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Following up in a more journalistic manner to my "stone-cold racist" SLN post about Congressman Roy Blunt, Rachel Maddow asks at the end of his joke, "So, who’s the monkey in Washington in this story?"
In this version you can hear even better the delight of the crowd at the first mention of "monkeys." They know what and who the topic is; they are delighted to hear their racial bigotry validated by a speaker at the main podium in the Big Room. Or maybe they just always laugh when someone says, "Monkeys…"
Has anyone heard Tony Perkins, whose party this was, challenged about Congressman Roy Blunt’s *joke* yet? I’m still waiting to see that awkward interview. But not holding my breath.
Please visit the MSNBC Maddow website to view the rest of her entire segment about the Values Voters Summit.
84 Comments
unbelievable…the other unbelievable story is how Rachel Maddow, Keith Olbermann did not even whisper about the Goldstone UN Report Not a whisper.
Just marching in line…
Teddy, I was just reading the YouTube comments, and without giving them more importance than they are due, there’s a general slant that this is not racist, and from commenters that occasionally offer useful points.
I am simply dumbstruck at the dissonance. Is this where we are? Has the dog-whistle won?
What dog whistle? This just struck me as a story about how things work in Washington. Sometimes a monkey really is a monkey. With some of the overt racist references I’ve seen lately, I don’t think the real racists are uncomfortable about expressing themselves.
The nation is taking a terrible pounding. Like slowly but surely rolling the country’s view on torture back to the stone age until many just shrug and say “That Cheney may have a point.”
Remember a time when no one with an ounce of brains would allow for the suggestion that waterboarding WAS NOT torture? I do.
It is a disgrace.
We’re not talking about torture here, we’re talking about racism. You can get through the meaning of “enhanced interrogation” by just asking what that means. If people don’t answer, or they tell you “it’s waterboarding and stuff”, you at least know something about what’s on their minds. Can anyone show some documentation here of what’s on Blount’s mind, or of the people who are murmuring approvingly in the background? Are they murmuring “get whitey”, perhaps?
What you have to be “conscious” of here is what is true and what is only stuff we think might be true.
So please, spare me the fucking slippery slope arguments. If you want to insult my intelligence you’d better be packing more than baseless suppositions and rhetorical slight of hand.
I used torture as an example – statistics now showing a slackening in public condemnation of those who proscribed and performed waterboarding and other heinous practices (I intended no comparison of those acts with racist sentiments). I believe part of this slackening is due to a public relations effort by Republicans (and more than a few Democrats) to excuse criminality, daring politicians to come after them when the public thinks the swarthy folks we have locked up in prisons and dungeons all over the world are terrorists and unworthy of humane treatment, numbing the public to their abusive regime’s practices.
I believe that this same tactic is used to gradually coarsen any debate over any given issue to the point where anything they say is fine, precisely because they said it out-loud. And I believe much of this explicit racist speech is intended to deaden the senses of anyone within earshot.
Inoculating politicians against charges of war crimes and inoculating politicians against charges of racism are not the same thing, but they can be (and in my opinion, are in this case) accomplished by the same means: persuasion by barrage.
If you disagree, fine. I take what may be your point perhaps that, since this is our first black President, and therefore lacking prior experience with which to compare, we cannot rule out oversensitivity.
When Dick Cheney goes on television and says we did what we had to, that there was no profit motive, that we weren’t being cruel, we’re not sadists, I do not believe him. And when Representative Blount brushes aside questions about his motives or sentiments with regard to these remarks (as he will surely do), I would be inclined not to believe him.
I grant you that Blount didn’t come out and say “He’s black, he’s the enemy because he’s black, and now he’s in charge of stuff – where’s that rope?” Blount is not suicidal.
Instead, in a charged environment where racist attacks has been more than hinted at during political protests, when the loud-talking brain donors in his party explicitly refer to the black President as racist (following their favorite tactic of pointing fingers at others when they themselves are guilty of those very abuses), when the Secret Service and the FBI are up-staffing because of increased threats by people who say out loud that they want the President to die because he’s black, when his wife and daughters are also now targets of this speech, Representative Blount reaches into his rhetorical bag and pulls out a story (my transcript of the broadcast) about
I hear Representative Blount just fine. I get it – you disagree. You can’t know with absolute certainty, the mind of another. I am, however, as certain as I can be.
I will live with your disappointment Cujo, slippery slope and all.
Try monkey == liberals, or monkey == bureaucrats, and the joke makes as much sense as it does as when monkey == code word for minorities. It also will play much the same to a Republican crowd.
As a parable about how you sometimes have to get over the fact that things sometimes happen for stupid reasons and you just have to deal with them that way, it’s a good story no matter what your political philosophy is.
The problem that you and others lamented early, that I don’t see this the same way you do, is that, when you boil it right down, is that it’s people laughing about a story about a monkey, and because “monkey == minority” person among racists, that therefore they must be enjoying it because they’re racists. I think if you were to diagram that out you’d realize it’s a logical inversion.
You’re being very niggardly.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C…..rd_origins
You have an excellent, rational train of reasoning, Cujo, it is coherent, valid, logical… except there is but one flaw.
If this were the only, isolated incident, if this were a singular case, your argument would have great force. If the Republicans were not running a directed, concentrated campaign of racism and hatred towards the (Black) President, then your argument would have some weight to it. If the Republicans were not consistently and constantly drawing up allusions of Obama as a backwards, dumb- and forgive me for the use of the term, but it sums up the Republican base’s ideas- “ni**er”, then your argument would bear review.
But the Republicans are running that campaign, they are making those statements. This event is not occurring in a vacuum, rather, it is a natural outgrowth of what is going on right now. Obama is the Other, the Black Other, to the Republican base, and they are fighting his very existence as hard as they can. They are throwing racism at him, foul outbursts of vile slander directed at him because he has the audacity to be Black and President at the same time.
Thusly, your argument has no value- for it does not take into account what is going on around this comment, the culture and symbolism it is couched in.
I don’t make this argument in a vacuum. Life isn’t all of a piece. People do the same thing for different reasons, and often for more than one reason.
At no point did I refer to the audience. I confined my comments exclusively to Blount. I do not recall mentioning the laughter of the crowd, but only the speakers words, and my revulsion to them.
While I think it is important that he was speaking to that particular group, at no time did I refer to them, nor do I intend to.
Sorry, someone else did, and I jumped on that theme.
Listen to the approving murmur in the crowd when Blunt says the word “monkeys” for the very first time. This friendly crowd knows exactly what and who Blunt is talking about and they are very happy to hear their race-bigotry validated from the stage by a Big Time speaker at the podium of their event.
It gets more approving every time he says the word.
That is racism.
Yep. It’s the murmur, giggling from the crowd that tells you who Blount meant and his audience knew it. He needs to be called out.
Great Observation this is Reagan Code Word Racism Nod and Wink designed to be below the Media radar. Designed to let GOPers like Bobo Brooks make excuses about how its not Racism.
Funny though without the Racist Element the joke falls apart (even more than it already did).
Citizen Cujo359:
Of course it is racist and of course the fascists can be overt about it anytime they want to but this is all about distraction and gettin’ the slobberin’, knuckle-draggin, Southern base unified while keepin’ the rest of the country fightin’ over what is racist and what is not. Biden said over the weekend that if the fascists retake 35 seats in the House that they traditionally have held (South and Moutain West) then they retake the House of Representatives and everything goes in the junk heap…and the administration really believes that shit!! They have bought into Rahm’s bullshit and are willin’ to kill the country to save their majority in the House of Representative. It’s a recipe for disaster!!!
So, Brother Cujo359, let’s call ‘em out, let’s call racism racism and let’s let ‘em try and run on it ANYwhere in 2010…but let’s get real healthcare reform done in the meantime!
I wrote about Biden’s excuse-making earlier, which is what it struck me as.
As for the racism, just asserting that something is true doesn’t make it so. When the proof reaches a higher level than it has here, I’ll revisit the argument.
Are you more than 15 years old????? Do you have absolutely NO clue about the racial connection of monkeys to African Americans? It is absolutely a CLASSIC racial slur!
Yes, considerably older than 15. Your argument is classic ad hominem. Thank you for playing.
Well, I guess I would much rather ad hominem than ad nauseum you are using to try to convince people that monkeys aren’t used as racist symbols.
People literally do not understand any longer what racism is. They think it means “playing the race card” or “race pimping” or some other stupid thing. But thanks to forty years of dog-whistle Southern Strategy GOPs in America, our countrymen and -women do not know racism when it runs up and smacks us on the nose.
Blount:
You do not need to be unnaturally sensitive to racial stereotypes or euphemism. You just need to be conscious.
jesus fucking christ.
Actually, I think a lot of times racism is whatever people say it is, without any regard to what’s actually being said or why. This is all I’m getting from what you’ve written here: This is racism and you’re a dolt if you don’t understand that. Other than that, it’s associating some imagery with some other imagery that may or may not be related.
Frankly, after listening to week after week of hysterical ranting about how John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, and nearly every other Democratic Presidential candidate who wasn’t Barack Obama was a racist or was “appealing” to racists, I just tune this stuff out. If Blount is running on a platform that would appeal to racists, that’s one thing. But trying to tease what he’s saying out of some story that people are murmuring about in the background isn’t very convincing to people who hadn’t already decided what the truth was.
The point is that the nutters who have taken over the GOP do not tune it out. This is the red meat that they want. Hearing a sitting Congressman spout this crap validates their need to dehumanize the Left and the President of the United States.
When I read this post, I literally thought to myself, “Self, I bet Cujo’s gonna show up and start saying this isn’t racism.” Swear to the Flying Spaghetti Monster that was my thought. And here we are!
Let’s just say I’ve noticed a trend. This quote above sounds an awful lot like a certain Sister Harriet Christian:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KACQuZVAE3s
What a strange story for Roy to choose to highlight his “point.” The ‘ol monkeys-in-India-last-turn-of-the-century-British-golf-course-equals-Washington-D-C- yarn. Man, if I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard that one! Whew, I’d have 2 minutes for the parking meter.
Carter is spot on.
How long will it take for a reporter to ask Blunt “Hey, Congressman, who’s the monkey in your story?” Because I want to see him squirm.
Recd – thanks Teddy
This is dumbfounding. How safe this “governmental servant” feels in spouting this bizarre, awkward story to get to the ugly punch line. Recollect the Palin rally videos that were stunning in their ugliness.
Because the Cons run the TradMed, that’s why.
MSNBC is considered “liberal” because they have two hours of programming — out of twenty-four — that aren’t dedicated to pushing the right-wing agenda. Remember, six years ago they axed Phil Donahue’s show, even though it got the best ratings of any show on the infant network, because he dared to attack King Bush on Iraq.
Are you kidding me? Other then How to Catch a Predator and Lock Up each show on MSNBC is left…Hardball, KO, ED and RM…That equals 4 hrs…
And there’s 24 hours in a day.
What are they showing during the other 20 hours?
Monkey is the other red meat. Subtle as a jackhammer near the head for an alarm clock. What century is the calendar these ass hats use.
They still use a sun dial.
The race card being played by MSNBC and the majority of the MSM is getting old and tiring..
Citizen stritz44:
It would appear that you too are old and tiring so now that you have had your excercise, hobble on back under the bridge before you figure out where you are.
It’s just old, enough…Just like on the campaign trail when they were saying the clintons were racists….They play the race card when they are losing the battle..
Wait. I thought Obama defeated all the Dem challengers and then John McPaylin?
The equivalent of Reagan going to Mississippi to start his campaign…it’s obvious; they get it.
Your GOP, everybody!
Mornin’ Teddy and Firedogs,
o/t
Fun With Sausage Alert:
Live Blog Fin Comm Mark Up here
the diary tells ya what to look for wrt PO and Trigger amendments
now back to our regularly scheduled cross burning
In the Heart of Darkness, Intrepid White Imperialists build…a Golf Course.
No, not much subtext there…
Exactly.
Per TPM: Ambulances rushed to Sen Robert Byrd’s house.
I can say “macaca” in MO Senate race.
I could say it before having seen the video, but it is the laughing that establishes the thing as racist in the minds of even the commenters. From the words of the joke the “monkey” could generically be the opposition party. Which is not wonderful either, but you make different points from it.
Uh oh. Looks like Mike Ross might be in some trouble.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…..94596.html
Any chance Mike Stark can catch up to Mikey-Likes-It to see what he has to say for himself? That is before Dana Bash gets to Ross and provides cover.
White man’s burden and all that…monkeys ! White supremicists are so UN supreme, but this ugliness is all that bonds them together .
In the original story the monkey’s don’t represent people of any race, they represent unexpected absurdity. I don’t discount the possibility that there was an intended racial undertone to the story, but not every mention of a monkey is intended to call up that particular racist analogy.
It’s possible, but I would hardly say it’s even probable that he meant anything about anyone’s race.
And I would give an honest warning to people who *always* jump to the presumption of racism; it is your Achilles’Heel, and you don’t seem to realize it. You want people to think you have good ideas, that you can solve problems. What you actually make people think is that you have no ideas, so you have to resort to name calling.
Now, when your opponent is being clearly and unequivocally racist, yes call him out on it. But when you think there’s a subtext behind a subtext of it, let it go. You come off sounding more like you’re slinging ad hominem than actually providing solutions (which, to a degree, you are).
As someone who grew up in the south, let me assure you that the reference to monkeys was as pointed and racist as it can get. It’s ugly and horrible and should never be used.
Citizen burndtdan:
There is only one word to describe your pathetic attempt to lecture people who have more than two functioning brain cells about the nuances of language: “BULLSHIT”
And if ya can’t hear me read my fuckin’ lips!
Your exactly right! In the story the monkeys do not represent any human race. This is because, many people used to think and some still do that black people are not fully humans and should not be afforded the respect, the rights and the dignity of “regular white” humans. It is racist.
It is not about Health Care Reform in the South it is about getting Obama and the Democrats out of office. The Republicans think Racism will help them win elections. Countrygirl
Racism WILL help them win elections. Racism is as American as apple pie, and if you don’t think so, do some daytime drinking in Buffalo, New York, solidly Democratic, extremely segregated, and racist through and through.
On point
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..nntelnaes/
I like the part of the joke where advanced civilizations impose there will on the locals, then precede to carve up the locals jungle for their entertainment.
Sound like an M.O. to me of some other country I know.. I busted a gut laughing at this clown pretending to be “advanced”?
Blunt knows his audience. TeaGoobers, Inbredheads, and Trailer Popes. I wouldn’t be surprised if they set up a stand in the lobby to sell the black baby dolls with the “little monkey” hat that Costco pulled from their shelves after complaints. Or how about the “Curious George”monkey tshirts with Obama written on them. Racists love this stuff. HEE HAW. That’s durn funny. Hyuk, hyuk.
He does know his audience. I think at some point one of the Rs is going to slip up and say something in the Congress in an angry moment. I’m just waiting.
http://drawger.com/bigfoot/images/7813424467.jpg
I wonder what Chimpy McBusHitler thinks of all this monkey talk?
He’ll tell ‘em to watch this drive?
Who cares what he thinks? He’s an idiot!
I would add that many now nurse a virulent hatred towards all Liberals, aided and abetted by the morons on Fox “News” and hate radio. One can examine the unmoderated forum which appears at the Letters to the Editors in our local Paper for ample proof of this.
http://www.statesman.com/opini….._edit.html
We are doing nothing more then using the Sol Alinsky playbook..
Ah see, that’s yer problem. Ya got the wrong book.
But I bet yer house/basement/institution/whatevs sure smells good if you’re reading Sol’s book:
http://www.pinesol.com/images/…..istory.jpg
“aided and abetted by the morons on Fox “News” and hate radio…”….whose guts and consciences are ALWAYS in their wallets!
Birds of a feather flock together. A few words about the host of this “Values Voters” event,Tony Perkins,from the Nation:
“In 1996 Perkins cut his teeth as the manager of Louisianian Woody Jenkins’s campaign for US Senate. It was during that campaign that, in an attempt to consolidate the support of Louisiana’s conservative base, Perkins paid David Duke $82,000 for his mailing list. After Jenkins was defeated by his Democratic opponent, Mary Landrieu, he contested the election. But during the contest period, Perkins’s surreptitious payment to Duke was exposed through an investigation conducted by the FEC, which fined the Jenkins campaign.
Six years later, in 2002, Perkins embarked on a campaign to avenge his mentor’s defeat by running for the US Senate himself. But Perkins was dogged with questions about his involvement with David Duke. Perkins issued a flat denial that he had ever had anything to do with Duke, and he denounced him for good measure. Unfortunately, Perkins’s signature was on the document authorizing the purchase of Duke’s list. Perkins’s dalliance with the racist Council of Conservative Citizens in the run-up to his campaign also illuminates the seamy underside of his political associations.”
The Nation,”Justice Sunday Preachers” Max Blumenthal,April 26,2005
(Linky to follow)
@48
Justice Sunday PreachersApr 26, 2005 … If their struggle is like the civil rights movement, why do Christian-rightists like Tony Perkins have so many racist friends?
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050509/blumenthal – Cached – Similar
I always appreciate the selective reading of the good book that these religious individuals engage in. It used to be an all or nothing proposition, back when I was young…
How is this a distraction?
They aren’t talking about Single Payer anyway.
This is racist and what is shocking is that so many Americans call it “Playing the Race Card”. This is a 100% Classic Neo-Conserivative talking point that says the playing field is level when it clearly ISN’T.
Or to put it more bluntly -
If Women are uncomfortable with Bobby Knight talking about Rape, then Black Americans should be allowed to feel uncomfortable when White Americans use “Monkey” as a proxy in some story.
This is the legacy of Slavery that still goes unresolved and wait….
Racism is Institutional in the United States of America, no matter if Obama was elected or not.
The monkey reference can be interpreted many ways, but it imho, it is worth noting the Darwin evolution issues at play- and political implications -within these ultra conservative groups,Louisiana in particular-Perkins’ home state.
In 1999,Perkins founded the Louisiana Family Forum. Approximately eight years later,Senator David “Diaper”Vitter(La.) earmarked $100,000 to this group to combat teaching of evolution in Louisiana.
Here’s an excerpt from Louisiana Right Wing Watch,May,2008-link to follow:
“According to the National Center for Science Education, anti-evolution bills were recently introduced in Florida, Missouri, and Alabama, but the legislative sessions in those states ended before the bills could pass. Versions in South Carolina and Michigan also appear to be stalled for now. But a bill in Louisiana to undermine classroom teaching on the topics of “evolution, the origins of life, global warming, and human cloning” was passed unanimously in the state Senate and has already passed through a committee in the House.
… the debate over creationism is not taking place at research universities but at school boards, state legislatures, and public high school science classes. A newly published survey of high school teachers found that 25 percent address creationism or Intelligent Design in the classroom, and 12 percent call creationism a “valid scientific alternative” to evolution.”
Ironic that some on the right don’t believe in evolution, and others misinterpret it for their own reasons.
@52
Louisiana | Right Wing WatchApr 18, 2008 … Tony Perkins, president of the socially conservative Family Research Council, … Richard Baker, who retired this year to become a lobbyist. …
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/categor…..ana?page=1 – Cached – Similar
Note:Scroll down to the thread dated May 21,2008 for the origin of my excerpt.
Given a well known history in this nation of black citizens being depicted as monkeys and apes, it defies credulity to assert that there was no racist intent in Blunt’s hilarious “joke.” This comes in the wake of multiple instances from the Republicans depicting President Obama and/or the First Lady as monkeys, gorillas, or apes. The real joke is that a crowd full of arrogant, holier-than-thou, Bible thumping bigots would openly revel in such racist “humor.” Ah. but didn’t Jesus Christ say, “Blessed are the bigoted racists, for they shall sit at the front of the bus?”
Blunt is a loathsome racist that should be voted off the public stage for all time. What are truly “blunt” are his senses of compassion and decency. He revels in “darkey” humor. A truly classless act. He is an embarrassment to America and all who value equality under the law.
What exactly are the “values” on display at the “Values Voters Summit?”
The values are most likey not those of Jesus Christ. I have been looking for the place in the Christian Bible that says that Jesus demanded proof of legal residency before healing someone. Can’t find it!
The values, Gasman, of White Supremacy. That is the value on display. Nothing of Christianity, which talks of divine mysteries, the work of healing and aid… none of that is on display.
Just the hatred of white men who realize that they are no longer the gods upon the earth they thought they were, and their fury over their changed status.
Let’s face it, racism is like art – you know it when you see it. You don’t have to be a genius or particularly sensitive to take offense at this “joke”. And it’s not even a funny joke, so what was the point: to talk about monkeys in Washington???? Get it? MONKEYS IN WASHINGTON!!!!!
The Thugs are playing the old ‘ni**er, ni**er, ni**er,’ card that the southern Dems played back in the early 20th century to head off poor white/black populist alliance. Read all about it in Van Woodward’s Tom Watson.
Blunt could use a good spliff. Daily.
http://www.undercurrents.org/images/spliff.jpg
Seems to me that mentioning a monkey in relationship to the workings of Washington DC is a breach of etiquette. If one was at all concerned about sounding racist then one would NOT mention a monkey. Simple.
Folks, just relax. Cujo is just affirming the right of flat-earthers to believe the universe only exists in two dimensions; proof, if you look at cujo from the side rather than the top he, as well as his arguments disappear into a staight-line; which if you look at it from the end, becomes a dot. Sort of like the end of a Merry Melodies cartoon.
I don’t think so, respectfully.
He does have a higher threshold than some, myself amongst them.
I find this joke truly amazing. Not only does it imply that Obama is a monkey , it also casts the republicans as white colonialist occupiers. The fact that they are the good guys in this story says just as much as the monkey part. And what are these occupiers doing? Of course , they are building a golf course in a formerly pristine jungle.
I suppose they have already forced into servitude whoever lived in the jungle before.
I really couldn’t think of a more revealing look at the worldview of a conservative republican : Jesus gave us this world to play golf and make money so get out of our way or serve us you dirty monkeys.
GOPers can only do mean humor that puts people down.
I hope we can get this some air time on U tube and African American radio stations this could be another “Macaca” moment the Forgotten GOPer who said it first was thought to be invincible in the up coming election and a possible Presidential candidate.
If we can get Roy on this we can show that Racism is a loser for the GOP.