Is Carter right to label Obama row 'racist'?

[RSS News]

Jimmy Carter says much of the vitriol against Obama's reform plans is "based on racism". Do you agree?

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[Dimentio]

Evidently. But most of that vitriol is based on fears of emasculation, not so much grounded in reality as in cultural stereotypes.

[rednordman]

Why do I get the feeling that this is a beginning of another race war? Im saying this after Kanye Wests reaction at the MTV VMAs aswell. The topic starter has posed a very big question. Is it really the case that a lot of people in the USA (or even world) actually resented the thought of a black president? If so, then why? As far as I see it, Obama was quite simply, the best man for the job (I do not support the system of western liberal democracy though).

People will say alot about all this, but I do wonder whether if a white man had been proposing these health reforms, people would have reacted so badly? If i was an american leftist, i would be so pissed of with peoples ridiculous, over the top antics to his proposals. You could be forgiven into thinking that the nation was about to go to civil war or something, or that Obama was some kind of tyrant.

@dementio: Thats true for sure, but it still doesnt that away from the fact that these people still believe what they believe. How can people get taught that not everytime a person of colour is successfull, its due to total positive discrimination?

[brigadista]

isnt joe wilson the rep from south carolina ? and isnt south carolina one of the "dixie" states? looks like it to me

[Raúl Duke]

isnt joe wilson the rep from south carolina ? and isnt south carolina one of the "dixie" states? looks like it to me

Yes, he's from one of the dixie states plus I heard (although I'm not sure if it's all true; I've only skimmed through this) a few dodgy things about him supporting having the confederate flag being in the SC capitol, being a member of an organization that has something to do with I suppose protecting the historical legacy of the confederacy, and a bit about him denying that someone, who's black, was the related to some other very racist senator, etc

[Dimentio]

Why do I get the feeling that this is a beginning of another race war? Im saying this after Kanye Wests reaction at the MTV VMAs aswell. The topic starter has posed a very big question. Is it really the case that a lot of people in the USA (or even world) actually resented the thought of a black president? If so, then why? As far as I see it, Obama was quite simply, the best man for the job (I do not support the system of western liberal democracy though).

People will say alot about all this, but I do wonder whether if a white man had been proposing these health reforms, people would have reacted so badly? If i was an american leftist, i would be so pissed of with peoples ridiculous, over the top antics to his proposals. You could be forgiven into thinking that the nation was about to go to civil war or something, or that Obama was some kind of tyrant.

@dementio: Thats true for sure, but it still doesnt that away from the fact that these people still believe what they believe. How can people get taught that not everytime a person of colour is successfull, its due to total positive discrimination?

I have encountered numerous such types who would claim that about Obama. What they have in common is fear. An irrational fear of losing their autonomy and their "masculinity" by being shown as less intelligent or articulate by someone else. They hold a rural petty-bourgeois outlook which they take a certain pride in. Think that in the USA, a lot of the countryside has been reduced to culturally desolate wastelands where opportunities for having a future shrinken for every passing year. It is hardly surprising that such an environment is generating right-wing chauvinism.