In a syndicated column published March 7 in The Pueblo Chieftain, Chuck Green parroted recent conservative attacks on Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) by describing her as having “adopted a poor, black, Southern drawl while reading verse from a hymn” in a March 4 speech in Selma, Alabama. Similarly, Denver Post columnist Al Knight, in a March 7 column, accused Clinton of using an “accent[]” to “attract the 'black vote.' ” Neither columnist pointed out that Clinton was quoting the dialect of the hymn, Rev. James Cleveland's “I don't feel no ways tired.”

In his column, Green praised Sen. Barack Obama's (D-IL) speech, also delivered on March 4 to commemorate the 1965 civil rights march in Selma, for “say[ing] it like it is.” Green quoted Obama as saying that “there is nothing to be ashamed about in educational achievement” and that he didn't know who taught African-American children “that reading and writing and conjugating your verbs was 'acting too white.' ” Green added:

When is the last time you heard Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton or any other black leader talk like that? When is the last time you heard Hillary Clinton -- who at the same event on Sunday adopted a poor, black, Southern drawl while reading verse from a hymn?

But Knight criticized Clinton and Obama for “using special techniques (and accents) to attract the 'black vote.' ” Knight claimed that media criticism of the two candidates' Selma speeches “has been misplaced in that it has focused on the Southern drawl adopted by both candidates and not on the larger topic of why candidates continue to use special techniques to 'woo black voters.' ”

In their columns, however, Green and Knight failed to note that criticism of Clinton's so-called “poor, black, Southern drawl” was prompted by right-wing gossip Matt Drudge posting audio clips of her speech under the headline "KENTUCKY FRIED HILLARY: NY SENATOR ADOPTS SOUTHERN DRAWL IN CHURCH SERVICE" on his website. Furthermore, neither Green nor Knight mentioned that Clinton was quoting the vernacular of the hymn during her speech, as Colorado Media Matters noted in response to 630 KHOW-AM host Peter Boyles' comment that Clinton was speaking in “a blackface voice."

Green and Knight also ignored the fact that Clinton lived in the South for 17 years. As Media Matters for America pointed out, Clinton moved to Arkansas in 1975, the year she married former President Bill Clinton and joined the faculty of the University of Arkansas Law School. She resided in Arkansas until 1993, the year of Bill Clinton's presidential inauguration.

From Green's column, “The message from Obama echoes Cosby's,” published March 7 in The Pueblo Chieftain:

It seems possible that after all these years, America's blacks may be seeing a true black leader emerge. If they embrace him -- and not get stuck in thinking he “isn't black enough” -- he could lead them and their children and their grandchildren into the enlightened era.

Up to now, their leaders -- men like Sharpton and Jackson -- have preferred to keep them down, where they can be managed as a permanent dependent class.

Barack Obama may change that.

I was encouraged by the speech he delivered Sunday at an anniversary celebration of the civil rights movement in Selma, Ala.

“Even as I fight on behalf of more education funding, I have to also say that if parents don't turn off the television set when the child comes home from school and make sure that they sit down and do their homework and go talk to the teachers and find out how they're doing, and if we don't start instilling a sense in our young children that there is nothing to be ashamed about in educational achievement ... I don't know who taught them that reading and writing and conjugating your verbs was 'acting too white.' We've got to get over that mentality.”

And then, he really lowered the boom of truth:

“We have too many children in poverty in this country, and everybody should be ashamed, but don't tell me it doesn't have a little to do with the fact that we've got too many daddies not acting like daddies. Don't think that fatherhood ends at conception.”

[...]

When is the last time you heard Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton or any other black leader talk like that? When is the last time you heard Hillary Clinton -- who at the same event on Sunday adopted a poor, black, Southern drawl while reading verse from a hymn?

Obama isn't afraid to say it like it is -- but is black America ready for straight-talking truth?

From Knight's column, “To study history, turn off the TV,” published March 7 in The Denver Post:

There has been widespread discussion this week about the appearances in Selma, Ala., by Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Much of the comment has been misplaced in that it has focused on the Southern drawl adopted by both candidates and not on the larger topic of why candidates continue to use special techniques to “woo black voters.”

[...]

The nation will know it has really arrived in a new racial era when politicians stop using special techniques (and accents) to attract the “black vote” (which is 90 percent Democratic) -- and when there is no longer such a thing as “the black vote.”