Limbaugh Invokes NBPP To Race-Bait Obama, Democratic Convention

Written by Marcus Feldman

Published

Rush Limbaugh race-baited President Obama and the Democratic National Convention, insinuating a close connection between them and the New Black Panther Party.

Earlier this week, Democrats announced that they would refer to the stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina, where the Democratic National Convention will be held as “Panthers Stadium,” ostensibly after the NFL's Carolina Panthers. 

On his radio show today, while discussing the convention, Limbaugh proposed that instead of calling the stadium “Panthers Stadium,” people call it “New Black Panthers Stadium,” a reference to the New Black Panther Party. The NBPP has been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. 

LIMBAUGH: It's going to be called New Black Panthers Stadium that night. Uh, Panthers Stadium. Did I say New Black? You know what? That's not a bad idea. Call it New Black Panthers Stadium. They call it Panthers Stadium because the Carolina Panthers play there.

That Limbaugh would race-bait Obama and the convention by intimating a close connection between them and the NBPP should come as no surprise. His remarks today are consistent with his long history of using the NBPP to race-bait the president and others. They are also reminiscent of similar NBPP attacks by others in the conservative media over the years. Here are a few examples:

  • Fox Business host Lou Dobbs suggested that the NBPP constitutes Obama's “base.”
  • Fox News host Sean Hannity attempted to race-bait Obama by promising to “show a tape” of him “hanging out during the campaign” with a NBPP member. The story was exposed as a fake.
  • Fox News hyped a manufactured scandal that Obama's Department of Justice engaged in racially charged “corruption” by not pursuing charges against NBPP members for alleged voter intimidation at least 95 times.
  • Daily Caller reporter Matthew Boyle suggested Obama “jumped into the fight” over the Trayvon Martin shooting following “demands by the New Black Panthers and others on scene in Sanford, Fla.”