|
|
printable version
- email this article
- view hidden posts
- spam score
by Cash Michaels
Monday, Oct. 20, 2003 at 12:55 PM
''[Black] parents scream and yell about the racial achievement gap, and how the schools aren't fair, and society is racist and blah, blah-blah, blah-blahhh, because they don't want to get off the sofa, and put some effort into it themselves'' - Jerry Agar, Conservative talk radio host
Racist Rhetoric of the Right Wing-Part II Cash Michaels, The Wilmington Journal, 10/20/2003
To Jerry Agar, he did nothing wrong.
Going on the air in September 2002, the staunch conservative Raleigh radio talker, responding to an article about the racial achievement gap in Wake County schools, told his predominately white audience that Black public school students aren't performing well because, ''… their parents don't care;'' ''… Black parents aren't doing what they should do;'' '' if we stop wasting money on busing programs, wasting money on Smart-Start, and put all of our effort and resources into essentially forcing [Black] parents to get involved, we'd solve the problem;'' and in a final insult, ''… if a parent puts a modicum of effort into it - and some of the parents we're talking about are going to have to look up modicum, by the way…..''
The conservative even pointedly said that racist white teachers, a problem Black parents have encountered since the public schools desegregated thirty years ago, was a poor excuse.
''[Black] parents scream and yell about the racial achievement gap, and how the schools aren't fair, and society is racist and blah, blah-blah, blah-blahhh, because they don't want to get off the sofa, and put some effort into it themselves,'' the radio host opined. ''It's easier.''
According to Agar, all this was, was ''constructive criticism.''
But readers of The Carolinian in Raleigh, and even some liberal callers to his afternoon radio program, angry that Agar and many in his audience inaccurately seemed to paint all Black parents with the same critical brush, called his diatribe something else. Racist.
''[The Carolinian] is 100 percent in what [it] says,'' Columbus Pressley of Cary, who battled the Wake Public Schools for years over how his five children were treated,'' told Agar.
The conservative's response was typical of the right-wing when racial controversies flair up - what he said wasn't racist, just his opinion.
''[The Carolinian] wanted the readers focus on the bad conservative racist, not on problems close to home,'' Agar wrote shortly after in a letter to the editor. ''Keep it in the community. It's embarrassing to have white people talking about it.''
Agar, who enjoys a wide and varied audience in the Triangle market, is indeed typical of conservative radio talk show hosts in the aftermath of Rush Limbaugh's success.
Limbaugh, arguably the best known and most powerful right-wing talker on the air nationally for the past 16 years, made it fashionable for conservatives to publicly and aggressively attack Black leadership, the civil rights movement, and the Black community itself for its continuous, though sometimes tenuous political loyalty to the Democratic Party.
But Limbaugh, who has taken temporary leave off the air amid his admission last week of abusing prescription drugs, took his racial rhetoric one step further beyond criticism. He actually castigated African-Americans he didn't agree with, telling them to ''take that bone out of your nose'' and practice looting and blowing up places.
The powerful conservative got away with it, and was embraced by the Republican Party, who relished the political influence Limbaugh potentially had with 20 million listeners weekly over 650 radio stations across the country.
''He is the companion to millions, he is America's top voice,'' Matt Drudge of the online Drudge Report told MSNBC last week.
But Limbaugh wasn't the first to make racist rhetoric an effective weapon of the right.
When former Raleigh City Councilman Jesse Helms took to the air on WRAL-TV in Raleigh during the 1960s with station editorials, he made ''Martin Luther Coon, Jr.'' and an unrelenting rhetorical assault on the Southern civil rights movement led by Dr. King and others his trademark. While many whites agreed with what Helms said about the movement being ''Communist inspired,'' many Blacks, and whites, were appalled that the former sportswriter was allowed to say such things so blatantly.
That kind of racial plain talks is what propelled Helms into the U.S. Senate in 1972, as the conservative Democrat (who would soon switch to the GOP) rode the coattails of President Richard Nixon's ''Southern strategy'' to corral angry white southern voters.
Even after he got to Congress, Helms would continue to call things as he saw them racially, no matter how callous, without apology. Deliberately singing ''Dixie'' in a Congressional elevator as then Illinois Sen. Carol Mosely Braun, the first Black woman ever elected to the U.S. Senate, got on, was one of the milder examples of Helms being willing to provoke a racial fight.
That same willingness seems to be alive and well not only on right-wing radio and on television with the arguably conservative FOX News Network on cable, but on college campuses as well.
As The Wilmington Journal recently reported, college and university campuses across the nation have been the scene of ''anti-affirmative action'' bake sales by conservative, and predominately white Republican student organizations.
Cakes and cookies are sold to different people at different prices according to their race. So while a cookie will cost a white male anywhere from $1.50 to $2.00, that same cookie would cost an African-American only 25 cents.
At UCLA, the young GOP vendors went on step further. They got Black, white and Hispanic Republican students to stand behind the bake sale table with signs that say ''Uncle Tom,'' ''The White Oppressor'' and ''Self-Hating Hispanic Race Traitor.''
''We hope to show students the inherent hypocrisy of assigning exclusive meaning and value based purely on skin color or perceived ethnicity,'' The UCLA Bruin Republicans said in a statement, adding that the controversy only highlighted how unfair affirmative action is to white students.
So far, none of these collegiate ''bake sales'' have taken in North Carolina. But when the NC Republican Party was asked by The Wilmington Journal whether it not only approved of this activity by young GOP groups, but specifically approved of the message that it was sending, Jonathan Jordan, Communications Director for the state GOP replied by e-mail,'' Let me answer by referring you to our NCGOP Platform, the governing document of the North Carolina Party.''
Jordan then forwarded the following passages from their platform: Article III Individual Liberty, Paragraph 6. Republicans believe in equal opportunity and impartial treatment before the law regardless of wealth, social status, race, or gender.
We believe that government must vigorously enforce individual civil rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and by the Constitution of the State of North Carolina.
Article III Individual Liberty, Paragraph 7. Government should treat all citizens fairly and should assure equal opportunity for all without regard to race, religion, gender, or national origin. We oppose all forms of invidious discrimination. We also oppose efforts to include sexual orientation as a category for preferential treatment status under civil rights statutes at any level of government.
Enforcing ''individual civil rights'' has been the conservative reasoning behind the anti-affirmative action movement from the start. Eliminating affirmative action hires and college admission policies is what is meant by ''Government should treat all citizens fairly and should assure equal opportunity for all without regard to race, religion, gender, or national origin.''
Beyond saying ''Regards,'' Mr. Jordan did not, on behalf of the party, denounce what many have charged was the overtly racist nature of the bake sales, or the students who sponsored them.
The two GOP platform paragraphs were an indirect way of approving of the controversial activity, without ever being on record as saying so.
wilmingtonjournal.blackpressusa.com/news/Article/Article.asp?NewsID=33639&sID=4
Report this post as:
LATEST COMMENTS ABOUT THIS ARTICLE
Listed below are the 10 latest comments of 2 posted about this article.
These comments are anonymously submitted by the website visitors.
|
|
|
Local News
F29 Double-sided flyer (English and Spanish) in PDF form
F12 2:16PM
Contacts and Details on Regional S. CA Post-Secondary Student Conference
F12 11:01AM
LAPD's High-Tech "War Room"
F10 7:07AM
OCCUPY PRESS RELEASE: 8 CHALLENGES TO WELLS FARGO (FEB 6, 2012)
F09 4:00PM
8 CHALLENGES TO WELLS FARGO FROM OCCUPY ACTIVISTS
F08 3:11PM
Resolution in Support of Warehouse Workers at Walmart Contractor Schneider Logistics
F07 12:53AM
Construction workers picket new gym in Upland
F06 11:59PM
STOP A "NAFTA OF THE PACIFIC!" RALLY VS SECRET NEGOTIATIONS HELD IN SOFITEL HOTEL IN LA
F06 10:04AM
Los Angeles participates in national day of action against war in Iran
F06 12:43AM
Protecting Sacred Sites: The Kuruvungna Springs
F05 9:08PM
Press Release for Monday Occupy Meeting with Wells Fargo Execs (3-5:30pm)
F05 9:02AM
What's Left for the Left? Building a Blue-Green Coalition
F05 7:57AM
San Diego Queer Democrats Reject Progressive, Endorse Moderate for Congress
F04 1:03PM
How Mike Kelley Helped Me Paint My Way Out of a Prison Cell
F04 12:41PM
Protest: ELA Police Checkpoint
F03 11:03AM
Cornel West lectures on social justice; PD harasses occupier for flyering
F01 10:12PM
WHY OCCUPY art exhibit
F01 1:16AM
Trans Pacific Free Trade Agreement Action Wed!
J31 5:35PM
Even Local Businesses Support Efforts to Save LAUSD Adult Education
J30 1:46AM
F29 SHUTDOWN THE CORPORATIONS CALL TO ACTION: Occupy Walmart!
J28 11:55PM
Retenes este fin de semana / Weekend checkpoints (26-28/jan/2012)
J26 4:05AM
Occupy Redlands Protests Citizens United Decision
J26 2:06AM
BREAKING: Five Arrested at Protest Outside HLS Office.
J24 2:45PM
RAISETHEFIST.COM MARKS 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF FBI RAID
J24 6:39AM
UCR Occupied in Defense of Education
J23 12:11AM
Homeless persons have no value to the authorities
J19 10:15PM
BREAKING: Students at UCR force regents to adjourn
J19 10:39AM
On MLK Day, Dedicate Ourselves for the Final Struggle for Justice and Equality
J16 8:11AM
More Local News...
Other/Breaking News
International Day of Solidarity with Leonard Peltier: Clemency Now!
F12 5:00PM
Mr.
F12 10:22AM
Live coverage from Greece: Manifestations in Athens, Thessaloniki
F12 9:07AM
Mr.
F12 9:03AM
Mr.
F12 9:00AM
To Get The 1% To Beg Us For Mercy.
F12 6:06AM
BTL: Sierra Club Secretly Took $26 million from Natural Gas Industry for Campaign Against
F12 5:50AM
Iran's Historic Anniversary
F12 1:05AM
Khader Adnan's Heroic Struggle for Justice
F12 12:40AM
Turkish daily: Turkey’s plan to finish off Assad
F11 4:06PM
In new window Print all Turkish daily: Turkey’s plan to finish off Assad
F11 3:55PM
Trump Cards, Fig Leafs and Ludicrous Insinuations
F11 9:23AM
NATO's Secret War on Syria
F11 1:20AM
America's Sham Economic Recovery
F11 12:52AM
Palabras para Agustín
F10 6:07PM
Wall Street Excess and Main Street Distress: the Apple Connection
F10 5:11PM
Sheriff Arpaio and Cronies Exposed in Federal Court
F10 2:45PM
RON PAUL SUPPORTS HR 210, FILVETS
F10 2:27PM
Nazi USA's military displays Nazi Germany's SS flag
F10 7:25AM
Duplicitous Mortgage Settlement Deal
F10 12:50AM
Murdering Khadar Adnan
F10 12:31AM
Factory Place Open Studio Sale
F09 6:22PM
The Shortwave Report 02/10 Listen Globally!
F09 5:30PM
Domestic Violence Is NOT a Gender Issue!
F09 4:06PM
La farce électorale
F09 9:13AM
Dominant Economy Pretends Its Breakdown Was Unforeseeable
F09 8:39AM
Petition to Cal Sec of State to list all Peace & Freedom Candidates
F09 8:33AM
Act Up Against ACTA
F09 1:57AM
More Breaking News...
|