Frankly, I've always doubted the power of Jew-baiting as a method of scaring up votes in any black community outside of
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Especially the blacks and the Jews pt. 233231
07 Aug 2008 01:57 pm
TPM knocks Nikki Tinker's ad in which claims, "While he's in our churches, clapping his hands and tapping his
feet ... he's the only senator who thought our kids shouldn't be
allowed to pray in school." Turner's opponent Steve Cohen is Jewish, which leads TPM to claim that Tinkeris Jew-baiting. Maybe. It's clear Tinker is invoking bigotry--but I don't think it's that kind. It seems that the more salient fact is that Cohen is the only white person in Congress representing a majority black district. The "our" in question likely refers to the church--a bastion of voluntary segregation.
Frankly, I've always doubted the power of Jew-baiting as a method of scaring up votes in any black community outside ofthe tri-state area Gotham. That's not because blacks aren't antisemetic, it's because--in the words of the great Jimmy Baldwin--they're antiwhite. Jew-baiting against a white Jewish guy in a majority black district, is like attempting a 360 dunk. Why go through all that when the the plain-old race-baiting layup will suffice?
Frankly, I've always doubted the power of Jew-baiting as a method of scaring up votes in any black community outside of
Comments (35)
She may have been thinking forward to a gubernatorial run and decided to make a play for the evangelical vote. Regardless, it appears to have been a major miscalculation.
this post is spot on. black people don't dislike jews except maybe in places like nyc or chicago where racial politics--and tensions--abound freely. black animus is directed toward white people in general.
when black people refer to "our churches" they are talking about "the black church", separate and distinct from white churches. jewishness has nothing to do with it.
the tinker ad was race-baiting and playing up black resentment toward a white man. it was not anti-semeitc.
Well, that's probably because as much as blacks may be anti-white, many blacks despise Jews a hell of a lot more. Even EBP's in fact!
Jesus Coates, do you actually know any black people?
This is mainly true. Black people see a generic white "man" and if the man is Jewish, Italian or Irish--the newest folks to join the white American club--the bigotry is not the same WASP discrimination. Blacks do not feel superior to white people.
However, the Nation of Islam, a true minority in black America has a Jewish problem. & black New Yorkers have one too which as you said, is actually a white problem.
This woman, Nikki Turner, is an absolute disgrace. She is using Theocratic rhetoric to attack a fellow Dem by appealing to her anti-secular black Christian base. (Actually, I don't think black Christians even think in those terms because EVERYBODY loves Jesus!) EMILY'S LIST supported her too!
Then why is the blood libel about AIDS being invented to kill blacks against Jewish doctors rather than white doctors? And why, when Farrakhan want to draw some attention, does he go on about Jews rather than whites?
It's Nikki Tinker, not Turner.
This is my Congressional district - and yes, she's Jew-baiting. She did it in the 2006 primary, and she's doing it again this year.
Why go through all that when the the plain-old race-baiting layup will suffice?
The answer to that is that she's trying to unseat a very popular incumbent. The odds are very much against her, and she's desperate.
Blacks in general (speaking of black Christians) do not hate Jews! Anti-semitism is a centuries-old European hatred passed down through those families.
Black Christianity is animated by the story of Exodus. Blacks called Harriet Tubman Moses. African Americans have historically identified with Jews. The racism that blacks have faced in the US was perfected on Jews in Europe. Jews were blacks' staunchest allies in the Civil Rights Movement.
That being said, Darling Nikki is a freak show who should be denounced and rejected by EVERY SINGLE elected Democrat. The CBC should start the show. (Oh wait, the head of the CBC has to visit her son in jail first. Well, as soon as she returns!)
I think the Jewish angle is obscure to a TV viewer. But the "baiting" is thick in the ad, even if you didn't know Cohen was white.
In other words, replace the names with Jones and Doe, the tone and construction says I(voice over) and one of you, and we need to hate him.
What do you make of these tactics used against Cohen?
http://guidetotheperplexed.blogspot.com/2008/08/06-august-2008-obama-silent-on.html
She might have intended to target him because he's white rather than because he's Jewish, but she absolutely does target his Jewishness. Why is religion so much a part of the ad? A white Christian wouldn't be lying by going into a church in the way she suggests Cohen does. "Now I lay me down to sleep" is a Christian prayer. (A Christian prayer, btw, that my Catholic grandmother forced me to say from time to time, which would have infuriated my Jewish mother if I'd known to bring it up.) Imagine if someone were to go after you for being liberal, but they used your being black to symbolize your liberalness. Would you feel better knowing it was just about your political views?
Also, the flyers that have been floating about saying "Steve Cohen and the Jews HATE Jesus" mean that religious overtones are definitely present in the campaign (the flyers aren't directly linked to Tinker's campaign, but she was quite slow in condemning them -- and certainly she knows now that religion is an issue that is on folks' minds).
The flier is very explicitly antisemetic. I'm addressing the television ad, which could have be run against Cohen whether he were Jewish or just a white protestant. Or Catholic. On a sidenote, I hate this idea that Obama must come out and denounce this woman. She's a complete asshat, no question. But really? Every time a white Republican makes a fool of themselves (like calling a nominee for president "boy") is President Bush then responsible?
"On a sidenote, I hate this idea that Obama must come out and denounce this woman."
I'd hate it if he did it, must or not. Whatever his real reason might be, it would look cheap and opportunistic.
I'm not defending Tinker, but what do people outside Memphis think about the fact that we have a large, prominent park and statue of Nathan Bedford Forest on display? After all, that was the point of the add.
Does it really help to attract world class candidates for the medical school, to have such a tribute next to the campus.
Jason
So one creep makes a racist political ad and suddenly it metastasizes into general comments about races?
How about if you just call out the turkeys who designed and ran the ad and leave the rest of America out of this?
Blacks and liberals are far more racist than the normal average American. Their (liberals) policies are designed to keep to keep poor black people poor and on the bottom rungs of the economic ladder, yet the black community continues to fall in line with them. They are doing the same thing to Latinos now.
When I was in college I read "Manchild in the Promised Land". I found out blacks in NY didn't like Jews. When I was married, I learned that blacks didn't like Asian stores in their communities. As I aged, I learned that Blacks didn't like Hispanics.
I was born and live in Seattle where there was almost no Black people growing up. I saw MLK's marches in the South and didn't understand any of it. I was about 18 at the time. I had never traveled to the South and I thought Jim Crow was absurd. I'm sure that that most people outside the South thought the same.
Now it's all about Blacks hating everyone else. Sorry. No Sale. The King Dream is dead within their own people. Now it's the national grievance committee and all the hopeful ideas have died.
Go back and look at the Black families who marched with King and imagine what it would look like now.
PS "Manchild in the Promised Land" is a dynamite book but probably out of print now.
"I've always doubted the power of Jew-baiting as a method of scaring up votes in any black community outside of Gotham."
Who can argue with that "logic?" Successful "Jew-baiting" would seem to require the presence of Jews. But sometimes one Jew is enough.
I think the reason you see Obama weighing in is that this is a hanging curve that he (rightly) wants to take out of the park.
He can't really have a "Sista Souljah" moment - it would take hours - so he has to distance himself piecemeal from those who have to go. Ludacris here, Nikki Tinker there, who knows who's next? And while I don't doubt Obama's sincerity, when Keith Olbermann is more forthright than Obama in criticizing a Dem you have to wonder about potential tone-deafness.
Also, I found the reference to the "good people of Tennessee" both patronizing and dated. Are these the same "good people" who cling to religion and guns?
I see your point...on the other hand, Josh Marshall said that he has it from a reliable source that Nikki Turner promised to make Steve Cohen's "non-embrace of Christianity" an issue...so it depends on whether you trust Josh Marshall I guess.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/207370.php
TPM also has:
A Washington Dem source told Election Central that the roots of Tinker's strategy were apparent as far back as a 2006 fundraiser. "I was at this event where she said that she didn't think this other guy Steve Cohen was gonna win because the constituents weren't gonna support somebody who doesn't accept Jesus as his Lord and Savior," the source said.
And the ad itself goes on to assail Cohen's opposition to school prayer. So the ad itself tells you to read "our" as "Christian."
Happily, we have seen tonight that this didn't work, so that part of the posting is right.
This story has been a chase to fulfill a pre- disposition. Josh Marshall makes a statement that it is repeated by others; it gains some attention; and now it has Obama responded to it as well as Hannity. A minister in another district opens his mouth, and a foul antisemetic flyer appears. Now we have a race and Black-Jew problem, thanks but no thanks. Cheap tricks follow cheap tricks.
Obama looks like a fool to respond to silly noise, and yes connected to black folks who perhaps are overly religious. Let it rest folks! Rove would blush.
Tinker is an idiot and lost; absent the ad she would be no more or less of an idiot.
This story has been a chase to fulfill a pre- disposition. Josh Marshall makes a statement that it is repeated by others; it gains some attention; and now it has Obama responded to it as well as Hannity. A minister in another district opens his mouth, and a foul antisemetic flyer appears. Now we have a race and Black-Jew problem, thanks but no thanks. Cheap tricks follow cheap tricks.
Obama looks like a fool to respond to silly noise, and yes connected to black folks who perhaps are overly religious. Let it rest folks! Rove would blush.
Tinker is an idiot and lost; absent the ad she would be no more or less of an idiot.
Ta-Nehisi,
I agree with you that Jimmy Baldwin was one of America's finest essayists, but keep in mind his view of black-Jewish relationships evolved pretty dramatically over the years to the point where at the end he made statements which were grossly insensitive and bordered on anti-Semitism.
As recounted by Julius Lester, while he was an English professor at UMass Amherst he(Baldwin) became enraged when the press went after Jesse Jackson for his infamous "hymietown" joke which Baldwin defended and insisted that the other white candidates were making similar remarks about blacks but that the press were ignoring them.
Baldwin ended the class discussion on the subject by declaring "Jews are just white people that go to church on Saturday".
Now, IIRC, his statement "blacks are anti-semitic because they are anti-white" comes from an essay who's name I forgot from the 70s.
However, I think it's belied by the first essay Baldwin ever wrote "The Harlem Ghetto" which I recommend everyone read because it's one of the best essays I've ever read.
It's been almost 15 years since I read it, but it contained two lines that I remember to this day. At the very beginning he says(quoting from memory), "In all my years in Harlem, I don't recall every meeting a negro who ever really trusted a Jew and few who did not freely express for the them the blackest of contempt."(I loved his use of the term blackest)
At the end he says, "Everyone needs a scapegoat. Alabama has the negro. Harlem has the Jew."
The point is, anti-semitism has been a problem among blacks for a long time.
Having said that, I do think it should be noted that it has declined dramatically(which in discussions of black anti-semitism is rarely mentioned) and I do agree that demanding Obama condemn this idiot of a woman is absurd.
For the record, Bob Brady- my congressman here in Philly, is the other white congressman representing a majority black district. Glad to see Tinker lost, that kind of trash has no place in the 21st century. But maybe I'm biased, being a Jesus hating Jew and all...
Mr. Coates,
I was wondering if I could get your take on Lacy Clay's comments when he decided not to allow Congressman Cohen join the CBC:
"Quite simply, Rep. Cohen will have to accept what the rest of the country will have to accept — there has been an unofficial Congressional White Caucus for over 200 years, and now it's our turn to say who can join 'the club.' He does not, and cannot, meet the membership criteria, unless he can change his skin color. Primarily, we are concerned with the needs and concerns of the black population, and we will not allow white America to infringe on those objectives."
My initial feelings are that it would be counterproductive to limit membership to the CBC based on race if white Reps wishing to join were doing so in good faith. Do you think Clay's decision is an attempt to ensure that white Reps cannot take credit for any policy gains the CBC makes? Would such semiological considerations be legitimate?
From the Kos site:
"With 89% of precincts reporting, incumbent Steve Cohen leads Tinker 79% to 19%."
I guess race-baiting isn't working these days with some voters. This is a great result.
sorry, but i see tinker's assault as being distinctly directed against cohen's jewish background.
what is heartening was the fact that the voters in that majority black district tossed that scumbag tinker to the curb and let the rest of the country know that they didn't play that sh-t.
contrary to public perception and media hype, african-american voters most times vote in very sophisticated ways and routinely overlook race and vote for the person who will best represent their interest, no matter their ethnicity.
for any further proof, consider the long line of failed republican token blacks who have been soundly rejected by black voters. despite lots of attempts over the last couple of decades, black folks never fall for the vote-for-me-cause-i'm-black schtick the gop tries to play.
that is why you haven't seen a black republican in congress, representing black folks since...
(any historians out there to help me out!? and jc watts doesn't count because he represented a white district in oklahoma, an anomaly that was the result of his being a university of oklahoma football hero. and a damn good wishbone quarterback, despite his pathetic political career.)
sorry, but i see tinker's assault as being distinctly directed against cohen's jewish background.
what is heartening was the fact that the voters in that majority black district tossed that scumbag tinker to the curb and let the rest of the country know that they didn't play that sh-t.
contrary to public perception and media hype, african-american voters most times vote in very sophisticated ways and routinely overlook race and vote for the person who will best represent their interest, no matter their ethnicity.
for any further proof, consider the long line of failed republican token blacks who have been soundly rejected by black voters. despite lots of attempts over the last couple of decades, black folks never fall for the vote-for-me-cause-i'm-black schtick the gop tries to play.
that is why you haven't seen a black republican in congress, representing black folks since...
(any historians out there to help me out!? and jc watts doesn't count because he represented a white district in oklahoma, an anomaly that was the result of his being a university of oklahoma football hero. and a damn good wishbone quarterback, despite his pathetic political career.)
For the record, Bob Brady- my congressman here in Philly, is the other white congressman representing a majority black district.
My understanding is that Brady's district is only plurality black - about 45% or so (maybe a little higher now). The white population is nearly as high, and nearly all the Hispanics and Asians in Philly live in that district, as well. It is majority minority, but there are a fair number of majority minority districts outside the South with white congressmen.
Tinker couldn't call Cohen a racist or a good-ol'-boy, so she counted on calling him a Red Sea Pedestrian instead (ht. Life of Brian). She assumed that the politics of Harlem (or Atlanta, or Minneapolis - c.f., Cynthia McKinney & family, and Keith Ellison) would fly in Tennessee.
Tinker's crushing loss suggests that while blacks in Harlem, Minneapolis, and Atlanta may be disproportionately antiSemitic, the same is not true for blacks in Tennessee.
Tinker couldn't call Cohen a racist or a good-ol'-boy, so she counted on calling him a Red Sea Pedestrian instead (ht. Life of Brian). She assumed that the politics of Harlem (or Atlanta, or Minneapolis - c.f., Cynthia McKinney & family, and Keith Ellison) would fly in Tennessee.
Tinker's crushing loss suggests that while blacks in Harlem, Minneapolis, and Atlanta may be disproportionately antiSemitic, the same is not true for blacks in Tennessee.
what a crock!!!
to compare mckinney and ellison to tinker illustrates exactly the mindset of anyone who would attempt to do so.
i guess the standard is that anyone who advocates for palestinians and/or criticizes israel is automatically branded as anti-semitic.
what a crock!!
People who say it is wrong that Obama should have to denounce Ms Tinker convienently forget that EVERYONE has to condemn whites who offend blacks, even when the offending party IS NOT even a politician!!! Michael Richards and Don Imus are two examples- yes, white politicians loudly condemned these two. George Bush criticized the running of the Prophet Mohammaed cartoons in Denmark several years ago- and it was private citizens, not the government, who did this.
Give me a break, everyone from the President of the US on down always has publically denounce any racist white person.
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The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
Tri-state area?
You mean Michigan, Ohio, and Illinois?
Posted by Jaybird | August 7, 2008 2:22 PM