The death of democrat Robert Byrd, the longest-serving member of the Senate, will prompt many eulogies praising his great service to this country and mankind. Which is, to put it kindly, a bunch of crap.
It is to our country's credit, but also our great detriment, that racial equality has progressed so far that almost nobody remembers what real racism is. Which is why Barack Obama can accuse a white policeman of "stupidity" and racism for simply asking a black man for identification when caught in the act of breaking into a house.
So here's a "teachable moment" on racism.
Racism exists when a political party can celebrate a man like Robert Byrd who was a "Kleagle" and then an "Exalted Cyclops" in the Ku Klux Klan...a hooded vigilante movement that resolved racial tensions by lynchings and murders of blacks and civil rights activists.
And rather than tar Senator Byrd through association with a violent, racist group, lets consider his own words during World War II: "I shall never fight in the armed forces with a Negro by my side... Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds."
Oh, but that was a long time ago - right? Byrd mellowed over the years and saw the error of his ways - right?
Well sure, if you don't count him referring to impoverished Caucasians as "White Niggers" when being interviewed just a few years ago.
But because he was a democrat, there was no outcry from the left. None. Don Imus lost a multi-million dollar job for saying "nappy headed ho's," but for Byrd to talk about niggers was simply a charming affectation of a gentleman from the Old South.
So as the mainstream media and Washington insiders sing the praises of this vile little man, keep in mind that the liberal elite will happily embrace any racist as long as his Senate vote can be counted on. Democrats betray their black constituency with such regularity and enthusiasm that it's surprising that they don't officially have "Kleagles" and "Exalted Cyclops" as party positions.
And if you disagree, Mr. Obama, what do you say we meet for a beer?
14 comments:
Good idea Stilt - but bring your own beer..
I'm nothing but pleased that this tired old turd has gone to his 'reward' - surely a suite he can share w/ Ted Kennedy... Of all the useless grifting self important bung holes out there, he was the Grand Master. It is not unreasonable to blame the entire culture of pork and earmarks on this man's influence - 'after all, if Byrd can get away with it...'
Like Kennedy, the Senate, country, and humanity in general is better off w/o him.
John Conyors next?
More revisionist history. Wake up, black America...this president and the Democratic party are NOT on your side.
Nothing screams KKK like the liberal agenda.
Sadly, the cultural message from the left and increasingly from the alleged moderate middle, is that only white republicans are racist. Everyone else is a victim.
Well, let's not forget about Obama's "typical white woman" grandmother who threw out racial slurs which made Barry "cringe." When liberals do it, it's not called racism- it's "awareness of reactions to cultural differences."
Typical liberals.
Good Lord! Sometimes visuals really hit you in the head. And this one certainly does!
Very funny Stilton!
This country is race-weary. I know I am. I grew up "not seeing color" but now its like we are all forced to, daily. We can't respect one another as equal humans when one race or the other are constantly being belitted or exalted by the government.
Coming from a family with the dubious distinction of having a significant portion of the blackpopulation in the area of our ancestral home sharing our last name, I can tel you absolutely that racism of the worst kind was certainly real, before and after the "war of Northern Oppression" as my forbears used to call it. The same attitudes still prevail in the backwoods, and to a greater degree in the cities, being encouraged by the victimization thesis and the "dumbass white folks" response to government programs intended to maintain the separation of the races. Used to be the plantation owners maintaining separation. Now its liberal whites constantly instructing one group to feel imprisoned by skin color, and the other group to feel guilty over sins of past generations, probably for all eternity.
Let the Democrats celebrate this icon of their corrupt legacy. There are few better examples to show what they are really about.
Wikipedia on Byrd:
Byrd joined the Ku Klux Klan when he was 24 in 1942. His local chapter unanimously elected him the top officer of their unit.[10]
According to Byrd, a Klan official told him, "You have a talent for leadership, Bob ... The country needs young men like you in the leadership of the nation." Byrd later recalled, "suddenly lights flashed in my mind! Someone important had recognized my abilities! I was only 23 or 24 years old, and the thought of a political career had never really hit me. But strike me that night, it did."[10] Byrd held the titles Kleagle (recruiter) and Exalted Cyclops.[10]
In 1944, Byrd wrote to segregationist Mississippi senator Theodore Bilbo:[17]
“ I shall never fight in the armed forces with a Negro by my side ... Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds. ”
— Robert C. Byrd, in a letter to Sen. Theodore Bilbo (D-MS), 1944, [10][18]
In 1946 or 1947 he wrote a letter to a Grand Wizard stating, "The Klan is needed today as never before and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia and in every state in the nation."[19]. However, when running for the United States House of Representatives in 1952, he announced "After about a year, I became disinterested, quit paying my dues, and dropped my membership in the organization. During the nine years that have followed, I have never been interested in the Klan." He said he had joined the Klan because he felt it offered excitement and was anti-communist.[10]
In 1997, he told an interviewer he would encourage young people to become involved in politics, but to "Be sure you avoid the Ku Klux Klan. Don't get that albatross around your neck. Once you've made that mistake, you inhibit your operations in the political arena."[20] In his latest autobiography, Byrd explained that he was a member because he "was sorely afflicted with tunnel vision—a jejune and immature outlook—seeing only what I wanted to see because I thought the Klan could provide an outlet for my talents and ambitions."[21] Byrd also said, in 2005,
“ I know now I was wrong. Intolerance had no place in America. I apologized a thousand times ... and I don't mind apologizing over and over again. I can't erase what happened. ”
— Robert C. Byrd,
Seems to me he spent quite some time in the Klan, and was still using some of their language and terms right to the end. Or maybe the term "white niggers" is accepted if you are not a Republican? Actualy his early rhetoric is closely comparble to good old Reverend Wright, on the flip side...
The rules are so confusing these days. I'm expecting more phone calls from people of color living in my old home town, telling me where to send my reparations check. Trouble is, the only call forwarding option I've got is to some Welsh mining villages where rich Englishmen came in the 1700's to buy young boys to work in their coal mines in the Colonies, which is how my ancestors got to America, eventually worked off their indentures, and became cotton farmers and in their turn buying young blacks to work the farms.... Kinda what goes around comes around. Now its big corporations worldwide using China's slave labor to get their goods manufactured. Probably Byrd would be calling them "little yellow niggers" if he wasn't taking his well deserved and long awaited dirt nap.
Front Woodsman- another great post, and we thank you. And leave us not forget that in 1964, Senator Byrd delivered a 14+ hour speech against enactment of the Civil Rights Act.
But in today's cockeyed world, smiling AARP-aged people who simply wave American flags and hold signs saying "Balance the Budget" are declared to be unredeemable racists...while Obama and the dems deny blacks the ability to send their children to schools that actually work.
Liberalism is the New Plantation...and though the people in power consider themselves to be "Good Massahs,"if they truly believed in equal rights they would concede that blacks don't need "Massahs" of any kind...they need freedom and respect, the same as everyone else.
Handouts from the govt ruin lives...I am of Native American descent and it has affected adversely many native americans. People do not appreciate the help, rather they come to expect it, its only human to do that. Doesnt make it right, some people never learn to stand on their own two feet. Maybe they wouldnt have without the govt handouts, but I have seen tooo many people with the entitlement mentality fail in life, whatever the cause. Racism is flat wrong in any form. Matter of fact, i have thought of govt checks as a form of racism over some ethnic groups, even though it was probably started as a good thing way back when.
Pryorguy you have a point about the racism thing!!! I have always thought there were plenty of volunteer charity groups in the country to help those truly in need. If the government would just step back out of the way, I'm confident our churches and charities could handle all the TRULY destitute in our country...and everyone else could just get up and make something of themselves. And no race would have to play a part, especially not favoritism from the government.
Pryorguy- you say "I have thought of govt checks as a form of racism over some ethnic groups, even though it was probably started as a good thing way back when."
EXACTLY. And some of us are actually old enough to remember "way back when," and have seen for ourselves the longterm difference between "good intentions" and "good outcomes."
When Byrd gave his 14 hour speech against equal rights for black citizens, I was 12 years old...and even then I knew that what Byrd and the racists like him were saying was very, very wrong.
I saw the government programs put in place that were supposed to help, and I enthusiastically supported them. But over the course of 40 years, I saw those very policies destroy black families and force them into a soul-destroying dependency as bad as any conceivable slavery.
And this is why age really does give important perspective...and why Obama primarily targeted his presidential campaign to the young and blissfully clueless.
At the very least, you would expect Barack Obama to try to heal racial divides, and truly help the plight of black citizens. But it isn't happening and never will, as long as liberals believe that they have more to gain from ethnic dependency than ethnic equality.
Which is why, to his dying day, Klan member Robert Byrd felt right at home among the Democrats.
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