Harry Reid in hot water over quote

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by bignasty

Is Harry Reid color blind?
It is funny how some people flip flop on the issues.

No one is saying he is. The point is that his statement was about the racial climate in America and not a racist statement about Obama. There is a not so subtle difference.

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by bignasty

How about when someone ACCURATELY lists teen pregnancy rates, crime rates, and graduation rates in a particular community?

The problem is when that particular community is targeted while teen pregnancy, crime, and low graduation rates in the general population are ignored. It reminds me of that new LMN movie about the teen pregnancy pact among the white girls. That movie would look completely different if it was Black or Hispanic. People would not be shocked. There were teen pregnancy pacts at my Black high school in the late 80s and early 90s.

Whites are still the population and power majority in this country. Blacks have disproportionately high rates of particular social problems including crime and poverty. That's not to be confused with media inaccuracies like "Blacks commit most crimes" and "Blacks receive most of the social welfare."

If people want to talk about statistics and ACCURATE interpretations of statistics in their proper context, fine. If they want to offend, fuck off.

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by bignasty

I think you are confusing "targeted" with "accurately reported."

My post went completely over your head.

[DaemonSeid]

This just can't get any worse (or dumber)....or can it?

You decide.

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by DaemonSeid

This just can't get any worse (or dumber)....or can it?

You decide.

That was political satire. You almost tricked me.

[agzg]

Originally Posted by DrPhil

That was political satire. You almost tricked me.

If not for the title, and the article, I would have been tricked.

[Low C Sharp]

Harry Reid said "Negro dialect" and that phrasing has many things built in.

It does, but one way to read his use of that phrase is that he was highlighting the extreme reaction some bigots would have to a Snoop-Dogg-esque presidential speech. In other words, he was describing what might go on in the mind of a prejudiced voter. I agree with the president that this phrasing was clumsy, because it could be misinterpreted to mean that Harry Reid thinks it's still OK to call black people Negroes.

CALLING someone a Negro in 2010 would have a very different ring to it than referring to Negro dialect when you're discussing the prejudice of some white voters.
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[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by Low C Sharp

It does, but one way to read his use of that phrase is that he was highlighting the extreme reaction some bigots would have to a Snoop-Dogg-esque presidential speech. In other words, he was describing what might go on in the mind of a prejudiced voter. I agree with the president that this phrasing was clumsy, because it could be misinterpreted to mean that Harry Reid thinks it's still OK to call black people Negroes.

CALLING someone a Negro in 2010 would have a very different ring to it than referring to Negro dialect when you're discussing the prejudice of some white voters.

Translation: Harry Reid said "Negro dialect" and that phrasing has many things built in.

[dreamseeker]

i loooove me some free cheese! i mean, i'm supposed to work to support my 7 kids?!

[Psi U MC Vito]

Only after you pull your pants up.

[Low C Sharp]

Was there a time when people referred to BVE or AAVE as "Negro Dialect"?

Yes.

Was Reid just lapsing into the terminology in vogue when he was in college for the very specific thing he meant: Obama's use of consistent use of Standard English in contrast with AAVE?

Maybe. He may also have been trying to explain the mindset of bigoted voters by using the language they would use. Republicans are crowing about a third possibility, that he's an ignoramus or a racist who thought it was OK to call black people Negroes in 2008. If that were the case, though, he would surely have revealed it before then. People who are that ignorant stick their feet in their mouths all the time, not once in 40 years.
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[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by Low C Sharp

Yes.



Maybe. He may also have been trying to explain the mindset of bigoted voters by using the language they would use. Republicans are crowing about a third possibility, that he's an ignoramus or a racist who thought it was OK to call black people Negroes in 2008. If that were the case, though, he would surely have revealed it before then. People who are that ignorant stick their feet in their mouths all the time, not once in 40 years.

I don't think the first explanation is that plausible because "Negro Dialect" would be very unlikely to be the term used by bigoted voters today. I'm not saying that they would use something more racist, just that I don't think most Americans use "Negro" period today. And when the term would have been popular and acceptable, a bigoted voter would have used something worse.

I think the Republicans trying to equate this with Trent Lott, etc, are way overplaying this, but I don't have complete confidence that every ignorant thing said by influential Democrats in the last 40 years has been widely reported.

And Reid isn't from a state where race would have loomed particularly large the way it does in the south for it to have come up that much. Sure, race comes up in DC too, but how frequently has Harry Reid had to comment in any kind of unscripted way?

I certainly am not trying to claim he's a bigot or way out of the loop, just that I'm not sure a complete pass makes sense either, based on the assumption that he would have tipped his hand before.

It was a weird choice of words.

[KSig RC]

Originally Posted by Low C Sharp

He may also have been trying to explain the mindset of bigoted voters by using the language they would use.

Is this really the null hypothesis?

If that were the case, though, he would surely have revealed it before then. People who are that ignorant stick their feet in their mouths all the time, not once in 40 years.

This is demonstrably false, either way, and a terrible basis for conclusion.

[DrPhil]

Haha. Leave it up to KSigRC to break it down like that.

[srmom]

I agree with the president that this phrasing was clumsy, because it could be misinterpreted to mean that Harry Reid thinks it's still OK to call black people Negroes.

CALLING someone a Negro in 2010 would have a very different ring to it than referring to Negro dialect when you're discussing the prejudice of some white voters.

I guess the Census Bureau thought it was OK too.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...n/6814629.html

Even though “Negro” was on previous census forms, and despite the approval of its use this year by the bureau's African American Advisory Committee, demands are flying to ditch the forms and print new ones.

With questionnaires scheduled to be sent out March 1, that is not likely to happen. But the bureau has agreed to send out about 30,000 questionnaires without the word to test the response.

“Negro” has remained on the form because the population counters kept getting forms back with the word written in — more than 55,000 in the 2000 Census — even though it was included as one of the selections. That suggested that some blacks still preferred the term and had not noticed it as a third choice.

The point was to be as inclusive as possible, to make sure the racial demographics were as accurate as could be, the bureau says.

“The Census Bureau included the term ‘Negro' because testing prior to Census 2000 indicated that numbers of respondents self-identified with this term,” the U.S. Census Bureau said in a news release.

What a strange world we live in. It would be nice if people could just agree to what is offensive and what's not, and then help us all keep up with the changes.