Who's sort of hot. Uhm, in a racist, antisemite, burn in hell with
Norman George Rockwell sort of way. Ahem. Alright, here's bright young thing
Adam Serwer in classic form:
There exists a bizarre idea that somehow, because of racism, black
people should be immune to the kind of petty clannishness that afflicts
other human beings, and it is therefore even more reprehensible when
they aren't. But there really isn't much difference between what Tinker
did in Tennessee's Ninth District and what Republicans do every year.
The Tinker campaign's attempt to argue that only a black candidate
could represent a majority black district isn't so different from John
McCain's invocation of himself as "the American president Americans
have been waiting for."
Here is the quote of the week:
Fox's Hannity and Colmes invited the Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson onto the
show to say what white right-wing pundits would feel less comfortable
saying. Peterson blamed the entire black community of the Ninth
District, declaring that "most blacks" in Memphis are "so racist that
they don't even realize that white Americans have moved on, and so
whenever there is a campaign like this, such as this, they always use
racism in order to intimidate white Americans." Hours later, the
virulently racist black community of Memphis strapped on their black
berets, and clutching copies of Soul on Ice, handed Cohen a
landslide win with 79 percent of the vote to Tinker's 19 percent. She
got a larger share of the vote in 2006, running against 13 other
people.
UPDATE: Wrong Rockwell.
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
Didn't Harold Ford Jr. actually endorse her before he condemed her ad or am i mistaken?
black people always vote for white people--for senator, congressman (often), and president among other offices. blacks have proven themselves on this score. have whites shown this same ability? not yet.
tinker is the black ann coulter. bloulter.
Yes. It is no different from what Republicans do.
Whats your point ? That was one reason for which she needed to be defeated, condemned, humiliated and ran out of Democratic politics forever
i'm not sure, he endorsed her---but he and his wife did max out on donations to her campaign.
I'll bite -- why is Norman Rockwell burning in hell?
Don't front, you know you got a crush . . . Seriously tho, I was rootin for the guy, and its good to see that the voting public is more sophisticated than the nonsense Tinker was trying to push. She still cute tho . . .
Norman Rockwell painted a picture of a little African-American girl and he totally painted the N-Word on the wall behind her.
Was the big fo'head cute before Tyra made it cute?
Jaybird, wasn't that just an accurate portrait of events during school integration? It looks to me like the painting highlights Ruby Bridges courage, and has a decidedly pro-Civil Rights message.
black folks consistently ignore the race of a politician, and vote their interests, even if a race pits a white politician against a black politician.
as a detroit native, i recall a matronly, grey-haired white woman routinely receiving more votes than any african-american running for city council and serving as the head of the council for years.
most black folks don't give a hoot about the race of a candidate and right-wingers like hannity simply run that "black racism" BS just to be able to offer some pushback when they get caught running their typically racist campaigns.
and i would agree that what tinker did is really no different than what republicans typically do. that is why it was so nice to see black voters look past that nonsense and vote for the person, not a caricature of that person based on racism and anti-semitism.
if only white american voters were able to do so, on a routine basis.
maybe they will, this year.
At least he didn't spell clannishness with a "K". There is a patient ongoing "conspiracy" on the right to try to immunize themselves from the racist label by making the story that the blacks are the true bigots.
Ta-Nehisi,
I think you mean George Lincoln Rockwell.
Unless you REALLY don't like Norman Rockwell's drawings. Which is understandable.
Maybe he means Rockwell.
I known I always feel like somebody's watching me.
Whatever your feelings toward the academic realist aesthetic that found a schmaltzy apotheosis with Rockwell, he wasn't a racist. In fact he left the Saturday Evening Post for Look Magazine because of a break with their conservative editorial policy which dictated that blacks be depicted *only* in a servile capacity, e.g. as porters, waiters, etc.
He went to Look Magaizne to be allowed to address some issues of social justice. The readers above references "The Problem We All Live With", his famous picture of Ruby Bridges being escorted to school. In Rockwell's mind, the problem wasn't with Miss Bridges, it was the racist anger (found in the graffitti in the picture) that necessitated the national guard. Later pictures by Rockwell aslo addressed integration of neighborhoods and the slaying of civil rights workers in Mississipi.
Also, more to the point, way to go Memphis! And shame on Ms. Tinker for the race/religion baiting.
"The Tinker campaign's attempt to argue that only a black candidate could represent a majority black district isn't so different from John McCain's invocation of himself as "the American president Americans have been waiting for."
Right, and let's not forget Hillary Clinton in the primaries with rural working class whites.
benjamin: "Yes. It is no different from what Republicans do. Whats your point ? That was one reason for which she needed to be defeated, condemned, humiliated and ran out of Democratic politics forever."
I think the point is what Serwer wrote; "What's really remarkable about Nikki Tinker's racist campaign is that it's not remarkable at all."
Tagging a political opponent as a cultural outsider; that's lifted right from the Republican playbook. The fact that, in this case, it was used by a black democratic candidate against a white candidate, doesn't make it more(or less)reprehensible. Repubs/conservatives who have no voice when these tactics are used against their political opponents, have no real credibility when the cry out about Tinker.
I went to the Cohen Campaign watch/victory party lastnight. It was a great evening. I thought he would win but Ms Tinker being rewarded with a landslide against her by way of thanks for being a racist was a pleasant surprise.
Dude. Nikki Tinker looks like she spent too long in a flight simulator with 100 g's being applied to her face and it got stuck that way.
But my real point:
num1Obamaton writes: Repubs/conservatives who have no voice when these tactics are used against their political opponents, have no real credibility when the cry out about Tinker.
I agree, but then I'm not likely to grant them a lot of credibility anyway. I'm more disturbed by "progressive" groups like the CBC and EMILY's List who supported Tinker on the basis of gender and race despite the fact that Cohen was a better representative of their supposed agendas. After he survived a crowded primary field and then had to stave off an independent challenge from Harold Ford, Jr.'s brother (while Harold himself was at the top of the Democratic ticket in the Senate race), it seems pretty clear that the black voters of the 9th wanted this guy to represent them, and yet the CBC broke protocol to support Tinker because they thought her skin color (and Ford credentials?) was more important than those votes. EMILY's List, which supposedly exists primarily to help elect pro-choice candidates, went with the woman who was weaker on choice than Cohen. Meanwhile, Harold Ford, Jr., who had said it was "inappropriate" for the CBC to support a black challenger over a white incumbent when it wasn't his own old seat that was at issue, seems fine with his wife maxing out in donations to Tinker.
So while I agree with Serwer that there's nothing remarkable about Tinker's tactics, I do think it's important to put the supposedly progressive voices that backed her on blast. They're supposed to be supporting principles that actually matter in the lives of real people, and when they forget that in favor of cheap symbolism, we all lose.
"...a landslide win with 79 percent of the vote to Tinker's 19 percent."
May all Jew-haters rot in Hell --- especially the diehard remnant, the final "19 percent."
Ta-Nehisi,
Matt's readers will like you anyway - you don't have to do the same type of errors as him.
He would have spelt Rockwell wrong anyway.
Blacks have no problem voting for a white candidate. Been doing it for years. We would never put Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson or anyone like them in office. Believe it. Identity politics has never worked on us. I live in Ohio and have yet to meet a black person who has something against Jews. I'm sorry, here in Ohio that is completely foreign to us. But be a big city thing and even then I think it's being overstated. I'm sure there are examples, like Farrakhan, but he doesn't represent every black person in America. Let's think clearly here.
Woohooo! Go Cohen!
Random fact: George Rockwell partly grew up in the same town in Illinois that also gave us Adlai and Maclean Stevenson.
"that only a black candidate could represent a majority black district "
I don't have a problem with someone arguing that. In fact, in response to the House apology I wrote something partly sympathetic to that position.
But those religious allusions in Tinker's ad had nothing to do with Cohen being white? Or did you think only Blacks were Christians? "Now I lay me down to sleep" is not an attack on Cohen's whiteness.
Wasn't "the problem we all live with" the painting planted by OJ Simpson's defence team so that the jury would connect with him when they visited the scene of the crime? If so, that suggests it (and by extension Rockwell) can't be seen as all that racist.