Why is it that every criticism of Barack Obama becomes a "code word" for "black"?
So let's look at the list of "code words" for "black":
1. Barack Hussein Obama
2. Uppity
3. Skinny
4. Community organizer
5. Arrogant
6. Elitist
That's all I could think of off the top of my head.
This started with a Kansas City Star columnist's claim that "socialist" is an old code word for "black." Really?
J. Edgar Hoover, director of the FBI from 1924 to 1972, used the term liberally to describe African Americans who spent their lives fighting for equality.
Those freedom fighters included the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who led the Civil Rights Movement; W.E.B. Du Bois, who in 1909 helped found the NAACP which is still the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization; Paul Robeson, a famous singer, actor and political activist who in the 1930s became involved in national and international movements for better labor relations, peace and racial justice; and A. Philip Randolph, who founded and was the longtime head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and a leading advocate for civil rights for African Americans.
I'm not the first person to note that W.E.B. DuBois and Paul Robeson were, in fact, socialists. And as Jules Crittenden points out, Martin Luther King, Jr. was warned not to be seen with socialists, but MLK did agree with various socialist ideas.
And besides all of this, what about all those white socialists? Was Eugene Debs black? Who knew?
Labeling everything racist in an attempt to prop up Barack Obama is going to backfire big time at some point. I'm not sure it will be before the election, but you can only hijack so much of the English language for your political ambitions before people balk.
|