The Pink Flamingo :: Contrary to Conservative Opinion, Racism DOES Exist in the US

Which came first, the Jena 6 uproar of Bill O’Reilly’s big mouth? It really doesn’t matter. The worst thing is something in Jena reeks as much as the liberal pile on top of O’Reilly, who really said nothing racist. Could he have said it better? I think so, but so what?

Conservatives are absolutely positive racism no longer exists. Liberals are positive every little slight is racist. Somewhere those of us in the middle need to stand up and tell both sides to shut up and behave like adults. There are bigots and racists everywhere, White, Black, Hispanic – you can find them in every group, church, school, organization, and family. Maybe the problem is the fact that people are no longer allowed to be racist. If a person wants to be one, what the heck, everyone has the right to be a jerk. I have a right not to deal with them, but they have a right to exist.

I have a problem when liberals and conservatives pretend not to be racists and bigots but are among the worst, or associate with the ‘worst’ just to promote their personal agenda. I’d much rather deal with the Bill Whites or NarcoSpheres of the world who take pride in being Marxist and in being Nazi. You know who they are and you see them coming. But, when you get the goodie-two-shoes “Christian” who is as nasty a racist as the others and hides behind the coat-tails of ‘respectability’, then I have a problem. At least Bill White and the Aztlan folks have the courage of their convictions and the intellectual honesty to be who they are and let it all hang out so to speak.

But – it’s the Washington Times, TownHall, Fox Pundit and the like who pretend to be perfect that worry me. They are the ones pushing the agenda. They are the ones who get the big bucks to wax poetic on conservative subjects, but yet they are in bed with the Bill Whites. Who is worse the late Sam Francis who spouted his racism via Vdare, the CofCC, and WTimes or The skin-head who is full of Nazi tattoos?

THE MADONALD FACTOR
Heather MacDonald has done it again by penning yet another misleading and rather racist anti-racist expose of a non-majority culture over at City Journal. MacDonald manages to spread her own version of “truth” by weaving threads of truth along with shards of antidotal evidence to prove her point of view. MacDonald is the highly anti-Hispanic columnist for City Journal who is quoted by conservatives and anti-immigration supporters. And debunked in Truth or Fiction From the SPLC And Linda Chavez on the subject. There is just something a little distasteful about her article. Use the DOJ stats to fact check her work.

THE WTIMES FACTOR
The WTimes has been front and center with an agenda to promote a creeping racism within conservative America. Max Blumenthals WTimes expose in The Nation sheds light on just how racism is quietly promoted within the conservative world.

“…That same year Coombs recruited a reporter from a paper in rural Georgia, Robert Stacy McCain, to work at the Times as his national assistant editor. McCain belonged to the neo-Confederate hate group League of the South, which routinely promotes slavery apologias and favors a "second secession" of the South from the Union. By 2002 McCain had been promoted by Coombs to edit the Times's Culture Briefs section. In short order, McCain turned that section into a bulletin board for the racialist far right. At Coombs's behest, McCain attended four American Renaissance conferences as a Times correspondent, only once reporting criticism of the group's white supremacist agenda.

By deliberately soft-pedaling the racial ideology of groups like American Renaissance and the Minutemen, the Times under Coombs has coated them in the balm of mainstream conservatism. True to form, Coombs defended McCain and American Renaissance against allegations of racial extremism. "My understanding," Coombs told me, "is there were some academics at the conference, people like Joe Sobran, and other people who don't fall into that [racist] category. So maybe there's some guilt by association." (Sobran is a right-wing columnist drummed out of his post at National Review for his anti-Semitism and Holocaust revisionism. The Times syndicated his columns until 1999.)

But McCain's views on race are well-known among his colleagues. In August 2002, according to Archibald, during a discussion in the newsroom about civil rights, McCain defended slavery as "good for the blacks and good for property owners." "We were just appalled," Archibald said. "He is just a complete animalistic racist." Describing Archibald's allegations as "bullshit," Coombs said McCain "has not made any comments in the newsroom like that, and if he had, there are African-Americans in the room who would kick his butt."

Marlene Johnson, the former Times arts section editor and an African-American, bristled at Coombs's remarks. "All African-Americans don't beat people up when they have a disagreement," Johnson told me. "That just shows what a racist Fran is. You had a guy, Stacy McCain, who was an avowed segregationist, and Fran always overlooks that, he overlooks McCain's behavior." Johnson said that while at the Times, she was given an order from Pruden, delivered to her by Coombs, to stop doing "so many black stories."…”

WHAT STARTED IT ALL

We all know the Jena 6 incident has started everything. Pursuing Holiness has connections to the community in question and has been running a series of interesting posts about what is going on. Today’s is just an example.

HOW CAN YOU TRUST CONSERVATIVES?
I don’t know how you can trust conservatives in all of this uproar when Francis Coombs of the WTimes is a close personal friend of Bill White (note photo).

“…"That addresses for my residencies and offices are now publicly listed on the web page of the Neo-Nazi group that continues to list the addresses of the Jena Six and their families is outrageous," said Rev. Sharpton in an email statement on Tuesday to RAW STORY.

Sharpton added that the new development "shows they are now tagging leaders that have come to the aid of the Jena Six."

"This illustrates why FBI efforts aren't taken seriously," he continued, referring to a recent announcement from the FBI that it was launching a probe into White's website. "We are in Washington, DC, today asking for intervention by the federal government because this is tantamount to mocking them. It also jeopardizes me and those that travel with me."

Agent Sheila Thorne, of the FBI's New Orleans field office, said in an email Thursday that "the FBI and our Law Enforcement Partners are aware of allegations that various threats have been made against those involved in the Jena Six case and their families."

"Threats are taken seriously," she said, but would not comment further citing ongoing investigations.

Following up on a story from the the Associated Press, which reported it had been unable to contact the extremist leader for comment regarding his publication of the Jena teens' addresses, RAW STORY reached White by telephone at his Roanoke home late Sunday night.

During the call, White stopped short of directly calling for violence against the three civil rights activists, saying only that it was important that those angered by the leaders' support for the Jena students "knew where to find them."

"I'm just going to put the information up there so people can tell them how they feel," he said, adding that he had just spoken with members of his "Illinois unit" about "going outside of Jesse Jackson's house."

White was far less cautious in discussing his posting last week of address and phone information for the five teenagers charged with beating 17-year-old fellow student Justin Barker.

"If they're acquitted," White said of the black teens, "they should be murdered. Hang them in the public square."

"If the legal system should fail," he continued, "then clearly there would be no law against murder, and it should be legal to go and lynch them."…”

IS A WHITE SUPREMACIST FEEDING THE TENSION?
According to the SPLC, Richard Barrett, leader of the Nationalist Movement hate group has met with Justin Barker, the teen allegedly beaten by the Jena 6.

“…Nationalist Movement hate group, claims on his website to have met with 17-year-old Barker, along with his father David Barker, the night before the rally. Barrett says he got a statement from Justin, complaining that “the ones who attacked me are getting money for beating me up,” which Barrett promptly posted. Justin (pictured, above right, posing with Barrett in a photo now on Barrett’s website) also reportedly expressed gratitude for the encouragement he has received from some people and said he hopes to hear from other supporters.

There is no evidence to suggest that Justin or David Barker had any inkling who Barrett was when he apparently showed up at their door. According to Barrett’s own account, he approached the Barkers to offer support for the family and to try to get more media attention for Justin’s injuries and his version of events.

In fact, in a Barrett posting that purports to be a transcript of a phone conversation between David Barker and Barrett after their meeting, Barker sharply questions Barrett about allegations he has heard from a reporter that Barrett is a “white supremacist.” “I am not a racist and do not want to be called one,” Barker tells Barrett on the phone, as he repeatedly asks Barrett about his racial views. Barrett artfully evades the question, describing himself instead as a patriot, a veteran, a Christian, an American and “pro-majority.”

In reality, Barrett is a longstanding white supremacist. In his 1982 autobiography The Commission — a book he claims to have given Justin Barker at their meeting last Wednesday — he calls for the “resettlement” of blacks, Jews, Latinos and other U.S. citizens in other countries, and also advocates sterilizing the “unfit.” He has led rallies of Klansmen and others and worked alongside some of the most extreme racists in America. In 1988, he hosted a “Warrior Weekend” for racist skinheads at his Learned, Miss., home and used a picture of Martin Luther King Jr. for target practice. More recently, he demanded a pardon for assassin Byron de la Beckwith, who was convicted of the 1963 murder of civil rights activist Medgar Evers. And the list goes on and on...."