08:46 AM Tuesday, February 09, 2010
MSNBC’s Affirmative Action? Hiring Articulate Bigots
Date: Monday, July 20, 2009, 4:28 am
By: Deborah Mathis, BlackAmericaWeb.com
Stay with me on this: You’re talking with someone about an issue or event and, with a perfectly straight face, he or she says something so outlandish, so outrageous, so ridiculous that it leaves you speechless because not even your wildest imagination had prepared you for something as beyond-the-ozone as that.
And then, when the shock wears off, and what you heard sinks in, you come up with loads of pithy rejoinders that you wished had occurred to you at the moment.
But then, you decide that it was just as well that you were speechless since what’s the use in wasting your breathe on someone who, clearly, does not have the capacity for reason?
That has to be how much of America felt last week when Pat Buchanan, the ineradicable political commentator and repeatedly failed presidential hopeful, turned his mouth and his pen against Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor and affirmative action.
First came the column in which he implored conservatives to use the Sotomayor nomination (and probable confirmation) as a hook for stirring up racial tensions as the foundation of an “us-against-them” political platform in 2010 and 2012.
That quickly put Buchanan on the boards and, for the next few nights, he was a popular “get” on the political talk shows, snarling about Sotomayor, whom he denounced as the personification of anti-white revenge.
“Affirmative action is to increase diversity by discriminating against white males,” he told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow.
“Why do you think it is that, of the 110 Supreme Court justices we’ve had in this country, 108 of them have been white?” Maddow asked.
Buchanan: “I think white men were 100 percent of the people that wrote the Constitution, 100 percent of the people that signed the Declaration of Independence, 100 percent of the people who died at Gettysburg and Vicksburg. Probably close to 100 percent of the people who died at Normandy. This has been a country build basically by white folks in this country who are 90 percent of the entire nation.”
Later in the exchange, Buchanan tried to explain his monochromatic preferences by allowing that he doesn’t automatically assume discrimination is afoot when the U.S. track team at the Olympics is all black. “I will say, ‘I think maybe those are the fastest guys we got,” he said.
Maddow – a true scholar as well as a made-for-TV charmer – seemed taken aback by Buchanan’s blunt and naked bigotry, but bless her smart heart, she was not dumbfounded.
“Pat,” she said, “when I look at the United States Supreme Court and I see 108 out of 110 white people … I don’t look at that and think, ‘God, white guys are naturally better at this type of work than other people who aren’t getting these jobs.’”
Buchanan, of course, would not budge from his prejudice, but wallowed in it. And why not? It has long been his comfort zone. This, after all, is the Pat Buchanan of the “Barbarians are at the gate” rant against immigration. The same one who, as a presidential candidate in 1992, praised the Confederacy and rallied rednecks to “lock and load.” The same one who, after then-candidate Barack Obama delivered his famously compelling Philadelphia speech on race, wrote a column asking when black America was going to show some gratitude for having been saved from Africa and brought to this country. White supremacy is the man’s calling card.
Buchanan has an encyclopedic command of history and can regale audiences with a litany of significant events at the drop of a hat. That comes in handy in political discourse.
Still, it’s a riddle that otherwise respectable, mainstream media outlets keep Buchanan on as a .....
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pat b.still believes in white power and screw minorities' opportunities too.he worked for richard nixon who was an awful president stating that black and white should never mix but if they do, they need to get an abortion.it's on the tapes and it was very disgusting to hear these comments.pat is a butthead from the past.i will be glad when keith olbermann comes back on too.i wished that joe madison get his own show too on cable.
by
Quita32
July 26, 2009, 2:23 pm
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It has always been my opinion that Pat did not belong on a network like msnbc. What amazes me is that people have ignored his over the top ignorant rhetoric for so long. Buchanan is like the village idiot. He got he start into politics working with Nixon White House. The poor S.O.B. is still stuck in 60's. I'm glad Racheal Maddow did what Joe Scarborough still has yet to do. She called him on his bigotry.
by
Runningman
July 26, 2009, 5:19 am
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I'll be waiting for the showdown between him and Keith Oberman
by
MADU
July 23, 2009, 11:09 am
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"Keep your friends close and your enemies closer", this old fart is still reasoning like a segment of our society...We just shake our heads in disgust and hope the next generation gets it. I believe they do...
by
Demp109
July 22, 2009, 2:30 pm
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He is just an angry white man who refuse to accept the change. But, he do not have to worry himself about the Blacks, Hispanic or any American right now. Because America is in big debt to several foreign countries. So, the future will tell how much of this country will be control by what race of people. Right now! Money talks and white america is living off credit as we all are.
by
Sherian williams
July 21, 2009, 8:16 am
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With its hiring of Pat Buchanan, perhaps MSNBC is exercising its own kind of affirmative action, says Deborah Mathis.
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