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Having been advisor to three presidents, a candidate for Republican presidential nominee twice, and the Reform party nominee once, Pat Buchanan has...
Read more about Patrick Buchanan.
Having been advisor to three presidents, a candidate for Republican presidential nominee twice, and the Reform party nominee once, Pat Buchanan has...
Read more about Patrick Buchanan.
Whitey Need Not Apply
Patrick Buchanan
"Will race be an issue in this campaign?"
Hearing the cable talk-show host solemnly pose the question, I could not suppress a belly laugh.
For the anchor was fearful that some white folks might reject Obama because he is African-American -- even as a Rasmussen poll was reporting that Barack is beating McCain among black voters 94 to 1.
What, other than race, explains how Barack rolled up 90-10 margins among black voters while running against Hillary Clinton, wife of the man novelist Toni Morrison dubbed "our first black president"?
Indeed, so one-sided was the primary coverage in favor of Barack as the first African-American with a real chance to be president, even "Saturday Night Live" took to mocking the mainstream media.
As for black radio, on "The Tom Joyner Morning Show," "Michael Baisden Show" and "The Steve Harvey Morning Show," which together may reach 20 million folks, there is "little pretense of balance," writes Jim Rutenberg of The New York Times. "More often than not the Obama campaign is discussed as the home team."
Black Entertainment Television plans to carry Barack's speech to the Democratic convention live, but has no plans to carry McCain's. Barack's speech "is an historic occasion," says BET Chairman Debra L. Lee, "so that demands some special treatment from us."
As the mainstream media have moved left and talk radio right, and cable is breaking down along political and ideological lines, there is something else afoot now -- the racial Balkanization of the newsroom.
Consider. On Sunday, 6,800 folks showed in Chicago for the 2008 quadrennial convention of UNITY: Journalists of Color. McCain declined an invitation. Bush had been booed at UNITY 2004, while John Kerry got a standing ovation. Featured speaker: Barack. Major concern of the journalists running the show: that their colleagues would lift the roof off the McCormick Place convention center when Barack arrived.
Said Luis Villareal, a producer of NBC's "Dateline," "I don't think it's such a bad thing if for 15 minutes you take off your reporter hat and respond to (Obama) as a human being at an event where you're surrounded by people of color and you're here for a united cause."
And exactly what "cause" might the 10,000 members of UNITY be united behind? The hiring and advancement of journalists of color in all major news organizations in America.
For, as its emblem depicts, UNITY comprises four alliances: the Asian American Journalists Association, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the Native American Journalists Association and the National Association of Black Journalists.
"A New Journalism for a Changing World" is UNITY's motto. And the title of its July 22 press release reveals what the "new journalism" is all about. "Aim of New UNITY Initiative Is More Diversity in Top Media Management."
"With more than 50 percent of the population projected to be people of color in less than a generation," says UNITY President Karen Lincoln Michel, "the nation's news organizations continue to generate dismal diversity numbers year after year. ... 'Ten by 2010' is a significant step in the right direction."
What is Ten by 2010?
UNITY is demanding that 10 major U.S. news organizations, by mid-2010, elevate to a senior management position in the newsroom at least one journalist of color and provide "customized training to help prepare them."
The journalist may be Asian, African-American, Native American or Hispanic, which rules out journalists of Irish, English, Polish, Italian, German or Jewish ancestry, since they are white.
Is this what we have come to 50 years after the triumph of the civil rights movement? Flat-out demands, by American journalists, for the hiring and promotion of colleagues based on race and color?
Is there any evidence major news organizations in this country have engaged in systematic discrimination to keep out men or women of color this last half century? The reverse seems true. They have bent over backward to advance minority journalists.
And if journalists have been hired and promoted based on ability and merit, why in the 21st century should these criteria be thrown out as the standards for advancement -- in favor of race and color?
Isn't this what they did in the days of Jim Crow -- hire and promote based on race? What UNITY is calling for is a return to the old rules but with new beneficiaries -- blacks, Hispanics, Asians and Native Americans -- and new victims, all of whom will be white.
On Sunday, McCain came out in favor of an Arizona civil rights initiative that would outlaw any state discrimination either for or against folks, based on race, gender or national origin. Barack said he was "disappointed" with McCain and told UNITY he favors affirmative action "when properly structured."
The Arizona referendum banning preferential treatment based on race is also on the ballot in the swing state of Colorado. It won in California in 1996, in Washington in 2000 and in Michigan in the great Democratic sweep of 2006. It has never lost, and may just win McCain Colorado, and with it the nation.
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To find out more about Patrick Buchanan, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.
Copyright 2008 Creators Syndicate Inc.
This news arrived on: 08/01/2008
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Posted Comments:
09-27-2008 15:26
Tembora wrote:
Pat Buchanan on race
White people for all your education you are dumb. There was a time you thought that drinking water from the same fountain was a crime getting a education was a crime even getting a good job met that we was uppity.The white leadership in this country has made us the most hated country on the planet. You are still whining about affirmative action yet it has always been affirmative action for whites.I know of many cases where whites got a job over blacks because of color .Do you know who affirmative action has helped the most? It is white women look it up.We can fight for the rights of people all over the world yet we can't get a chance to lead this country.What are you afraid of that we might do a better job?
08-25-2008 08:24
Jesse wrote:
would you vote for Obama if he were white?
Pat you can't blame black-america too much for wanting to favour Obama because of race - it is too much human nature to ppl to support 'one of their own'. Everyone does this. My concern though is for those who are supporting him on race alone without listening to his policies and on the man himself. The bigger question black supporters should answer is - would I vote for him if he were white? If the answer is no, then brother, you need to do some more soul-searching before you cast your vote in his favour. I'm not sure that Obama is the type of man who is going to implement policies based on race and that could disappoint a whole lot of black-americans who are counting on a black president to make their lives better - only to find that their lives haven't changed in the way they were expecting, if at all.
08-08-2008 13:04
theresa wrote:
whitey
you're on a fine line here I tend to agree with everyone else. I am white 38 have an MBA and I've been out of work for almost a year now, as have numerous others with my same demographics. I live in a stae with the 2nd highest unemployment rate. My brother lost out to an african american for the state police department due to affirmative action even though he scored better. We let it go..BUT I say that's reverse discrimination. I don't owe the blacks or any other race anything! I think it's time for the whites to get affirmative action.
08-06-2008 00:33
gumboboy wrote:
To History
You are correct in your statements that only 5% of Americans owned slaves but because the laws at the time supported slavery that all white Americans benefitted from holding the black man down as did the Jim Crow laws of later years. Your comments are incorrect in saying that over half of the southern states had outlawed slavery before the Civil War. Infact the slaves were freed by A. the Ghettysburg Address for sucession states and B. by the 14th amendment for non sucession states. But, the fact still remains that white Americans feel that they should not pay for the plight of blacks in America, just like the esteemed writer of "History," they feel that because their families were immigrants two or three generations ago that they should not have to pay, this is an insult to All Americans especially the immigrants who faught and died in the Civil War, who never owned slaves. These immigrants knew that in order to truly belong to this country one must respect the debt of that country even if repayment is the cost of life. All the black community is what was promised to them from President Lincoln, 40 acres and a mule, that was never payed. Today with inflation, that would be a couple of hundred thousand to all African Americans in America today. But, that is another story.
08-05-2008 23:33
wrote:
History
Contrary to popular opinion, only 5% of Whitey owned
slaves in the South. By the time of the Civil War, over half of those states had outlawed slavery. I am only the third generation born in this country. None of my ancestors ever owned slaves in this country or any other. So why do I have to accept that every white person in America is to blame for the Blacks not getting ahead. Pure garbage! I thought Black hatred of Whitey was a thing of the past until I saw the tapes of Obama's church group and all their cheering for the hate that was spewed from the pulpit. Watching all this hatred unfold has caused me to "change" my opinion about Blacks and about Obama. Now I am afraid of what will happen to this country if we have a Black president. I will never vote for Obama!
slaves in the South. By the time of the Civil War, over half of those states had outlawed slavery. I am only the third generation born in this country. None of my ancestors ever owned slaves in this country or any other. So why do I have to accept that every white person in America is to blame for the Blacks not getting ahead. Pure garbage! I thought Black hatred of Whitey was a thing of the past until I saw the tapes of Obama's church group and all their cheering for the hate that was spewed from the pulpit. Watching all this hatred unfold has caused me to "change" my opinion about Blacks and about Obama. Now I am afraid of what will happen to this country if we have a Black president. I will never vote for Obama!
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