Sweet, McCain rally boots the black reporter and the womanFollow

I would suggest that the folks who view anything negative done to a black person as automatically motivated by race instead of whatever other conditions may be present are the racists. If you use that sort of logic, then that's you kiddo...



Right. The white candidate not only can't do normal things like booting people from areas they aren't supposed to be in, but are automatically responsible for a third party doing it. Got it! But only if the person in question is black, and you're white.

But that's not racist?



No. It really doesn't. Obama saying that his opponents are hateful of him because of his skin color *is* much much much moreso. The only reason you'd fail to see this is if you yourself are judging things differently based on the skin colors of the people involved. Which makes you... wait for it... a racist.



He wasn't kicked out. He was removed from a section he wasn't supposed to be in. Exactly like if you buy terrace tickets at an event and try to sit in the mezzanine. It's not racist for someone to notice you aren't supposed to be in the section you're in and moves you to where you're supposed to be.



Er? It was the damn secret service that removed the reporter. Not someone hired by the locals for the event. You're correct. Whoever was manning the entry to that section dropped the ball. A whopping 4 minutes later a secret service member realized this and went into that section to remove people who weren't supposed to be there. One of them happened to be black and happened to make a big fuss about it.

Who was wrong? The guys doing their job? At the end of the day, that reporter was in a section he wasn't supposed to be in. Period. The fact that someone didn't follow the rules and let him in doesn't mean the guys following the rules are in the wrong. He is for going into the wrong section, as is whomever let him into that section. Not the secret service people who removed him.


Also. You are aware that there were only 4 reporters in that section who weren't supposed to be there. What wasn't reported in most of the early stories was that 3 of those four were removed, not just the black reporter and the woman. The one who wasn't was given permission to be there by one of the McCain staff and was allowed to stay (or so I assume since he's the only one who said "I was escorted in by one of the McCain staff").


So basically, they went into the section and removed every reporter who wasn't given permission to be there, not just the black guy. There's no real story here at all.



Er? Their job is security. What the hell do you think they're supposed to do?

The secret service doesn't care about politics. If their job is to prevent anyone without a specific colored badge from being in a given section, that's what they do. The fact that one of those people was black didn't matter to them at all.

It does, apparently, matter to you. The question is: Why?



Obama has the exact same secret service running his protection. They follow the exact same procedures. If that same black reporter had been in the wrong section at an Obama event, he'd have been booted just the same. The only difference is that you probably would never have heard about it.

After all, since Obama's black it's ok for him to boot a black guy...

Obama has the exact same secret service running his protection.

Holy, ****, the SAME guys? What sort of magical teleportation device are they using to cover both principals once, thousands of miles apart???

Besides, everyone knows Obama turned down SS protection in favor of FoI.

No. Racists think they can excuse their racism on the grounds that the people they are racist against deserve it for some reason.

The second you judge people's actions differently based on their skin color you are guilty of racism. End of story. Justifying attacking a white candidate unfairly because you believe black people are treated as second class citizens makes you the racist Smash. Not me. Not McCain. You.

All racists think this, too. You're batting 1000, Cap.

I imagine you'd have the same attitude during the times of slavery. "They've got it so good, three meals a day, no worries about where to sleep..."

Pretending everyone is treated equally doesn't make it so, little guy. Ask Nelson Mandela.

It's not racism, it's called healthy skepticism.

Don't be silly. A white IT tech from San Diego clearly has his finger on the pulse of the black community. He understands them like no other. They're not disadvantaged, just lazy and untalanted.




Edited, Aug 7th 2008 8:21pm by Smasharoo

The very fact that you measure this issue by how well someone understands "the black community" shows just how blindly racist you are Smash.


You're identifying personality traits based on people's skin color Smash. And then making assumptions about individuals based on those traits. There is literally zero difference between that and saying that all black people are shifty and lazy. Both make broad judgments about a group of people based on their skin color. Both are racist.

If you're using "community" as a euphemism for "people of the same skin color", you've just made the same argument that was used to justify segregation policies.


That idea was and is flawed. Once you make a habit of primarily identifying yourself and others by skin color, you are committing an act of racism and encouraging yet more racism. You can't identify and group people by their skin color and magically not treat them differently. Quite the opposite. It becomes an excuse to discriminate. Because you'll tell yourself you aren't treating them differently because of their skin, but because they're a separate "community". Of course, the community is defined by their skin, so it's really the same thing, but it gives you an apparent justification.


IMO, that's just a deplorable excuse for racist behavior. How about we just stop treating people differently based on the color of their skin? How about we discourage people from using skin color as a determinant of anything (including the formation of the types of "communities" you mentioned)? Just a thought, but wouldn't it be wonderful to live in a world in which you didn't think of someone as a "black person" or a "white person", but just a "person"?

I do.

You're recognizing differences in result, not opportunity, but let's set that aside for the moment for the sake of argument.

Please explain to me how exactly allowing someone to do something you'd otherwise oppose because he's black helps black people realize more "opportunity"? IMO, it doesn't. What actually happens is that it perpetuates racism. Because you'll think that somehow by giving this black reporter a bye, it excuses whatever lack of opportunity he or others of the same skin color didn't get.

Specifically, people like yourself will feel like they're doing the right thing by judging him by a different (and more lenient) standard. The counter to saying that it's ok to give him that benefit because of some historical racism against him is that it's ok to continue that racism because you give him that benefit. Of course, the scales never quite balance when you do that, because you're taking away equality and replacing it with something else.

gbaji fails to see the difference between determinants and indications, sort of in the same way as he fails to distinguish reasoned argument from anecdotal rants.

Anything new?

Anything new?

Vox Gbaji, vox idioti. Aliquid fuerimus scoltar. Melior mis quam tis.

****, fart

Exactumundo.

Slight flaw here Smash. Aren't you assuming that this reporter is part of that group?

No, I'm not.

You should probably read the seven posts where I stated I don't think race was involved at all here.

If it'd make you happier, feel free to read any of my posts where the term "blacks" or "black community" are used as including the following disclaimer: "Excepting those black people born into wealth and privilege or provided opportunities identical to white people"

That'll eliminate a good 10,000 black folks right there.

No. You're not. What you're doing is labeling a purely physical feature as a sociological classification

Yeah, I'm not.

When I use the term "Black community" I don't mean "every person with dark skin". I mean a particular socio-economic subset of people. When I refer to Boston Irish Catholic, that doesn't include every person of Irish Descent living in 100 miles of the city who's Catholic. It's the same idea.