“Here’s the unmentionable secret: Racism isn’t that big a deal any more. No sensible person supports it. Nobody of importance preaches it. It’s rapidly becoming an ugly memory.”
– newly minted Bush shill Tony Snow, on an October 2003 edition of Fox News Sunday
Bush’s new press secretary is an expert on racism in America. No wonder he fits in so well at the White House.
I wonder if he’s even heard of this bit of business — Dillard’s salon: kinky hair harder to clean.
I dug back in my hair files for fun. How about these nuggets, Tony?
* Dreadlocks don’t cut it at St. Louis bar. The Cheshire Inn denied entry of two men into the bar because of their dreadlocs. Jack Lueders, president of the corporation that operates the Cheshire Inn said:
“You can’t wash that hair, and it stinks, and we’re a crowded bar, and we don’t want stinky people in the bar,” he said, explaining the policy. “If you look nice and you’re obviously clean, nobody’s going to go up and smell your hair.”
* Judge Upholds Public School Ban on Cornrows. U.S. District Court Judge Scott O. Wright in Kansas City, Missouri upheld a long-standing rule imposed by Boonville High School Coach Richard Smith that prohibits basketball players from wearing braided cornrows during games or practice. No reason is given in the story as to why this particular hairstyle is banned; only that the judge ruled citing federal appeals courts in general have deferred to the authority of the public schools.
* Dreadlock Lockout: The Dallas Police Department is firing employees based on their hairstyles. Two dozen police officers were stripped of their duties last spring when the Dallas Police Department decided to “crackdown� on dreadlock and other unconventional hairstyles. As the author of the opinion piece, Gjared Robinson, says:
The department claims that officers must look authoritative and assume a role of power. I don’t know about most people, but if I were pulled over by an officer, the badge he wears on his chest is all I need to see to know they have the power to arrest and charge me.
* Hair Cuttery Accused of Racial Discrimination. Monica Clark of Capitol Heights and Leslie Mercer of Reston claim in the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, that they were mistreated because of their race repeatedly at several Hair Cuttery locations in the Washington area. In visits to separate stores, they tried to charge them $10 more for services because of their race, or were denied service.
Or let’s get down to brass tacks. What about this:
Burning Cross Left at Home of Interracial Couple on L.I.
We had one here in Durham last year as well.
Glad to see Tony’s on top of the matter. I clearly must be misinformed on the whole race thing.
61 Responses to “Tony Snow on the end of racism”
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Well, thank goodness that’s over with !
And this man has a job spreading information to the American public. What’s next ? Sexual Harassment Over, Because I Say It’s Over ? Homophobia “So Five Minutes Ago” ?
Snow is a tool.
But we knew that years ago.
Wow, I had NO idea that racism is just a distant memory! I wonder what other good news Tony has for us.
My greatest exposure to him (as Fox news has a parental lock on the TV in my house) was his appearance on Real Time back in October. He was basically saying that the whole Val Plame/Scooter Libby thing wasn’t a big deal, and that Libby was being indicted simply for speaking to a reporter.
So apparently, national security is a an ugly distant memory for Snow as well.
Transcript here
I said this on Pam’s site, but I’ll say it here as well …
I love how the far, far FAR majority of people that say things to the extent that racism no longer exists, are white.
*sarcasm
Because, we, as white people, are, of course, knowledgeable about all things racial and are the best people to make that call.
/sarcasm
I’d love to think that perhaps a lot of these dumbarse remarks are the product of ignorance, ie simply not understanding the multiple levels racism operates on. But honestly, I’m too cynical for that, and chalk it up to nothing less than willful head-in-sand sticking, arrogance, and *shock & awe!* internalised, socialised racist attitudes.
The goal isn’t “colour-blindness” or some version of saying “We’re all Americans”, because all that does is leave the current system of racial oppression in place unexamined, and leaves white privilege firmly in place as the un-remarked ‘invisible’ default. ‘Difference’ isn’t the problem, it’s the fear of difference, the way in which difference gets power and moral heirarchies attached to it, that’s the problem. Difference is a wonderful thing, and people should be celebrated for it.
I’m getting really, REALLY, sick of my fellow white people …
And don’t forget things like the “Prussian Blue” girls, who are quite openly and matter-of-factly racist. In fact, in a recent article I read about them (was it in Atlantic?), their mother was complaining about the weirdos in the movement, saying “some people get into racism for the wrong reasons”.
No, what’s happened is that mainstream racism is still alive and kicking, it’s just that most people know better than to admit it, so now it’s couched in code words. This is from a recent post by Digby at FireDogLake, quote Lee Atwater:
‘’You start out in 1954 by saying, ‘Nigger, nigger, nigger.’ By 1968 you can’t say ‘nigger’ — that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states’ rights and all that stuff. You’re getting so abstract now [that] you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites.
‘’And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I’m not saying that. But I’m saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me — because obviously sitting around saying, ‘We want to cut this,’ is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than ‘Nigger, nigger.�’
Nobody of importance preaches it.
Of course not. But since when have the Republicans ever practised what they preached?
oh, that’s just the “hair files”. first i was like “why so trivial, don’t we have any patterns of loan denial, suspect fireings, the Sodexo/marriot case, etc…”
jeez. I barely even bother to comb my hair. i’ve been to a proffesional barber maybe twice in 23 years.
the idea almost scares me.
How come I didn’t know racism was over?
Oh, that’s right. I’m black and no-one tells US anything.
Well, I must say that’s a relief then. I’ll cross that off my list of things to worry about. I hope it’s sexism next. Only one thing though, now this is all happening… I won’t have anything to write about !
Good Grief
The guy’s a Bushite.
Pick the narrowest possible construction of what he says and it’s true, for some values of “true.”
“No sensible person supports it.”
True.
“Nobody of importance preaches it.”
True.
“It’s rapidly becoming an ugly memory.”
It’s *been* an ugly memory for a very long time. More memories of it are in fact being created every day.
It’s NeoConOrwellian… yes, we too can fashion lies out of simple statements of truth.
But you can’t prove any single part of it is false and the overall lie is just your subjective interpretation of what he said, and you heard it false probably because you yourself are a racist.
Those who do not accept evolution have never experienced it.
*grumble*
Damn, html coding slip-ups … I want ‘Preview’ back!!
Anyway, that piece above is MEANT to address Steve’s point on:
I don’t disagree that there are people preaching it, some in code and some in clear…
I just don’t think, in the long run, that they’re nearly so important as they’d like to think themselves to be.
There are still people preaching that the earth is flat, too, and that if they can JUST start Armageddon properly Jeebus will come back and save them from it.. But nobody sane believes them and once we get out of the historical bubble we’re in just at the moment (assuming arguendo that we DO get out of it) the racists will be considered to be just as batshit loopy.
[drift] Is it wrong for me to see a parallel between all these “bad hair penalties” and the recent court ruling that said a woman (of any color, I presume) can be fired from her job if she won’t slop on the ol’ face paint ? [/drift]
I’m guessing Tony Snow didn’t read this article today…
OT, but good news —
Kraft’s shareholders overwhelmingly told Marcella Meyer to STFU:
http://www.suntimes.com/output/business/cst-fin-kraft26.html
[drift] Is it wrong for me to see a parallel between all these “bad hair penalties� and the recent court ruling that said a woman (of any color, I presume) can be fired from her job if she won’t slop on the ol’ face paint ? [/drift]
Nope, they’re both part of the “Appearance Hegemony”.
As for “No sane person believes in racism”? Keep in mind that Dick Cheney still had a non-zero approval rating just after he shot the guy. I’m pretty sure that there’s a not-insignificant percentage of this country that’s suffering from some sort of political insanity.
[sarcasm]
And now that we have invaded Iraq and ousted Saddam Hussein, we have seen the end of terrorism too. After all, if it isn’t necesarily state-sponsored or state-initiated, it doesn’t exist anymore as we know it!
[/sarcasm]
I’m pretty sure that there’s a not-insignificant percentage of this country that’s suffering from some sort of political insanity.
fifteen percent. it’s actually a stunningly accurate standard. no matter how insane a claim is, you will get 15 percent of the population agreeing. it may well be more a factor of statistics, with people just saying yes without thinking.
we’re talking seriously crazy. like the percent of the population who would agree that Elvis didn’t die; he was kidnapped by aliens, given reconstructive surgery, became Tupac, was shot, but didn’t die from that, but from the injections of poisons he got at the hospital because the evil zionist conspiracy need to shut him up since he witnessed Nancy Reagan going down on Zorpox, Lord of the Zendraeti in Area 51’s Vince Foster cloning facility.
also, Snow fails at english: ““Here’s the unmentionable secret.” as you just mentioned it, it obviously isn’t unmentionable. and as you did it on live nationwide TV, it’s not a secret. we aren’t talking the ineffible name of god here. it’s just a bush thug reciting the same damn “blacks have it soooo easy these days” crap they’ve been spewing for fucking decades. not a secret, not unmentionable.
Thanks Tony Snow! It sure is super to know that when I was being followed through every single aisle at the drugstore last weekend, it was only because they wanted to make sure I hadn’t dropped anything. It certainly had nothing to do with my race and the look in my eyes that clearly says “I want to stuff the entire contents of the Wet ‘n Wild display into my pockets.”
And it is doubly super to know that the cop who stopped in the middle of traffic to run my license plate was just doing me a favor. I sure am glad they weren’t racist.
Oh, happy day! Racism is a thing of the past.
Now we can focus on important things, like bombing the f*** out of those crazy brown people in the middle east, who are sitting on top of all our oil, and closing our border to those lazy brown people from the south, who come to steal our jobs and don’t speak amur’kin.
Oh, racism is of course over. And so is sexism. Why, a man informed me of this the other day, so it MUST be true. If they’re firing people for their hair, does this mean we can get rid of Bush for his Howdy Doody do?
And here I was thinking that the neo-colonial expansion of US military power in the Middle East might be a symptom of a centuries-old racist mind-set that has led Westerners to believe that anyone outside of Europe needs to be ruled by autocratic and greedy foriegners. Whew! Sure is good to know that I was wrong!
/post-colonialist snark
damn–you beat me to it, blondie.
Really, it’s not surprising.
I mean, Snow’s whole job will be to say imbecilic things that are manifestly untrue.
It’s only logical to expect the Bushies to hire somebody with prior experience.
I’d like for someone in the press to slam the president with this one like
“Mr Bush your new press secretary has stated racism is no longer a factor, do you agree”
If he says yes he looks like a moron in front of everyone. If he says no then the obvious question is hiw then could he hire such a misguided press secretary.
Carpenter: I feel that sentiment can be universalized outward to a simple “I wish our media did their fucking job.”
orange:
And this man has a job spreading information to the American public.
He does? I thought he was a Fox News commentator-turned-WH press secretary.
steve:
nobody sane believes them
It’s nice to think that. I don’t know that it’s true. And saying “well, people who believe it aren’t sane by definition” isn’t an answer because it reduces your original statement to tautological meaninglessness. It’s like saying “well, Hitler was crazy” or “the 9/11 terrorists were simply evil.” It gets us off the hook of dealing with racism or fascism or genocide or terrorism or whatever.
Hey! He’s white- that means he doesn’t have to read the newspaper or *gasp* talk to a person of color to know everything is just peachy
As one of the pale folks, I have to say I’m not terribly reassured when my fellow whiteys declare an end to racism. Kind of like the wolf saying getting eaten is no longer a problem for the sheep.
It’s all part of “compassionate conservatism”; they have to be so very, very conservative with their compassion that, after caring so deeply for all those wealthy folks, they simply don’t have any compassion left. Thus, racism simply MUST be over, or they might have a twinge of conscience at church on Sunday and that really ruins a good ice cream social.
Yup. Racism’s definitely over.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Party-Attack.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Somebody ought to send him to Spring, Texas.
How unreal.
Somebody ought to send him to Spring, Texas.
“Two white teenagers severely beat and sodomized a 16-year-old Hispanic boy who they believed had tried to kiss a 12-year-old white girl at a party, authorities said.”
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/04/27/D8H8G0SO0.html
Okay now,
Everybody click their heels together twice and say REAL loud, Racism Is Gone….
You, the little African-American boy…
Yes, you….
Why aren’t you clicking your heels, little boy?
Now you know it’s not nice to flip off your white elders.
Racism isn’t a big deal anymore, he says? To the examples you provided, I add this:
Hispanic Teen Nearly Killed for Kissing White Girl
http://www.wsbtv.com/news/9044684/detail.html?rss=atl&psp=nationalnews
Here’s the unmentionable secret: Racism isn’t that big a deal any more. No sensible person supports it.
It’s like the supposed exchange between somebody or other and some smart politican or other, let’s say Adlai Stevenson:
Setup guy: “Sir, you’ll have the vote of every thinking American.”
Stevenson: “Well, unfortunately, to win I need a majority.”
racism is over?
crosses are being burned on lawns?
people denied entry to a bar for having dredlocks?
i wish i could say something but i cant seem to pick up my mouth off of the floor
What was it about Derrida saying that we declare things dead in order to kill them?
Within the last couple years, in Raleigh, NC, a girl was barred from — I think a debutante ball, though it could’ve been some other social event — because she wore her hair in braids rather than perming it. Just to give one more example.
Tony Snow and the rest of the dumbasses like him can tell me there’s no more racism or that it isn’t that big of a deal when someone who speaks poorer English but has lighter skin mistakes him for a foreigner and starts telling him that he “oughtta go back to where you come from”…not realizing that as brown-skinned and Hispanic as i may be, I’m four generations deep and have had family roots over in Texas that predate its membership in the Union…or that i am as much a linguistic disaster in Spanish as Dubya is in English.
[…] The idea that the station you deserve in life is identical to the one you have explains very well why people can both be huge racists while denying that American racism even exists. Exhibit #1: Pam’s post on Tony Snow below. Pam demonstrated neatly how full of shit that Snow is with her examples, and I’d like to add to that something I read at Lying Media Bastards today, which is Tim Wise’s argument that denying the existence of racism in America is in itself a racist statement. As Jake summarizes: What it comes down to is that the denial of the existence of racism by white people becomes a form of racism itself. To think that African-Americans as a whole are incapable of understanding the world around them, to interpret the day-to-day events of their own lives, is to believe that they are inferior, or are afflicted with some sort of lunacy or mental disease. But with decades of whites getting the story wrong and seeing equality where there is none, who’s really the one misinterpretting reality? […]
Hershele :
It’s nice to think that. I don’t know that it’s true. And saying “well, people who believe it aren’t sane by definition� isn’t an answer because it reduces your original statement to tautological meaninglessness. It’s like saying “well, Hitler was crazy� or “the 9/11 terrorists were simply evil.� It gets us off the hook of dealing with racism or fascism or genocide or terrorism or whatever.
Steve:
In its purest form, of COURSE it’s a tautology; that’s my point. When dealing with Bushites you have to expect that you’ll hear tautology reported as profound truth. You’ll also see words redefined at a moment’s notice to support a predetermined position.
But saying “by definition, this is an insane position” does NOT get us off the hook of dealing with the problem any more than saying “Bush believes he’s on a mission from God” gets us off the hook for dealing with Iraq and all the rest of the shit he’s pulled. Whether the racists are sane or not, those of us who ARE sane STILL have to deal with the real-life consequences of that insanity as it plays out into the real world.
What acknowledging their insanity does is set us and others free to deal with the results without attempting to find some way in which their actions and beliefs make sense or have meaning, or, worse yet for progressives, trying to “save them from their mistakes.” The most frustrating and time-consuming part of dealing with someone who’s delusional or schizophrenic is trying to understand, trying to make sense of what they say or do — and it’s a lost cause in most cases because there IS no basis in any actual recognizable common reality. We on the progressive side spend far too much time and a mindboggling amount of effort trying to win over rightists or at least help them understand what they’re doing and how reality works — when as a rule it can’t be done. The vast majority either do not WANT to understand, or they are basically so committed to their world and its delusions that they cannot be reached from outside.
Never teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time, and it annoys the pig.
Go, Mythago! Derrida’s argument in Spectres of Marx made a big impression on me. Once a concept is exorcised from the discourse, as I understand it, we can no longer interpret instances of it in our experience. Just as Betty Friedan and Ellen Willis had to (re-)introduce the whole idea of “sexism,” things can go the other way: in the past twenty years we’ve seen a lot of interpretive tools (and progressive hopes) vitiated, exorcised, or openly declared beyond the realm of reasonable discussion. In this case, I have an uncle who’s all “There is no more racism: those people have to take responsibility for their own problems now.” And I’m seeing middle-class African American students say the same Cosbyesque thing.
you wanna talk validation?
St. Louis, born and raised. Cheshire Inn (which isn’t just a bar, it’s your standard bar and grill setup, and the building looks pretty damn cool) is well within my stomping grounds.
seeing the cool building, when I was a kid, I asked my folks sometime “can we eat at that place?” my pop, without missing a beat said “no, we don’t eat at racist places.”
I hadn’t really thought about it since then.
steve:
We on the progressive side spend far too much time and a mindboggling amount of effort trying to win over rightists or at least help them understand what they’re doing and how reality works — when as a rule it can’t be done.
Gee, James Carville, that never crossed my mind! It’s way more productive to declare them a lost cause and just nuke the Red States from orbit.
Politics is not Tom and Jerry, except maybe the ones with the dog in.
Well, if they can say it’s a Non-Issue, then they get to a) not have to do anything about it, and b) make anyone who says we have to do something about it look crazy.
Both of these are important goals for reactionaries.
THANK YOU for all of these links. Check out my site for my post yesterday. I should forward that on to Tony Snow.
Oh - I get it! Racism doesn’t exist because it is no longer enshrined in government.
But it isn’t really gone - it’s just been privatized, that’s all!
Probably by Halliburton.
As awful as his comments on racism are (or his peception that it doesn’t exist, rather), I’m far more appalled by his abortion views. In a nutshell, he’s down with South Dakota’s lack of a rape/incest exemption in their legislation. The money quote from that article (it helps to imagine the word “trauma” in sarcastic quotes):
If one argues that a woman would suffer trauma by bringing such babies to term, what would prevent other women from citing trauma as an equally cogent reason for their abortions? Trauma introduces an obligation to pay special heed to the victims of rape or incest.
Holy shit, the_bone. Although I don’t know why I’m at all shocked.
Also, his suggestions for what to do with rape victims:
I might be a bit skeptical, but isn’t it a slippery slope from welfare rape victims to the welfare mothers his conservative friends hate so much? What would stop a bitch from claiming she was raped to screw taxpayers out of their hard-earned money by popping out yet another kid? Or maybe he’s not actually talking about poor minority rape victims?
Racism is what spews from Democrats when an African-American Republican runs for office.
No, actually, Marvin it’s giggling. Kind of like when chickens say nice things about Col. Sanders.
Racism still exists -
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/004772.htm
“My column today is about Autum Ashante, a 7-year-old racist black nationalist poetry “prodigy.”
…
Most recently, as New York Post education reporter David Andreatta reported this weekend, she was invited to perform at public middle and high schools in Peekskill, N.Y., for Black History Month. After asking white students to remain seated while she led black students in a recitation of the Black Panthers’ Black Child’s Pledge, Autum (now home-schooled by her single father, a Nation of Islam member and poet) angrily read this original poem:
White Nationalism Put U In Bondage
White nationalism is what put you in bondage
Pirate and vampires like Columbus, Morgan, and Darwin
Drank the blood of the sheep, trampled all over them with
Steel, tricks and deceit.
Nothing has changed take a look in our streets
The mis-education of she and Hegro — leaves you on your knee2grow
Black lands taken from your hands, by vampires with no remorse
They took the gold, the wisdom and all of the storytellers
They took the black women, with the black man weak
Made to watch as they changed the paradigm
Of our village
They killed the blind, they killed the lazy, they went
So far as to kill the unborn baby
Yeah White nationalism is what put you in bondage
Pirates and vampires like Columbus, Morgan, and Darwin
They drank the blood of the sheep, trampled all over them with
Steel laden feet, throw in the tricks alcohol and deceit.
Nothing has changed take a look at our streets. “
Oh key let’s ignore you inability to get how racist condi’s amazing tokenism is, you’re trying to tell me that a kid reciting a poem is comparable too government approved systematic racism?
Or do we need to whip out ann coulter’s call to kill and convert muslims? Or the voter fraud in ‘04 aimed at black districts? If you think the black panthers would even be seen dead next to some honky dem candidate in a suit if their alternative option was anything of equal or greater fun than knawing their own arms off, the you are not just stupid, you are no less than a big fat racist yourself.
What? all black people are racist because the black panthers exist in NYC? or because the nation of islam is 6 kinds of whacko? they burned many churchs down recently have they?
Your own logic means that you’re advocating the biggest racists of them all, condi and powell (Who being black and all (because their skin color is their only identifying feature), must be the Real racists in government), being put in charge of the country, and you think that’ll sell?
No wait! I can see the slogan now: Vote for condi/powell - they’re the Real Racists!
Marvin:
Boy, that’s just crushing, crushing I tell you. And linking to Malkin, man, that gets you all sorts of street cred.
The Nation of Islam has some black rascists in it? Wow, who knew????!!!
Ya know, though, they might have something there. But naw, that’s just silly, blacks never were caused any discomfort by colonialism.
A Conservative Message to Blacks: Sink or Swim…
I really don’t know where this idea that Republicans are racist came from….
[…] Most people have seen the quote where White House Press Secretary Tony Snow claimed that, “Here’s the unmentionable secret: Racism isn’t that big a deal any more. No sensible person supports it. Nobody of importance preaches it. It’s rapidly becoming an ugly memory.â€? But what Mr. Snow didn’t realize was that racism didn’t end. It just moved to Scotland where “11 per cent of Scots think attacking people from a different ethnic background is not racist.” Although it appears that racism may be leaving Scotland as well: “racism is now perceived as less of a problem in Scotland, with only 7 per cent of those questioned “strongly agreeing” it is problematic, the lowest-ever level.” […]
Jena
Yes, six black kids beat up a white kid, and they should be punished for that. That’s basically the duck and weave issue the usual suspects are employing to not have to admit what is really going on in Jena….