Harry Reid: A Politically-Correct Racist

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D), one of the leaders of the Democratic Party, said during the 2008 campaign season that Obama would be acceptable as President because he was a "light-skinned...Negro" and that he didn't speak with a "Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one."

In other words, Reid didn't want a black man as President. Obama was "close enough" to white to be acceptable.

In 2002, Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott (R) said at a birthday party for Senator Strom Thurmond that he had voted for Thurmond for President. Since Thurmond had segregationist history, this was deemed so "racist" that Lott was forced to resign from his position and later from office entirely.

But Reid's statement, which is specifically anti-black, not just one which could be interpreted that way, is largely being overlooked.


I just sent this to my Federal representatives:
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It has recently come out that Harry Reid said during the 2008 campaign season that Obama would be acceptable as President because he was a "light-skinned...Negro" and that he didn't speak with a "Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one."

In other words, Reid didn't want a black man as President. Obama was "close enough" to white to be acceptable.

We do not need an overt racist in one of the most influential positions in American politics.

Judge Sonia Sotomayor Confirmed for Supreme Court

I have said before that "race", someone's culture, heritage and background, are a person's flavor, a seasoning of life.

If someone is from Georgia, grown up with fried chicken and grits, that person is no more inherently "right" or "wrong" than someone from Washington State with their apples and cherries. Do you like New York foldable pizza better than Chicago's thick-crust pizza? Fine. Do you like Texas spicy baked beans better than Boston's sweet baked beans? OK. Neither is right or wrong, just personal preference, and someone should be neither qualified nor disqualified from public office on the basis of such personal culture.

Similarly, is not voting for someone exclusively because of skin color or gender the very definition of racism or sexism? I have no problem with a person being elected (or "confirmed", as the case may be) to office, who may happen to be of a particular heritage or gender, but nobody should be elected or confirmed primarily because of such bias.

Voting for such a person in large part because of a bias is just as bad as voting against the person because of a bias.

A Senator who confirmed Judge Sonia Sotomayor primarily because she has a Latina heritage is just as bad as someone who voted against Barack Obama just because he's black. There is no difference.

Definitions: Racism and Sexism

Racism: The belief that one race/ethnicity is inherently superior to another.

Sexism: The belief that one gender is inherently superior to the other.

Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor said that she believes a woman would make better decisions than a man, and that a Latina (a woman from a Spanish-heritage country) would make better decisions than a white man.

President Obama said he would hope that she would restate it given the chance. She did. She said effectively the same thing repeatedly over a number of years in a variety of situations.

So, you decide. Are these racist or sexist comments?

Do these statements have any place whatsoever coming from someone nominated to a position which is supposed to be "blind" and completely impartial to all circumstances in all decisions?

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