Bad words and PC nonsense...

I had hoped to find one with just George Carlin's part, but after watching this, I now think that Richard Pryor's part is equally important. Whatever. They're arguably the two greatest comedians that ever lived, so I'm not going to quibble...



Watch this a few times if you don't get it. No one makes liguistic points like Carlin and NO comedian has a better command of the word "Nigger" than Pryor. It's important stuff, so make sure you understand it before going on...

Now...

I want to voice my grievance at all the PC Bullshit being unloaded yeatserday and today on Harry Reid by the Right and Michael Steele by the Left. Steele for using the phrase "Honest Injun" and Reid for predicting potential electoral success for Obama because (and I'm paraphrasing here) "he isn't TOO black."

Let me say, UNEQUIVOCABLY, that I don't believe either statement was RACIST, and neither man owes anyone an apology. (OK... Reid to Obama maybe. By my prez is cool, and he understood and forgave. That's what makes him strong and makes him the man of charecter that his is.)

First of all, let me deal with Steele's case, becuase it's the easier one. There are PLENTY of GOOD REASONS not to like Michael Steele. There are PLENTY of LEGITIMATE things that anyone on the Right OR the Left might criticize him for. Personally? I think he's an incompetant baffoon. (And there's no one I'd rather have running the show for the Pub's, except maybe GLENN BECK!) But calling him out for this is NOT ONE of those GOOD REASONS or LEGITIMATE CRITICISMS. It's nothing more than PC bullshit.

First off... was there even a single Native American who was actually bothered by this? If there was I sure as shell didn't hear any! So he used an outdated coloquialism. Was this poor judgement? In this (ridiculous) day and age, perhaps. But RACIST? How? Unless they were discussing a proposal that negatively impacted Native Americans and he was trying to joke his way out of it, of he just said SOME OTHER derrogatory things, and he was saying this as part of his apology? It's just an outdated phrase. If this is the exent of your evidence of racism, then you'd have to also admit that RIchard Pryor, Eddie Murphy and Chris ROck must HATE balck people: They actually CALL them "niggers" ALL THE TIME! And of course, that's just absurd, because it's like that great sage Saint Carlin said: CONTEXT! CONTEXT! Otehrwise it's just a bunch of white liberals acting like the 'PC Police' that the Right always paints us as!(Why do we let them do this?!)

So for christ's sake, please stop attacking Steele with this PC bullshit. Not only do I hate having to defend the asshole, but it distracts from all the other REALLY STUPID SHIT he and the Republicans have come to stand for. I was arguing this point on MMFA earlier today. And I stand by my posts there, including both the fact that his apology was unecessary, but also that he showed no charecter at all for the way he gave it. It should be pretty hard to screw up something that you shouldn't even have to do in the first palce, but boy... HE MANAGED IT. (I TOLD you he was a bafoon!)

Now... Reid's statement is a little more "out there." I can definitely see why people get up in arms about this. But what is Reid really saying? Is it any more than what Dr. Bill Cosby said a few years back? Is it any less true? And - and this is the most important thing - is it REALLY about BLACK PEOPLE, or does it say as much if not more about WHITE PEOPLE? Seems to me that Speaker Reid is lamenting (rightly or wrongly) not only the state of Black Leadership today, but also (much more to the point) the divide between blacks and whites. In suggesting that someone who was [PP] more black would not be electable... Well, for one thing: HE'S RIGHT. (Look at the Rev. Jessie Jackson in '88, or the Rev. Al Sharpton. Think either of THEM would stand a chance? And it's not like they can't speak, or use ghetto slang. They're just TOO BLACK.) Now... Reid is a bit out of touch here, to say the least. I'm not completely heartless, after all! I think his remarks COULD be considered very dismissive of the likes Alan Keyes, J.C. Watts, Gen. Colin Powell, Condeleeza Rice or for that matter Jackson or Sharpton, ALL of whom in some quarters, would be considered legitimate candidates by many people. Our first Black President? No, admittedly not likely. But Reid certainly missed the mark with all of them, luming them into the "Flavor Flav" category. OTOH... his larger point that what would hold them back is the lack of WHITE support that President Obama GOT (for whatever reason) is still valid.

In any case, he apologized to President Obama and the President forgave him. (Powell, Watts, Rice, Jackson, Sharpton and Keyes? Couldn't tell you. Probably not.) Funny thing though... Just as with Steele, it has not been THESE PEOPLE that have really been calling out Reid! It seems that MOST of the shouting has come from RW WHITE GUYS, and it has sounded pretty much like "If a Republican had said that (or if WE had said that) the Liberals would CRUCIFY him (or us)."

Here's the thing...

What Reid said: [he] "believed that the country was ready to embrace a black presidential candidate" like Obama who is "a 'light-skinned' African American 'with no Negro dialect.'

OK... definitely not winning any sensitivity awards here, definitely not the most enlightened statement he's ever made, but I still think that DR. BILL COSBY would hear this and pretty much be nodding his head in agreement. (Bill, if you're reading this, I love you, man! If I'm way off base here, by all means LET ME KNOW!) And again, it's as much an admission of linergering racism on the part of whites a it is any kind of statement about blacks.

And the thing is... if someone on the RIGHT had said it, it would have probably sounded more like this:

[We] "believe the country might be ready to embrace a black presidential candidate, assuming there was one without that Negro dialect."

Or some such thing. And you know what? They probably think they were the same! Kind of like Rush Limbaugh saying that "the NFL and NBA look like the bloods versus the crypts" is somehow 'the same' as Rev Sharpton commenting on how sports has developed a "culture of violence."

The thing is: If a black person wants to take Reid to task? Fine. Go right ahead. If Obama was ticked. Thas cool. (I can't imagine it, but whatever.) Hell, if ANY liberal or someone with a relatively enlightened view on race wanted to call him out (or ME for that matter!) I'M TOTALLY FINE WITH THAT!

What I don't need is some crusty old white guy, from a party which, for the last 40 some years, has brought into it all of the racist, white south following the civil rights movement, and who have a history of racially charged rhetoric and policy, telling ME or ANY LIBERAL or DEMOCRAT that they're being racist. What's next? Michael Vick telling me I don't walk my dog often enough?

Reid's words were poorly chosen, as were Steele's. But in and of themselves, neither is evidence that either man is a racist. The brouhaha over Steele shows just how PC and absurd some liberals are getting, and the Right calling out Reid is just another shallow attempt on their part to hide their own hypocrisy on the issue by distracting the attention away from them.

They do this A LOT. Projecting is all the Right is really any good at! It's their whole strategy. So DON'T LET THEM DO THIS! It's time we got over both remaarks and moved on. As I said before, there's plenty of things wrong with Michael Steele, and there's certainly no shortage of people on either side of the ailse who also think that there's plenty of things wrong with Hary Reid. But THESE STATEMENTS are not among these things!

Don't let the Right have their victory by projecting racism onto US, or by letting them portray US as the "PC Police." No good will come of that. Get over it. Move on. What's at stake is FAR MORE IMPORTANT than this.