Garofalo on American Tea Parties: Racists Who Hate the Black President–Really?

April 20, 2009
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24 Star/actress turned Political Pundit Jeanine Garofalo

24 Star/actress turned Political Pundit Jeanine Garofalo

My first response on hearing and then viewing the video clip of Ms. Garofalo on MSNBC last Thursday evening was simply: WOW!

Is this what the Republic is coming to in the 21st Century? Political extremism has gone WILD!

Regular working class and rural, suburban White Americans must feel a bit under assault as of late. 

How so you ask? Well, it started in the 2008 primary campaign with off handed comments being made by then candidate Obama about “bitter Americans clinging to their guns and religion”, then Senator Clinton started talking about “hardworking white Americans” in Pennsylvania as she desperately needed to carry that state.

Everything was about race in the 2008 Campaign.  Former President Bill Clinton was deemed a racist red neck jack asswho didn’t know when to shut up according to the media, political pundits and many black politicians for his comments during the South Carolina primaries.  McCain was deemed a racist simply because he existed and was the GOP standardbearer. Once he picked working class, university of Idaho educated, mother of five Alaska Governor Sara Palin all hell truly broke loose.

I am so sick and tired of RACE.  Period.  When are we going to get over it? For Real folks.  As someone who was an African American studies minor in college, pledged the oldest and most prestigious black women’s sorority, was once a loyal card carrying member of the NAACP ( I did not renew my membership after the 2000 election campaign ads that ran against then Gov. George Bush paid for by the NAACP), started a very successful national organization for professional women of color, and I could go and on I am sick of the tearing apart of one set of Americans by their own fellow countrymen. 

Yes, I am defending my mostly white (some Tea Party goers were black, Hispanic, etc.) Tea Party attending brethren because enough is enoughdamnit.  On last Thursday’s “Countdown,” MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann and his guest Janeane Garofalo defamed fellow citizens who attended the prior day’s Tea Parties with vitriolic contempt. Ms. Garofalo actually called Party-goers “a bunch of teabagging rednecks,” adding “this is about hating a black man in the White House. This is racism straight up.”

She is wrong and she knows nothing about true racism–having never spent a day of her life being black in America.  I do know something about racism as I and millions of other people of color have endured and experienced its ugly insidiousness.  It is not a word that should be thrown around lightly or recklessly.  If we dare not stand in defense of our fellow citizens right to protest peacefully against our/their government then we are giving into a sneaky form of Tyranny.  Race has nothing to do with the hardworking, decent American citizens who simply got sick and tired of being overtaxed and outspent by their government and showed up to do something about it.

That is our solemn duties as Americans.  This freedom is what makes us the envy of the world.

I am deeply disappointed in the current diaglogue that seems to be developing on the current American horizon.  If we don’t stop yelling at each other, hurling insults and names, and band together as a nation once again, then those who seek the undoing of their fellow citizens of a different opinion, thought or political stripe had better grasp firmly the old saying “what you gonna do when they come for you?”

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Uncategorized by Sophia Nelson

Viewing 10 Comments

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    Janeane Garofalo is a high school dropout. NBC is owned by GE, a company that is going bankrupt, while NBC/MSNBC lose audiences. GE will only survive if the Obama administration bails it out, as it plans to, with taxpayer money for "green industry" development.
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    Amen. You said this so beautifully, and you are spot on.

    Thank you!
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    Come on Sophia, we all know that this has nothing to do about racism and everything to do about progressive-political tactics. If you dare dissent or offer opposition to this administration, then the left along with the sheep and puppets in the media will do whatever it takes to silence you. This is straight out of the Saul Alinsky playbook, and seeing that Obama is a huge admirer of his, it should come as no surprise that these tactics are being used!

    The lefts' clear objective is to silence, discredit, marginalize, and if all else fails, to label the opposition. On a good day you may be called intolerant or an extremist, but more times than not they'll turn to their go to labels - racist and bigot. Is it no wonder then that Bill Clinton ( the first proclaimed black president) was labeled a racist by the Obama campaign. Or John McCain who walked on egg shells to avoid the label but couldn't escape. This is why seven satellite trucks with teams of "reporters" and "fact finders" turned up on " Joe the Plumber's" street after he dared to call Obama's economic plan socialism. This is why the White House went after a radio talk show host in Rush and why some in congress are talking about the fairness doctrine. This is why they go after the tea parties and other protesters. This is why an opponent of gay marriage like Miss California is attacked.

    If they can't silence you then they will try to discredit you, like they tried to do with Joe the Plumber by digging into his past to find dirt. If they can't discredit you then they will try to marginalize you like they did with the tea parties, by saying that it wasn't a grass roots operation and that the crowds weren't that big. If that doesn't work then they will try to label you a racist like they did to Clinton and McCain, or call you a bigot like they did with Miss California.

    It seems to me that it's the MSM and c-list celebs like Garofalo who are the ones who are angry and intolerant......not us!!
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    Sophia, where were you for the last 8 years? Clearly, if taxes was the main reason for the tea-bagging protests and demonstrations then you need to look at the 8 years prior to Barack Obama. The very wealthy, those whom G. W. Bush called his constituents of "the haves and have mores," received a $1.35 trillion tax cut. What did they do with their windfall? They invested it mostly in China and India and slammed the door on ordinary American workers.

    As Obama's tax plan makes clear, 95% of Americans, those whom you refer to as, "the hardworking, decent American citizens who simply got sick and tired of being overtaxed and outspent by their government." will be receiving a tax cut, not a tax hike. Even the top 5% of wage earners won't see any taxes raised until 2011 and that is for incomes over $250,000 per year.

    Lost in all the screeching back and forth between MSNBC with Olbermann, Maddow & Schuster and Fox News with Beck, Hannity and O'Reilly (plus the ever-vituperative Obama hate-monger nonpareil, Rush Limbaugh), is the fact that most of us have overspent like little kids emptying out the cookie jar. The jar is now empty.

    But, we now have 307 million people in the United States, third most populous country in the world. Yet, we've spent the last several decade outsourcing jobs and almost all of our manufacturing overseas. We became, over the last two decades, a consumer nation living off of refinanced housing values totally in the unsustainable stratosphere.

    When the housing piggybank crumbled and the bills for all our creature comforts that we never could afford to begin with came due, we suddenly realized there is more money going out than coming in. Economists like to use terms like "illiquid assets," as if the banking jargon can change the calculus. Maybe John McCain's economics guru, Phil Gramm, was right when he said we are "a nation of whiners" and we are suffering a "mental recession."

    But, concerning the GOP's future you might refer to Meghan McCain's latest assessment that the party is in deep trouble and there's a war brewing between the past and present. I don't need to elaborate on that one since you know the sordid state you're in better than I.

    You should begin by rebuilding some credibility in the Republican Party by distancing yourselves from the extremist Religious Right whose only goal is to legislate everyone else's moral values and turn our country into a theocracy.

    That would be a good start. And, by the way, this is not just my observation. Recently, John McCain's campaign adviser Steve Schmidt was quoted as saying that the"GOP is at Risk of Becoming a Religious Party."
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    Ms. Nelson, let's call a spade a spade. In 2000 this country had a record surplus, Bush and the republicans turned it into a record deficit. If all these people where so concerned about govt spending than why was there not ONE tea party in the last 8 years to protest RECORD Government Spending? In fact I remember good ole DICK Cheney saying the deficits did not matter. Obama has been in power for 3 MONTHS and all of a sudden a grass roots protest about government spending pops up. The funny part about it is most of the tea baggers taxes are going down under OBAMA and becasue he has only been in power 3 months he has not even changed their taxes yet. Although I can't say that everyone at the tea party's was a racist I can look at a lot of the signs the people where holding and say that there were definitly a lot of racist people in the crowd. So although your right Ms. Garofalo did paint tea baggers with a broad brush, she was right that racism was a big part of the motivation of a lot of the tea baggers. Just because you are an AA does not give you the right to say that Ms. Garofalo knows nothing of true racism or it's origins, you are painting her with the same broad brush you complain she is using against the tea baggers. Instead of defending your fellow right wingers why don't you talk to them about the yelling and hurling of insults (socialist, facist, Obama was not born here just to name a few). Because for all the complaints I hear from the right about Obama I don't hear any ideas coming from the right, just name calling and insults.
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    Totally feel the vibe but this is a perfect opportunity for those of us who want to be a part of the change to share our unique cultural histories. Sure some people don't care and don't want to know but to that small minority that is curious and open to learning do share. I do get tired of talking about race to some people who refuse to understand but you know that is their loss. You have a unique voice! take the opportunity to share your rich history! Thank you for sharing! oxoxo
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    Whoever this G woman is, she makes great news... for the Neo Dadaists

    Celebs may want to be political, but, they lack the skills. Maybe, they have other interests that occupy them and distraction causes something like chaos. Or, maybe some just don't have anything better to do and promise to be irrationally provocative when/ if someone cares to publicly ask a question of substance.

    We see this quite often. However, it seems there could be an extremely important treatise produced concerning the possible psychoactive syndrome that compels the most fortunate of the fortunate to actually despise the very thing which makes them the most fortunate.

    We (US) would like to know the problem, though not inferring that there's not already an explanation.
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    Whoever this G woman is, she makes great news... for the Neo Dadaists

    Celebs may want to be political, but, they lack the skills. Maybe, they have other interests that occupy them and distraction causes something like chaos. Or, maybe some just don't have anything better to do and promise to be irrationally provocative when/ if someone cares to publicly ask a question of substance.

    We see this quite often. However, it seems there could be an extremely important treatise produced concerning the possible psychoactive syndrome that compels the most fortunate of the fortunate to actually despise the very thing which makes them the most fortunate.

    We (US) would like to know the problem, though not inferring that there's not already an explanation.
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    Dear Sophia, you need look no further than the signs that people carried at the tea bagging parties to know that there was a majority of people there pissed because Obama is Black. And the fact that you do not mention that in your piece above is quite disappointing for someone claiming to "understand" what it means to be Black in America.
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    Dear "Kai"- What minute flash of signage did you see off what biased media program who covered a mere few minutes of tens of thousands of people across the nation spending HOURS AND HOURS collecting to discuss our nation's Constitution? You can't look at a few signs and make GENERALIZATIONS about so much stuff. It's sad that minds are so small that they can so easily do this.

    Janika
 

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    April 26, 2009 at 1:30 pm

    [...] Garofalo declares Tea Party attendees racist and Keith Olbermann agrees. | Posts & Clips...Political Intersection » Garofalo on American ...

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