“What’s More Scary: A Bleak Economy or a Black President?” (not my words, just quoting)
Posted by neverenoughwords on November 10, 2008
There I was, watching Rick Sanchez on CNN. He gave a report on a couple of things he encountered in Georgia lately. He told of a sign in front of a church that read “When the Wicked Beareth Rule the People Mourn” (from Proverbs). Maybe the church was addressing a bear market. You know, the Beareth Market as opposed to a Bulleth Market.
He saw flags at half staff. Were those confederate flags? (ouch)
He then told of the Statesville Record, a newspaper in Statesville, NC, that printed an article back in October (he made it sound as though it were just yesterday) with the headline “Analysis: Some whites fear an Obama presidency” and the first lines that read “What’s more scary: a bleak economy or a black president?” It created a bit of a stir. I’m not sure who was upset, people who might be “afraid” of a black president, people who were offended by the sentiment, or someone else. Nevertheless, the paper had to issue an apology. First, I can’t find the article in the Statesville Record on line, but it’s available here. Second, the article was written by Jesse Washington, AP Race & Ethnicity writer. It’s syndicated. Sanchez made it sound as though it were written by a Statesville writer. Third, did the paper owe an apology? From what I can tell, Washington was making an observation. It wasn’t his opinion. From the evidence he gave, it sounds like a pretty fair observation.
Bottom line, though, Sanchez should’ve been more careful about his 2-minute semi-sensational report. Shame on him.
jonolan said
My thought is “why choose?” Both things separately engender fear in large bodies of the populace. Together, they may have a very negative synergistic effect. Imagine the fears of some when a “wealth redistributing” Black President starts pushes his agenda? Who’s going to ge the money? More importantly, who do some people – not all of them racists – think will get the money?
Do Blacks think Obama will “give them an advantage?” Do Whites think Obama will give Blacks “an advantage?” Does either group think Obama will push an agenda that our current economy can’t support?
Are any of them right?
There’s plenty of room for fear and therefore the article needn’t cause anyone to apologize – IMHO.
neverenoughwords said
I entirely agree with you about the fear factor. I’m afraid about my own future to the point that I don’t need laxatives. Maybe I’m naive to think that Obama will be judicious and fair. If this mess doesn’t get straightened out, however, it’s not going to matter much whether he is fair or not. We’re all going to be in the tank.
I didn’t think anyone needed to apologize either. From what I can tell, that article wasn’t carried by an overwhelming number of papers.
pacer521 said
I tend to agree with the top comment on this issue, almost word for word. This is in fact a very interesting topic, and thanks for bringing it up for subject. This is shaping up to be a pretty darn good blog — keep it up.
pacer521
neverenoughwords said
I do have a few opinions. I’ve kept silent about them for, let’s see . . . about 8 years now. Call me crazy, but fearing Obama because he’s black just didn’t occur to me and still doesn’t. I’ll trust him until he proves me wrong. Even though I didn’t vote for Bush, I initially trusted him and the judgment of the majority. At least the first time around. The second time around? Not so much. But I couldn’t quite imagine Kerry in office either, just as I can’t imagine him as Secretary of State. Blcch.
jonolan said
Fearing Obama solely because he’s Black seems nonsensical to me as well, but I accept that there are those in America who do fear him in power for reason other than his race. On that point alone the AP article published by a newspaper in Statesville, NC is worthy of print.
Fearing Obama because he’s Black and made statements about the failure of the Civil Rights movement being that it didn’t manage to legislate wealth redistribution is less nonsensical. This plays into the racial fears because Obama’s statement – taken in the context of the Civil Rights movement – implies that Obama would try to legislate the redistribution of wealth from Whites to Blacks.
I’m not saying that I subscribe to such fears, but I do admit that they’re not groundless. I also believe that those fears are exacerbated by a faltering economy.