Mike Huckabee's bad NRA joke about pointing guns at Obama (or how far have we not come)

Bear with me people, I've had one or two frosty beers tonight and I'm feeling a little fired up.

First of all: this.

Second of all: Mike Huckabee, you're an asshat. Not just an asshat, you are the Asshat Master of All Time, Space, and Dimension. What kind of a Christian minister makes jokes about people getting shot? But, as Bill Moyers recently pointed out, white ministers get a pass while Black ministers get held to a different standard. Can you imagine the outcry if Jeremiah Wright had cracked a joke like that about a white candidate?

Double standard much?

When Hillary Clinton talks about uneducated white folks liking her better, for me, that's mystifying. To stand up and say something like that in the United States of America in this day and age as if it's something to be proud of? Really? When I hear about exit polls from West Virginia and that people said things like "I could never vote for a person of that race" or "Well, his name is 'Hussein'..." or that 51% of West Virginians polled think Obama shares Wright's beliefs, it sickens me. I guess it does matter to me how West Virginia votes.

If I were Hillary Clinton, rather than stand up and say that she's a more viable candidate because a certain segment of the white population seems to prefer her, why doesn't she stand up and say, "What the fuck is wrong with this country that in this day and age this is still an issue?" Yes, yes. She does throw in the word "race" every time she talks about how she struggles against the gender bias issue but it's not the same.

Why am I making it about race?

Because it IS ABOUT RACE.  Let's not pussyfoot around it anymore: race is a factor in this Democratic presidential race. Not for everyone, but for some.

When I hear about why "blue collar whites" won't vote for Obama, it saddens me. It's not just about the issues. I can't help but think it's at least partially about race. It is, or else how else could Huckabee stand up in front of the NRA and crack a disgusting joke like that. And laugh. Why does it make me so angry? Because it's disturbing, and it plays upon my greatest fear about this entire presidential race right now.

It's also disturbing because having grown up in a culturally diverse environment in a progressive household in blue states, I can't even begin to wrap my brain around how much about race this is. I have no first hand experience with what it's like to grow up in the south or in a town with only white people in it or in a red state.

Are all "blue collar whites" racist? No. Of course not, but let's not fool ourselves into believing that is isn't about race at all. Let's talk about what might be about race and try to get past that. Let's continue the dialog that Barack Obama himself started. How can we expect countries like Iraq or Israel or Sudan to buck up and settle their differences peacefully when the same kinds of fears are prevalent within our own borders and we don't even have the "they've been at it for thousands of years" excuse to fall back on.

Let's open our hearts and minds to what is possible and stop tolerating hate and bigotry. Let's stop using it as a political weapon.

This is America, dammit.

Comments

[Lauren]

I've been disappointed, too, in Hillary not speaking out against the racism that's been in play.

Recently, Bill Moyers did a fantastic interview on MPR, and spoke a great deal about this primary season. It's WELL worth a listen.

[jen]

I am completely and utterly disgusted by Huckabee. Your post is right on, sister.

How dare he. How dare we tolerate the continued racism in this election.

It's utter bullshit.

[Jozet]

Barack stood up in San Fransisco and said exactly the same thing; that he didn't think that people in small town Pennsylvania (aka white folks) would vote for him because they couldn't get beyond the fact that he was a black man.

Personally, as someone from a small town in PA, I just couldn't and still can't get beyond his bigotry. Nor any of the candidates. But there we are.

I don't here anyone saying that this isn't about race at all. I do hear people saying that only small town, blue collar whites are racists and that's just not true. It's what the MSM wants us to focus on, and so we are falling into the trap hook line and sinker.

Believe me, I've sat in enough rooms with very well educated people, both liberal and conservative, and have heard racists or xenophobic comments and jokes. But it's easy to pick out the poor, uneducated people and hold them up to ridicule; however, I think it's a case of "Oh no! Race is an issue and let's point the spotlight somewhere else before it gets pointed at us; because we can do that, because we have the power to do that and they don't." It's easy to point out the people who are the caricatures of racism, and hope that the subtle racism of the elite and educated classes pales (no pun intended) so far in comparison as to be completely white washed (pun intended.) It's just as likely that educated racists are smart enough to know how to not sound like racists. But it's still there.

You can't talk about racism without talking bout classism and the power - not necessarily the smarts or the morals - that comes with education and money.

And because someone votes for a black man, this does not magically absolve or prove that this person is not a racist. Racism is just part of the bones of our society and our power structures are steeped in it - to whatever extent anyone benefits from the "fruits" of racism past and present, there is hand-washing to be done. I think there is great danger in thinking that if a black man is elected, that somehow racism has retreated further into the small towns and huddled masses. It hasn't and it won't.

I hate to get all Biblical here, but part of the problem with pointing fingers at the huddled class is that there are just as many planks to remove from the eyes of even our own elite (I didn't say elitist) candidates - all of them - before they start picking motes out of the eyes of the simple folk who - if you believe what Obama said is true (even if I don't) - will pick out their own motes if you just offer them real solution beyond their guns and gods.

I have experience living in a small, all white town, and in racially and culturally diverse, poor inner city neighborhood, as well as at an elite, New England University. There is racism everywhere. Again, some people are just better at hiding it with multi-syllabic words.

[Karoli]

Personally, I wish everyone would leave their 'isms' at the door and pick up their brains before entering the voting booth. Today I have been treated to enough idiocy to convince me that either the mainstream media has way too much time on its hands and is sending reporters to dig up rocks in Kentucky, or I've overestimated the educational system in this country.

Huckabee's remark was monumentally stupid. To his credit, however, he at least understood how stupid it was and apologized. In writing. Something others haven't done, no matter how many opportunities they've been given.

[CityMama/Stefania]

Jozet, that is so NOT what Barack Obama said in San Francisco. Please provide a link to what you think he said that isn't some riff off of a Fox News interpretation.

Obama said that his campaign workers had more difficulty convincing people in small towns where the jobs left a long time ago that a message of hope and change would work for them. He never mentioned white people, and the fact you are trying to twist and then equate his remarks with the real bigotry that goes on in this country is, well, frustrating.

I also hope that you aren't insinuating that people are voting for him to appease their "white guilt." I don't think that's why my 67yo, old wave feminist, Korean-American mom is voting for him. It's not why I--as a multicultural person LIKE BARACK--am voting for him.

When 75,000 people show up to hear him speak, that is not because they want to (not to get Biblical) "wash their hands" of their inner racism, but because they are inspired. Why can't Hillary supporters--I mean: people--see that for what it is? See that for how powerfully GOOD it is? Are they wrong? Stupid? Ignorant? Being duped?

I understand that you don't like Obama--I think I've read some version of your comment above on many of our pro-Obama posts--I'm just not sure what point you keep trying to make.

[jen]

Stefania, you wrote: When 75,000 people show up to hear him speak, that is not because they want to (not to get Biblical) "wash their hands" of their inner racism, but because they are inspired. Why can't Hillary supporters--I mean: people--see that for what it is? See that for how powerfully GOOD it is?

and I'm all wildly clapping. Watching him climb that stage with his family, his little girls, look out into that sea of people and begin his speech, his speech about doing what's right for America...and i am amazed at what we are witnessing.

[CityMama/Stefania]

Jen, me too, mama me too. These photos made me cry huge splashy tears. Full on sobbing with joy and happiness. Esp the one with his daughters. Imagine what they must be thinking!
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article3961317.ece

[Debbie]

I'm glad you took this topic, S. I tried but it was dismal and anyway, I didn't want to post it on top of Erin's coup of an interview with Barack. You did it up.

Stupid, stupid Huckabee. Sick gross Republican sickos.

[Jozet]

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0408/Video_from_San_Francisco.html

"And when it's delivered by — it's true that when it's delivered by a 46-year-old black man named Barack Obama (laugher), then that adds another layer of skepticism."

That smug, arrogant remark and the laughter after it says a lot. In fact, I had read the transcript before and felt angered, but when I saw that video for the first time tonight, my head almost exploded.

Which part was the meaningless part of that quote? That small town Americans can't get past his youth? That there is a reverse ageism? Or that they can't get past the fact that he's black, because small town America is white? Or that they can't get past the fact that his name isn't John Doe, because their last names are Pziewicz and they are afraid of people with funny names from foreign countries?

"Why can't Hillary supporters--I mean: people--see that for what it is? See that for how powerfully GOOD it is? Are they wrong? Stupid? Ignorant? Being duped?"

I hope, that with this rhetorical device, that you aren't insinuating that me and the other few women who read and post on this site and who are Hillary supporters and who don't agree that Obama is the best thing for this country nor that he is above his own brand of classism and racicm - as any of the candidates are not - are stupid, ignorant, and being duped?

That right there, that kind of insinuation is what I and other Hillary supporters have been putting up with for the past long months, and it continues. And here it is again. That is what I don't like from the Obama campaign. It's not as simple (or even true) to sum up what I am saying as "You don't like Obama." Simple "like" is how prom queens should get voted in, not Presidents.

I'm saying that people are complex.

I'm saying that one act of voting for one person in and of itself is not evidence that anyone is anything more than a person who wants to vote for that one person. I get that these are all opinion pieces trying to reckon the sound bites of people both famous and not in why they are voting the way they are and from that extrapolating Who "These People" Are. I think the danger there goes both ways - in thinking that one vote is any more evidence that any one person is or is not anything. That a bunch of sound bites from people spewing racist comments is evidence that people not spewing racist comments are also not racist when they only may be better educated socially in how to not sound racist.

I'm saying that the danger is in thinking that if Obama is elected, that this is some evidence that racism has been abolished from that voting bracket - the educated, wealthy, urban-living, just as not voting for Obama is being presented as somehow indicative of being wrong, stupid, ignorant or being duped.

Racism is not just active words and actions. It is also passive. Racism is classism. Racism is people of all colors moving out of inner city and other poor neighborhoods and essentially creating apartheid in our school systems instead of sticking around and working from within in any hands-on way, as parents, as educators, as people who believe in equality of worth strongly enough to say "my children are no more or less worthy to receive a good education than these children" and and then not just talking the talk, but then walking the walk as a person of power (most likely white and/or male and/or educated and/or not poor) in our society by keeping their kids in "difficult" schools (mostly black and poor schools).

Passive racism is what will keep bringing this country down if all we keep pointing fingers to is the easy "active" racism of loud-mouthed, uneducated people.

Let me ask: How many poor, uneducated, black mothers are reading and posting on this site?

No, they may not have easy access to computers...is that a reason or an excuse?

Yes, say we are speaking for them, "giving them voice"...but why not do the harder, hands on work to get them here - or any high-profile liberal discussion sites - and give them the dignity of speaking for themselves in whatever words their education has afforded them, and giving those thoughts and opinions equal time and respect and worth?

[Jozet]

Sorry, I missed this:

"I think I've read some version of your comment above on many of our pro-Obama posts--I'm just not sure what point you keep trying to make."

Evidently, I'm not articulate enough to make it well without being frustrating, so I will respectfully drop it.

[Jozet]

"Please provide a link to what you think he said that isn't some riff off of a Fox News interpretation."

Oh...and I missed that part, too.

I missed the part where I was being accused of being a Fox News junkie and not being able to think for myself.

I'll sign out for good for now. It's disheartening when the Daily Kos meme has made its way to Momocrats.

[Julie Pippert]

Stefania, it is about racism and sexism. All of the subtle points and the "can you vote for a black man? a white woman?" points too.

Joanne wrote a fabulous article addressing the sexism points and now you have on the racism.

IT with your comment that it's about the issues and what the candidate represents on the ISSUES, not anything to do with what the candidate represents wrt elements beyond his or her control such as race and gender.

[cynematic]

Getting back to Huckabee and his asshattery--he surprised me for a moment when he said he didn't hold Obama to Rev. Wright's views. For a millisecond, I thought, Can Huckabee actually be a reasonable person?

Now he comes out with this morbid and disturbing "joke" about Obama ducking so he doesn't get shot. I'm glad he apologized, but it seems like Huckabee was pandering to the NRA/GOP crowd he was in front of. Which leads me to the bigger question: why is it okay to reach for any low race/gender/class-wise, when you're among the GOP? Says a lot about the GOP and what they think is okay, doesn't it?

I read that the so-called "joke" fell flat among the NRA folks. And no wonder, gun aficianados take safety and preventing gun accidents pretty seriously.

[brett]

people, it was just a joke leave it at that.