Historical Amnesia

by hilzoy

This is a very silly thing to say:

"Judge Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court is a historic milestone for Latinos, but it resonates well beyond Hispanic pride. It is perhaps the most potent symbol yet of a 21st century rapprochement between the U.S.'s two largest minorities, Latino Americans and African Americans, who in the 20th century could be as violently distrustful of each other as blacks and whites were."

Ta-Nehisi Coates:

"One must be clear about what constituted "violent" distrust "between" blacks and whites in the 20th century. It meant thousands of whites, in Atlanta, in 1906, assembling on the streets to randomly murder black people. In Springfield, Illinois, in 1908,  it meant whites pillaging a Jewish businesses for arms, and then proceeding to the black side of town, attacking black business and black homes, and thousands of black people fleeing for their lives. It meant whites--across the nation--in 1910 assembling in mobs and murdering random black people (On the 4th of July!). The cause? Jack Johnson had the temerity to win the championship. It meant whites in East St. Louis, in 1918, perpetrating  a pogrom against the city's black population, and killing over 100 black people because, "southern niggers need a lynching."

I have not known Latinos in the 20th Century to perpetrate a Red Summer. I have not known blacks to lynch Latino veterans, returning from war, in their uniforms. The fact is that there was no violent distrust between blacks and whites in the 20th century. Rather there was a one-sided war waged against black people by white terrorists, which government, in the best cases, failed to prevent, in many cases, stood idly by, and in the worst cases actually aided and abetted. I'm sorry but comparing that to whatever's happening between blacks and Latinos, is a slander against both those groups, and an amazingly naive take on the history of white America in regards to race."

There seems to be a rash of naivete on this subject lately. Here's Rush Limbaugh, quoted in TAPPED:

"If ever a civil rights movement was needed in America, it is for the Republican Party. If ever we needed to start marching for freedom and Constitutional rights, it's for the Republican Party. The Republican Party is today's oppressed minority. It knows how to behave as one. It shuts up. It doesn't cross bridges, it doesn't run into the Bull Connors of the Democrat Party. It is afraid of the firehouses and the dogs, it's compliant. The Republican Party today has become totally complacent. They are an oppressed minority, they know their position, they know their place. They go to the back of the bus, they don't use the right restroom and the right drinking fountain, and they shut up."

Leaving aside the peculiar claim that the Republican Party is non-confrontational at present, the idea that Republicans are being denied their civil rights the way blacks were under Jim Crow -- that they do not have the right to vote, and are beaten up or killed when they try to exercise it, for instance -- is just bizarre beyond belief. 

Hyperbole is one thing, but complete distortion of history is another. I don't expect better from Limbaugh -- John Cole wrote that "the right wing apparently spent the last eight years combining the highly successful tactics of Code Pink and the comedic stylings of Hee Haw!", and he's right -- but the first paragraph I quoted appeared in Time. And Time's columnists should know better than to confuse friction between members of two groups with a government-enforced regime of terror that lasted for centuries.

Comments

[Point]

Truism watch:

"I don't expect better from Limbaugh..."

An obvious phrase, and oddly not said that often.

[Mike Schilling]

The Time quote as given appears to be a combination of extreme ignorance and inexcusable stupidity. But let's edit it a bit:

It is perhaps the most potent symbol yet of a 21st century rapprochement between the U.S.'s two largest minorities, Latino Americans and African Americans, who in recent decades could be as distrustful of each other as blacks and whites were."

I expect that's what was meant, and now it's simply the usual pundit idiocy of reducing Obama and Sotomayor to racial symbols.

[TG Chicago]

If ever a civil rights movement was needed in America, it is for the Republican Party. - Rush Limbaugh

Notice the words "ever...in America"

So apparently the Republican Party is suffering worse injustice right now than any other minority in American history.

Also, notice the word "if", which suggests that perhaps the civil rights movement of the 60s was, in fact, not needed.

Interesting perspective. Someone remind me: why is it that minorities arent flocking to the Republican Party?

[Gary Farber]

"It is afraid of the firehouses and the dogs, it's compliant."

Setting aside the rampant insanity of Limbaugh's racist rabble-rousing, I do wonder how many people are actually afraid of firehouses.

[ThatLeftTurnInABQ]

Maybe the writer at Time heard that MSNBC is the new "liberal media", and got everything they needed to know about race relations in America from staying up late watching episodes of Lockdown.

[Comrade Dread]

If you consider the violence between Latino and AA gangs, which have involved murder, it's not completely outlandish. Though, admittedly, there have been far fewer victims and the root cause of gang violence is usually illicit money.

[cleek]

what i like about Limbaugh's quote is that you can find similar sentiments on any lefty blog when the subject turns to Harry Reid; but it takes a special kind of ignorant, self-righteous, jackass to attempt to mix plain-ol frustration at party leadership in times of electoral troubles with America's shameful legacy of racial oppression. if ever there were two immiscible topics...

but, of course Limbaugh needs to be the victim. without victimhood, he's got nothing. so he's reduced to trying to steal other people's.

[Ugh]

but, of course Limbaugh needs to be the victim. without victimhood, he's got nothing.

Exactly right.

[mds]

I do wonder how many people are actually afraid of firehouses.

Well, for some reason I now shudder when walking by a firehouse here in New Haven.

[John Miller]

Why are we even discussing Limbaugh. IIRC, just last year many of the more conservative commenters here were very quick to point out that he is just an entertainer and has no real influence in the Republican Party.

[Jay S]

Gary,
Against my better judgment, I followed the link trail and listened to the segment. It's a transcription error. Rush said 'fire hoses' not 'firehouses'. Carry on.

[Johnny Canuck]

gary farber: "firehouses" was a transcription error. If you listen to Rush he said "firehoses".

always best to verify sources (especially readily accessible ones) before spreading false information. Leave it to the right to do that.

[mds]

"always best to verify sources (especially readily accessible ones) before spreading false information making a snarky joke in a single comment on a blog."

I only hope this factchecking was quick enough to stop Mr. Farber, as he was just about to ring up MSNBC and accuse Limbaugh of, er, badmouthing firehouses. Or if not Limbaugh, the transcriptionist at TAPPED. Or possibly hilzoy. It's not really clear from the comment. Regardless, we should leave it to the right to point out obvious transcription errors without assigning specific blame. Let's not stoop to their level of spelling pedantry.

[gwangung]

I expect that's what was meant, and now it's simply the usual pundit idiocy of reducing Obama and Sotomayor to racial symbols.

The editing makes the passage better...but it still betrays a fundamental ignorance. For one thing, the vast power difference between blacks and whites is a difference of a kind AND degree than between blacks and Hispanics. One is the power structure vs the have-nots and the other is the have-nots squabbling with each other.

[John Thullen]

Nativist majorities always propagandize themselves as oppressed minorities victimized by those who are different than themselves.

True, Limbaugh is an entertainer.

Mussolini was a clown.

Hitler was a painter.

It seems their followers quietly buy up most of the ammo before liberals, Jews, blacks and Hispanics can find their way to the gun shop.

Each time Limbaugh opens his mouth in this fashion (Beck and Rick Perry, too), the Federal government needs to deploy some dogs and firehoses and the IRS and maybe some vigilante action, too, just to feed their victimhood and flush out their ultimate motivations.

It would be interesting to see if ANY of these demagogues have the courage to do more than just shoot their mouths off.

But back to entertainment: it's amazing how much money can be made off of low-I.Q. dumb-sh-ts in this great country of ours.

It's as if the contemporary Republican Party placed a picture of the Bell Curve on the bedroom walls of each individual in the Limbaugh/Palin/Pence Republican base with a happy face at roughly 68 on the curve ---- the sweet spot.

It's about that level of intelligence that succumbs to hating the elite.

[ThatLeftTurnInABQ]

"always best to verify sources (especially readily accessible ones) before spreading false information making a snarky joke in a single comment on a blog."

It is best to be aware of all internet traditions. In this case: DNFTD (Do Not Feed The Droll)

[Gary Farber]

"gary farber: 'firehouses' was a transcription error."

Well, of course it was.

It wouldn't have been very funny to have bothered to point out the obvious, though.

[lebecka]

LMAO! Rush is so funny! LOLz!

[Bernard Yomtov]

Coates might also have mentioned the 1921 Greenwood riot in Tulsa.

There's no shortage of evidence to support his point without it, of course, but this was perhaps the worst race riot in US history, and it was largely forgotten, deliberately, until recently. It destroyed a prosperous black community, left hundreds dead, and burned most houses in the neighborhood.

When something like that happens to a group of Republicans, let me know.

[Jay S]

"It wouldn't have been very funny to have bothered to point out the obvious, though."

Gary does Emily Litella impressions. Who knew?

[ral]

"Never mind."

I just bought season 1 of SNL -- Amazon had a sale. I am so looking forward to seeing once again that there is no pizza in Sweden.

[Mike Schilling]

Off-topic, but if anyone has read Dennis Lehane's recent The Given Day, I'm curious whether you think that the Greenwood riot Bernard links to a description of is intended to be an ominously looming event or not. I admit I have no idea, but its past and present obscurity at the national level is certainly an ironic contrast to the then prominence of the much less violent Boston police strike riots.

[someotherdude]

A very interesting take on lynching, in the U.S.:

-----------------------------------------
Human sacrifice to a vengeful deity conjures savage and exotic images that distance us from the practices they represent as being strangely inhuman. Just as savage but sadly less exotic are images of lynched African Americans in the Southern United States. The word, "lynched," rips from reluctant memories shame, guilt and anger at white atrocities. The stark reality behind the word is an historical presence that haunts heedless patriotic celebration and belies professions of national innocence; its condensation of white peoples' fury and black peoples' anguish is as intensely malevolent as human sacrifice. The reality suffuses recent work by scholars who have turned their imaginations to explaining it as something other than calculated terror in service to the powerful. Recent publication of essays edited by W. Fitzhugh Brundage in Under Sentence of Death: Lynching in the South joins his previous work and that of Stewart E. Tolnay and E. M. Beck together with earlier books by Jacquelyn Hall and Joel R. Williamson to prepare a solid base upon which to fashion an understanding of lynching in the American South.1 Since the early eighties, scores of scholars have turned their attention to specific, dramatic incidents of violence,2 or to patterns within geographical areas or in relation to associated issues such as gender.3 The achievements have been impressive; but few have noticed what a few African Americans such as Gwendolyn Brooks understood when she observed that "the loveliest lynchee was our Lord."4 Few have wondered why it made sense to imagine a lynched black man as Christ upon the Cross,5 that is, to imagine lynching as a human sacrifice. Yet it is just this compound of sacrifice, crucifixion, and death and its association with the predominate religion of the lynching-South that begs discussion.

More:

The Southern Rite of Human Sacrifice

[russell]

"It would be interesting to see if ANY of these demagogues have the courage to do more than just shoot their mouths off."

Rush would step right up, of course, but regrettably he has a painful cyst on his hind end.