Saturday, March 15, 2014

Does Paul Ryan Wear a Shamrock on His Klan Robe? The NY Times and Salon Chime in on the Irish, Whiteness, and Paul Ryan's Racist Hypocrisy


I do not know what the equivalent of Godwin's law is for the use of analogies and arguments that allude to the Ku Klux Klan. If such a law exists, I think it should be suspended in the case of Mike Peter's great editorial cartoon about Paul Ryan's racist suggestion that the "inner city" blacks are lazy, and by implication, may have low IQ's.

Paul Ryan is doing his obligatory apology tour for his intentional channeling of symbolic racism and the Republican Party's Southern Strategy last week.

Ryan will kiss the ring of the Congressional Black Caucus as he shares stories about his "secret" infiltration of the negro community and efforts to learn the mysteries of its particular and unique brand of poverty and bad culture.

It would appear that Paul Ryan is a neoliberal Ayn Rand loving version of the NAACP's legendary leader Walter Francis White.


With aplomb timing, Paul Ryan's best black friend Ron Christie fulfilled his paid for buck-dancing political black face human chaff role as he told the Daily Beast that:
Let’s get right to it, shall we? Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) is not racist nor did he blow a “dog whistle” to launch a thinly veiled racist attack against black people. I offer this from the perspective of someone who has known Paul for more than 20 years: there is not a racist bone in his body.
What is next? Will Paul Ryan ask his college sweetheart--who happens to be a black woman--for a character reference? Remember, just because you are white and enjoy putting your penis inside of a black woman does not by implication mean that one is not a white supremacist.

[As an aside, I wonder if Paul Ryan and Ron Christie were invited to be featured guests at today's "White Man March" in New York? Christie could have the loyal slave to Ryan's kind and beneficent slave master.]

My essay on Paul Ryan's hypocritical racism and its relationship to whiteness and Irish-American identity has been making its rounds. The piece should pass 10,000 Facebook shares by early next week. Most importantly, the New York Times's Timothy Egan and Salon's Andrew O'Herir have posted some great essays that touch on similar issues.

As I tell folks, we are doing some good things here on We Are Respectable Negroes. It is always a joy and pleasure when the narratives and arguments that are developed on this site are mirrored--and sometimes intentionally borrowed from--by the larger news media.

Ryan's racist hypocrisy, and its intersection with Whiteness, was out in the ether, hanging there, ready to be commented upon by anyone with more than a casual knowledge of race and American social history.

I am glad that, at least to my knowledge, I was one of the first folks to post something cohesive on the topic. There is nothing wrong with a little self-congratulation from time to time. The question becomes, how do we translate that momentum into something more tangible and an even bigger platform for the great conversations which occur here on We Are Respectable Negroes. Thoughts?

16 comments:

kiki said...

nice, thank for post you

:)

Mall di Jakarta

kokanee said...

Re: "Does Paul Ryan Wear a Shamrock on His Klan Robe?"

Shamrock? Really?

Re: The real Walter White

Quite a read. A true hero. The context for respectability goes way back. A quote from WW to a white man:
“No one would harm a respectable and well known person like yourself, would they?”

Re: So What? Paul Ryan Enjoyed Putting His Penis Inside of a Black Woman While He was in College

Good read too! I went through the comments and not a single commenter carryover to today. I guess we come and go.

Re: "Remember, just because you are white and enjoy putting your penis inside of a black woman does not by implication mean that one is not a white supremacist."

Of course not. I assume it could be about power and control, domination and submission and maybe even master and slave fantasies. But you didn't go there, did you?

So, it Paul Ryan really a racist or just your typical scrupleless,
unconscionable politician parroting his party's memes? It's hard to tell. Whatever happened to the Pugs reaching out to POC?

Re: "The question becomes, how do we translate that momentum into something more tangible and an even bigger platform for the great conversations which occur here on We Are Respectable Negroes."

At one point, Glenn Greenwald moved his blogspot blog to Salon while maintaining full editorial control over his blog. Same when he went to The Guardian. With GG's new venture, all the writers have full editorial control over their material. (I'm pretty sure he said that. Also because that's the model he thinks works.) I would certainly try that first:
https://firstlook.org/ and https://firstlook.org/theintercept/

Onward! It's time...

Also, kicking WARN radio into high gear couldn't hurt with a weekly show.

Werner Herzog's Bear said...

I was actually going to email you about the Egan piece, glad to see you noticed it. He gets more into the English response to the Famine, but makes most of the same essential points you do. (He better have come up with those conclusions himself! You deserve a lot of credit for connecting the dots here.)


A lot of this boils down to Whiteness' powers to erase history. I have heard so many people with Slavic, Italian, and Irish last names make the usual lazy xenophobic, racist arguments against immigration using language practically identical to the kind deployed against their grandparents and great-grandparents. Whiteness is a kind of baptism that washes away any former identities and pasts, one of its many seductions.

George Smith said...

Egan works in the Tory philosophy from the Irish famine. He probably also knows Paul Ryan, prior to this blowing up in his face, was telling people in print -- in an op-ed piece for the Wall Street Journal and in interview with the WaPost -- that he was drawing inspiration from the Tories in their alleged outreach toward the poor. Ryan didn't use the word Tory, instead citing Iain Duncan Smith, who -- he figured -- most Americans wouldn't know. You can read Brit newspapers on Iain Duncan Smith and now he's regularly vilified for the ways he's slashed aid to the poor in the UK's Tory government. You can't miss it if you look. Getting back to Ryan, no matter how many times he's tossed down for his work, he always bounces back. In a month or so, maybe a little longer, it will be the same thing, couched only a little differently with new anecdotes and 'research' to be tracked down and rubbished. And it's because he tells stories the Tea Party and Republican base love. Poverty is a morality tale and they're on the winning side because they're hard working, pious in the right way, full of good values and they're the right color. They love to hear it. It's a song/hymn they can always join in on and anything to the contrary is just dirty lies and attempts to drag down the bold speaker of self-evident truths.

chauncey devega said...

That is the rub. Rank and file conservatives love to hate the coloreds and the poors. Their elites use that to put said rank and file conservatives int he stew pot with everyone else and then to be thankful for the opportunity to be eaten. Paul Ryan and the Austerity neoliberal kill the useless eaters Republicans and their allies are right out of the tv show Attack on Titan.

chauncey devega said...

Baptism and seduction. Spot on. I did get contacted by one person who said "good job" whose platform is bigger than mine. We shall see about others, not in terms of similar inspiration but a heads up so to speak. One day, hopefully, such concerns won't be an issue.

chauncey devega said...

Radio show? If I hit powerball one day. My goal is to be a recurring guest on tv or radio and then parlay that into a show on radio or satellite. The next part of the podcast series will be forthcoming.

"So, it Paul Ryan really a racist or just your typical scrupleless, unconscionable politician parroting his party's memes? It's hard to tell. Whatever happened to the Pugs reaching out to POC?"



Well if one is a member of racist party and mining racism for political gain is their core strategy then yes, one is a racist.

Wolfy Ghalkhani said...

This is typical of the garbage the NY Times publishes. As a person who did community health nursing in neighborhoods your elitest journalists wouldnt have the guts to drive through; I will attest to the fact that the culture of sloth, entitlement and violence prevails in the inner city.

Buddy H said...

A culture of sloth, entitlement and violence prevails wherever there are human beings. A culture of hard work and peace also prevails by its side. "Drive through" the whitest suburb, and you will find a lazy and violent human being. You will also find someone (maybe living in the same house) working hard and living right. Same as the inner city. The only difference is the negative culture in the suburbs is more easily concealed. Young caucasian Brad spends hours in his rec room surfing porn and taking bong hits or abusing mom's pain medication, but the police won't bother him. A "community health" nurse won't ever see him. A troubled young man in the inner city lives in a fishbowl. Everyone can see him and accuse him of being representative of every single one of his neighbors. And someone who calls him/herself Wolfy will take the time to spit out a comment on this blog.

Myshkin the Idiot said...

when you drive through majority black neighborhoods do you pretend you are in a drive through human zoo?


Does it just make you more comfortable to be robbed, assaulted or murdered by people with light skin?

Lee Viola said...

Christ. They let you reproduce?
“Moms Demand Action” Tells Gun Rights Activist Her Dead Mom Doesn’t Count!
Wolfy Ghalkhani • 2 months ago
the left could care less about the safety of our children. they hate the constitution and they'll do whatever it takes to destroy it including putting children in harms way by creating gun free zones. Without the right to bear arms, this country will not last long. The left knows that and we know it too.
I had people stop talking to me because I own weapons. I make no apologies. my kids know how to shoot; take a gun apart and put it back together. I sleep better knowing my kids know how to protect themselves. my kids sleep better knowing they have a mother and father who aren't tooth fruity liberals.


Discussion on Free Patriot

chauncey devega said...

I will let this stand for now on the merits of performance art and comedy.

chauncey devega said...

Who is this "left"? My left hand that I use for wiping while I am traveling in the deserts of Saudi Arabia? Me confused.

chauncey devega said...

Drive through rural white America. Apparently meth country is safe.

Lee Viola said...

I have no idea what "Left" Wolfy Ghalkhani is refering to. I'm just quoting him. As you can probably tell, he's psychotic.

alanstorm said...

I read your tweets about black conservatives.

The only racist here is you, Chauncey. How else do you describe requiring people to think a certain way based on their skin color? Or are you simply upset that some can think independently, while you can't seem to escape the thought-prison that LBJ stuck you in?

Oh, and what is the black unemployment rate again? Oh, right. It's all due to racism.


I feel somewhat sorry that you're trapped in this victim identity, but then again, I didn't cause it, so I don't feel all THAT much sympathy.