Dobbs: "What we have is a problem of talking about race without fearing recrimination and distortion"
Please upgrade your flash player. The video for this item requires a newer version of Flash Player. If you are unable to install flash you can download a QuickTime version of the video.
SUMMARY: On CNN's The Situation Room, Lou Dobbs criticized Condoleezza Rice's statement on race, saying, "I think it's really unfortunate that Secretary of State Rice believes as she does. The fact is most Americans don't have a problem talking about race. What we have is a problem of talking about race without fearing recrimination and distortion and someone using whatever comments are made for their own purposes -- usually political purposes."
On the March 28 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, CNN host Lou Dobbs criticized Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's March 28 statement that, in Dobbs' paraphrase, "the United States has a birth defect on the issue of race." Dobbs said: "I think it's really unfortunate that Secretary of State Rice believes as she does. The fact is most Americans don't have a problem talking about race. What we have is a problem of talking about race without fearing recrimination and distortion and someone using whatever comments are made for their own purposes -- usually political purposes."
Talking Points Memo and Think Progress posted video of Dobbs' comments on their sites.
Rice's full March 28 interview with The Washington Times is transcribed here.
From the March 28 edition of CNN's The Situation Room:
WOLF BLITZER (host): Let's check in with Lou. He's got a show coming up in an hour, but I want to pick his brain on some intriguing comments from Condoleezza Rice involving race in our country. You saw what she said.
DOBBS: I saw what she said -- that the United States has a birth defect on the issue of race. I think it's really unfortunate that Secretary of State Rice believes as she does. The fact is most Americans don't have a problem talking about race.
What we have is a problem of talking about race without fearing recrimination and distortion and someone using whatever comments are made for their own purposes -- usually political purposes.
The reality is, this is the most socially, ethnically, religiously, racially diverse society on the face of the Earth. Now, Wolf, we don't make enough of that in the national media; we listen to some idiot say you can't talk about race or there ought to be these responses when you talk about race or ethnicity. And too often, in fact, nearly always, we fail to point out that there is no country on the face of the Earth as progressive, as racially and ethnically diverse as our own.
It's something for us to be proud of. And if any -- and to hear a politician, whoever it may be, talk about how difficult it is to talk about race, well, the heck with it. We're living with the issue of race. We've got to be able to talk about it, and I can guarantee you this, not a single one of these cotton -- you know, these just ridiculous politicians should be the moderator on the issue of race. We have to have a far better discussion than that.
BLITZER: Lou, we'll see you back here in one hour. Thanks very much.
DOBBS: You got it.
No dobbs. You have a problem of talking about race without fear of calling black people "cotton picking n-i-double guh-ers".
Hey Snoop, I guess you're talking about this:
"We've got to be able to talk about it, and I can guarantee you this, not a single one of these cotton -- you know, these just ridiculous politicians should be the moderator on the issue of race."
I'm kind of surprised MMFA didn't bold that...
On the other hand I'm pretty sure folks have been saying things like "are you out of your cotton picking mind" or "wait just a cotton picking minute" [I think Bugs Bunny used to say that or one of the Looney Tune characters did]...I never really thought about the cotton picking part of either statement before. Any idea where it originated from? Or if it was meant as a racial slur? I figure it has to be.
Before the looneys tuned it cotton picking could be found here; "Come Back, Massa, Come back!" (1863)
As Sung by C. Henry at
Wood's Minstrels,
514 Broadway, N.Y.
Since massa went to war the deuce has been to pay,
De cotton-pickin' darkies hab all run away;
Some are up at Richmon', de good for noffin scamps,
And some are diggin' muck in de Union army camps.
Wow, how interesting. I found the source of your info. There were other similar civil war-time songs. I wonder if the lyricists were white or black.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/scsmhtml/scsmTitles1.html
The term "cotton-picking" certainly has racial overtones and it came from the cotton fields of the South as one might expect for reasons one might expect -- blacks and cotton-picking were viewed as one in the same.
While the stigma may have been lost somewhat -- as in, "Are you out of your cotton picking mind?" it is there. And I would not reference Bugs, while I find them a riot -- let's be fair the racial content is over to say the least to Asains, Blacks, Germans, Latinos, well everyone really -- maybe that is why they still work no one was spared.
And let me say if you have never been in a cotton field in summer. Sweet mother they are hot and it is easy to lose your cotton-picking mind in the heat. Which is where the larger reference comes from. And yes, I have played and worked in a cotton field before -- the first is fun without end unless the adults catch you and the later SUCKS on an epic level on every level.
Eden & Ufleirx,
Thanks for the info. Funny how one can hear or use certain expressions & never really think about what exactly they mean or how they originated.
Here's another one: "drunk as a skunk"
Been saying that one forever, but what the heck does it mean? ;-)
From worddetective.com:
Dear Word Detective: Where does the phrase "drunk as a skunk" come from? Do they stagger around, hit on all the girl skunks and spray things randomly while yelling, "Woo hoo!"? Or perhaps it's just because it rhymes. -- Erin Van De Hey, Green Bay, WI.
Woo hoo, indeed. If I were you I wouldn't go around maligning, even speculatively, such a noble animal as the skunk, especially considering the little critter's awesome retaliatory powers. Besides, the behavior you describe sounds far more like that of some corporate lawyers I have known.
In any case, since skunks do not drink alcohol, "drunk as a skunk" (meaning "extremely inebriated") cannot be pinned on the habits of Mephitis mephitica, the charming North American mammal and member of the weasel family which takes its name from the Algonquian Indian word meaning "urinating fox." The term "drunk as a skunk" is, as you guessed, simply a good example of our love of comparisons and rhyming, made especially popular by the fact that "skunk" happens to be one of the few words that rhymes with "drunk." Similar, albeit non-rhyming, terms for "extremely drunk" have included, over the years, drunk as a fly, a log, a dog, a loon, a poet, a billy goat, a broom, a bat, a badger, a boiled owl, and several dozen more too risqué to list here. Although comparative terms for drunkenness have been popular throughout the history of English, "drunk as a skunk" seems to be a fairly recent (20th century) addition to the canon.
The ability of our friend the skunk to douse its enemies with foul-smelling musk has, however, made "skunk" a slang term of derogation in other senses. "Skunk" has, since the early 19th century, been slang for "a contemptible or untrustworthy person," as in "That little skunk told us to buy Enron stock while he was selling his own." And because the odor of a skunk's musk is strong enough to discourage even the bravest competitor, "to skunk" has, since the 1800s, meant "to emphatically, unequivocally defeat," often used in situations where the losing party or team did not score a single point (as in "The Mets got skunked again. I'm moving to New Jersey").
Source: http://www.word-detective.com/032602.html
It's unfortunate that a racial epithet has become a somewhat common use (though a bit dated) term that many people use but don't know the etymology.
I suspect Dobbs didn't intend it as an epithet but while it was exiting his mouth he realized that it could be taken as one.
Or in plain english - Dobbs is saying (and I paraphrase) "What we have is a problem of talking about race without it coming down to saying 'Blame Whitey'"
(hope used my quotation marks correctly).
From CNN's transcript [which cuts the term "cotton]:
We're living with the issue of race. We've got to be able to talk about it and I can guarantee you this, not a single one of these [cotton -- you know,] just ridiculous politicians should be the moderator on the issue of race. We have to have a far better discussion than that.
I suspect that, in Dobbs' world, Rice and Sharpton are one in the same.
This is just more fallout of the current state of offended sensibilites that exists in today's media microscoped world.
When you have all these opinion shows running all day and all night, pundits and commentators shoving each other for airtime, an extremely polarized right vs. left atmosphere, and hall monitor YouTubes and websites wagging their fingers and dissecting every single syllable uttered in order to score political points or embarass some ideological foe they don't like, this is what happens.
It's out of hand, people are responsible for what they say, absolutely - but to lie in wait and pounce on this person or that person for some verbal gaffe or stupid remark is getting ridiculous.
Real substantive misinformation about important issues and policy put forth that affects people's lives and correcting the record is a commendable and necessary function, but ripping apart every word spoken and splicing together hidden meanings to slap someone for an overtone or some nefarious agenda is not. It's pathetic.
He very well IS Tommy. I'm going to say something provocative and racially based here. Why is it that the many of the commentators we on the left find to be the most racially, ethnically and sexually offensive are of Scotch-Irish extraction? Dobbs, O'Reilly, Hannity, et al.
Weren't the Scotch-Irish prominent in the confederency and didn't they constitute the bulk of soldiers who didn't own slaves but fought to preserve that institution? Weren't the Scotch Irish among those that fought hardest to preserve Jim Crowe? If I have offended -- so what? I'm just asking.
No Lou, it's just people like you.
I'm white, and I talk about race issues all the time with balcks an latinos. We don't always agree, but if you treat people with geniune respect (meaning that you have to actually have respct for them as people) then you don't get branded a racists. Simple as that.
Sure: it happens. Sometiems legitimately, sometimes as an overreaction on the part of the respondant. But (IMO) that's a poor example because on boards all you get is the TEXT. You don't KNOW the other person (and how they fell about things), you can't hear their TONE or read their ATTITUDE or FACIAL EXPRESSIONS. When you're on camera you can get SOME (not ALL, but MORE) of that. And bottom line: If you feel nothing but contempt for anyone darker than you, you can't fake respect. But I don't even need to go that far. The way this guy talks about immigrants (read: Mexcian's) is pretty clear. He doesn't even try to hide his contempt. And then he wonders why he gats called out? He's not only racist, he's utterly CLUELESS!!!
I've been to [my company's] plant Mexico. Let me tell you: Those guy's work HARD. Those guys work like DOGS for half (or less!) the pay that they'd get 1 mile away on the other side of the border. The way that Dobbs wants to paint them all as lazy, diseased, criminal vermin on the basis of a few news stories (and quite a bit of $#!+ he just made up!) is disgusting. It's racist. And he's clueless.
Hey, I'm one of those whites here who has been accused of being a racist, apparently because I wrote something that wasn't flattering. Funny thing is, I'm pro affirmative action, I'm married to a Latino, and I frequently (at every election) vote for blacks and other minorities to get them into positions of political power.
I know Dobbs has a bad track record, but in a way I agree with him. As a white person I should be able to make comments about race matters, not just flattering ones but unflattering ones as well. The reception has been very knee-jerk. I guess this is another phase in the progress of race relations in the country.
I'm going to start calling myself Serbian-Dutch-American even though I was born in the U.S. Why are whites the only ones who are not routinely acknowledged for their heritage ?
Eddie, I agree completely with your sentiments, but how many times, on these boards alone, are people slapped with the racist accusation for a comment they make here?
Well, I, for one, don't know about all that stuff, but I think it's clear from this thread about Dobbs that he'd love it (just love it) if the cotton pickin blacks would stop talkin about race.
If the comments about this article don't prove Dobb's point about fearing the label "racist" used as intimidation rather than enlightenment, I can't imagine what would. But keep it up liberals...very soon that ol' label "racist" is going to lose all of it's power due to overuse. It sure doesn't bother me one tiny bit and hasn't for the last several years.
Indeed, whenever I see liberals calling somebody "a racist," I pretty much assume that their target has said "color differences are irrelevant," a little FACT which is, of course, the termination of the Democrat's perennial election platform of racial preferences and it's ever present, (but unacknowledged by any liberal,) corollary of racial discrimination.
very soon that ol' label "racist" is going to lose all of it's power due to overuse.
Is that a bad thing?
Yah.
Think about what has happened now that 'ho is a common use term of endearment. The very real problems of prostitution still exist, but now we've got a generation or more of kids who think ho-ing is cute.
Well, AH, don't you know that the Holocaust is just a fabrication by them-thur "durty Jews?" Or that we shot German POWS at Malmedy instead of the other way around?--
Oops, sorry--I slipped into Billo mode for a moment... :)
many whites want African-Americans to get over the "slavery thing"
I think that's an unfair assessment.
I can tell you as a white person living in Chicago, I want to know why the poverty and problems which for certain generations of blacks could be directly blamed on slavery, segregation, and blatant discrimination, continue on with new generations in the absence of those worst conditions. I'm not saying that there are no more barriers, but it is so much better now that a black person truly can do almost anything he/she wishes. I think it's more difficult for people immigrating to the U.S. from third world countries, and yet these people seem to have little problem succeeding.
I'm not making any judgement here, I just wonder why the problems persist. I vote for black political candidates and hope that blacks are appointed to positions of power, hoping that they can help to rectify the situation, and yet it doesn't seem to get any better. In the past week alone I think 3 black kids were shot and killed in their own neighborhoods, one of them just outside of a school. Blacks comprise a grossly disproportionate percentage of public housing residents. Blacks have the worst elementary, junior high, and high school drop out rates. Blacks comprise a disproportionate percentage of inmates in Illinois prisons (some of this could be due to poor legal representation). I'm at a loss to explain this phenomenon and I find it very frustrating that nobody else can explain it either. And let me tell you, the last thing I want is to be blamed for it, because I'm part of the solution, not part of the problem.
:-/
There are enormous ADVANTAGES to being in the majority. Minorities are at a distinct disadvantage simply being in a minority, never mind adding race and generations of oppression on top of that.
Whites are the majority and the majority does not need extra "considerations", they already get it as the majority. On the other hand minorities do need it, or they are ignored or manipulated or basically screwed at every opportunity.
Anybody that thinks that being a minority race, in a country that oppressed them for generations, somehow requires them to listen to or converse with Dobbs majority race issue ignorance, is a fool.