Posted on 11/11/2008 4:47:10 PM PST by lewisglad
The South, Now With More Racism! (according to the NY Times)
And, once again, the South is labeled racist. The New York Times has once again labeled the South racist, crediting the shocking tendency of the South to vote Republican. This time, it’s obvious because the South voted as much as 10% more in favor of the Republican party than in ’04’s election. The title of the article is “For South, a Waning Hold on National Politics,” but it should have been “The South, Now With More Racism!” because it was nothing more than a thinly-guised attack on the South, with skewed statistics and an agenda the author didn’t even attempt to conceal. Once you read into the article, you’ll realize how thin the guise really was, too, if it was disguised at all:
Mr. Obama’s race appears to have been the critical deciding factor in pushing ever greater numbers of white Southerners away from the Democrats.
I don’t know who to be mad at with this, the NYTimes for stirring up something that’s less an issue here than it is even in New York–I’ve experienced the haughty New York bias against Southerners, and it’s uglier than any form of prejudice now in the South, my friends–or my fellow Southerners, who, if this article is true, have finally broken my spirit, because they are backwards. My tendency is to blame the author, because he chose a tiny hamlet in western Alabama to represent the entire South. Sure, there are pockets of racism alive and well all over the country. Does Podunk, New Jersey represent your political values, Mr. Author? I doubt you’d like that very much at all. So hey, New York, why don’t you work on your own prejudices and leave us alone? Or, better yet, why don’t you help educate some of these areas you’re indicting instead of tattling on them to the rest of the world?
For the article, the author didn’t visit stately Montevallo or quaint Tuscaloosa, no, they visited Vernon, a small town where the high school graduation rate is low, and I’m betting you won’t find three or four college degrees in the whole town. They’re isolated from the rest of the world in many ways, they hear that CNN is telling lies, so when they tune in for news they already know that they’re being lied to so they believe the opposite of what’s reported. After reading this article, I understand their hesitance. Never mind that the rest of the state voted more Democrat than in ‘04, just focus on poor little backwards Vernon and let it represent the entire South.
This article is not an outright lie, but it’s like an article which presents data–for example–of percentages of teenage deaths due to automobile accidents. The article might note that this is the number one cause of death among teenagers, but will steer clear of the actual numbers of deaths, which might be low, and never mention the fact that there’s not a whole lot else for a teenager to die from. People are in pretty good health around those ages, y’know? You skew the facts to make them represent what you want the world to think, and then you present them in as derogatory a fashion as you can. In fact, if you look at their map closely, you might notice that their own statistics show that the South as a whole voted more Democrat than in ‘04, even (gasp!) the state they’ve decided to make the target of this slanderous article, Alabama, as a whole, voted more Democrat than in ‘04. Subtract Arkansas from this picture and the percentage of new Dem voters would probably skyrocket. Look at the map if you don’t believe me:
But did they use Virginia or NC as representative of the whole South? Did they focus on positives or progress? No. They chose Vernon, Alabama, a town I am imminently familiar with. They didn’t even choose nearby Shelby County, Alabama, in which I live, which voted (according to this map), 5% higher Democrat in this election than in ‘04, with a population that’s 87.8% white.
Why not pick Shelby County to represent the entire South? Because you can’t pick one spot to represent an entire area. Not if you want to be fair and balanced, which this article obviously did not want to be. It wanted to present the South as a bunch of backward racists, so it found the spot where it could present the message it wanted to deliver.
Of the people I know of who voted for McCain, they did so because of Obama’s policies, and argued their points with competence. For instance, isn’t it possible that middle income families will feel the tax crunch when the taxes on the wealthy are raised? Sure, Obama’s plan calls for a hike in taxes only for people making over 250k, but the people who make that much are the owners of a lot of businesses we middle and lower-class folk work at. Isn’t it possible, seeing their taxes go up, that they might hire fewer people, offer fewer pay raises, and essentially constrict our earning potential any way?
In the end, this is just another jab by an ignorant bigot, who unfortunately has published this misleading misrepresentation in one of the most widely read periodicals in the world. One more slap to the face of every Southerner who has worked to overcome the past, to embrace the future and try to make right
A rebuttal of this:
The United States of America has large pockets of liberal white guilt in numerous states.
Hello NYT......everyone who voted for Obama because he is “of color” is a racist — and there were MILLIONS of those voters.
Quite the opposite - the media will play the race card like no one's business the next 4 years.
As a consequence, I predict that at the end of Obama's first term race relations will have never been worse.
When the NYT closes its doors for the final time, the South will still be here.
RRROOOOLLLL TIDE!!
I wrote this earlier on my Dixie ping but I’ll say it again
screw those Yankee elitists
they should be asking why over 95% of blacks voted for a non white man and why many came out of the woodwork this time
the only racism I see form this election is from the black community
WOHOO!!! Look at Tennessee :)
Smith County, TN Conservative and proud of it :)
These people just kill me. The same ones who thought it a requirement for ‘immunizations’ to attend a NASCAR rally. The ‘South’ is just a different country to them.
... these nitwits should do their homework. If Alabama is so “racist” then why did Obama trounce Hillary 56% to 42% in the dem primary?
http://politics.nytimes.com/election-guide/2008/results/states/AL.html
Sadly two southern states, NC and VA, went Democrat this time. As did Florida which while south of anything else isn’t quite in the traditional south.
btt
I’m darn proud of my Great State of Arkansas.
This very poorly written article, as best I can tell, is rather anticonservative. Am I to be pleased that my state did not vote Republican at as high a rate as usual?
I’d suggest looking into just why ACORN didn’t succeed in these four states. And, replicate it across the country.
Now don’t tick me off so badly I wanna slap my mama and bump my butt!
The reason the South did not vote for Obama is because he not only is not conservative, he’s a Marxist/socialist. I am in the true deep south and I heard a few old timers rant a bit about race, but not many middle agers or younger ones gave a rat’s patootie about his being black. They couldn’t get past his politics enough to even consider his skin color!!!!!!!!!!
Hey NYT....keep racism going. Why let it die out? You bunch of fools. People that voted Republican did so because they felt Obama would be bad for this country. It’s time your paper closed its doors and leave this country alone.
Eff the New Yoook Times.
They are far more representative of the fringe of a political spectrum than any tiny Southern, Northern, or Western town in all of the United States.
They espouse a political view that, if boldy stated, most Americans would shrink back in disgust from. So they lie, couch, analogize, and basically hide their hideous biases from the rest of us, picking apart this country, slimey article by article.
If you are not a socialist then you are a racist. I’m no socialist.
Yeah, thats what I’m talking about, baby! Long live Dixie!
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