black or any other. Some tend to forget the fact that whites are not the only racists in the world, but that goes back to my earlier point about emotion ruling people instead of intelligence.
Maybe someday humanity will grow up, but I wouldn't count on it anytime soon.
Pinocchio!!!!!!!!! keep telling yourself this swill maybe someday you'll wake up.
I have to agree with Idaho that some of the racist activities of the past are still with us in this day. When I got my driver's license here in Georgia in 2008, I also noticed that my application sped through while people of color were on some sort of slow track. We've also been warned by my son to not put up our Hope poster nor our vote dem stuff. Weird - never thought I'd be a closet anything - but here, I'm a closet dem/wiccan.
As a native Californian, where we pretty much take differences as a part of a whole, I am usually aghast at the easy racism here - and we're not that far from Barbour's stomping ground.
What will change, and what the male, pale, stale contingent of the USA is fearing, is that the populations of other races are growing and they are voting. And I put my old, white, female vote right next to theirs.
I don't know. This guy is probably racist. I don't think his intent was to be racist. I do not condone or tolerate racism, I do however recognize that for people who are raised with it, and surrounded by communities of it, don't see some of the things that may be as clear to others. Instead of just bashing it would seem more tolerant to show how he could change his remarks to reflect the whole picture.
I think it is just as important to talk out, and work out the issues rather than just bashing. It does no good and just fuels the separation between groups.
"Barbour walks back comments on civil rights era".....
(MSNBC's intended meaning)... Start hating him, America !!!... Hurry, we're planting the early seed for you to start hating him, now !!!.... Goodness, Mr Barbour could NEVER be qualified to be president because he's walking back his comment... and heaven knows ANYONE who walks back his comments IS DEFINITELY NOT presidential material....
THANK GOODNESS WE HAVE A PRESIDENT WHO NEVER WALKS BACK ANYTHING !
America is sickened by your constant, deceitful hatred, MSNBC !
Why are you on MSNBC if you are so sickened by it? I for one am not sickened and i don't need you to speak for me.
What hatred, I don't detect any MSNBC hatred in this article--they're reporting Haley Barbour's latest comments, that's it. Maybe the hatred is yours.
Damned TV remote. Won't let me change channels.
Barbour must have been seen as a legitimate threat, if the attacks and smears have started so early. As an example, the attacks on Palin and her family have been ongoing since 2008, and she is the bane of the Left.
I'm always annoyed by the NeoCons that troll these boards. Does Fox have a playground for you people. Don't complain about the articles--just leave
ummmm. SwampCat,,,, let's stick with the subject.....
Sorry, Seandra; on this particular blog the name of Palin is invoked frequently, randomly, and perniciously; I was just trying to get a feel for the liberal perspective. No sir, I don't like it. I much prefer thinking for myself; liberal groupthink gives me gas.
That is ridiculous, swampcat. Since when is asking questions of a candidate and expecting coherant answers "attacking" them? Since when is challenging a person who has put themself into the public eye and into the arena for elected office to defend a position an "attack?" If a person is running for office they should be articulate, well-read, educated, and fair. They should have a public consciousness and an understanding of history -- not just their version of history, but a comprehensive thoughful analysis of historical FACTS. I am so sick of either side of the political debate throwing the word "attack" around whenever it suits...Barbour made comments that really do reflect his tone-deafness, and he did so on the record. He (like Palin, Obama, McCain, Boehner, Pelosi etc) are public figures. What they say will be disected, commented on, and subjected to judgement. If they say it with character and conviction, and with facts to back them up, then great! If not, then let the chips fall where they may. If they can't defend a position, and or argue / acknowledge many facets of an issue then they shouldn't be running for office.
So, Sandtrich, you only want to hear from people who have tehe xact same opinion as you. Very tolerante and educated of you to want to limit others. I don't recall there being a requirement that one must be a liberal/democrat to participate in these discussions.
Not it at all--I like a spirited discussion and enjoy differing opinions. I just dislike the petty displays be the far right and constant complaining about the news source being MSNBC.
Why yes, Woman Voter, disparaging comments on pseudo-news stations (MSNBC) and quasi-comedy shows (Letterman and Jon Stewart) about Sarah Palin's children qualify as attacks. Hint: her children were not running for office; pass it on.
@Boss---When I eat at a restaurant and don't like the food--I don't go back--same with a hotel--don't like it--don't go back, retail store--same deal. Take a walk to a sight where NeoCons can b**ch together. I won't even watch NFL Football on Fox. I'll be damned if I will assist Rupert Murdock in making another $ by spreading lies and hate to those just gullible to listening to those those "Carnival Barking Idiots".
I remember when Fox reported that President Obama's trip was costing the American Taxpayers $200M/Day. They actually have Palin--on air I read. They quote that nutty woman from Minnesota, Backmann and have her do her Joe McCarthy act. SHE challenges the patriotism, citizenship, & religion of our President. That, pal, is scary. With "leaders" like Barbour, Palin, Backmann, Jeff Sessions and that rabid bunch of bigots from the South.
You kind of sound bigoted yourself, sandtrich.
Sandtrich:
Man you sound like a damn fool. Taht is stupid "I don't watch the NFL on Fox", CBS is biased but everybody watch the NFL that are football fans. I don't like MSNBC but I watch LockUp.
Lets see YOU prove a lie that was said on Fox. MediaMatters and MSNBC does not count as a source. They are both totally biased towards FOX.
You need to keep your mouth closed. I bet everytime you say something, someone in the room asks "who farted?"
Ok, Einstein--was the $200M/ Day that President Obama reportedly cost the taxpayers on the India trip a LIE? Fox reported it--right? Try factcheck.org.
Wait, don't tell me...another dumb Republican leader inserting his foot so far into his mouth that his toes are visible from his behind???
To borrow that famous line from "Casablanca..." I'm shocked. Shocked.
Thank you. I was wondering why all the worry about "did he say something racist", when the real qualifier is; He's a God**mned Republican. Nuff said- we don't need any more of his kind running this once (but soon to be again, when Obama's re elected) great nation.
Everybody in Georgia knows what "citizen Councils" were just as everybody knows what Rep. Westmoreland meant when he called Pres. Obama "uppity".
I think one of the most difficult things to tackle for many people is racism. People do tend to look back as it not being "that bad". Of course, they weren't the victims of racism. But many people share Gov. Barbour's naive view. I have heard similar statements throughout my life. Well intentioned but totally off the mark statements. My education has opened my eyes.
African American history is not something that schools ever taught while we were growing up. It's an important history. A history our nation needs to be aware of.
So so so many silent activists, whose names we'll never know, from the north and south. And that is unfortunate.
I do not know Haley Barbour personally. I don't believe he is a full-blown racist but his rewriting of the truth is troubling. The question isn't whether or not he said what he did, or didn't quite mean what he said, but rather why would he say it? Why try to defend a group that maybe wasn't the KKK because they didn't hide behind white pointed masks but was equally determined to keep segregation in Yazoo City and other places in the South? I would expect that the Governor and presidential wannabee would be more informed about the group he was defending.
Last night Chris Matthews had a memember of the Sons of the Confederacy on his show to discuss South Carolina's big ball to commemorate SC's secession from the Union. In his remarks, this man stated that it was not a revolt about slavery, they just wanted to separate from the United States because they didn't like President Abraham Lincoln--of course, he ignores that the SC declaration of secession states clearly their assertion that President Lincoln was anti-slavery and they were opposed to him. The fact that the South honors their Civil War dead is fine but please, do not try to glorify the reason for the war, to rewrite the history of why the Civil War happened. When anyone rewrites history, it dishonors those who lived it and we are more likely to repeat the mistakes.
Whether it is Haley Barbour, the Texas legislators and their rewritten school books, or the VA governor, stop rewriting the facts to make you look better because it merely makes you look like what you're claiming not to be.
Jody, no doubt there is a rewriting of history going on out there. And it makes me so disappointed that we can't be honest. I wish our education system would tell the truth about it all, regardless of the subject.
Marlon Brando was out in front of everybody when talking publicly about our treatment of the Indians and blacks - especially in the movies. People tuned him out at the time, but his words have resonated over time.
The night of the Academy Awards when he sent the Indian girl up on stage to accept his Academy Award for The Godfather - there were big named actors back stage who wanted to go out on stage and drag her off, but were physically held back.
Since then things have changed. Even John Wayne, before he died, acknowledged that the Indians were not portrayed truthfully either in the movies or throughout history.
So much wrong history to be undone, yet takes so so long. The truth should start in the schools at a very young age. That is the essence of education. The truth.
I remember Marlon Brando and that award's ceremony. He may have been quirky but on issues of discrimination, of right and wrong--he took the lead and helped everyone else get there.
already got my 2012 bumper sticker......all the way with barbour and palin. believe this to be a can't miss ticket for the right wing, pinko, commie, perverts
Here is a campaign slogan for your ticket: Whitey, righty, and not wrapped to tighty!
Yo- bouncer: Your bumper sticker doesn't say which one is running for top banana vs. vice-banana.
Or- does it matter, as it is a HUGE winning ticket, no matter how you slice it?
drive by are you a racist???? Did you ever call the office of POTUS "top banana" before a black/white man became POTUS? just curious. Don't want that statement to come back and haunt you in the future.
C'mon, Senator- leave a guy's banana out of this!
So, now the term "top banana" is racist? Pulleez. What's next? "Big Cheese!" is racist? "Fat Cat" is offensive to felines, who will subsequently demand reparations? "Head Honcho" will be offensive to Mexicans? I find the terms "white bread" and "cracker" to be racist, so Holsum and Nabisco owe me reparations, respectively.
Swampcat-my post should have easily been recognized as sarcasm. See how sensitive everybody has become??
That being the case, Double Entendre, I offer my apologies. Sometimes I come "loaded for bear" on this particular blog. And you are correct; there is a tendency toward hypersensitivity anymore.
The majority of the GOP feel the same way they're just not stupid enough to say it. At least not publicly. And the fact that the president is racially mixed is a slap to the face of these white supremacists.
You got to admit you can't get more "uppity" than POTUS.
Hey Forrest... judging by the name you've chosen and the dumb ass "Gump" like comment I can see where you stand in this argument... "Nathan Bedford Forrest"... do you have a rebel flag tattoo?
Its Grump not Gump, you evidently don't have a clue as to where I stand on this argument. In 1976 I was a teenager visiting in the South, as I walked down the sidewalk a black man approached from the opposite direction, about twenty feet from from he stepped in the street and waited for me to pass then he got back on the sidewalk and continued on. Even as a 16 year old I thought that was a damn shame, and wondered what the hell goes on down here.
I don't know what you mean by "uppity". I see the current POTUS stepping into a position where the deck was and is stacked against him in many ways.
I agree with people like Ben Stein, Bill Cosby and Jimmy Carter that say much of the hate for Obama is racially motivated. I knew the first non white president would ruffle some feathers but I didn't realize that the depth of the ignorant hate would be quite this deep.
I was being sarcastic, I told my story about the Black man stepping off the sidewalk until I passed, then he walked on. That was 35 years ago and I will never forget it. I was a kid, but I knew that wasn't right.
Together we stand...Divided we fall! The whole world is laughing at us. I was a teen during this period, and I hated traveling to the south each summer to visit my grandparents and other relatives. It took many tears and prayers not to feel like a second rate citizen. I was reminded that I couldn't play with or talk to white kids the same as I could in my own neighborhood back home. I couldn't use the bathroom nor eat where I wanted to, and told not to cross the tracks for my own safety. Couldn't look white folks in the face, had to give up my seat, had to sit in colored only spaces on busses and the train, I remember the separate water fountains, Police with dogs roaming the streets, being told to turn out the lights and get on the floor because the white folks were out hunting coloreds. I could go on and on. I love everyone. I hold no malice, and never will stoop to the level of hate! Folks, let's just get over ourselves and make this country great again because right now, we are not! If there are any spelling errors, charge it to my age and not my IQ....
It isn't being or not being a bigot that hurts him from this. One misstatement by someone is not enough to make a judgement, but it does prompt people to ask the question. What does hurt is (by accident or not) for a politician on the rise is to have to retract or issue a statement after a stinker. He has time to recover, but the press, doing their job, will be looking for a second flub by him because that's the stuff that makes the news.
As much as we'd like to have the news cover real issues and real news, people love train wrecks and advertisers want high viewership.