The Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart Calls Rick Perry Racist
Rick Perry recently claimed that Barack Obama grew up privileged. Jonathan Capehart, appearing on MSNBC, responded that it was racist of Perry to say that.
Huh?
My great aunt, during the last years of her life, suffered from a mild case of dementia. As a consequence, she would sometimes discuss one topic, then suddenly switch to a seemingly unrelated topic.
For instance, she might be talking about Johnny Carson, then ask, “And do people really believe that someone’s really going to show up at their door and give them a million dollars?”
It used to drive my cousin nuts. But I saw it as a puzzle. When my aunt would do this, there was always an intermediate topic that would relate the two seemingly unrelated topics. The challenge was to think of the intermediate topic.
For instance, for the above example, it turns out that Johnny Carson made her think of Ed McMahon, who was the spokesperson for Publishers’ Clearinghouse, which would occasionally show up at a person’s house and give away a million dollars.
Here, I believe, are the intermediate topics that explain Capehart’s thinking—how, in his mind, Perry is a racist.
First, the left over the past few years has discovered a new tactic for discussing race and affirmative action. I call it the new-new racism. If a conservative notes that a liberal is granting affirmative action—say giving special preferences to blacks or Latinos because of their race—then the liberal calls the conservative a racist. Nevermind that it’s the liberal who is judging people by race. The conservative is merely pointing out the (reverse) racism of the liberal.
This contrasts with simple new racism, which merely said that if you oppose affirmative action, you must be a racist. New-new racism goes one step further. It’s now not enough simply to favor affirmative action. You must favor it, while simultaneously refusing to admit that it exists. If you have a king-has-no-clothes moment and point out that people are practicing affirmative action, even when they really are, that is now deemed racist.
The tactic—pretending that the new-new racism is genuine racism—is very effective, and unthinking people are often fooled by it.
For instance, recall Rush Limbaugh and his controversial statements about Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb:
I think the media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well. They're interested in black coaches and black quarterbacks doing well. I think there's a little hope invested in McNabb and he got a lot of credit for the performance of his team that he really didn't deserve. The defense carried this team.
Limbaugh’s claim was controversial, and perhaps it was false. But note that it contained zero animus related to McNabb’s skin color. Limbaugh was only pointing out the reverse racism that he believed sports writers were exercising. For doing this, Limbaugh was accused, falsely, of being a racist, and he was forced to resign as an analyst for ESPN.
Let us now connect the dots in Capehart’s thinking. Perry’s point was that Obama has been fortunate to attend some very prestigious schools—including Columbia and Harvard Universities and a private high school in Hawaii. Although scholarships allowed Obama to do this, the schools are nevertheless prestigious and surely contributed to Obama’s success in life. Meanwhile, Perry went to Texas A&M and a rural public high school.
Capehart believes that Perry is implicitly accusing Obama of benefitting from affirmative action when he was admitted to those schools. He says that Perry’s claim is a “dog whistle” to conservatives, that conservatives will understand that when he says “privilege” he means “affirmative action.”
Now add to this my suspicion that Capehart has been duped into the above type of thinking—that new-new racism really is racism.
Capehart’s accusation is silly. But once you understand the concept of the new-new racism, you can at least understand his thinking.
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Apr '11
Re: The Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart Calls Rick Perry Racist
Also bear in mind that Obama himself, in Dreams of My Father, admits that affirmative action played a part in his academic success.
Aug '10
Re: The Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart Calls Rick Perry Racist
Tim Groseclose:
My great aunt, during the last years of her life, suffered from a mild case of dementia. As a consequence, she would sometimes discuss one topic, then suddenly switch to a seemingly unrelated topic.
For instance, she might be talking about Johnny Carson, then ask, “And do people really believe that someone’s really going to show up at their door and give them a million dollars?”
Oh, you mean that's not normal? Oops.
Apr '11
Re: The Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart Calls Rick Perry Racist
I beg to differ. All I understand is that he is NOT thinking and that the accusation is stupid and not silly.
Apr '11
Re: The Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart Calls Rick Perry Racist
Perry is right; he did grow up privileged. I am the same age as Obama, my public high school was 2 miles from Punahou where Obama went, and Punahou is one of the most prestigious schools in Hawai'i as well as the nation.
Obama may have gotten financial aid to go there but it doesn't change the fact that he went there. His grandparents were raising him at the time and his grandmother was a vice-president of the most prominent bank in Hawai'i.
If Obama would have been 100% white instead of only 50% he still would have gone to Punahou because they could afford it. My working class parents could not have so this Capehart character can take his racial politics rubbish and stuff it.
Dec '10
Re: The Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart Calls Rick Perry Racist
Midget Faded Rattlesnake
Tim Groseclose:
My great aunt, during the last years of her life, suffered from a mild case of dementia. As a consequence, she would sometimes discuss one topic, then suddenly switch to a seemingly unrelated topic.
For instance, she might be talking about Johnny Carson, then ask, “And do people really believe that someone’s really going to show up at their door and give them a million dollars?”
Oh, you mean that's not normal? Oops. · Nov 19 at 12:39pm
Does it become normal if you pick up the original conversation hours later?
Edited on November 19, 2011 at 10:18pmDec '10
Re: The Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart Calls Rick Perry Racist
Yeah, that's actually how my mind works too. Weird.
Anyway, I'm getting real tired of being called a racist whenever the left sees their numbers slipping.
I'm thinking real serious like about taking up actual racism now, at least against folks of the liberal persuasion.
What all the candidates (and really everyone on our side) need to do when asked a question like that is tell the man point blank, "You are a fool."
Or, if you are somewhat more coarsely spoken (like myself), give 'em the old "FY,NQ."
Feb '11
Re: The Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart Calls Rick Perry Racist
I agree with you that Capehart is being silly. But I am having a hard time following the new and the new-new racism. I think it is simpler. Any time a Republican says anything about a black person, he or she is racist. Even if he or she is black, he or she is racist. Because, simply put, all Republicans are racist haters. Q.E.D.
Edited on November 20, 2011 at 2:01amDec '10
Re: The Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart Calls Rick Perry Racist
There is simply no winning once you place your piece on the liberal game board. On the one hand, we're supposed to believe that Bill Gates and Steve Jobs would have been lesser men without their government monopoly primary education and rudimentary university experience, and on the other, Barack Obama is as awesome as he is because he overcame being black in racist America. If you notice he's lived most of his life in comfort, attending elite schools, you're racist.
Liberals can't handle the truth.
Aug '10
Re: The Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart Calls Rick Perry Racist
I'm pretty sure I'm racist for reading this post. Bummer.
May '11
Re: The Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart Calls Rick Perry Racist
Please don't call me a new -new racist. I prefer to be called a neo- neo racist.
Thank You.
Nov '10
Re: The Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart Calls Rick Perry Racist
"'Racism' is any kind of resistance, conscious or unconscious, to the political program of the ideological left. Having one's consciousness 'raised' means learning to respond on cue -- whether cheering or booing -- to the symbolic forms in which the demands of the 'movement' are expressed. The most perfect example I know of, of a group having its consciousness raised, is that of the massed ranks at Nuremberg responding to Hitler with 'Sieg Heil.' Of course there were those, recalcitrant, and out of sight, who were also having their consciousness raised by the Gestapo. Indeed, until recently, consciousness raising was called brain washing."
--Harry Neumann, "Feminist Propaganda at Scripps College" in Liberalism: Carolina Academic Press, 1991.
Oct '10
Re: The Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart Calls Rick Perry Racist
Get used to being called racists, Team Ricochet, especially during this upcoming general election. As I recall, merely opposing Obama or being associated with the Tea Party is enough to be designated as a racist.
Of course, the term "racist" has been so grossly overused that it's lost most of its impact.
Edited on November 20, 2011 at 3:06amSep '10
Re: The Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart Calls Rick Perry Racist
Remember when Perry said Obama was clean and articulate? More evidence of his racism.
Jan '11
Re: The Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart Calls Rick Perry Racist
What good is a dog whistle if everyone hears it?
If even Capehart claims to hear it, then the racism is hardly hidden. And if it's so out in the open, what do we need Capehart for?
May '11
Re: The Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart Calls Rick Perry Racist
Please don't use the term reverse racism. That accepts the false premise that the definition of racism is a white person discriminating against a non white person.
Racism is racism regardless of the color of the perpetrator or the victim.
Re: The Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart Calls Rick Perry Racist
In 2008, Barack Obama received 95% of the black vote to 4% for John McCain.
Racial bloc voting is absolutely essential to the electoral fortunes of the Democratic Party. If individual African-American voters, for instance, start voting for whichever candidate of whatever party, then the political left is finished. Kaput.
The perception of widespread white-on-black racism, of us-versus-them, is not just an odious tactic but a survival imperative for Democratic strategists.
At least the left's ends-justifies-the-means ideology absolves the perpetrators of the need to feel pangs of conscience.
Apr '11
Re: The Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart Calls Rick Perry Racist
KC Mulville: What good is a dog whistle if everyone hears it?
If even Capehart claims to hear it, then the racism is hardly hidden. And if it's so out in the open, what do we need Capehart for? · Nov 19 at 2:03pm
What kind of dog whistle cannot be heard by dogs but only by WaPo journalists vigilantly on the look-out for racism?
Apr '11
Re: The Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart Calls Rick Perry Racist
Here's a shorter version of Capehart's argument: Perry is a Republican. Therefore, Perry is a racist. Can you spot the liberal's unstated assumption hiding in there?
I think you give Capehart too much credit, by assuming he is duped, rather than malicious. He not only assumes that by “privilege” Perry means “affirmative action”, but that all conservatives mean the same thing, hence the "dog whistle" comment, which is the new liberal justification for not needing any actual evidence of racism before accusing people of it.
It is mendacious, and Capehart should be called on it, in ways that would definitely violate the Ricochet Rules of Conduct.
Jun '10
Re: The Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart Calls Rick Perry Racist
Notice that Obama says that his mother (in graduate school) was on food stamps. He doesn't say that he was on food stamps. That's because the "typical white" grandmother that he was living with in Hawaii (who sent him to nice private schools) was an upper-middle-class Vice President at the largest bank in Hawaii. That's according to Michael Medved, who researches pretty carefully I think.
Dec '10
Re: The Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart Calls Rick Perry Racist
I think what Perry meant by "privileged" was that Barack Obama never wore homemade underwear and always had indoor plumbing.