Persecution Politics: Beating on White Kids
One of the recurrent themes that contribute to right-wing paranoia is the fantasy that white people suffer from discrimination in Obama's America. This conceit erupted on the talk shows during the Sotomayor hearings and after Henry Louis Gates' arrest, when Rush Limbaugh said, "President Obama is black, and I think he's got a chip on his shoulder," and Glenn Beck exclaimed that Obama "has a deep seated hatred for white people."
Yesterday, the "white persecution" theme bubbled up again when Drudge reported, "WHITE STUDENT BEATEN ON SCHOOL BUS; CROWD CHEERS." The police officer who described the assault as racially motivated later retracted the characterization, but it was too late to stop Rush Limbaugh from representing the incident as an example of "Obama's America":
You put your kids on a school bus, you expect safety, but in Obama's America, the white kids now get beat up with the black kids cheering, "Yeah, right on, right on, right on!" And of course, everybody says, "Oh, the white kid deserved it, he was born a racist, he's white."
The fact that black politicians make up 7.5% of U.S. Representatives, 1% of U.S. Senators, and 2% of state governors does not register in the fantasy of white persecution. Nor does the persistent income gap between whites and blacks: $49K to $30K. The overwhelmingly white right-wing desperately wants to represent itself as persecuted, the facts be damned. Hence Limbaugh's enthusiasm to report the purported race bias on the school-bus. As blogger John Rogers cannily explains:
One of the great secrets of human nature is that the one thing people want more than love, security, sex, chocolate or big-screen TV's is to feel hard done by. Because being hard done by is the shit. Feeling hard done by is the sweetest of drugs. If you're being persecuted - it must mean you're doing the right thing, right? You get the mellow buzz of the moral high ground, but without arrogantly claiming it as your own. You get an instant, supportive community in a big dark scary world of such scope it may well literally be beyond rational human processing. When you are hard done by, you get purpose in a life where otherwise, you'd have to find your own. And when you ride that high, then no amount of logic, no pointing out that in actuality you and your beliefs are at a high point of popularity and influence for the last hundred years - is going to pry that sweet crack-pipe of moral indignation from your hands.
Stay tuned for more black-on-white action in my Persecution Politics series at dagblog.com.
rush and savage and sean and the rest are desirous of a fascist state:
SO THEY CALL LIBERALS FASCISTS.
rush and savage and sean the the rest are out right racist pigs:
SO THEY CALL MINORITIES RACISTS
rush and savage and sean do everything in their power to defend the corporate oligarchy:
SO THEY CLAIM THAT LIBERALS ARE FOR THE CORPORATE OLIGARCHY.
This is all planned
September 16, 2009 4:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
True dat.
September 16, 2009 4:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Freud would call it "projection."
September 16, 2009 4:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
You and your friends can post all the hate you want, Genghis. Go ahead. Beat me down and then pile on, kicking. But after being hated for so long, it's water off a duck's back.
I will survive.
September 16, 2009 4:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
I see, now we're persecuting the Canadians and their ridiculous obsession with waterfowl.
September 16, 2009 4:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
The incident in question happened about 20 miles from me, and the local stations (not just Fox) have been making hay over this for days now. sigh
September 16, 2009 6:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, there's a short man's complex. Maybe the true reason that whites, and white men in particular, feel so inferior:
Other races have it too good!
September 16, 2009 4:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
While I know there is no scientific basis for this whatever, I still say that if they find out that stem cells would cure baldness, we'd have them in the water supply within a month.
And the charge would likely be led by the same crazed souls who decry "sperimentin" with them...
September 16, 2009 5:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
The follicle is mightier than the---nah, I'll stop the joke right there.
September 16, 2009 6:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey. We could just SAY stem cells cure baldness. Since when did any of these demagogues read scientific journals?
Hmmmmmmm....I wonder what would happen if we said it cured.........blackness!
September 16, 2009 10:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
The collar (color?) is back.
The right-wing fringe isn't really conscious, it's pod people emulating humans. They are simulacra, aping our our criticisms by using the exact same terms, like accusing remedies for racism as racist.
September 16, 2009 6:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Meanwhile, a genteel son of the South down in Georgia -- in front of a restaurant in the appropriately named Cracker Barrel chain -- just beat a black woman up today, punching and kicking her in the head, screaming that she was a "fucking black ni--er bitch" as he did. All because the woman pointed out that this genteel son of the South -- a full-grown adult male, not an adolescent -- had shoved the door to the restaurant open so abruptly he nearly hit her seven year old daughter in the face. His genteel response was acted out well in front of the seven year old daughter.
The woman was an army vet.
September 16, 2009 9:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
anna, do you have a link to an article on this? How much do you want to bet that Rush Limbaugh will not mention anything about this on his show?
September 17, 2009 10:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/09/16/cracker.barrel.beating/
September 17, 2009 11:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
Wow, what a piece of shit this Troy Dale West is.
September 17, 2009 12:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Persecution Politics" is misnamed.
I wish this blog were about politics. Instead it's about pop culture, which the right-wing has successfully substituted for our politics. And the left-wing seems brain-dead enough to go along. I'm afraid they don't even know a substitution has been made.
But as far as I understood the election apparatus in this country, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh are not politicians nor are they elected officials. That's right. I actually thought they were not politicians and not elected. I thought they were pop-culture queens.
Yet when I read TPM, it appears that they share an equal status with politicians, including the president of the United States.
How did this happen? When did the venerable Talking Points Memo topple to the bottom-feeder section of American culture?
Sorry, this conceit has been around for a lot longer than that. You're showing your age. Ever hear of a sitcom called All in the Family?
Anyway, you appear to have an appetite for empty calories if you've turned Glenn Beck's shit into a series. I personally think it's beneath your talents and a waste of your time.
Sorry.
September 16, 2009 10:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ah gasket, how I miss your cheerful critiques. It's worse than you know--I'm working on a book about it. So yes, I'm well aware of the history of "reverse discrimination" (and "reverse racism," as it was renamed in the 90's). What we didn't have then was black president, which has dramatically increased the intensity.
It would be nice to think that Beck and Limbaugh don't affect politics, but they've repeatedly demonstrated otherwise--and not because of what anyone at TPM is writing about them.
September 16, 2009 11:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey, it feels like old times, eh? You (and David Seaton) brought out my dormant crankiness. That's because I expect more rigor and clarity from you both.
Okay, then, write a column where you prove Beck and Limbaugh influenced politics. Direct relationship. Kids fighting on a bus doesn't prove they influenced anything. In fact, there's no relationship. Weak, G. Meanwhile, strike this from your manuscript.
If you need a tough editor, btw, let me know. :-)
Do you have a contract yet?
September 17, 2009 9:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
Old times indeed. Except for the absence of obsessive trolls, pseud accusations, and grudge matches.
I have an agent and am finishing up the proposal.
In terms of your criticism, this post was not attempting to demonstrate the political impact, just to characterize the paranoia. The thread has turned into a discussion of the assault itself, but I was trying to focus on the way that Limbaugh has exploited the assault for his political agenda and why it has been effective.
Your challenge, however, is good one, and I promise to devote a future post to addressing it. As a prelude, I don't think that the paranoid right wing has had a significant impact on Federal policy so far, largely because the Republicans are virtually powerless, though I do think that the far right has scuttled any hope of bipartisan compromise on health care (let's just hope that Dems can hold their coalition together).
The more significant impact to date is the rightward shift of the G.O.P., which has been midwifed by your pop-culture queens. McCain's selection of Sarah Palin offered us a sour taste of right-wing power. We could end up choking on it if Republicans regain power.
So I'm trying to understand what makes FOX & friends tick, and why their audience keeps growing. (And to ridicule them of course b/c that's what I do.)
September 17, 2009 11:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
Sincere congratulations on the agent and best of luck on the writing, G. I can't imagine immersing myself in Glenn Beck, so I hope you keep tight hold of your sanity.
Here's a thought: Jerry Falwell was quite successful in using his cultural influence to reroute political debate and affect policy.
Perhaps Republicans (Karl Rove?) have seen potential in Beck and Limbaugh to do the same (influence culture to move policy) but with a secular audience.
September 17, 2009 1:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
No worries. I lost my sanity long ago.
I've yet to plumb the depths of the Moral Majority, but I'll get there and will explore the culture/politics crossover as you suggest.
September 17, 2009 1:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Are you really deaf to the influence Limbaugh, Beck, et al. has on mainstream media coverage of politics?
"I expect more rigor and clarity from you both."
God, what a pompous statement. Don't demand what you're incapable of delivering yourself.
September 17, 2009 12:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thank you brewmn61 for your spirited defense against the fearsome onslaught of the terrible gasket. I would have been lost with you.
September 17, 2009 1:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Some call me the Great and Powerful Gasket, but suit yourself.
September 17, 2009 2:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
You're lucky. They call me the Feeble and Impotent ☠enghis.
September 17, 2009 2:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
You're welcome?
September 17, 2009 2:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
TPM, like most political blogs, is always in danger of becoming just another nanostory network. Direction of wind is irrelevant - all that matters is the intensity of outrage revery.
September 17, 2009 10:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
WTF. Has rush never been to school? Never mind, rhetorical question.
Every time I saw a fight or was involved in one when I was a kid it was a show for the other kids. They always cheered it on. Whether it was a couple of white guys, black guys, mixed raced, and especially if it was two girls. A school fight is sop in any school based movie and everyone always cheers.
Bullying and school fights are much too common. Kids will be kids is bullshit imo, but that's another discussion. And rush is shocked that there was a fight on a bus and the kids cheered? Get real.
September 17, 2009 6:18 AM | Reply | Permalink
Anyone know if the kid deserved it? Did a bully get some coming back to him?
September 17, 2009 10:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hell, no, the kid didn't deserve it! I've seen the entire 13-minute video taken on board by the bus's video cam. But it didn't, on the surface, apper to be racially motivated. The bus was extremely overcrowded, with many kids sitting three to a seat on seats designed for two. Other kids were standing the entire time for lack of seating. So when this kid, a quiet guy, could not find a seat, he moved a bookbag and sat down. The kid who's bag was moved lashed into him savagely. Later, another kid beat him more, apparently for fun or to show how tough he was. The teenager beaten is shown exiting the bus with a bruised and bloody face. He may have had some bones broken from the looks of it, but this is my own pure speculation. Police and school administrators are downplaying the idea that race played any part, and that is likely true, considering the observable facts. But I don't know for certain. What I do know is that there were many other white kids, Latino kids and blacks mixed on that bus, and the one beaten was the unpopular, nerdy kid. I was one of those when I was young, so if you're reading this, kid, don't worry about it. You'll grow out out of it. The kids that beat you likely will grow up in prison.
September 17, 2009 1:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
I work in education, so I can tell you that fights are part of the deal. What I keep thinking is: a fight on a school bus is not national news. And, the police officer who immediately called it a race based incident needs to learn to get all the facts right before commenting. And the media needs to verify before running away with a story that is really a non-story. It's getting to the point where much of the media is creating the news instead of reporting on the news that is actually there.
September 17, 2009 10:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thank you both!
September 17, 2009 10:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
I can't wait to hear Sarah's "thoughts" on this. Her latest Facebook press release should be out any minute now.
September 17, 2009 9:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
It is important for people to understand that not only was the incident on the bus in Belleville, IL NOT racial... it was broken up by a black student on the bus. That's right, a black student summoned the courage to stand up to the bullies and put a stop to their merciless and uncalled for attack on another student who was either unwilling or unable to defend himself.
In short, the victim of the attack was saved by a black student. But does this salient fact get anywhere near the media attention? Of course not because it is so much juicier to spread the sensationalistic gossip about blacks attacking in a "racial" incident which pricks up far more ears and scares far more white people than a story about two bullies thwarted on a bus by a brave young man acting alone while everyone else watched and did nothing.
September 17, 2009 11:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
That part of the story somehow escaped Rush Limbaugh; go figure.
September 17, 2009 11:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
You know... it's worth commenting that as rabid as is the Right tagging this a racial-attack story, this post and comments frequently are absurdly avid either to dismiss the incident ("Anyone know if the kid deserved it?"... "I work in education, so I can tell you that fights are part of the deal") or utterly deny its racial implications. I finally tracked it down, after reading Ripper McCord's note. The unfortunate kid is mercilessly beaten - it's hard to watch. There is a very chilling "Lord of the Flies" mood as most of the other students merely watch or exhort the attacker. This is worth asking, although I'm sure any response will be more social sermon than honest sppraisal: If everything else was the same, but the victim was black and his attackers white - would it then be a racial incident? What, then, would it mean?
September 17, 2009 3:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
The thread went that way unfortunately, but I was writing about the way Limbaugh has exploited the assault. The assault itself is despicable, whether or not there were racial motivations.
September 17, 2009 7:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
In case you don't know about this, G, here's some proof of Limbaugh's "political" influence, at least in the minds of some in Texas:
[snip]
Psychos.
September 18, 2009 9:21 AM | Reply | Permalink