Rebranding Hate in the Age of Obama

NEWSWEEK

« Return to Article

Discuss

Member Comments

  • Posted By: Jbright9 @ 04/28/2009 7:33:37 PM

    I am white. I believe people are people, period. I don't view people of other races or nationalities as being any different than me. I have no use for people who hate others. Barack Obama is a good example of someone who represents us all. He is purely himself - a rare combination of the best of us all, bright and fair. Thankfully these splinter groups represent only a small percent of narrow minded, ignorant people.

  • Posted By: Managethis @ 04/28/2009 7:27:41 PM

    It amazes me that certain humans think the're better than others based on their color or race. EVERYONE has flaws. It baffles me that these people find it so much easier to hate others they don't even know.

  • Posted By: meemee @ 04/28/2009 7:07:20 PM

    It is really sad that ignorance is becomimg more popular .Maybe someday when their arms are dragging by their sides while they scratch their heads,someone can buy them a little Island in Somalia and they can spend the rest of their lives running from pirates. Appropriate ? Absolutley,some steal possessions,other steal dignity and respect, the 2 deserve each other.

  • Posted By: mindofsound @ 04/28/2009 7:00:58 PM

    White supremacists who want others to "go back where they came from" should either be consistent and go back to Europe, where THEY came from, or realize that people of dark complexions are born in the US too and are just as American as them. If you want someone to do something or go somewhere because of their "race" (an outdated concept not scientifically supported) you are an ignorant racist. This softer brand of white supremacy is just as hate-based as any racism ever was. When a racist calls someone a "monkey" the irony is that such racial fear is itself animalistic, cowardly, and sub-rational. You're the one being the fearful animal.

  • Posted By: neppy @ 04/28/2009 6:58:30 PM

    For crying out loud, get some hobbies, get a life and a self identity maybe then your identity won't be wrapped up in your skin color. This bullcrap victimization cry-baby crap is just tired and tiring. I think all these white supremists should pitch in, go buy an island somewhere and pat each other on the back for the accident of thier skin color, kiss the ghost of hitler's ass all they want (Hey even hitler liked to be *** on by his mistress, yup!) breed till they finish each other off. Please- all you haters, do the modern world a favor and try it!! or just Go back to europe where you came from. Oh yeah, you would be criminalized in a flash!

  • Posted By: Oracle89 @ 04/28/2009 6:58:00 PM

    Another point, with approval ratings of around 70%, I'd say it's somewhat less than 50% of you who disagree with the President. You're views are outdated and the rest of America is done listening to them. Your nut job talking heads with their lies, paranoia, bigotry, and fear mongering are sending more and more people into the democrat fold. You are your own worst enemiest and soon a tiny little minority voice. It's a free country, so while the rest of the nation grows up, you can bury your heads in the sand or leave. Your choice because you no longer matter.

  • Posted By: MJ000777 @ 04/28/2009 2:52:26 PM

    Thanks for playing the race card Newsweek; you fishwrap of a magazine. Newsweek and other Liberals think the Tea parties were all about hating a black man as Garrafalo said........BS on that! I will say this again; Most people oppose BO's policies of borrowing, printing and spending. We could care less what color he is. In fact if he was a REAL conservative, then I would have voted for him........Would you have voted for him Newsweek writer, or average Liberal if he was a black conservative? I think NOT! STOP THE RACE BAITING!!!

    • Posted By: MJ000777 @ 04/28/2009 2:58:04 PM

      Let me clarify, the people written about in the article are a minute minority of those who oppose Obama. The majority of people who attended the Tea Parties see them as extremist also, but this is an attempt link all who oppose Obama's policies with these extremists. We do not care about his color or race, but his harmful policies.

      • Posted By: tom343 @ 04/28/2009 6:37:21 PM

        I came here thinking it was a newsvine forum; they are more bizarre than these forums; these forums seem a little bit more bitter. I see Newsweek at the dentists when someone else grabs the National Geographic or the Enquirer first. Once my wife's teeth are finished, I can forget there even is/was(?) a Newsweek. Actually, since she still has two posts and an extraction, maybe by then the sheriff will padlock Newsweek.

    • Posted By: ken1840 @ 04/28/2009 5:08:36 PM

      Garrafalo was pointing out how the tea parties are a gathering of anti-Obama sentiment. There was no central cause. Just a bunch of people getting together because they are paranoid crazies. Not all paranoia stems from fear of another race though some people have that fear. Others have crazy one world order or doomsday fears. Those people were all together at the tea parties. The point she was making about their neurological make up and obsessive paranoia as a neurological disorder stemming from problems in the limbic system is a correct assessment. However, it's not all about racism. It's also about all sorts of other crazy fears people have for no reason as well.

  • Posted By: sai_chai @ 04/28/2009 6:36:04 PM

    First, I cringe at your proclamation that this is "the Age of Obama" as if he is such a particularly gifted super-human that an entire "AGE" can be devoted to him in the annals of history. The man has been in office a mere 100 days.

    Second, I am getting mighty tired of the race card being thrown in with every questionable headline intimating that, because 50% of us cannot understand or stand the man's policy decisions and cannot abide his fascist leanings as pertains to our economy and laws, we are somehow "agin" African Americans or any other Americans of other ethnicity and/or color.

    No, personally, I cannot stand President Obama because of his policies -or lack thereof - and his sophomoric "leadership" in his present office. The only real decisions -and they have been made in blitzkrieg fashion - are those already set in stone in the leftist playbook awaiting a democrat's election to the White House during a Democrat Congress's full house. The Progressive Caucus and the Democratic Socialist Party of America have had this agenda awaiting implementation for years.

    I also could not stand George Bush and his policies, although I was never accused of "rebanding hate" when I railed against HIS fascist tendencies.

    Articles like "Rebranding Hate...: are pretty ridiculous to most Americans, except maybe members of groups like "ACORN" (a love group????) but they serve the leftist purpose of continuing race and class warfare.

  • Posted By: dumasrl @ 04/28/2009 6:32:55 PM

    I have no problem with any race of people loving themselves, their heritage, and the color of their skin,. However, when you have to put down other races and teach that your race is superior, then that is hate...not love.

  • Posted By: w1lee @ 04/28/2009 6:30:17 PM

    look in the mirror bigot remember next time you call for help it just might be one of them extremist repubs saving your sorry ***

  • Posted By: Divinefate @ 04/28/2009 3:19:00 PM

    I find it so funny that you focus on this yet right under your noses EVERYDAY BLACKS are killing WHITES in hate crimes, Raping White women and Black gang violence soars! Why not talk about that? And the man asks a damn good question: Why is it ok for every other race to have pride EXCEPT whites?

    • Posted By: SkegeeAce @ 04/28/2009 5:13:37 PM

      Actually, on an Oprah show there was a professor who stated that 97% of rapes are INTRAracial- not INTERracial- that is most white people rape other white people, black people rape other black people etc. So you don't know what you're talking about. LoL Nut.

      • Posted By: tom343 @ 04/28/2009 6:28:07 PM

        Not to besmirch either your integrity or "Oprah's" but I cannot see her bring on some professor who'd say the opposite. Could you?

    • Posted By: Michael Sheridan - Sacramento @ 04/28/2009 5:53:15 PM

      SkegeeAce made an excellent point, but even aside from that you're all wet, Divinefate. Lots of white people are proud of their heritage. It just so happens that that heritage has nothing to do with the color of their skin. I'm Irish and German and Scottish and English (with a drop of Gypsy over 3 centuries back). I celebrate each and every one of those parts of my background. None of it has anything to do with the fact that I'm a redhead who burns easily.

    • Posted By: ken1840 @ 04/28/2009 5:04:50 PM

      JUST CRAAAAAZY!
      I really pray that you can find a new life.

  • Posted By: trogers @ 04/28/2009 6:12:05 PM

    This article gives us all a preview of the future Republican party. In fact alot of these groups are already devoted Republican voters and an essential part of the base. Their ideas are accepted by many conservatives in private even as they deny them in public.
    If you are a rural white against hispanics, blacks, arabs and asians you are on the Republican side. If you hate gays and lesbians and liberals you are on the Republican side. If you love guns, torture and war you are on the Reublican side.. If you think government spending, except on you and your friends, is wrong you are on the Republican side. If you know God is on your side, and only on your side, you are on the Republican side. If you worship the wisdom of Rush and Newt and Sarah you are on the Republican side.
    The extremists are the future of the Republican party because they control the peaent agenda for the party. As they explore the far side, one can only hope they get so frustrated they all move to Texas and leave the country.

  • Posted By: oktom @ 04/28/2009 6:12:59 PM

    So are the white supremecists that advocate returns to homelands, i.e. Blacks to Africa, willing to return to Europe and leave the Native Americans here as they were before the white people came from their homelands? To do otherwise would be hypocrisy.

    • Posted By: Dave in NM @ 04/28/2009 6:26:40 PM

      Your question raises the unspoken corollary to their cries of persecution: Not only do they believe they are persecuted by anyone darker than themselves, they believe they are SUPERIOR to them. So of course they wouldn't leave - they, being superior, have a RIGHT to be here. Why would they leave it to inferior "mud people?" They stole it - er - I mean civilized it - fair and square. Revolting to see this kind of thinking (or thinking-substitute) in 2009.

  • Posted By: rrobeson @ 04/28/2009 5:45:23 PM

    "Why is it wrong to have pride if you're white? Others (non-whites) do it! "

    Here's why, racism is racism, prejudice is prejudice and both are wrong. The answer is blacks shouldn't have pride either. There is nothing causally linking pride with the color of one's skin, and only people who believe in and advocate prejudice think otherwise. Skin color is absolutely and completely immaterial to measuring one's worth. The NAACP could just as easily be the National Association for the Advancement of Caucasian People. It's wrong no matter the color. That said, it's sometimes necessary to right historical wrongs done by racists in power against others not in power. But that's always a temporary adjustment, not a permanent one. In my opinion there is no such thing as black culture because black skinned people come from vastly different parts of the world. There is no such thing as white culture because whites come from vastly different places all over the world. There are hundreds of differing cultures, religions, beliefs and traditions associated with people of color. Same for caucasian peoples. Same thing for asians, indians, persians, etc. ad naseum. It's silly and immature to say we need to band together to protect the value of our skin color. There is no value there to protect. Either you belive in being prejudicial based on color or you don't . It's pure irony for a black person to say that white people shouldn't discriminate against those of color while simultaneously advocating for positive prejudicial treatment for colored people. It's saying that it's ok to be prejudiced if it works in 'my favor' but not ok if it works 'against my favor.' If the goal is to be color blind than people have to believe in behavior that is color blind. This is why these groups will never be able to logically justify their existance, their only choice is to blame others for any and all reasons they can come up with.

    • Posted By: tom343 @ 04/28/2009 6:25:55 PM

      But bills of attainder are out. Besides, few alive in this country or in Europe were part of the slave problem, one way or another.

  • Posted By: Rkeefe57 @ 04/26/2009 4:25:33 PM

    What a snow job. "Could", "Might", "Possibly" but not one single fact to back up the headline. Here's a headline for you, though nobody at Newsweek will ever print it, 127 of Potok's alleged 'hate groups" don't exist. They're not affiliated with any locale. In California, these phantom groups make up fully 17% of the total. In states like Maine, Wyoming and New Mexico, 100% of the alleged "groups" only exist in Potok's mind. See it for yourselves; Newsweek certainly isn't going to tell you about it. (http://www.splcenter.org/intel/map/hate.jsp)

    On March 10, 2008, Potok came right out and said, "Basically, for us, a hate group has nothing to do with criminality, with some kind of measure we're taking of potential for violence; it is all about ideology." Basically, "hate crimes" are "thought crimes" according to Potok. This doesn't scare people?

    On April 2, 2009, a newspaper quoted Potok saying "Potok says inclusion on the list might come from a minor presence, such as a post office box." This doesn't scare anybody? (http://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/story/672197.html)

    And what Potok doesn't tell you is that he is compensated more than $143,000 donor dollars a year for cooking up these bogus numbers, up $4,500 donor dollars from the previous year. His bosses, Mo Dees, Dick Cohen and Joe Levin rake in hundreds of thousands of donor dollars in compensation each year and they are all millionaires. See pages 11 and 40 of the SPLC's own tax returns (http://www.splcenter.org/pdf/static/SPLC990_2007.pdf) If that's not financial incentive to pad the numbers, I don't know what is.

    You know, I expect small town newspapers to regurgitate Potok's fund rasisng propaganda verbatim, (as does Potok), but are there NO editors left at Newsweek?? Is there not one single, solitary, minimum wage staffer who could at least perform the most rudimentary fact checking?

    Hate groups really do exist, but self-appointed "watchdogs" that scare elderly people out of hundreds of millions of dollars are far more heinous than anything the Klan or Nazi-wannabes can ever cook up.

    • Posted By: stholas @ 04/28/2009 10:42:12 AM

      Wrong. Nothing is scarier than a group of people who preach the ideology that led to the torture and murder of millions of people on the basis of their religion.

      • Posted By: Annapalooza @ 04/28/2009 2:12:51 PM

        You mean like The Crusades?

        • Posted By: tom343 @ 04/28/2009 6:23:56 PM

          Have you some old film? The details of the crusades probably belong here as much as you do, but my understanding of them is that they happened a long time ago, and no-one alive really has much to do with them. True?

      • Posted By: PeaceTheRobot @ 04/28/2009 5:33:42 PM

        Are you referring to the genocide being commited by black Africans against black Africans in Dafur and Rwanda? Who is causing that? George W. Bush? Are you going to try to blame him for that as well? I'm pretty sure that there are more white people being killed by black people every year in the US than the other way around. You must have some data that the rest of us poor, ignorant, backwater, inbred white people (notice that no one is sued for using these defamatory terms) don't have access to, right?

        I'm not quite sure where the separation exists when it comes to how violence against anyone by whites is perceived, contrary to that of violence against whites by any other race. I am certainly not here to promote a Neo-Nazi or White-Pride agenda, but I can clearly see the bias on the part of the media against white people. Apparently it is not "fashionable" to be white anymore? Are any of you race-baiters even being honest with yourselves?

  • Posted By: oktom @ 04/28/2009 6:10:55 PM

    So if the white supremecists are advocating returns to homelands, i.e. blacks to Africa, are they willing to return to Europe and leave the Native Americans here? To do otherwise would by hypocrisy.

  • Posted By: tom343 @ 04/28/2009 6:02:16 PM

    How can any group that has lately had members of the group hold the offices of supreme court justice, secretary of state, attorney general, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and the U. S. presidency possibly claim it's being picked on, repressed, oppressed, held down, prejudiced against?

    • Posted By: rrobeson @ 04/28/2009 6:08:51 PM

      Silly of course they can claim that. It's really hard to find any single person on the planet who won't claim to have been picked on, repressed, oppressed, held down, or prejudiced against. It's just their reasoning is flawed. They believe that what happens to them only happens to people of their color. It's a typical reaction for prejudiced people to have, just not a very intelligent reaction.

  • Posted By: frigid863 @ 04/28/2009 6:06:46 PM

    Rather than devoting time and energy to these groups, why don't these same people get a better education so that they may get the jobs that they need? Either that, or take some concessions on pay or benefits if they're so worried about losing jobs to illegals. They have no one to blame but themselves. I'm a product of 2 immigrants (both of my parents are LEGAL American citizens) who work multiple low-wage jobs to keep the family afloat. And yes, I'm a productive member of society.

    Why are these same people living beyond their means? Flat screen T.V.'s? I understand that many people didn't see the economy crumbling as it did but people also need to be more responsible in their spending and saving habits. Both of my parents are currently unemployed because they lost their jobs when the factories moved overseas. However, we don't have cable (nope- not even basic), we canceled our DIAL-UP internet, and we conserve electricity in every way possible (everything is hooked up to a power strip)...even when times were good, we didn't go out and buy flat-screen T.V's and other frivolous things. IT'S CALLED RESPONSIBLE SPENDING.

    Rather than moping, groaning, crying, and blaming, these people need to better themselves through education (college, community college, technical school) or bite the bullet and work at McDonald's. And if people are stating that college takes money, there are programs through local employment offices which help subsidize education. The government is subsidizing education so that people that don't have a job are more marketable. There are so many programs that the federal and state government are freeing up so that people have a higher chance of finding a job. It may not be something you want to do, but these aren't ideal times either.

  • Posted By: GustoMaybe @ 04/28/2009 5:56:32 PM

    to hate a socialist pig of a president is not the same as hating black people

    just like liberals now everyone who hates socialism is a racist

    • Posted By: rrobeson @ 04/28/2009 6:05:45 PM

      Hmm, everyone that hates socialists are not racists, you're right. Everyone that hates the way you describe and practice is called a bigot. It's easy to get racists and bigots confused. While not all bigots are racists, all racists are bigots. So I guess you think all Canadians are 'pigs' too right? I'll bet you can't even define the line for what you think a socialist is? Everyone spouting hate on these columns always throw out labels but never definitions.

  • Posted By: SrAN @ 04/28/2009 2:31:05 PM

    And to all the Bush bashers, why is that as soon as a group of white people start bashing Obama you call out "RACIST" but not when there were groups of black people bashing Bush, instead you called them "Advocates, Free thinkers, Freedom Fighters..."

    The past is the past, just let it die.

    • Posted By: ken1840 @ 04/28/2009 5:09:06 PM

      People bash Bush because he sucked as President. WAKE UP.

      • Posted By: SrAN @ 04/28/2009 6:04:19 PM

        And from the looks of it Obama is going to ruin Democracy. Socialism or facism anyone?

Reply

Report Abuse

Enter comments if any for reporting abuse