It's about character, Jeff.

My kind of negro

Slurs fly from the left

By Jeff Jacoby, Globe Columnist | December 28, 2005

NOTHING BRINGS OUT RACIST slurs like an ambitious black man who doesn't know his ''place." So when Maryland's lieutenant governor, Michael Steele, announced his candidacy for the US Senate recently, the bigots reared up. On one popular website, The News Blog, Steele's picture was grotesquely doctored, making him look like a minstrel-show caricature. ''I's Simple Sambo and I's Running for the Big House," read the insulting headline accompanying the picture.

This wasn't some white supremacist slime from the right-wing fringe. The News Blog is a liberal site, and the reason for its racist attack on Steele, a former chairman of the Maryland Republican Party, is that he is a conservative. Specifically, a black conservative. As far as too many liberals are concerned, blacks who reject liberalism deserve to be smeared as Sambos and worse.

''Black Democratic leaders in Maryland say that racially tinged attacks against Lt. Gov. Michael Steele . . . are fair because he is a conservative Republican," The Washington Times reported. ''Such attacks . . . include pelting him with Oreo cookies during a campaign appearance, calling him an 'Uncle Tom,' and depicting him as a blackfaced minstrel."

Once upon a time, segregationists excoriated white liberals as ''nigger lovers." Today, racist insults in the political arena are more likely to come from the left -- and to target black conservatives. When Harry Belafonte was asked in August about the fact that black Americans hold prominent positions in the Bush administration, his response was to call them ''black tyrants" -- and then to make a sickening (and ignorant) comparison: ''Hitler had a lot of Jews high up in the hierarchy of the Third Reich."

I sent this his way: jacoby@globe.com.


Jeff,

I know it thrills white conservatives to call black people who express their opinions racist, or define what they say as hate speech, while ignoring the racist rantings of Michelle Malkin and Little Green Footballs, but I really fail to see your point about one black man attacking the lack of character of another black man,. much less you not even having the courtesy to ask me why I wrote the piece

Why bother asking questions when you can make up the answers?

But tell me this: why do the vast majority of black Americans hold people like Michael Steele in utter and complete contempt. Why are there no black Republicans in Congress from black areas?

Do not pretend that Steele's opinions doesn't reflect all but the smallest minority of black political thought, because we both know it does.

And it's not liberals, it's the black community. You can pretend it's just us liberals, but you could pretty much walk up to most African-Americans in Boston and ask them what they thought of people like Steele. Their answers would be far less poilite.

Black conservatives are exiled from the black community for one reason: they lack the character to defend that community. Michael Steele had not a word to say when Bob Erlich went to an all-white country club. Why should black people support a man afraid to challenge people on basic decency. Black Democrats were critical when Baltimore mayor O'Malley did the same.

Black conservatives ran to defend Bill Bennett as well, to the horror of the wider community.

What I wrote merely reflected community consensus, one you had no idea which existed, as if you think about black people at all.

Let's be honest, without white patrons like you, Michael Steele would be sitting in ignominy, not running for Senate. But then, people like him make you feel comfortable. You don't have to confront your own racism because there is always a black face to pat you on the hand and make you feel warm and comfy, just like in the good old days. The fact that most African Americans hold such people beneath contempt is of no concern to you, since black opinion is of no concern to you.

But answer this question: what would you think about Jewish politicians who sought the favor of Islamic radicals. Would you want that person to represent you?

----Steve Gilliard
The News Blog

posted by Steve @ 7:25:00 AM