Should Harry Reid step down from Senate leadership?

[XBoxWarrior]

The Young Mens Hebrew Association still exists. As does the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.

that doesn't mean politicians should go around calling Jews "Hebrews".

Are you actually serious?

My buddy Chaim didn't mind me callin' him Himey when I lived in Manhattan. Was that wrong? (36th and 1st, the crooked building over the MTT)

Should I call him and apologize?

It's time for a WORLD WIDE VOTE on what we can and can't use for slang.

 

[boooeee]

It's "Alter boy".

Hey words are a tough thing.....

Indeed.

 

[corplinx]

I've wanted Reid out of that job for a few years now. We should have someone with, you know, leadership qualities in that leadership position. Reid is severely lacking.

Do we need an inspirational senate majority leader or just someone who can wrangle votes and grease the right palms?

If the Democratic party has enough good leaders promoting the party vision, I think the senate majority leader position would perhaps be best off in the hands of a shady tactician given the cloture rules.

 

[Bluegill]

Perhaps you can spell it out for us then. How, exactly, is what he said so terribly racist that he needs to step down? I've read the quote, and to me it is insulting to the American public, and sadly, true.

Had Obama had darker skin and spoke with any type of heavy accent, he would have had less support. This isn't because those things are bad, but because there are still racists out there, some of whom don't even realize it. Remember the artificially lightened and darkened Obama pictures? Stating this isn't an inherently racist statement.

It is political reality. Yes, it was stupid it say because it will offend people. It isn't stupid to say because it is untrue.

I'm with you on this one. I see it the same way. Now I'll keep reading this thread to see, as sometimes happens, whether someone comes up with an additional bit of evidence I haven't considered.

 

[Lurker]

There's an odd double standard at play where it's unacceptably racist if Trent Lott says something nice to a 100 year old on his birthday, but we should forgive Harry Reid for denigrating the way many black Americans speak.

That's not to defend Lott- who I believe should have stepped down- but I also believe that leaders of the other party should be held just as accountable for their idiotic comments. Surely the Democrats can produce more able leaders.

Ravdin, the two statements are eons apart. Lott said that the US would have been better off had Thurmond won on his segregationist ticket. That is very offensive.

Reid used negro in a derogatory way to describe how (some) black people speak. That rates a lot lower in offensiveness IMO.

That being said, Reid should probably step aside although I am not rabid about it.

 

[Lurker]

If the comments by Lott were so terrible, this is just as bad, or worse. It can be argued that Lott was just trying to say something nice for the guy on his birthday, and didn't specifically mean "if we had followed your own bigtory". He didn't say that. He can only be inferred to have made a racial remark there.

Well, you are forgetting the fact that Thurmond ran primarily on a segregation ticket. That is what defined his candidacy.

Personally I grant that Lott probably was speaking off the cuff and forgot what Thurmond represented back then.

 

[Vortigern99]

Funny... Obama doesn't sound much like Bush, Then Bush doesn't sound much like Clinton... Then of course Clinton doesn't sound much like Bush.... Do you know what a dialect is?

Do you know the difference between a dialect and an accent? Do you understand what syntax means? Do you know what verb conjugation is? Bush and Clinton have regional accents, but their word usage, verb conjugation and the arrangement of their words conforms to Standard American English. The various American "black" dialects employ different syntax, word usage and verb conjugation from standard American English. That's what a dialect is.

 

[Beerina]

He didn't say "he doesn't have a louisiana or st. louis accent". He didn't say "no hint of a drawl". He said he had no trace of a "negro dialect" inferring that negro dialects are somehow inferior.

Imply, and I'm not sure that's what he was implying. He may have been accurate that the populace, in general, might have had a problem with an African American with a "standard" accent. I don't know if one can even argue with that sad observation.

 

[MikeSun5]

We still have the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) Is that one bad?
UNCF (United Negro College Fund) Ouch!

Again, those are names that were chosen when words like that were more or less acceptable. The terms "colored people" and "negro" are no longer acceptable in modern American vocabulary.

Maybe we need a Black, Negro, Colored, African-American vote/consensus on what would be a "non offensive" word.

I'm pretty sure it's out there, bro. Don't call black people negroes or coloreds. How some people still don't understand that is beyond me.

 

[carlitos]

Senator Robert Byrd, president pro-tempore of the Senate and thus 3rd in line to succeed the President, said "white ******" on national television. Twice. I watched it live. I think Reid is safe.

Hmm. Didn't know that the 'n-word' was censored.

 

[carlitos]

It's "Alter boy".

Hey words are a tough thing.....

I think you mean Altar_boy^WP.

 

[Random]

Reid should have been booted out a while ago. Most liberals have agreed on this for a while now. He is one of the most incompetent Senate majority leaders in history. If a Republican says he will not vote for a Democratic bill unless a change is made, the change is made, and the Republican still won’t vote in favor of the bill, why in God’s name would you allow that change to stay in there?

As someone once put it, “If the Democrats had a 100-0 majority in the Senate, Harry Reid would build a little Republican effigy so he could ritually cave to it.”

 

[Dumb All Over]

yup..that is why Reid should step down from his leadership post...after health-care reform is passed.

Why after?

 

[fuelair]

No, it really is different.

Biden was correct. Compared to Sharpton/Jackson (the previous african-american candidates), Obama was articulate, good-looking, clean (no scandals), etc.

Reid made a statement that implies negros are inferior.

Big difference.

On NPR's Talk of the Nation this afternoon Kelly Goff(I'm spelling by sound), a Black woman said, that only the word "negro" was a problem - and only because it was out of fashion - but otherwise there was no hint of racism in what he said as nothing about it implied any dislike of blacks and his actions at the time were all towards getting a Black elected to the top position in American Government. (functionally, he answered, once again, a political question politically but with one out of use term (she compared her grandfather using the term "colored" when she was a child as equivalent)) IIRC she is with Huffington Post.

 

[Tricky]

I'll be honest and say that when I first saw Obama when he gave the keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, I thought very much the same thing as Reid. I don't know if I would have verbalized it quite the same way he did, but, racist that I am, I thought "Wow, finally a legitimate black candidate who doesn't sound like Jesse Jackson." I thought then and there that he would be president some day, though I admit, I was think more like 2012.

So Reid said the same thing a lot of people, including liberals, were thinking. For shame.

 

[MikeSun5]

So Reid said the same thing a lot of people, including liberals, were thinking. For shame.

Not quite. You yourself admitted:

I thought "Wow, finally a legitimate black candidate who doesn't sound like Jesse Jackson."

I didn't see any archaic derogatory language in that sentence, though I did see it in Reid's. A little condescension with the "wow," but other than that...

No matter how true Reid's statement was, and no matter how many people agree with it, his use of the word "negro" was just plain stupid. How can you be in the public eye, surrounded by cameras, and serving under a black commander in chief, and still use such ignorant language?

Reid should know better, and the people who think he said nothing wrong should know better as well. Pay attention folks: In America, in 2010, the word "negro" is NOT acceptable.

For those of you that think it is an acceptable word, I suggest you start using the word in your everyday vocabulary -- and not just to your white friends. Don't be abrasive, just try to use it in conversation. Use it in the same context as Reid did. Seriously refer to one of your coworkers or friends as a "negro." See how people react to you. I guarantee you will be confronted, maybe politely, maybe not.

 

[Vortigern99]

On NPR's Talk of the Nation this afternoon Kelly Goff(I'm spelling by sound), a Black woman said, that only the word "negro" was a problem - and only because it was out of fashion - but otherwise there was no hint of racism in what he said as nothing about it implied any dislike of blacks and his actions at the time were all towards getting a Black elected to the top position in American Government. (functionally, he answered, once again, a political question politically but with one out of use term (she compared her grandfather using the term "colored" when she was a child as equivalent)) IIRC she is with Huffington Post.

I'm just going to re-post this in response to the members who expressed astonishment that I, a mere "white" person, had the gall to suggest that the word "negro" is simply out of favor rather than actually offensive to anyone. I reiterate my contention, currently supported by many "blacks" (in the media and in my workplace), that the word "negro" is out of fashion, but was not intended by Reid to be disparaging toward "blacks".

 

[Tricky]

No matter how true Reid's statement was, and no matter how many people agree with it, his use of the word "negro" was just plain stupid. How can you be in the public eye, surrounded by cameras, and serving under a black commander in chief, and still use such ignorant language?

It is outdated, but mostly not offensive. After all, we still have the United Negro College Fund, and that dinosaur of an even more bygone day, the NAACP. Really it depends on context, and I honestly don't think the context here was offensive at all. He certainly didn't say anything like, "Wow, not bad for a negro" or anything similar. It was in the context of complimenting a man and distinguishing him as being black. We cannot simply ignore the fact that Americans come in all skin colors. There must be some way to mention that topic without everyone taking offense. Ideally, it should be no different than designating someone as "brunette".

 

[Vortigern99]

I personally would like to see a different term for persons of African descent than "black", since they are no such thing, with the exception of their natural hair color, but I guess that's not my call.

Similarly, I object to the term "white" since, again, we are no such thing, but rather a variety of shades between yellow and brown, and such a generic term used for Americans of European descent tends to gloss over our Native American heritage, which is a genetic and cultural inheritance many in this country share. But I take it that's a topic for another thread.

 

[johnny karate]

This article makes an interesting point.

We have a certain script in our politics, and one of the scripts for black politicians is that for them to be authentically black they have to somehow offend white people.