Clinton, Blagojevich, Reid: Analyzing Their “Racist” Comments

In this crazy politicized world we live in, we tend to forget that Democrats are old white people, too. As old white people, they are just as prone to saying extraordinarily dumb things when it comes to race as Republicans have historically seemed to be. The thing is, you don’t really hear about a Democrat being racist all that often. But when you do, it all pours out in large chunks. Like today.

Today we’re getting word about three separate Democrats using three separate contexts to hurl thinly veiled racist comments toward one black man – Barack Obama.

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Rod Blagojevich

First up is everyone’s favorite asshole Rod Blagojevich, or, as he’s more commonly known to bloggers that want to talk about him but refuse to Google the correct spelling of his name, “Rod Blagosdfqwkhfiluhwefuihwih.” Rod is a great political figure because he unites people and parties. Notice how even throughout this entire fiasco of a career he’s had, you rarely hear people on the right talking about how his actions are indicative of all left-wingers. Sure, it pops up everyone once in a while, but on the whole, that angle has, thankfully, not been played very often. This is because everyone can agree that he sucks. If Rod’s shittiness were put to a vote in both the house and senate, you would see a near unanimous consensus – 534 to 1, in favor of declaring Rod an asshole. The one would be some dipshit representative from some inconsequential district who often times finds himself fantasizing about being able to lick his own anus like a cat while in the midst of a hotly contested debate. Therefore, his vote wouldn’t really count.

Anyway, Rod’s racist quote was…

“I’m blacker than Barack Obama.”

Rod went on to clarify this by saying, “I shined shoes. I grew up in a five-room apartment. My father had a little laundromat in a black community not far from where we lived…I saw it all growing up.”

There’s so much wrong with this it’s almost hard to pin-point exactly where to start.

First of all, Rod’s talking about the commonly held belief that all black people are poor and had tough lives. While this isn’t necessarily a racist thought, it’s certainly an idiotic one. Next up would be the connotation that Obama isn’t black because he wasn’t a shoe shiner at some point in his life. Because, just like in all old movies that take place in the 50s or 60s, only black people are shoe shiners in bustling train stations; therefore, Rod had a black man’s job. And, lest we forget, the Laundromat issue.

What business establishment did the Jefferson’s own before they “moved on up”? A Laundromat. Sure, you can argue that that we may be reading waaay too much in to the quote, and that we’re pulling a Glenn Beck by trying to find meaning that was never in there. But, in this case, why would you ignore the symbolic nature of this quote when the symbolic nature is just so damn ridiculous?

Rod’s biggest problem here is he thinks the things black people do are what make up the black experience. No. No, it doesn’t, Rod. What makes the black experience “the black experience” is the fact that they have to live in a world that is still hesitant to believe they are anything other than savage and unintelligent. Also, and slightly off topic, The Black Experience is a great name for a fun and educational Disney ride. It’s a Small World is out of date and lame. Disney, if you’re reading this, get on that.

Essentially, Rod is painting himself to be like Steve Martin’s character from The Jerk. “I was born a poor black child.” The only difference is, Steve Martin wrote and played that character as a complete idiot. Rod just is an idiot.

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Harry Reid

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s comment is, believe it or not, somewhat forgivable. Let us explain.

Where, on the one hand, a 2008 Harry Reid said that Obama could win the Oval Office because he is “light-skinned” and lacked a “negro dialect,” historically, he has the backing of a lot of black leaders and he’s got a shining civil rights record.

It’s one of those weird moments where one very stupid thing is balanced somewhat by a series of good things. The stupid thing is still inexcusable, but at least it’s softened a bit. It’s kind of like drunk driving while texting while driving a van full of babies, only to crash head on in to a pillow factory. The situation could have been far worse if it wasn’t’ for that conveniently placed pillow factory.

The biggest issue with Reid’s comment isn’t the comment itself, but Michael Steel’s reaction to it. As you may be aware, Republican leader Michael Steel is calling for the resignation of Harry Reid as a result of the comments. Normally, this would be a fairly logical thing to do. But Michael Steel is just a lame human being. Here’s the proof, as copy and pasted directly from this article from Politico…which was originally taken from a Washington Post article from 2002…

The Washington Post reported on Dec. 14, 2002: “Lt. Gov.-elect Michael S. Steele said last night that he was personally upset by U.S. Sen. Trent Lott’s praise for Sen. Strom Thurmond and his segregationist past, but said Lott should not be forced to relinquish his leadership position in the Senate. ‘Trent Lott apologized, but he needs to keep apologizing because this is a very sensitive issue to the black community,’ Steele (R) said at an event celebrating his election as Maryland’s first black lieutenant governor. ‘I know Trent Lott personally, and I know that this is not his intent. But it’s still unfortunate. And I think he needs to apologize a little bit more.’”

So where Trent Lott only has to “apologize a little bit more” to the black community, Harry Reid has to resign for basically the same offence – being a bit of a racist. Reid says he isn’t going to step down because the attacks from the right are all about political gain. With the Michael Steel quote above, yeah, Reid may have a point there.

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Bill Clinton

The common joke when it comes to Bill Clinton is that Barack Obama may have been the first U.S. President with black skin, but Bill was the first real black president. This is probably a reference to his cool demeanor and such. If we were to accept this as fact, Bill’s recently released quote from the book Game Change just goes to show that black-on-black hostility still persists.

The book claims that during the 2008 presidential campaign, Bill had a phone conversation with the now deceased Ted Kennedy. During this conversation, Bill was trying to get Ted to throw his support behind his wife, Hilary. Probably in an attempt to sway Ted’s mind toward Hilary, Bill supposedly said this of Obama…

“A few years ago, this guy would have been getting us coffee.”

That’s it. That’s the whole quote. No dreaded N-word. No references to watermelon or fried chicken or black face. Just a vague reference to Obama’s inexperience that could be interpreted as racist if you really force it to be one.

Why this one is controversial is a little puzzling. We’ll just blame it on the media desperately trying o fill their new cycle with more inconsequential bullshit. If there were another kid floating around in a balloon, then this would be treated like the non-story that it is.