Earlier this week during an interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN, Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain gave his explanation as to why a majority of blacks vote Democrat. According to Cain, blacks who don't vote Republican are brainwashed. In addition to being insulting, Cain's comments are one of the reasons why most blacks have no use for the GOP. Apparently, he cannot comprehend the reality that there are blacks who think differently than he does. Cain is indicative of many conservatives in that he's unwilling to take a hard look at the Republican party and entertain the possibility that GOP policies, attitudes towards minorities, etc. could be why most blacks vote Democrat.
Herman Cain is very useful to conservatives because when he makes derogatory remarks about a majority of blacks, non-black conservatives feel they have license to say it too. Both Bill O'Reilly (see 2nd clip below) and Pat Buchanan have backed up Cain's assumptions about blacks who vote Democrat. Rep. Allen West serves the same capacity as Cain because he's made similar comments.
Watching the GOP's attempts at obtaining the black vote is akin to a Wile E. Coyote/Road Runner cartoon. With each feeble effort, they go over the proverbial cliff... crashing to the ground leaving a cloud of dust. Meep, Meep!
Cenk Uygur and Jayar Jackson of The Young Turks give their take on Herman Cain's comments.
Bill O'Reilly discusses Cain's remarks with liberal Fox "News" contributor Jehmu Greene
One of my favorite blogs is Best Seat In the House. The blogger (Sandy Gholston) is one of the best when it comes to covering politics, race, the media, sports, etc. As of late, Sandy has been in a posting frenzy and I've been thoroughly enjoying it! He gave me the green light to use the post below. If you haven't already, I encourage you to visit Best Seat In the House. Even if you don't agree with Sandy, I think you'll find that he's fair and open to opposing viewpoints. The following, Fox News Uses Black Fringe Groups To Portray Blacks As Angry, Dangerous, Scary, was posted by Sandy on his blog on July 14, 2010:
Fox News has a history of portraying black people as angry, dangerous, hostile and racist in many of its broadcasts (news and commentary alike).
The most recent example of this has been this massively over-hyped and B.S. story about the New Black Panther Party and alleged voter intimidation. Fox News has been pushing this story hard to its largely white and conservative audience to push an image of scary black people threatening white people and being allowed to do so by a black president (Barack Obama) and a black attorney general (Eric Holder) in spite of the fact this happened during the George W. Bush Administration. Fox News also has a dubious history of using black people to attack black people. We have witnessed that over and over again with the likes of the pathetic Jesse Lee Peterson, Sean Hannity's boy (that's right, I said it that way).
Republicans have a history of this and used the tactic of the scary black man in the famous Willie Horton ad from the late 1980s used by George H.W. Bush against Michael Dukakis.
From Wikipedia:
Republicans picked up the Horton issue after Dukakis clinched the nomination. In June 1988, Republican candidate George H.W. Bush seized on the Horton case, bringing it up repeatedly in campaign speeches.[6] Bush's campaign manager, Lee Atwater, predicted that "by the time this election is over, Willie Horton will be a household name."[6][7] Media consultant Roger Ailes remarked "the only question is whether we depict Willie Horton with a knife in his hand or without it."[8]
It's an effort by the far right to show scary black hoods coming to get you and Democrats will not protect you, but Republicans will take care of these dangerous black thugs.
Fox News frequently has used fringe black groups to attack black people. One of its favorite examples of this is the use of the New Black Panther Party and, most frequently, Malik Zulu Shabazz.
Media Matters for America has showcased the effort by Fox News to use fringe black groups to negatively showcase black people (rarely do they do it with, say a Ku Klux Klansman, and think of how they bend over backward to defend racist tea party morons).
For weeks, Fox News has been hyping J. Christian Adam's discredited allegations that the Department of Justice has "a hostility in the voting section and in the civil rights division to bringing cases on behalf of white victims for the benefit of national racial minorities." Predictably, right-wing media quickly used the phony controversy to race-bait, attempting to connect the Obama administration to the New Black Panther Party -- a designated hate group. Fox News' Glenn Beck, for example, said on his radio show that the New Black Panther Party represented "the kinds of people that our president aligns himself with," and Fox News' David Asman accused Obama of "defending racists" by "letting the Black Panthers off." More recently, Megyn Kelly, the biggest Adams cheerleader of them all, devoted airtime interviewing New Black Panther President Malik Shabazz. This episode follows a pattern of Fox highlighting this radical fringe group over the years.
Again, this is no accident with Fox and its mostly white and conservative audience. This is a calculated effort to fear monger and make white people afraid of black people.
