Racism Review: White Fear and White Voters: A Florida Example

Racism Review

White Fear and White Voters: A Florida Example

Well, substantial white fear can be seen in many places this week. As Jessienoted yesterday in passing, FoxNews was reporting and nowTampaBayOnline (Tampa Bay Tribune newspaper) has this email from a volunteer in the Florida Republicans’ Temple Terrace office that was passed along by David Storck, chair of the Hillsborough County Republican Party, who tells his team to pass it along and thereby signals he agrees with it helping “us to win this election”:

THE THREAT: HERE IN TEMPLE TERRACE, FL OUR REPUBLICAN HQ IS ONE BLOCK AWAY FROM OUR LIBRARY, WHICH IS AN EARLY VOTING SITE. I SEE CARLOADS OF BLACK OBAMA SUPPORTERS COMING FROM THE INNER CITY TO CAST THEIR VOTES FOR OBAMA.

The email was sent around in these very assertive ALL CAPS, indicating a high level of emotion, including fear. Some of it signals the old white racial frame: Scary black folks “coming from the inner city” voting “in carloads,” in what is apparently a whiter area. One can feel the palpable fear here. The email continues:

THIS IS THEIR CHANCE TO GET A BLACK PRESIDENT AND THEY SEEM TO CARE LITTLE THAT HE IS AT MINIMUM, SOCIALIST, AND PROBABLY MARXIST IN HIS CORE BELIEFS. AFTER ALL, HE IS BLACK–NO EXPERIENCE OR ACCOMPLISHMENTS–BUT HE IS BLACK.

Notice again the level of racialized emotion in this message. Today, some conservative Republicans are back to fighting a Cold War against “Marxism,” a theme that is part of the national McCain-Palen attack line. When in difficulty, the U.S. right-wing likes smear tactics that place a political candidate who is obviously a centrist Democrat as “socialist” or “Marxist.” These themes seem to be just some cover for viewing Senator Obama in old antiblack terms, as the harping here on blackness suggests.

NYT Caucus: ‘Hussein’ Chant at Palin Rally

NYT Caucus

‘Hussein’ Chant at Palin Rally

 “John McCain! Not Hussein!”

So goes the latest popular chant on the campaign trail with Gov. Sarah Palin, demonstrated at a morning rally in central Florida.

Ms. Palin was midway through her stump speech when a group of supporters began shouting it in unison, drowned out a few seconds later as Ms. Palin talked over them.

A similar chant, “Vote McCain, not Hussein,” was heard at a campaign event for Ms. Palin in Williamsport, Pa., earlier this week.

Senator Barack Obama’s middle name is Hussein, a fact that some of his opponents say proves that he is a Muslim. Mr. Obama is, in fact, a Christian.

After the rally in Florida ended, two of the people leading the chant explained why they did so.

“Because it rhymes,” said Shirley Mitten, 64, a volunteer at a pregnancy center and a resident of Brooksville, Fla.

She said she does not know if Mr. Obama is a Muslim. “He says he’s not, but we have no way of knowing,” Ms. Mitten said.

…

The middle name Hussein, he said, added to the suspicion. “I guess Obama was named after Saddam Hussein,” he said.

Think Progress: Chambliss: The rush of African-Americans to the polls has ‘got our side energized.’

Think Progress:

Chambliss: The rush of African-Americans to the polls has ‘got our side energized.’

On Wednesday, the chairman of the Hillsborough County, Florida Republican party forwarded an e-mail to several hundred party members that warned of “‘the threat’ of ‘carloads of black Obama supporters coming from the inner city to cast their votes.’” While the McCain campaign condemned the email, the sentiment does not appear to be isolated. As Tapped notes, earlier this week, Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) proclaimed that the the “rush” of African-Americans to the polls has “got our side energized“:

“There has always been a rush to the polls by African-Americans early,” he said at the square in Covington, a quick stop on a bus tour as the campaign entered its final week. He predicted the crowds of early voters would motivate Republicans to turn out. “It has also got our side energized, they see what is happening,” he said.

Similarly, Chambliss has been warning his “predominantly white base” in North Georgia, “The other folks are voting.”

Minnesota Independent: Black voters strikes fear in the heart of Florida GOP chair

Minnesota Independent

Black voters strikes fear in the heart of Florida GOP chair

Most readers have probably seen footage of McCain-Palin rallies in Ohio or Pennsylvania, where voters who could best be charitably as the “low information” variety have wound themselves into tight little knots of fury over the Islamo-Marxist-terrorist menace of Barack Obama.

Now that voting has begun, the panic over the possibility of an Obama presidency has apparently pitched to a level that can only be adequately conveyed with a stream of capital letters.   Via Open Left, check out this e-mail, sent the other day by the chair of the Hillsborough County (Fla.) Republican Party to his friends and colleagues.  Among other things, he’s clearly dismayed that black folks — and college professors! — are fearlessly casting ballots. 

THE THREAT:
HERE IN TEMPLE TERRACE, FL OUR REPUBLICAN HQ IS ONE BLOCK AWAY FROM OUR LIBRARY, WHICH IS AN EARLY VOTING SITE.I SEE CARLOADS OF BLACK OBAMA SUPPORTERS COMING FROM THE INNER CITY TO CAST THEIR VOTES FOR OBAMA. THIS IS THEIR CHANCE TO GET A BLACK PRESIDENT AND THEY SEEM TO CARE LITTLE THAT HE IS AT MINIMUM, SOCIALIST, AND PROBABLY MARXIST IN HIS CORE BELIEFS. AFTER ALL, HE IS BLACK–NO EXPERIENCE OR ACCOMPLISHMENTS–BUT HE IS BLACK.I ALSO SEE YOUNG COLLEGE STUDENTS AND THEIR PROFESSORS FROM USF PARKING THEIR CARS WITH THE PROMINENT ‘OBAMA’ BUMPER STICKERS. THE STUDENTS ARE ENTHUSIASTIC TO BE VOTING IN A HISTORIC ELECTION WHERE THERE MAY BE THE FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT.

THE COLLEGE PROFESSORS, PARTICULARLY IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES, FOR THE MOST PART HAVE LITTLE OR NO EXPERIENCE IN THE WORK-A-DAY WORLD.

THEIR LIFE EXPERIENCE HAS BEEN MOSTLY ACADEMIC UNDER THE TUTELAGE OF LIBERAL COLLEGE PROFESSORS. FOR THEM, A LITTLE SOCIALISM AND ANTI-AMERICANISM IS A GOOD THING. AFTER ALL, IF TERRORISTS ATTACK US, WE MUST HAVE DONE SOMETHING TO PROVOKE THEM.

YOU AND I UNDERSTAND THE DANGERS THE POTENTIAL OBAMA PRESIDENCY PRESENTS TO OUR WAY OF LIFE. THE SUPPRESSION OF FREE SPEECH, INTRODUCING UNION INTIMIDATION IN THE WORKPLACE, INCREASED DANGERS TO OUR NATION BY TERRORISTS, CUTTING OUR DEFENSE BUDGET BY 25%, TURNING OUR TAX SYSTEM INTO A NATIONAL WELFARE SYSTEM AND ECONOMIC POLICIES THAT COULD DRIVE US INTO A DEPRESSION.

THERE IS ONLY ONE WAY TO STOP OBAMA: VOTE !!!——-
(AND GET EVERYONE YOU KNOW TO VOTE)
ONLY YOU AND I CAN STOP OBAMA NOW ! !
SEVEN DAYS TO GO AND WE MUST ACT IMMEDIATELY..

A PLAN OF ACTION FOR YOU AND I:

VOTE. OBAMA IS ADVERTISING ON TV ASKING ALL HIS SUPPORTERS TO TAKE A DAY OFF WORK OR CLASS TO VOTE.

CONTACT PERSONALLY EVERYONE YOU KNOW REMINDING THEM TO VOTE AND HOW IMPORTANT IT IS. PARENTS, VOTING-AGE CHILDREN, IN-LAWS, CO-WORKERS, CHURCH CONTACTS, SCHOOL CONTACTS, BUSINESS CONTACTS. MAKE A LIST AND CONTACT THEM.

SEND THIS MESSAGE TO EVERYONE ON YOUR EMAIL LIST THAT WANTS TO DEFEAT OBAMA.

YOUR EMAIL IS AN EFFECTIVE TOOL IF YOU USE IT WISELY AND PROMPTLY. YOU CAN REACH 10,000,000 PEOPLE IN THE NEXT SEVEN DAYS IF AS FEW AS TEN PEOPLE ON YOUR LIST TAKE PROMPT ACTION AND TEN PEOPLE ON THEIR LIST AND TEN PEOPLE ON THEIR LIST…YOU GET THE IDEA.

LET’S ALL PRAY AND WORK AND WE WILL SURELY CELEBRATE OUR VICTORY ON 11/5/08.

David A. Storck Chairman
Hillsborough County
Republican Party

South Florida Times: OPINION: MCCAIN’S REFUSAL TO ACKNOWLEDGE HIS BLACK RELATIVES IS DISAPPOINTING

South Florida Times: OPINION

MCCAIN’S REFUSAL TO ACKNOWLEDGE HIS BLACK RELATIVES IS DISAPPOINTING

Last week, the South Florida Times reported on the black people in Republican presidential nominee John McCain’s family. Shortly thereafter, The Wall Street Journal, CNN and other media outlets around the world did follow-up reports.

Among other things, our research confirmed that McCain’s family owned and operated a slave plantation in the Teoc community of Carroll County, Miss. called Waverly, during the late 1800s and beyond the turn of the century.

McCain’s ancestors were cotton barons. Archived records use “mulatto” and other terms to describe some of the enslaved Africans his family owned, thus documenting their mixed races. 

The black, white and mixed-race McCains, including Sen. McCain’s brother, Joe, and countless other family members host reunions in Teoc every other year. Sen. McCain, however, has never acknowledged his family there, and never attends the events, according to family members who have attended. He has not explained why.

..

Also, consider that the McCain campaign is paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to the racially controversial Richard Quinn, and his family’s companies. The Quinns are based in 
South Carolina, and operate political consulting firms. They publish the pro-Confederate, racially caustic, Southern Partisan magazine. Some of the articles published there can only be described as sympathetic, if not supportive, of the Ku Klux Klan. The magazine has published columns critical of Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr., and other columns that praised David Duke and KKK leaders

South Florida Daily Blog: The Race Card

South Florida Daily Blog

The Race Card

 

-via Dependable Renegade

NY Times blog: In Florida Mailboxes, Harsh Attacks on Obama

NY Times blog

In Florida Mailboxes, Harsh Attacks on Obama

 

The second piece of literature, paid for by the Republican Party of Florida, provides a new line of attack. It alleges that Senator Obama would be soft on crime. Few issues are as racially radioactive, especially here in Miami, so it is worth asking: Does the flier go over the line?

Some of it focuses on Senator Obama’s voting history (oversimplifying a present vote in the Illinois senate to suggest he is “against protecting children from danger,” in one example). But on the front, there is a picture of Senator Obama, looking menacing, with an all-black background. On the other side, above the address it says: “Obama: ‘he acted more as a friend to criminals than to cops…’”

When opened, it says: “Obama doesn’t talk much about his views on crime and punishment – at least not in front of general audiences – and for good reason.”

That line and the one out front about criminals and cops come from a Marcheditorial in Investor’s Business Daily that sought to closely link the views of Senator Obama to the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., his former preacher. It called Mr. Wright “his mentor” and said, “unfortunately, Obama listens to his preacher and buys into his conspiracy theories.”

 

Little Green Footballs: Twelve Years Old and Racist

Little Green Footballs

Twelve Years Old and Racist

As Barack Obama bashes McCain and Palin for encouraging mob-like behavior, a 7th grader is called a “racist” for wearing a Sarah Palin T-shirt.

 

VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35, Orlando) — She’s only 12 years old but Ashleigh Jones is feeling the heat of this election year.

That’s because the seventh grader at New Smyrna Beach Middle School was called a racist by classmates for wearing a pro-Sarah Palin t-shirt.

Jones is volunteering at the Republican Headquarters in New Smyrna Beach. The Palin t-shirt was a gift from her fellow volunteers. But when she wore it to school she learned just how tough politics can be.

“Some of the students were calling me racist because I was Caucasian,” she said. “I wanted the Caucasian man to win. And I told them that’s not true. It’s my freedom of speech, it’s my opinion.”

 

HipHop Republican: Will Republicans Wimp Out On Race

HipHop Republican

Will Republicans Wimp Out On Race

Will Republicans ever fight back when it comes to charges of racism or racial insensitivity? Democrats—and many of their allies in the mainstream media– are masters at putting Republicans on the defensive on race—even when significant numbers of their own in Kentucky, West Virginia and Pennsylvania said that race was a factor in supporting Clinton over Obama .

Regardless of their racial “glass houses,” when the political battles begin in earnest, you can be certain that many liberal Democrats and Obama supporters will throw the usual “racism stones” and make race baiting a key tool of the fall campaign. It has already begun. When Democratic Chairman Howard Dean recently said that Republicans use race baiting, hate and divisiveness, there was nary a peep from the National Republican Leadership or its surrogates. The same when he said that that the Republican National Committee could get a large number of people of color in a single room only if the “hotel staff” were present.

…

When it comes to race baiting, given their party’s history, Democrats should be the last group to criticize anyone on race and Republicans should not wimp out and be silent when they do. Republican leaders, black and white, should remind liberals and the media that it was the Democratic Party that gave us slavery, Jim Crow, segregation, opposition to anti-lynching laws and George Wallace-Lester Maddox stand-in-the-doorway obstruction to civil rights.

National Journal Frontline: “Barack Hussein Obama” … It Is October, After All

National Journal Frontline

“Barack Hussein Obama” … It Is October, After All

The sheriff of Lee County refered to the Democratic nominee as “Barack Hussein Obama” today as part of his introductory remarks before Sarah Palin spoke at a rally here.

“On Nov. 4, let’s leave Barack Hussein Obama wondering what happend,” SheriffMike Scott told the crowd at Germain Arena.

Scott was speaking as part of a program before Palin’s arrival at the rally. Palin was at a fundraiser in Naples, Fla. at the time.