Harry Reid in hot water over quote

[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.