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Tuesday, May 13, 2008

"Arrogant" -- just another word for "uppity"
Posted by Jill | 8:05 AM
We haven't come that far after all:

At a Clinton campaign rally Sunday night in Eleanor, only 30 miles down the road from Charleston (motto posted on the main drag: "The Cleanest Town in West Virginia"), the Secret Service held on to pocketknives for voters so they could give them back once the candidate left -- not exactly the norm at Obama's rallies anywhere. Even for Clinton fans this late in the game, the crowd was fairly hostile to Obama. R.K. and Peggy Horton, both 71, said they'd never voted for a Republican for president in their lives. But if Obama wins, they will, and they think a lot of their neighbors will, too.

Obama rubs the Hortons the wrong way because they think he's arrogant. It's the same thing you hear from voters in a lot of the parts of the country where Obama's infamous remarks about bitterness would probably also apply. But that's not his only problem in rural West Virginia. "They won't go for a black man, that's just it," R.K. Horton, a retired heating and air conditioning business owner, said of his neighbors. "I don't think it's being racist necessarily, they just don't like black people that well." For that matter, it's not just his neighbors. "The arrogance and all that bothers me more than black, but black is a close second," he said. "Our generation was back when blacks were the back of the bus, and it's hard to change that outlook. I just feel like I couldn't vote for him."


Has your head exploded yet?

What the fuck is wrong with these people? First of all, if you say you just don't like black people all that well, you are a racist. If you don't like ONE black person, that's dislike of an individual. Not liking "black people" means you are a racist. So admit it and then we can deal with it accordingly.

R.K. Horton is smart enough, and able enough to detach from his gut response to recognize that his "not liking black people" may stem from growing up when black people were the back of the bus -- but he's not able to transcend that and recognize that just because something comes from your gut or your upbringing doesn't make it accurate.

This is the minefield that John Edwards faced with the gay community when he acknowledged his "discomfort" -- a discomfort stemming from his background. The difference is that John Edwards recognized that "discomfort" need not result in "dislike", acknowledged that he was struggling with it, and admitted it wasn't something of which he was proud -- unlike R.K. Horton, who just shrugs his shoulders and figures he's entitled to be a racist because he grew up that way.

Meanwhile, the "uppity Negro" (sic) -- oh, excuse me -- the ARROGANT black guy -- had the temerity to recognize the dynamic of a bunch of people voting against their own interest because they can't seem to get past their own prejudices. He had the audacity to pull the cover off of this cancer with which the American white poor live all the time and try to transcend it. He recognized it for what it is -- bitterness -- and is chastised to this day for it.

Well, you know what, Mr. Horton? You go right on listening to the Republican dog whistles. You go right on voting for people who send your job overseas and who want to throw your Social Security into the giant sucking maw of the stock market and want to eliminate the Medicare you're going to rely on when you're old. You go on voting for these people because you grew up with blacks at the back of the bus.

But when you find yourself without so much as a pot to piss in, don't come crying to me. And don't you DARE blame those black people you still think belong at the back of the bus.

UPDATE: So much for race doesn't matter anymore. Ugly Americans indeed.

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11 Comments:
Anonymous Anonymous said...
A magnificent essay! Here I am in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia (where we are one of the few bastions of Obama support in the state) and I look with a great deal of sadness at the obvious racial motivations of most of the state.

I am even more upset with the Clintons for having played up to that inherent racism. The Democratic Party should view them with the kind of shame we once held for George Wallace.

Under The LobsterScope
5/13/08, 8:32 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Most of W. Va is heavily hilly and mountainous, and so the population is very isolated, living and dying in the "hills and hollers". Because of this isolationism, many families still do not enjoy indoor plumbing - using wells and outhouses. And so your pot to piss in comment isn't literally far off the mark. But it also leads to a culture of myth, reliance on verbal storytelling as news and narrative, and thus, the perpetuation of stereotype long past the predicted time frame for dispelling myth and suspicion and replacing it with truth and accuracy.

Many West Virgianians have never seen people of other races, from other cultures or even from a wide variety of socioeconomic classes.

To get these folks to understand will take much more than breeze by campaign appearances in diners and gas stations. It would take long term, widespread home visits - on an individual, family and clan basis.

They vote what they perceive - which is what they are familiar with. Unfamiliar is uncomfortable.
5/13/08, 11:20 AM  
Blogger missy said...
Just for you, Jill: Crackers for Clinton.
5/13/08, 3:25 PM  
Blogger Yashmak said...
It would have been easier on both candidates if they hadn't started playing the identity politics game with each other.

Sexism, racism, age-ism. . .it seems that's all we've heard about from their campaigns so far.

That and some ill-defined nebulous 'change'.
5/13/08, 3:59 PM  
Blogger Susan said...
Just wonderin' what ol' man Horton thinks of Jews? I won't even ask what he thinks of Gays...but for his type it's usually Blacks, Jews & Gays. He sure would have fit in back in Nazi Germany...because there were a lot people there who agreed with him.

Hey, Mr. Horton do you know who we fought in WWII..??
5/13/08, 4:00 PM  
Blogger Susan said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
5/13/08, 4:02 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...
It is way past time for a new generation of people to move America forward.

We've been battling the same damn issue of racism for 130 years now. Enough. Too many of the oldsters are about wallowing in a rut of destruction that is nothing but an albatross and liability. No more.
5/13/08, 7:40 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Does anyone have contact information for Mr R.K. Horton? I'm really curious to hear more about how he and his neighbors feel about black people.

Oh nevermind, thanks Mr Google!

http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&q=rk+horton+west+virginia&btnG=Google+Search
5/13/08, 10:04 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
5/13/08, 10:08 PM  
Blogger Jill said...
I deleted the above comment because I'm not going to host advocacy of my readers harassing private citizens, even bigoted ones.
5/13/08, 10:18 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Annie- It's hardly only in W. Va. Sadly, my father- who hates W and has been looking decidedly liberal in the past few years- told me he's voting for McCain. I know he won't vote for Obama because he's black. I was surprised a few years back to hear he thought a woman would make a good president, so at least he has evolved some.

He's originally from Chicago (this isn't to suggest that I believe northerners aren't racist- I know racism is a national problem).
5/14/08, 2:03 AM  
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