Cyrena:

“The nation was ESTABLISHED on the economic politics of rate, and not much has changed.”

Perhaps.  But both this nation AND most of the ENTIRE WORLD were established on the economic politics of sexism and misogyny - and not much seems to have changed there either.

Peace.

“our natural, bigoted selves”

expat, as long as our senses are properly functioning, yes, we’re going to notice differences; and i wouldn’t equate this natural capacity of ours with bigotry and racism.  of course, our ability to sense difference can get twisted into racism.  i’m sure most of us get what you’re trying to say in your self-admittedly clumsy words.

“in our disgusting, PC world in the US”

the term politically correct, believe it or not, came from the progressive left.  in the 80’s, lefties with a sense of humor would chide their more programmatic, in-the-box thinking bretheren by calling them politically correct. the right, sensing an opportunity, took this phrase and used it to tar the whole left. and, of course, people at comedy central have become rich by being politically INcorrect.  yes, it has now become politically correct to be politically incorrect!!!

^ here.  The risk is; you’ll misunderstand my clumsy words.  To wit;

We’re getting “race in the face” whether we like it or not.  Strip away the veneer of education/civilization and we are the same people we have been for more than 100,000 years.  We’re not smarter or more intelligent, we’re not more civilized: we’re just human.  We’re not more evolved on any level; we still identify by recognizing differences whether tribal, religious, ethnic, skin color, race, or even language.  That’s all natural and the only important thing is what we do with that recognition.

Here where I live (S.E. Asia); people are the most blatantly racist I’ve ever experienced (outside of the southern U.S.).  The people here are free to express their racism and it is openly expressed, but, the level of crime based on racism is very low.
This is very interesting to me; if one is fat then people say you are fat.  If one is not beautiful then you are told you are not beautiful.  If one has black skin (many S.E. Asians have black skin) you are told you are black (of course white skin is valued).  It takes some getting used to; but, it seems to do no harm as far as getting along with each other.

In our disgusting, PC world in the U.S., I have often wondered how much this suppresses our natural racist, bigoted, selves.  I have begun to think it suppresses our natural senses and causes a below the surface resentment and thus a backlash when it is put in our faces as with this election and the present candidates; one of whom is black and the other is a woman.  We have a WASP as the opposition; this thereby setting up the ultimate dichotomy: The two most discriminated classes in America; a woman and a black man.  And what are they doing?  Yes a rhetorical question; they’re tearing each other to shreds; for what?  So what will we ultimately do; I don’t have that answer.  This has never happened before.  One last point; I know some of you will see my words as racist/bigoted/etc. and a justification for that behavior and if that is the case, then you have truly missed my point because nothing could be further from my truth.  I just want you to think outside the box that is always so conveniently supply for us.

Is this article a joke?Race chasm instead of"I ain’t voting for the colored guy under any circumstnaces."There is Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and Alabama in the middle of Pennsylvania.They now claim that it is the Reagan democrats who will not vote for Obama.You know those democrats who saw the democratic party was going to embrace minorities and voted for Reagan.Political correctness in this country keeps stopping us from discussing race in real terms.Race chasm?What in the hell does that mean.It is good old fashined bigotry."Would a rose by any other name smell so sweet."Or in this case"the same old shit smell in a new wrapper.”

Cyrena,

“So-called ‘liberals’ are only ‘liberal’ in terms of race tolerance when they also know that they are still at least a half-level above. When economic survival becomes the great equalizer, the gloves fall off.”

Excellent point.  This is why I can’t stand labels.  People are just people.

When I was four years old the neighbor girl a few houses over and I used to smile and wave at each other from “afar”. One day we were both out with our mothers while they burned the garbage (anyone remember doin’ that..LOL).

Our mothers noticed that we had been smiling and waving at each other and even though neither family spoke the same language, our mothers understood each other enough to let us girls play together.  Well.. we played in the alley mudpuddle with sticks and rocks and dirt, we talked, not the same language but we both KNEW we were making soup.  All four-year olds know that.

We had fun.  We knew we didn’t look the SAME.  But who LOOKS the same anyway unless they’re twins.  And why would you even WANT others to look the same as you, that’s just weird.  We never knew racism, until later as we grew older, OTHERS made sure we knew.  As far as we were concerned she was her and I was me.  And that was all we needed to know.

in our analysis of our country’s right-ward turn during the last 40 + years, progressives as a whole have underplayed the factor of race.  most of us applaud the social democratic tendencies of the new deal, but we don’t forthrightly state that it came at a price...coalition with the segregationist south.  when our last president of new deal sensibility signed the mid-sixties civil rights legislation, he told us that the dems had probably turned over political power to the repubs for the next 30 years. how right he was...and then some.
so now pretty much unregulated capital is in the saddle and our social safety net (such as it was) has been shredded. a lot of us are getting down to economic survival. primal emotion comes into play and racism rears its head.  very sad stuff..but not really unpredictable.

on a different note: cyrena, thanks for the heads-up on jeremiah wright being on pbs...could be interesting...glad bill m. is giving this basically decent man a chance to show his stuff

As I stated on another post, Texas like Pennsylvania has it’s bigots, I am surprised tot see Obama do as well as he did in both states.  A friend of mine married a Japanese girl and would not take her home to Pennsylvania, so he moved to Washington State, those who live among bigots know very well what they are. Hillary panders quite well to bigotry. 

We should be well aware of bigots and their small minded perchance to love hate.

The chasm of fear, the chasm of racism, the chasm of smear—I thought those were the tools of Karl Rove.

I am beginning to wonder if he isn’t on her election campaign. Karl has indicated in the past that he wants to see Hillary run as the Democrat candidate because she has more negatives and will be much easier to beat.

Her scorched earth campaigning, her heightened fear-mongering, and her increasing appeal to primitive forces in people indicate a willingness to use Rove / Machiavellian strategies.

The neocons are famous for their “my way or the highway” mentality, their willingness to destroy the good to forward their distorted agenda.

If Hillary gets her way, it will either be an unprincipled woman in the White House or Bush III, for she would obviously rather see grandpa McCain win than Obama.

Ya know ender, Hillary once (or maybe more than once) acknowledged that she admired Karl Rove. So, you’re not so far off the mark there.

I do understand your surprise at the influence of racism in the North. I was surprised to discover it there myself, just because we somehow have been falsely led from a limited view of history, to assume that “The North” was always ‘above that’.

The story is much more complicated, and we have to remember the ‘defacto’ segregation that has existed in the North for a very long time. Racism is just more OVERT in the South, which is why these things catch us by surprise.

But, it’s as much there as anywhere, for the reasons that Sirota mentions. I agree with you that it’s probably worse now than it’s ever been, even among so-called liberals, but that doesn’t surprise me either.

It’s a result of the fallout of the economy. Racism has always had that at it’s root in America, since the beginning.

There’s nothing like the disappearance of jobs and a means of survival for any group of people, that doesn’t cause them to turn on some scapegoat always presumed to be the class below them anyway.

So-called ‘liberals’ are only ‘liberal’ in terms of race tolerance when they also know that they are still at least a half-level above. When economic survival becomes the great equalizer, the gloves fall off.

Really, though, I expect Barack to tackle these kinds of shenanigans head on. His campaign isn’t being pro-active anymore, and it is beginning to suffer because of the defensive moves he feels obligated to take. It’s Never a good idea to let the opposition define the rules of engagement, but this is exactly what the Republicans, the Mainstream Media and Hillary Clinton’s campaign have done during this campaign.

It’s sensationalist, it’s divisive, it’s arrogant and its WRONG! Obama needs to nip this in the bud, pronto!

Being a white male from and living in the south, I knew racism was alive and well, but I’m a little suprised at its influence in the north.  Jeremiah White’s out of context comment seemed to find an all to willing to condemn audience.  From my experience it may actually be at its worst amongst centrist or even liberal female voters.  Repugnicans dismiss Hagee’s remarks as forgivable gaffs, but Dems have been calling Obama a radical racist and an extremist. 

Has Karl Rove been helping the Clinton Campaign?  He seems to be in touch with American Racism and Hypocracy better than anyone else in the American political scene, and knows how to exploit it in ways that don’t make otherwise good people question their own capacity for racism.

You aren’t alone in not wanting to believe it Aegrus, since it is among the most painful of truths.

If I can rephrase your question, are you wondering how many black voted for Obama JUST because he’s black?

I can’t think of a way to know that, though I suppose there would have been a way to work such a question into the exit polls.

Just guess though, (but from an urban black voter perspective) it doesn’t seem like black folks would vote against their own best interests any more than white people would, IF they are INFORMED!

But, if they were informed, they’d know that race in this case has nothing to do with that. I mean, why would white folks vote against their own best interests by voting for Hillary Clinton, IF they WERE INFORMED, and not brainwashed by either racism or propaganda?

A vote for Hillary Clinton (just being truthful here, which unfortunately includes a measure of cynicism) is only advantageous for the corporate elite. But, she’s managed to convince the VERY SAME PEOPLE who are the VICTIMS of her corporate priorities, (NAFTA) that she’s actually on their side.

She even addressed and ‘thanked’ the alleged “Middle Class” of Pennsylvania for selecting her. Was that a freudian slip, and did she really mean the ‘middle class’, because she sure couldn’t have been talking to the WORKING class, which did at one point help create a healthy middle class.

So, Hillary is like the con artist who sneaks into your garage or carport and destroys the engine on your car, and then comes along in the morning to offer to ‘fix it’ at a really good price.

Don’t forget, they voted for her in Arkansas as well, which is either THE poorest nation in the union, or next to the poorest nation. And, that’s DESPITE the incredible amount of wealth generated by and held tightly within the grips of a small Little Rock cabal, of which the Clinton’s are long term members.

So, folks don’t always vote in their best interests, and as we see, in many instances, the race hate will make them do exactly that.

It might be the most severe example of cutting off ones nose to spite ones face as ever exemplified.

It’s not difficult to see why the Clinton campaign zeroed in on, focused on, beat to death Obama’s ‘elitism’ following his ‘bitter’ speech - segues nicely into uppity black man who needs to be put in his place.  Makes me sick.

I have noticed that the pattern even seems to apply somewhat to countries.  In countries that are very homogeneous, race or ethnicity or tribe doesn’t seem to be the big issue that it often is in more heterogeneous countries.

You know, maybe I just didn’t want to believe so many people would invalidate such a brilliant candidate because of his racial background. 19% is a little disconcerting as a percentage of people who took race as a factor for choosing a candidate. Wonder how many from that amount, if any, were blacks picking Obama? The 40% who didn’t vote for Clinton? Questions… questions… questions…

David Sirota has again provided us with a reality that many have chosen to ignore, or explain away as something other than what it is.

The race chasm is and has always been alive and at the full potency of it’s infection. Might be all the more dangerous since the ‘symptoms’ of the infection aren’t overt or obvious. Still...that’s the reality.

The nation was ESTABLISHED on the economic politics of rate, and not much has changed.

If only all would come to recognize this, and look it in the face, and call it what it is, then maybe we could finally get beyond it.

Obama certainly gave it an opening shot with his speech, and Moyers has an interview scheduled with Jeremiah Wright on PBS Friday. I don’t know how helpful that would be to those who probably don’t pay attention to speeches from skinny black guys running for president, or to anyone who doesn’t listen to Bill Moyers or PBS.

But, for any who might be so inclined, you might wanna consider it. (check your local guide for the Bill Moyers Journal).