by Tinker » Sat Oct 08, 2011 1:49 pm
I was the only white person in the room with a bunch of Brooklyn politicos, many of the elders were involved in the civil rights era and anti-Vietnam protests. I think it's naive to think that the Civil Rights movement doesn't loom very large in the black community's mind, particularly the politically motivated part of it. It determined who their leaders were, and still determines it. To think otherwise is to not understand the political landscape.
But...none of them trashed Herman Cain when he was brought up. They just didn't really understand why he'd want to be a part of the Republican Party when the Republican Party got on his case for complaining about 'Niggerhead'. After backing down about Niggerhead, he'll never get the Black Caucus. This is really all you need to understand about whether or not he'll be able to craft crossover appeal among that crowd. Niggerhead just proved that a Black GOP candidate is not possible. Because to get the black vote, he needs to stand firm on issues of racism like Niggerhead. But if he stands firm on those issues, he loses some of the white vote who consider caring about such racism to be 'race-baiting'. They didn't have anything against him at all, they just didn't really see the Republican party as being a realistic option for black people, and couldn't understand how anyone could see it that way, and saw Niggerhead as confirmation of this belief.
Whether or now Lawrence O'Donnell is a dickhead, is well...not really a topic I care about. I only saw him for the first time when he gave that impassioned speech against police brutality and have no opinion of him outside of that particular poignant piece.
The canary didn't die because this mine is dangerous, it died because it's lazy and wasn't raised with a proper work ethic.