Thursday, September 4, 2008

Breaking the code

Remember when I made note of the fact that commentators and conservatives were coming perilously close to calling Barack Obama "uppity"?

Well, Georgia Republican Rep. Lynn Westmoreland went ahead and crossed the line earlier today.

Look, as a 30-year-old black man from the South, I'm getting much better at understanding how to break the code. It's a defense mechanism. "Arrogant," "elitist" and Rudy G's new barb "cosmopolitan," were the old standbys until Westmoreland veered from the playbook and ran an audible.

Understandably and sensibly, Obama's camp didn't make note of the racially tinged rhetoric here. But they didn't have to. Westmoreland and others like him are finally revealing themselves to us. And they look mighty familiar to many black folks.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

DAMN! That's some foolishness. Did you read in that linked story that Kentucky Rep. Geoff Davis referred to Obama as "boy." I guess no matter how much education you get or how far you come up, some folks feel like the only place for a black man is their shoes.

blackink said...

I've heard and read that, indeed. And all it does is confirm why conservatives tend not to have any credibility.

I mean, this is an elected member of Congress who supports John McCain. Can you imagine an Obama surrogate calling Sarah Palin a "gal" or a "bitch"? The outcry from the right would be overwhelming.

I'm almost speechless when it comes to the audacity of those people.