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Chains, Politics, Race, and VP Biden
All the political chatter today is about Vice President Biden’s remark
“put y’all back in chains”
But let’s looks the entire quote in context
“Romney wants to, he said in the first 100 days, he’s going to let the big banks once again write their own rules. Unchain Wall Street. They’re going to put y’all back in chains,”
To me these look very different when taken in full context. He was using a metaphor. A poor one may be, but a metaphor just the same.
Much has been made of the fact that this took place in Danville, Va which is a city that has a population of almost 49% black. This is what I find offensive. If he had said this in a city that had a population that is say only 8% black it would have been different? You can see from the pictures of the event that the crowd was diverse.
What I find so offensive is that what I am hearing in this uproar is that apparently we are supposed to change our language depending on who were are talking to. Does that mean that I am supposed to create a blog for hispanic readers, another for whites, and yet another for blacks? That I am supposed to change the language I use for the point I am trying to make depending on the skin color of the reader? That is really offensive to me.
Is what he said stupid? Of course it is. But in full context it wasn’t racist.
I do believe that Biden has some preconceived notions of things. I think many will remember that he once made a comment about Indians and 7-11’s. The fact of the matter is that in the area that I live in you would be hard pressed to find a 7-11 that didn’t have employees that are not of Indian descent. What he said is true, at least in this area of the country. That may not be true everywhere, but here it is. So is that racism/bigotry? No, it isn’t. Maybe it isn’t polite to point it out, but that is about political correctness, not racism.
See I am no fan of how everything we say and do in this country has to fit into some preconceived notion of being politically correct. Who is it that makes these rules? Because we all know that they are different for different people. Had Paul Ryan used the same words the likes of Roland Martin would be the first one to screaming and yelling it was indeed racist. Whereas today he is saying that it isn’t. For once I actually agree with him that it was not a racist statement.
We need to get past all this PC nonsense and realize that using the metaphor of chains has nothing to do with slavery. It is a commonly used metaphor that covers all kinds of things. I am sick to death of everything being labeled “offensive” or “racist”. It is no more attractive when it comes from the right then when it comes from the left.
I dare anyone who disagrees with me on this to look me in the eye and tell me honestly that you wouldn’t feel that had the exact same scenario happened to a politician you agree with, you wouldn’t be defending it and saying it wasn’t racist and people were over-reacting. If you can’t do that, then stop playing the same “racist” card that has been played on us for the past four years.
Is VP Biden a gaffe machine? Oh, yes. He is not the smartest tool in the shed, that is for sure. He also has a habit of changing his dialect up a little bit depending on the crowd he is front of. Which is offensive. But there is no proof that VP Biden is a racist and that this comment was nothing more than metaphor of a theme that the right has been using for the past two years, of unshackling the private sector. Could he have used a different word than chain? Yea maybe. But why should he have? At some point we have to get beyond this nonsense and stop equating everything to race and slavery.
Take it away Joe:
just a conservative girl, and 
fuzislippers 11:27 PM on 08/15/2012 Permalink |
I can look you in the eye and, in good conscience, assure you that if Romney or Ryan started acting like a fake preacher, drawling “ya’ll,” and talking about putting people in chains, I’d be just as outraged. You’re missing, though, what I think is a key point here. Ryan and Romney can talk about “chains” because that’s what they actually believe poverty and government’s attack on personal responsibility and wealth-creation to be. They don’t walk around thinking about race 24/7; they believe in America and Americans. No hyphens, no identity politics. And yes, I’d be stunned to hear either of them do as Biden, Obama, and Hillary Clinton do and talk down to southerners, blacks, midwesterners, et al. by adopting phony accents and trying to adopt the speech patterns of their audience. This is par for the course for the phony leftists. They think it’s “relating” to the audience; it’s not. It’s insulting and patronizing. And hilarious. Have you seen the vids of Hillary and Obama doing it? Laugh out loud funny.
But if you can really listen to that comment (listen to it, not read it) and NOT hear the racial overtones, I’m just stunned. We’re talking about the party of racial division, a party built on racial identity. We’re talking about people who think morning, noon, and night about race. We’re talking about people who actually believe that conservatives have a secret “code” for talking about race. We’re talking about people who work to divide and strike fear in the hearts of Americans of all races, religions, and income brackets. We’re talking about Barack Obama’s vice president. And yes, I sincerely believe that he meant to evoke the chains of slavery BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT THEY DO.
just a conservative girl 6:00 AM on 08/16/2012 Permalink |
I don’t deny they play racial politics. But the important question becomes, did the audience that he was taking to in real time think it was racial? I don’t believe that they have spoken to those people. If they have, I have not seen it. In many instances things sound much differently to a person watching from a distance instead of being there. Howard Dean’s scream being a good example. The people in the room didn’t think it was a big deal. I remember watching that in real time on TV and being horrified.
My main point being they play racial politics because it works for them. By us jumping on that bandwagon we are continuing the cycle. I agree that the dialect thing is awful and condescending. But, if the people they are speaking to don’t mind, and they don’t seem to, there isn’t a whole we can do about it.
I just find it offensive that I would have to change what I say because of skin color. We should be able to have grown up conversations without it being broken down by skin color. If we can’t do that, then they have accomplished their goal of dividing us into groups. That is a terrifying proposition.
fuzislippers 6:32 PM on 08/16/2012 Permalink |
This wasn’t some cozy little meeting behind closed doors. The audience to whom he was talking was national. It was televised. It was a campaign stop. This was intended to reinforce the RAAAACISM of republicans for a national audience, particularly to inflame the base and get some of the people who won’t vote to the polls. It was a strategy. And it was the same strategy these people always use: race-baiting, division, fear, hate.
I’m not sure if you noticed, but they’ve already won that battle: Americans ARE divided into groups . . . by race, gender, sexual orientation, ideology, religion, income level, you name it. That’s done.
What we have to do is win the war. And we won’t do that by insisting on “national dialogue” about race (or anything else) because that’s exactly what they want. In fact, that’s leftist language straight out of Alinsky designed to reinforce the division, not eliminate it. Every “dialogue” the left engages is in designed to do this; that’s why the more they “help” the poor, the more poor we get; the more they try to “help” women, the more dependent the model (see #Julia); the more . . . well, you get the picture.
Conversations, grown up or otherwise, are worthless. Plain and simple. The only way to roll this back is through long, hard work. The same sort of work they put into dividing us. We need to take back our American-ness, stop the socio-cultural norm of urging people to split their loyalties (African-American, etc. does just that; it’s not an accident that the most powerful woman in America is an “Iranian-American.” If you think of yourself as that, to which country or continent are you bound, are you loyal, are you ready to defend?), take back our schools (it’s not an accident that public schools teach socialism, communism, and fascism–calling it “X justice” and “progressivism” and “liberalism”; it’s not an accident that divisions are taught, reinforced, and hammered into our children’s brains), take it all back, including entertainment and news. That’s what Breitbart was talking about when he talked about a culture war. It’s big. They’ve won too many battles, but the war is ours.
Don 2:46 AM on 08/16/2012 Permalink |
I agree Fuzi, there are blatant racial overtones in Biden’s remarks. I picked that up the first time I heard him say it. Plus, it was said in Danville which was the last capital city of the Confederacy. Putting anyone back in chains, given the place and his tone, is just low, nasty, racial gutter politics.
If you look at the video of Biden saying this on youtube, you can see that it wasn’t an off the cuff remark. Dear ‘Ol Joe was using teleprompters.
This was scripted.