Re-heally.
Yesterday, founder of Salon.com, David Talbot announced that, after six years, he would be returning as CEO of the online magazine:
“In these increasingly hard times, Salon is dedicating itself to an American revival. Our editorial mission will become more explicitly and aggressively populist. We will be publishing more investigative pieces, exposing the shadow dance of power. And both Democratic and Republican targets will be fair game, since both parties are increasingly under the control of the same corporate forces.
~snip~
It’s time to start our own country.1
Today, Gene Lyons led the charge for Salon’s “new populism” by going all in against Professor Melissa Harris-Perry, and by extension, the scores of black people who agree with her [images of the Lyons article are below; links to Professor Harris Perry's article are here ("Black President, Double Standard: Why White Liberals Are Abandoning Obama") and here ("The Epistemology of Race Talk")]:
This just in: Not all the fools are Republicans. Recently, one Melissa Harris-Perry, a Tulane professor who moonlights on MSNBC political talk shows, wrote an article for the Nation titled “Black President, Double Standard: Why White Liberals Are Abandoning Obama.”
See, nobody ever criticized Bill Clinton, another centrist Democrat who faced a hostile Republican congress. Indeed, he was “enthusiastically re-elected” in 1996. Therefore, “[t]he 2012 election is a test of whether Obama will be held to standards never before imposed on an incumbent. If he is, it may be possible to read that result as the triumph of a more subtle form of racism.”
The professor actually wrote that. See, certain academics are prone to an odd fundamentalism of the subject of race. Because President Obama is black, under the stern gaze of professor Harris-Perry, nothing else about him matters. Not killing Osama bin Laden, not 9 percent unemployment, only blackness.
Furthermore, unless you’re black, you can’t possibly understand. Yada, yada, yada. This unfortunate obsession increasingly resembles a photo negative of KKK racial thought. It’s useful for intimidating tenure committees staffed by Ph.D.s trained to find racist symbols in the passing clouds. Otherwise, Harris-Perry’s becoming a left-wing Michele Bachmann, an attractive woman seeking fame and fortune by saying silly things on cable TV.
The sheer political stupidity of turning Obama’s reelection into a racial referendum cannot be overstated. It would be an open confession of weakness. Whatever its shortcomings, this White House is too smart to go there. Harris-Perry will have to fight this lonely battle on her own. Voters can’t be shamed or intimidated into supporting this president or any other. They can only be persuaded.
And with the U.S. economy stagnating, they’re going to need lots of persuading. Which is why the good news is that Obama has actually started talking like a Democrat again. It’s hard to think of a recent political event more effective than the president’s appearance in Rep. John Boehner’s district last week. Over Obama’s shoulder loomed the rust-pocked, visibly decaying superstructure of the I-75 Bridge linking Kentucky and Ohio.
You didn’t need to be a civil engineer to recognize that to cross the Ohio River is to take your life in your hands. (Indeed a crack in a critical load-bearing element forced Indiana’s Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels to close the I-64 Bridge linking Kentucky and Indiana only weeks ago.) Without major repairs, that bridge is fixing to just drop in the river one day.
Speaking in support of his American Jobs Act, Obama pulled no punches. He called out two GOP antagonists by name.
“The bridge behind us happens to connect the state that is home to the speaker of the House, with the home state of the Republican leader in the Senate,” Obama said. “Mr. Boehner and Mr. McConnell, those are the two most powerful Republicans in government. They can either kill this jobs bill, or they can help pass this jobs bill …
“There is no reason for Republicans in Congress to stand in the way of more construction projects. There is no reason to stand in the way of more jobs. Mr. Boehner, Mr. McConnell, help us rebuild this bridge. Help us rebuild America. Help us put construction workers back to work. Pass this bill!”
It was dynamite TV. McConnell clearly didn’t like it. The Kentucky senator grumped that fixing a bridge was one thing; Obama’s jobs bill another. But he also voted with Democrats to avert yet another threatened government shutdown, due to the GOP’s morally incomprehensible demand that disaster relief funds be held hostage to budget cuts elsewhere. If McConnell were a quarterback, you’d say he heard footsteps.
So what’ll it be, America? Help out Vermont dairy farmers, rebuild Joplin, and Tuscaloosa, or top off Scrooge McDuck’s bullion tank? Your call.
Obama also took on the Republicans’ familiar “class warfare” nonsense. “If asking a billionaire to pay the same tax rate as a janitor makes me a warrior for the working class,” he said “I wear that with a badge of honor.”
It’s an understatement to say that this Barack Obama has been missing in action since 2008. Beltway pundits who value drawing room manners were aghast. To the Washington Post’s Charles Krauthammer, such rhetoric makes Obama “a leveler, a committed social democrat, a staunch believer in the redistributionist state.”
Too bad we can’t make Krauthammer drive that bridge every day.
A recent Gallup poll, however, shows that voters are ready to invest in America, build things, and put people back to work. Support for the elements of Obama’s jobs plan averages better than 2-to-1. Americans favor public works like the I-75 bridge, for example, by 72 to 27 percent. Even 50 percent of Republicans are down with that.
That’s the President Obama Americans voted for, and the only one they’re apt to vote for again.
Shorter Salon.com: Race war, LOL
1 Smacks of the “It’s time to take our country back” Teabagger anthem, dontcha think?
[via Salon]
***You can avoid visiting Salon.com by viewing the screenshots of the article which can be found below.
Related Posts:
- Clueless About Race: Joan Walsh
- Clueless About Race: David Sirota
- Clueless About Race: John Aravosis
- Clued In About Race: John Cole
- Comment of the Week: Race and Racism — What Joan Walsh Doesn’t Get
- Where is My Mind: The Sunday Night “Wrangle” With Joan Walsh
- Joan Walsh? Resent This
- Greetings, Salon Readers!
- Salon.com is desperate for clicks; don’t give them any!
Way to go, Salon.
Pip pip, cheerio!
That article was vile. I read it, left a rude comment, and tried to cancel my Salon account. It appears they may have done it for me, as I can’t log in any more; no error message or anything.
Also, if you put that membership on a credit card, call your card’s customer service line and tell them that Salon blocked you from access to their site, access which you paid for, and have them do a chargeback.
What the fuck happened to them? “Photo negative of the KKK”?!? Jump higher over the shark, why dontcha?
Wow, why Gene Lyons call her little girl. ABL, remember when I said that these Liberal whiners are really three groups, Clinton Groupies, the Wind-Blown Wannabes and the Mau-Mau Malcontents? Gene Lyons is an example of a Wind-Blown Wannabe since the Mau-Mau Malcontents and Clinton Groupies decided to gang up on MHP for having a damn opinion (and an insightful one, since, you know, she is a Afam Studies and Poli Sci prof) that ruffled their self important feathers. Gene Lyons is acting a parrot. If tomorrow, MHP comes out and says something that the other liberal know-it-all’s love to hear, Gene Lyons will call her the next best thing to Jesus. Its all a game.
Funny how a bunch of white (mostly male) journalists seem to think they know better about racism in American politics than a Black woman who studies racism in American politics for a living… Gee, I wonder why these white (mostly male) journalist think they know better than a Black woma..oh wait, I know. Dr. Harris-Perry is a Black woman with opinion not rubber stamped and approved by the White activist class.
And you think the Tea Party is racist and condescending.
Lyons is at least 3 years late to the populist tea-party.
“And with the U.S. economy stagnating, they’re going to need lots of persuading. Which is why the good news is that Obama has actually started talking like a Democrat again.”
Wait, what?
Dude shows a disdain for ALL black people. Not just MHP. He dissin’ the president as if not being in campaign mode 365 days a year means he wasn’t sounding like a Democrat? And, did you notice how quick he jumped to Clinton without ever dealing with the substance of MHP’s article? And WTF is up with this: “Voters can’t be shamed or intimidated into supporting this president or any other. They can only be persuaded.” So now we’re kicking White folks ass and dragging them to the polls demanding they vote to reelect Obama?
Why did he take time off from butt-fucking his farm animals to write this absurd drivel?
Also: I’m greatly underwhelmed by Salon’s new mission statement. Sounds like David Talbot has already gone full metal firebagger on us before he ever returned to the site.
I think there’s nothing wrong with Salon that a low-yield thermonuclear device couldn’t cure.
I say we nuke it from orbit.
It’s the only way to be sure.
So, basically, if anyone doesn’t agree with Obama they’re a racist? Even lefties who have spent decades fighting for social justice? What about black people who don’t like Obama, are they racist too? He dares to say that people should not be discussing Obama’s race, but his policies? How racist. NOT. What Ms.Harris-Perry said was basically ” Vote for Obama or you’re a racist”. Absolute bullshit.
You’re right, your comment is absolute bullshit. You’re banned. DIAF. Allan
No one said that. Nor did we say it was 100% racism. We said it MAY play a “factor” in terms of the hyperbole towards his performance and fails to realize that despite some missteps, which all presidents have made, he’s accomplished a lot. It may play a factor in terms of Name calling (spineless, pussy, wimp, etc.). It may play a factor when someone who either happens to be black or an Obama supporter of any race defends against any misinformed criticisms or criticisms taken out of the context of this presidency (failing to recognize that there are limits to presidential power. i.e. Congress) and then there is this ugly reaction to it. It may play a factor in how Obama gets “some” in the gay community foaming at the mouth over Rick Warren as a betrayal (as well as blaming blacks for Prop 8) whilst at the same time Bill Clinton signing DOMA into law didn’t get anywhere close to that, and any good that Clinton did for the gay community (Ryan White Act) were NOT called “crumbs”. (not trying to demonize Clinton nor justify the Rick Warren pick, just saying that what Clinton did was much worse than what Obama did, and so that’s the reason why I suggest a double standard is in play). It may play a factor when anyone gives Obama praise for anything good he has done (like Killing Bin Laden, Saving the US auto industry, Repealing DADT, etc.), and there is this ugly reaction saying: “Are you on Kool Aid?” And finally, it may play a role when someone who is black writes an article about the possibly of racism playing a “factor” in something (like the disrespect, not the criticism, in some of the comments made towards him), and the reaction is an ugly comment like yours or calling her a condescending phrase like “stupid little girl.” (which is also pretty misogynistic if you ask me).
The point is not to say that she 100% right, the point is to say that she may not be 100% wrong either. When a person of color ays something is racist; when a women says something is sexist; when a gay person says something is homophobic; don’t argue. They may be right.
Tell it like it needs to be told. If one has a legitimate criticism of what the President has done, one should be able to do so without invective/nasty name-calling. Once one starts with that, he or she has conceded there is no point.
Howdy. :-)
I finally registered; just popping in to say hi.
Between recent events at you-know-where, the anti-MHP invective from all Teh Usual Suspects, and some really disappointing behavior by members of another online community, I’m kinda speechless right now.
Well, except for the kvetching. :-D
How you be?
“When a person of color says something is racist; when a women says something is sexist; when a gay person says something is homophobic; don’t argue. They may be right.”
May I borrow this? Because,a thousand times yes. :)
Sure. no problem.
I tried to parse Tim’s comment.
I just couldn’t do it.
These guys have a brilliant fucking knack for making circular-logic declarations that support their own views and shut out others from questioning or opposing them. Ri-fucking-diculous.
The racism denial has me returning again and again to the old joke about the guy sitting on his roof in a flood. In case someone hasn’t heard it before, and my apologies to those of you who have:
A rowboat comes along and a guy in it says, “I’m here to rescue you!” “No, it’s OK, God will protect me and save me from the flood.”
Water gets higher. Another boat approaches. “Come on, the waters are still rising. Get in!” “No, I’ll be OK, God will save me.”
As the guy’s standing on the roof, water coming up to his knees, a helicopter flies low. Door opens, someone leans out. “Hey, come on! You’ll drown if you stay there!” “No, I’m fine, the Lord will protect me.”
The waters keep rising and he drowns. He arrives in Heaven and gets an audience with God.
“I trusted You to protect me and I died!”
“I sent you two boats and a helicopter, what more do you want?”
Hey, white liberals! God/the gods/the universe/the Flying Spaghetti Monster have sent you how many rowboats to keep you from drowning in your own flood of bullshit? And you STILL insist post-racialism protects you?
love that joke. an oldie but goodie!
HUGE Salon-Fail here. I’m kind of amazed at how difficult the concepts of white privilege and underlying systemic racism are for some people to grasp. MHP was right-on with her assessment. Maybe the issue is that it was too intellectual for idiots like Lyons to understand. Or maybe he’s just an ignorant ass.
ABL, Gene Lyons and I have something in common. We share an alma mater – the University of Virginia.
Unfortunately, Gene attended UVa during the 60s, when it was variously known as “the country club of the South” and/or “the last vestibule of Southern decadence.” When Gene was a WaHoo, it was all-white, all-male and all-rich. The only POC you saw on Grounds were the maids who cleaned your rooms and the people who served you in the dining hall.
By the time I got there in 1972, it was the third year women were admitted and the first where they were admitted, unquota’d. (That’s right, they only let a select few in for the first couple of years). POC had been there only slightly longer than women. By that time, we cleaned our own rooms and work-study students manned the cafeteria.
Gene Lyons has a problem, not only with people of colour in general, but educated people of colour and educated women in general.
And here’s another coincidence: when I was a student at UVa, the Dean of African-American studies was none other than Melissa Harris-Perry’s dad. Melissa grew up in Charlottesville, and Gene might be interested to know that she and her sisters attended St Anne’s Bellfield private school, whilst her brothers were students at Collegiate in Richmond … the same time Eric Cantor was there.
Gene Lyons can suck on that while he adjusts to the 21st Century and bleaches the sheets he’s beginning to wear continuously in public.
And while he’s doing all that, you might want to pay attention to two of Gene’s BFF’s – Charlie “Obama-Is-Either-Shaft-or-Lebron” Pierce and Rick Wankspittle Perlstein. They’re not very jealous of the President. Not much. No. Not at all. Bullshit.
Get out! She grew up in Charlottesville?
Why do all these jerks come from our alma mater?
Very interesting.
WaHoo Hall of Shame:
Gene Lyons (current Big Shit)
Ken Cuccinelli (general Big Shit)
Adam Green (Little Big Turd)
Aaron Swartz (Green’s BFF)
Mark Smoot (second-in-command of Green & Co)
Larry Sabato (taught Green everything he knows, likes a toke, wears a wig)
Laura Ingraham (token female)
Hey, I’m a Wahoo too! Didn’t know of the Harris-Perry connection to the place.
thank you so much. you do understand that your on point comment is about to be spread .
I share this excerpt with you…. I liked to the whole 71 article from Bennett for Ebony. It was no different from the analysis of those in the civil right movement about the coalition with certain white liberals…. But here it… read the whole article and when you get frustrated about the whole thing, think how bad it must have been for that generation. Realize that one thing in which Tim Wise wrote nicely about is “black folk watch white people and know them so well but they don’t understand us because some are just preoccupied with their disdain.”
They can dismiss all they want but the icons they like the praise know that underneath it all they still have not dealt with their racism.
————————–
For the same reasons, I believe our most viable coalition is with the alienated, the outcast, the unemployed, the poor and the humiliated of whatever color. But this coalition is not an immediate possibility, not because of the nationalism of blacks but because white liberals in general have not dealt with the racism of their followers. The single most important fact of this houris that there is no large white liberal or white radical constituency for blacks to ally with.
We have been playing games in America.For years, white liberal leaders left the millions of alienated whites in their neighborhoods and went across town to organize the black liberals. At the same time, black liberals left the millions of alienated blacks in their neighborhoods and went across town to organize the white liberals. And so you had these two small groups organizing themselves in a vacuum above with nothing underneath them.
The time has come for black and white liberals who say they believe in coalitions to begin the hard and unglamorous work of building coalitions at home. And this means on one level that a real black and white coalition must be preceded by real struggles between whites and whites in labor unions, churches and other liberal institutions. It means also that a precondition for a real black and white coalition is a coalition within the black community. Our most immediate task is not a coalition between blacks and whites but a coalition between blacks and blacks, not a coalition between the UAW and the National Urban League but a coalition between the Urban League and the NAACP and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and black militants.
Our immediate task is not a coalition between black students and white students but a coalition between black student and black administrators, between black hustlers and black intellectuals, between men and black women, between black fathers and black sons, between all the black fathers and all the black sons.
When we create that kind of coalition and when we dare to speak in the name of the common interest which we represent, we will not have to go begging on our knees for allies. For t hen we will be men and women and our allies as well as our adversaries will have to deal with us as men and women. Then and not until then– will the truth of our graves be safe. Then and not until then–will conditions be ripe for the realization of the dreams of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr. and Whitney Young.
http://books.google.com/books?id=ntwDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA33&dq=ebony+white+liberals&hl=en&ei=JkSETovTAePt0gHf5PwG&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=ebony%20white%20liberals&f=false
Eventually, writers at Salon may figure out that they need to stop.
Interesting that this article appears on Salon after MHP called out Joan Walsh. #JustSaying
I didn’t finish reading, I’m just sounding off based on the first few paragraphs…but let me get this straight…the Elite Professional Left is going to don some overalls and pitchforks because the black man can’t do ish right? Is that what you are telling me? White folks. If they only knew how much their own damn racism was leaving them all nose-less.
Okay, reading, because if it isn’t clear to people now, the left media elite is going the way third party. Don’t be fooled and look around the left blogosphere and seeing the happenings of late. It is not coincidental…look at the big picture.
You know, all Salon had to do to defuse this was to say, “Well, MHP makes an interesting point. I don’t know as it explains everything, though, because x….”
Had they treated her argument respectfully, as a reasonable thesis in a society with as much racial baggage as ours, nobody would have cared. Indeed, they could have disagreed with her completely, as long as they did it respectfully — as long as they acknowledged that there could be a reason for this perception, even if it was wrong.
That they chose not to, and instead continue to attack MHP in the most vicious ways, tells me that 1) she wasn’t wrong, and 2) Salon knows it. And with each round of angry denial, Salon proves more and more that yes, they have a problem with racism. It’s just not limited to the President. It encompasses all African Americans who dare to question their white liberal betters.
Exactly! They’re attacking like vicious rabid cornered rats. What’s up with that? Yep, it’s obvious.
They need a rabies shot or something. Freakin’ quar-an-tined.
Lyons is probably one of those people who deny the existence of white privilege. He took MHP’s thoughtful and engaging conversation about President Obama and the issue of racism and equated them to the KKK.
I want to shake my fellow white folks! A few brave bloggers/ writers of color are breaking down their thoughts/ feelings/ experiences with racism in our everyday society and we can’t just stop to hear them out! Why not?
As pointed out on this site and The People’s View and by MHP (and others), President Obama has been twice as successful during his first three years than any President in my lifetime; yet, he only gets half of the credit. POC have written before about lessons that they were taught growing up: a black man/ woman can succeed in this world but he/ she must work twice as hard. To see this played out on the biggest stage of all–the POTUS–shows just how powerful the white priviledge still is and that we still have a long road to go.
Word.
And, we’re holding Gene Lyons accountable. Check this out on theobamadiary, kcourtsclayton..
http://theobamadiary.com/2011/09/29/seriously-enoughs-enough-lets-fight-back/#comments
What I would like to know is: how could President Obama’s election NOT BE a racial referendum? HE’S BLACK! We haven’t done this before! We have a BLACK PRESIDENT! First one in 44 tries, even though the emancipation was how long ago? I worked on Jesse Jackson’s campaign in ’84, so it’s not like the idea of a black man running for President is novel. What is novel is that WE FINALLY ELECTED ONE! If that doesn’t say SOMETHING about race relations in this country, THEN WHAT WOULD?!?!?!
Lyons doesn’t like what Dr. Harris-Perry said because it is the UNVARNISHED TRUTH. Everyone claims they want truth — and I will spare you the “A Few Good Men” moment — but when you give it to them, they stub their toe or choke on it or walk right by it like it wasn’t even there. Look at the freaking TEA PARTY! There’s a bunch that wouldn’t know the truth if it was lodged firmly up their butt sideways!
No, White Liberals, going against Obama does not de facto make you a racist, but it does make you LOOK PRETTY STUPID! This man has had to endure a hostile GOP, a poor economy, try to get out of two wars gracefully, and do it without losing his cool, and has, so far, don’t a DAMNED GOOD JOB. If you’re ragging on him, constantly bringing up his “failures,” you have to ask yourself “Why?” Why are his failures so much greater that Bush’s were? And what about the SUCCESSES? End of DADT. Stimulus 1. Killing Osama bin Laden. Health Care Law. Wall Street reform. IS THIS GUY CHOPPED LIVER?
Lyons & every other whiny Liberal need to shut up, get behind the man, and HELP OUT! And they need to stop trying to cut his defenders — like Dr. Perry-Harris — to the quick. We DON’T HAVE TIME for this nonsense. Grow up, already, take your lumps like man Lyons, and move on!
Lyon’s would be happy if this was. The 1950′s and he would be freeto at on his racist and sexist fantasies and sexualy assault all the “attractive black women” he wanted.e
There was nothing thoughtful about the Harris Perry or the Lyons pieces. Niether she or he are right. What it is doing as I am reading this and from the comments from Salon is producing a wedge that looks pretty good the Republican party right now, doesn’t matter who’s to blame, this is no way to win an election.
What isn’t thoughtful about Melissa Harris-Perry’s piece, Fidel? You’re lumping her essay with Gene Lyon’s ugly attack on her personally. That’s not helping, either.
It is no way to win an election. Fidel is correct.
People need to calm down.
If they cannot calm down, stop feuding in public.
people are starting to look silly.
I’ve never been to Salon, so I appreciate that you’ve posted Lyon’s trash here- so that I/we can read all of it. I’ve also never been to Huffington Post.. but I did spend some time on Daily Kos until last year. What I learned is that there are a lot of racists/bigots online ;) and I don’t like them any better online than I do in person.. and therefore they can fuck the fuck off.. in my wee opinion.
With that said, this Lyons shows his racism early on in his article, to Ms Harris-Perry, to the President.. something neither the ‘left’ nor the right has hidden even remotely in my opinon these 3 years. There is a whole lot of divide and conquer going on these days and it is all aimed squarely at thinning out the support for POTUS.
It is amazingly ridiculous to take someone serious- such as this Lyons person- who attacks a woman who is an expert on race/racism in this country, a Professor, a teacher, an educator, and who has also LIVED IT.. and this ignorant blogger/writer/ ‘journalist’ likens her to the KKK or Bachmann??? This is no thoughtful person, this is a common no account racist doing exactly what racists do and have done always: attack with absolutely nothing factual, nothing learned, nothing of note- except to reflect their racism onto those they fear.
With all that said, I think many of us knew this battle would be waged.. possibly we didn’t expect it with the so-called ‘left’.. I say so-called because I’m still not convinced that these folks spouting this shit are in fact ‘liberals’ for anything other than notice/money/attention.
But who cares who the battle is with?? I don’t, fuck em, little racists all look & sound alike to me ;)
This whole situations is SAD……But I have made up my mind. If he loses in 2012. I am truly becoming an independent progressive voter!
Salon has been useless for years now and Joan Walsh’s lily White roster of “talent” has been consistent in its tired old Liberalism. Start with the unreadable Glenn Greenwald and work your way down the roster. Most of the really outstanding writers at Salon (Jake Tapper, Charles Taylor, Debra Dickinson, Cintra Wilson) left years ago and what’s left is a “B” team of second-stringers, hacks and burn outs.
Salon is garbage. The Huffington Post has been eating their lunch and other publications have passed them by. Salon is running on vapors and memory and Walsh’s ineptitude as a editor has led to this downward spiral. In 2011, Salon is as old and played out as an unopened bottle of Zima.
Does anyone anywhere need any more proof that the left can not handle success? We finally get a President who makes positive steps, in the face of frantic, insane opposition – and I’m thinking that if President Obama came out squarely in favor of clean water and beautiful sunsets they’d claim they were against them from the start – and the “progressives” whine because everything isn’t their definition of perfect, despite the extreme unlikelihood of any two of them agreeing on that definition in the first place.
If these morons put up a third-party candidate and we get stuck with a President Perry, or worse, as a result, I’m going postal.