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Racist Incidents Give Some Obama Campaigners Pause
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 432697
5/14/2008 2:12 AM
Report abusive post | Racist Incidents Give Some Obama Campaigners Pause
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By Kevin Merida
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 13, 2008; A01
Danielle Ross was alone in an empty room at the Obama campaign headquarters in Kokomo, Ind., a cellphone in one hand, a voter call list in the other. She was stretched out on the carpeted floor wearing laceless sky-blue Converses, stories from the trail on her mind. It was the day before Indiana's primary, and she had just been chased by dogs while canvassing in a Kokomo suburb. But that was not the worst thing to occur since she postponed her sophomore year at Middle Tennessee State University, in part to hopscotch America stumping for Barack Obama.
Here's the worst: In Muncie, a factory town in the east-central part of Indiana, Ross and her cohorts were soliciting support for Obama at malls, on street corners and in a Wal-Mart parking lot, and they ran into "a horrible response," as Ross put it, a level of anti-black sentiment that none of them had anticipated.
"The first person I encountered was like, 'I'll never vote for a black person,' " recalled Ross, who is white and just turned 20. "People just weren't receptive."
For all the hope and excitement Obama's candidacy is generating, some of his field workers, phone-bank volunteers and campaign surrogates are encountering a raw racism and hostility that have gone largely unnoticed -- and unreported -- this election season. Doors have been slammed in their faces. They've been called racially derogatory names (including the white volunteers). And they've endured malicious rants and ugly stereotyping from people who can't fathom that the senator from Illinois could become the first African American president.
The contrast between the large, adoring crowds Obama draws at public events and the gritty street-level work to win votes is stark. The candidate is largely insulated from the mean-spiritedness that some of his foot soldiers deal with away from the media spotlight.
Victoria Switzer, a retired social studies teacher, was on phone-bank duty one night during the Pennsylvania primary campaign. One night was all she could take: "It wasn't pretty." She made 60 calls to prospective voters in Susquehanna County, her home county, which is 98 percent white. The responses were dispiriting. One caller, Switzer remembers, said he couldn't possibly vote for Obama and concluded: "Hang that darky from a tree!"
Documentary filmmaker Rory Kennedy, the daughter of the late Robert F. Kennedy, said she, too, came across "a lot of racism" when campaigning for Obama in Pennsylvania. One Pittsburgh union organizer told her he would not vote for Obama because he is black, and a white voter, she said, offered this frank reason for not backing Obama: "White people look out for white people, and black people look out for black people."
Obama campaign officials say such incidents are isolated, that the experience of most volunteers and staffers has been overwhelmingly positive.
The campaign released this statement in response to questions about encounters with racism: "After campaigning for 15 months in nearly all 50 states, Barack Obama and our entire campaign have been nothing but impressed and encouraged by the core decency, kindness, and generosity of Americans from all walks of life. The last year has only reinforced Senator Obama's view that this country is not as divided as our politics suggest."
Campaign field work can be an exercise in confronting the fears, anxieties and prejudices of voters. Veterans of the civil rights movement know what this feels like, as do those who have been involved in battles over busing, immigration or abortion. But through the Obama campaign, some young people are having their first experience joining a cause and meeting cruel reaction.
On Election Day in Kokomo, a group of black high school students were holding up Obama signs along U.S. 31, a major thoroughfare. As drivers cruised by, a number of them rolled down their windows and yelled out a common racial slur for African Americans, according to Obama campaign staffers.
Frederick Murrell, a black Kokomo High School senior, was not there but heard what happened. He was more disappointed than surprised. During his own canvassing for Obama, Murrell said, he had "a lot of doors slammed" in his face. But taunting teenagers on a busy commercial strip in broad daylight? "I was very shocked at first," Murrell said. "Then again, I wasn't, because we have a lot of racism here."
The bigotry has gone beyond words. In Vincennes, the Obama campaign office was vandalized at 2 a.m. on the eve of the primary, according to police. A large plate-glass window was smashed, an American flag stolen. Other windows were spray-painted with references to Obama's controversial former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and other political messages: "Hamas votes BHO" and "We don't cling to guns or religion. Goddamn Wright."
Ray McCormick was notified of the incident at about 2:45 a.m. A farmer and conservationist, McCormick had erected a giant billboard on a major highway on behalf of Farmers for Obama. He also was housing the Obama campaign worker manning the office. When McCormick arrived at the office, about two hours before he was due out of bed to plant corn, he grabbed his camera and wanted to alert the media. "I thought, this is a big deal." But he was told Obama campaign officials didn't want to make a big deal of the incident. McCormick took photos anyway and distributed some.
"The pictures represent what we are breaking through and overcoming," he said. As McCormick, who is white, sees it, Obama is succeeding despite these incidents. Later, there would be bomb threats to three Obama campaign offices in Indiana, including the one in Vincennes, according to campaign sources.
Obama has not spoken much about racism during this campaign. He has sought to emphasize connections among Americans rather than divisions. He shrugged off safety concerns that led to early Secret Service protection and has told black senior citizens who worry that racists will do him harm: Don't fret. Earlier in the campaign, a 68-year-old woman in Carson City, Nev., voiced concern that the country was not ready to elect an African American president.
"Will there be some folks who probably won't vote for me because I am black? Of course," Obama said, "just like there may be somebody who won't vote for Hillary because she's a woman or wouldn't vote for John Edwards because they don't like his accent. But the question is, 'Can we get a majority of the American people to give us a fair hearing?' "
Obama has won 30 of 50 Democratic contests so far, the kind of nationwide electoral triumph no black candidate has ever realized. That he is on the brink of capturing the Democratic nomination, some say, is a testament to how far the country has progressed in overcoming racism and evidence of Obama's skill at bridging divides.
Obama has won five of 12 primaries in which black voters made up less than 10 percent of the electorate, and caucuses in states such as Idaho and Wyoming that are overwhelmingly white. But exit polls show he has struggled to attract white voters who didn't attend college and earn less than $50,000 a year. Today, he and Hillary Clinton square off in West Virginia, a state where she is favored and where the votes of working-class whites will again be closely watched.
For the most part, Obama campaign workers say, the 2008 election cycle has been exhilarating. On the ground, the Obama campaign is being driven by youngsters, many of whom are imbued with an optimism undeterred by racial intolerance. "We've grown up in a different world," says Danielle Ross. Field offices are staffed by 20-somethings who hold positions -- state director, regional field director, field organizer -- that are typically off limits to newcomers to presidential politics.
Gillian Bergeron, 23, was in charge of a five-county regional operation in northeastern Pennsylvania. The oldest member of her team was 27. At Scranton's annual Saint Patrick's Day parade, some of the green Obama signs distributed by staffers were burned along the parade route. That was the first signal that this wasn't exactly Obama country. There would be others.
In a letter to the editor published in a local paper, Tunkhannock Borough Mayor Norm Ball explained his support of Hillary Clinton this way: "Barack Hussein Obama and all of his talk will do nothing for our country. There is so much that people don't know about his upbringing in the Muslim world. His stepfather was a radical Muslim and the ranting of his minister against the white America, you can't convince me that some of that didn't rub off on him.
"No, I want a president that will salute our flag, and put their hand on the Bible when they take the oath of office."
Obama's campaign workers have grown wearily accustomed to the lies about the candidate's supposed radical Muslim ties and lack of patriotism. But they are sometimes astonished when public officials such as Ball or others representing the campaign of their opponent traffic in these falsehoods.
Karen Seifert, a volunteer from New York, was outside of the largest polling location in Lackawanna County, Pa., on primary day when she was pressed by a Clinton volunteer to explain her backing of Obama. "I trust him," Seifert replied. According to Seifert, the woman pointed to Obama's face on Seifert's T-shirt and said: "He's a half-breed and he's a Muslim. How can you trust that?"
* * *
Pollsters have found it difficult to accurately measure racial attitudes, as some voters are unwilling to acknowledge the role that race plays in their thinking. But some are not. Susan Dzimian, a Clinton supporter who owns residential properties, said outside a polling location in Kokomo that race was a factor in how she viewed Obama. "I think if it was somebody other than him, I'd accept it," she said of a black candidate. "If Colin Powell had run, I would be willing to accept him."
The previous evening, Dondra Ewing was driving the neighborhoods of Kokomo, looking to turn around voters like Dzimian. Ewing, 47, is a chain-smoking middle school guidance counselor, a black single mother of two and one of the most fiercely vigilant Obama volunteers in Kokomo, which was once a Ku Klux Klan stronghold. On July 4, 1923, Kokomo hosted the largest Klan gathering in history -- an estimated 200,000 followers flocked to a local park. But these are not the 1920s, and Ewing believes she can persuade anybody to back Obama. Her mother, after all, was the first African American elected at-large to the school board in a community that is 10 percent black.
Kokomo, population 46,000, is another hard-hit Midwestern industrial town stung by layoffs. Longtimers wistfully remember the glory years of Continental Steel and speak mournfully about the jobs shipped overseas. Kokomo Sanitary Pottery, which made bathroom sinks and toilets, shut down a couple of months ago and took with it 150 jobs.
Aaron Roe, 23, was mowing lawns at a local cemetery recently, lamenting his $8-an-hour job with no benefits. He had earned a community college degree as an industrial electrician, but learned there was no electrical work to be found for someone with his experience, which is to say none. Politics wasn't on his mind; frustration was. If he were to vote, it would not be for Obama, he said. "I just got a funny feeling about him," Roe said, a feeling he couldn't specify, except to say race wasn't a part of it. "Race ain't nothing," said Roe, who is white. "It's how they're going to help the country."
The Aaron Roes are exactly who Dondra Ewing was after: people with funny feelings.
At the Bradford Run Apartments, she found Robert Cox, a retiree who spent 30 years working for an electronics manufacturer making computer chips. He was in his suspenders, grilling shish kebab, which he had never eaten. "Something new," Cox said, recommended by his son who was visiting from Colorado.
Ewing was selling him hard on Obama. "There are more than two families that can run the United States of America," she said, "and their names aren't Bush and Clinton."
"Yeah, I know, I know," Cox said, remaining noncommittal.
He opened the grill and peeked at the kebabs. "It's not his race, because I got real good friends and all that," Cox continued. "If anything would keep him from getting elected, it would be his name. It might turn off some older people."
Like him?
"No, older than me," said Cox, 66.
Ewing kept talking, until finally Cox said, "Probably Obama," when asked directly how he would vote.
As she walked away, Ewing said: "I think we got him."
But truthfully, she wasn't feeling so sure.
Staff writer Peter Slevin and polling analyst Jennifer Agiesta contributed to this report.
[link to www.washingtonpost.com] |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 428390
5/14/2008 2:46 AM | | Re: Racist Incidents Give Some Obama Campaigners Pause | Quote |
This isn't really that surprising. It does kinda sound like they are campaigning for guilt votes. |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 341724
5/14/2008 3:31 AM | | Re: Racist Incidents Give Some Obama Campaigners Pause | Quote |
This is bullshit, they are just setting up black people to riot. |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 160058
5/14/2008 3:42 AM | | Re: Racist Incidents Give Some Obama Campaigners Pause | Quote |
This is bullshit, they are just setting up black people to riot. Quoting: Anonymous Coward 341724
You're so right. On a business forum, the racism is strong, and very uncomfortable. |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 160058
5/14/2008 3:43 AM | | Re: Racist Incidents Give Some Obama Campaigners Pause | Quote |
OP, thank you for posting this. |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 432697 (OP)
5/14/2008 4:00 AM | | Re: Racist Incidents Give Some Obama Campaigners Pause | Quote |
OP, thank you for posting this. Quoting: Anonymous Coward 160058
You're welcome. I don't know if this article is giving a few instances and making them seem widespread, but I really am stunned by the people that think race isn't going to decide this election. 90% of blacks voted for Obama in some areas and there are many whites who will never vote for him because he is black. I think the demographics of the United States make it impossible for Obama to win and yes I think the media are trying to lead up to some kind of racial unrest afterwards. |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 341724
5/14/2008 4:18 AM | | Re: Racist Incidents Give Some Obama Campaigners Pause | Quote |
yes I think the media are trying to lead up to some kind of racial unrest afterwards. Quoting: Anonymous Coward 432697
The media and who ever controls them. Obama will beat out Hillary for the democratic nomination but will end up losing to McCain in the election.
Then the media will report of voter fraud against Obama and then there will be bogus stories of blacks being kept from voting etc. Anything and everything to get blacks even more angry.
Stories like the one you posted are there to plant the seeds of anger and resentment against white people and the government.
The entire black community, "90 percent of black voters" has its heart set on Obama winning and once Obama loses the shit is going to hit the fan. |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 432697 (OP)
5/14/2008 4:21 AM | | Re: Racist Incidents Give Some Obama Campaigners Pause | Quote |
yes I think the media are trying to lead up to some kind of racial unrest afterwards.
The media and who ever controls them. Obama will beat out Hillary for the democratic nomination but will end up losing to McCain in the election.
Then the media will report of voter fraud against Obama and then there will be bogus stories of blacks being kept from voting etc. Anything and everything to get blacks even more angry.
Stories like the one you posted are there to plant the seeds of anger and resentment against white people and the government.
The entire black community, "90 percent of black voters" has its heart set on Obama winning and once Obama loses the shit is going to hit the fan. Quoting: Anonymous Coward 341724
Seems like blacks are being led into a confrontation they can't win. |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 341724
5/14/2008 4:28 AM | | Re: Racist Incidents Give Some Obama Campaigners Pause | Quote |
Seems like blacks are being led into a confrontation they can't win. Quoting: Anonymous Coward 432697
I think all regular Americans are going to lose in this. Of course it is better for them if the country is divided and fighting each other then being focused on the real enemy. The people who control this country. |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 432697 (OP)
5/14/2008 4:34 AM | | Re: Racist Incidents Give Some Obama Campaigners Pause | Quote |
Seems like blacks are being led into a confrontation they can't win.
I think all regular Americans are going to lose in this. Of course it is better for them if the country is divided and fighting each other then being focused on the real enemy. The people who control this country. Quoting: Anonymous Coward 341724
Indeed.. Either they just want martial law and an excuse to disarm the public or blacks are no longer useful to TPTB. There is no telling but I believe they are definately up to something. Hopefully blacks will realize that they will only hurt themselves by rioting. |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 341724
5/14/2008 4:57 AM | | Re: Racist Incidents Give Some Obama Campaigners Pause | Quote |
Indeed.. Either they just want martial law and an excuse to disarm the public or blacks are no longer useful to TPTB. There is no telling but I believe they are definately up to something. Hopefully blacks will realize that they will only hurt themselves by rioting. Quoting: Anonymous Coward 432697
Maybe both. I just read the article again. Wow that is some evil stuff there. They throw around racial slurs and paint a picture of any white person who does not vote for Obama is a racist and does not want a black as president. Hell they even mentioned Klan meetings from 1923 and lynchings, "Hang that darky from a tree!"
It seems so obvious to me.
But no I do not think black people are going to realize what the bigger picture is. Hell most white people do not seem to get it either.
You notice that even the white Obama supporters call anyone who does not support Obama a redneck, trailer trash and the ever so popular racist. Little do they realize they are a part of this plan.
This country is going to be in for a rough ride. |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 281483
5/14/2008 5:02 AM | | Re: Racist Incidents Give Some Obama Campaigners Pause | Quote |
Shows that America isn't all that great after all.
We're no longer a shining city on a hill. |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 432697 (OP)
5/14/2008 6:36 AM | | Re: Racist Incidents Give Some Obama Campaigners Pause | Quote |
 |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 432121
5/14/2008 7:36 AM | | Re: Racist Incidents Give Some Obama Campaigners Pause | Quote |
I will never vote for a black man who plays the race card. |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 427075
5/14/2008 7:50 AM | | Re: Racist Incidents Give Some Obama Campaigners Pause | Quote |
Could be trying to get sympathy votes but I wouldn't be surprised if its true. |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 427197
5/14/2008 8:09 AM | | Re: Racist Incidents Give Some Obama Campaigners Pause | Quote |
I live in a 95% white town in the Greater New York suburbs and the new Black Baptist Church the Blacks who had made it to our community were about to open was burned to the ground on Mothers Day. The Fire Chief said it was "Fully engulfed" when they arrived on the scene. The cause of the fire was unknown. This scares the shit out of me. I live in the town where Tawanna Brawley was messed up several years ago and where Al Sharpton got his start. I would move if I could. |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 432877
5/14/2008 8:47 AM | | Re: Racist Incidents Give Some Obama Campaigners Pause | Quote |
What about Obama's pastor hating whites?
That's okay?
I'm sorry, but I see blacks (including Obama) to be more racist than most whites. When things don't go their way, it's Whitey's fault because Whitey is racist.
They're allowed to smear Whitey all they want and we're supposed to take it. NOT!!!
This attitude is what causes most whites to dislike blacks.
Instead of the election being about who would be best for America as president, it's becoming about race. If we don't vote for a black man, we're racist. That's Bullshit!!
After reading about Obama (and yes, I do believe on researching a person's policies)I would NEVER vote for this man. I don't care if his skin color is white, black, yellow, purple or blue. I don't agree with his policies.
He also does not have the experience to hold the highest office in the land. This is supposed to be about the most capable person not the most popular. Please bring American Idol mentality out of American politics.
I just wish we had a better choice than the 3 Stooges. |
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Winningjob 
ALL-IN!
User ID: 385114
5/14/2008 8:54 AM
 | | Re: Racist Incidents Give Some Obama Campaigners Pause | Quote |
I thought the outcome was already decided long ago..regardless of what the people vote?
"If Thou 'Canst Believe; All Things Are Possible!"
Yes. I would check-raise my own mother! |
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Fruit of Islam
User ID: 427112
5/14/2008 9:10 AM | | Re: Racist Incidents Give Some Obama Campaigners Pause | Quote |
Lets see, Obama hangs out with people who call whites blue eyed devils, especially in the Chicago area. |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 281483
5/14/2008 9:24 AM | | Re: Racist Incidents Give Some Obama Campaigners Pause | Quote |
Let me get this right...
Plenty of people on this forum raving about the Illuminati devils [or insert any other demonized group whether it be Zionists or whatever]...
Yet when there are blacks that believe in "Blue Eyed Devils" then OH MY GOD HOW DARE THEY?
You all are so similar and yet you fear the other.... |
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maya12-21-2012
User ID: 407782
5/14/2008 9:39 AM | | Re: Racist Incidents Give Some Obama Campaigners Pause | Quote |
I thought the outcome was already decided long ago..regardless of what the people vote? Quoting: Winningjob
ain't that the truth. the electoral college is total 
Once you've eliminated fear and darkness, there's only love and light!
MySpace Page: [link to www.myspace.com]
2012 The Online Movie
[link to www.youtube.com] |
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OneConsciousness
I believe in Miracles....
User ID: 432720
5/14/2008 9:39 AM
 | | Re: Racist Incidents Give Some Obama Campaigners Pause | Quote |
It seems as if Obama would have had the "power" to be a unifying factor for whites and blacks. However, it appears that he has only embraced his black heritage. That is probably enough to turn a lot of white voters off.
You are the angel for whom someone is waiting.
[link to www.free-ebooklibrary.com]
[link to ebooklibrary.nocashever.com] |
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ShiftyCaliber
User ID: 431830
5/14/2008 9:49 AM | | Re: Racist Incidents Give Some Obama Campaigners Pause | Quote |
This is an obviously diversionary report to draw attention away from Obama's racist ties and his wifes racist rhetoric.
I can post the links - but come on. How many times do we have to show this to the blind Obamaites?
This race has really exposed the threads of racism that still taint the cloth of our society.
I can post endless video that shows blacks assaulting whites, and people stating that the main reason they are voting for Obama is that he is black. Hell, there were plenty posted yesterday!
And btw - this is in the Washington Post. It might as well be signed by Howard Dean.
Using divisiveness as a campaign tactic is nothing new but I guess it shows how far some people will go to win, even if it means destroying a country once as great as ours.
Enough.
Wake up sheep. |
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Fantasia II
User ID: 255967
5/14/2008 9:53 AM
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I liked Obama until he introduced us to his bitch wife, now I can't stand the man.
George Orwell was right..Black is White, Up is Down, War is Peace... |
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ShiftyCaliber
User ID: 431830
5/14/2008 10:01 AM | | Re: Racist Incidents Give Some Obama Campaigners Pause | Quote |
 So the Obama Zombies can get this shit out of their systems early today and not clog the forum. |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 432697 (OP)
5/14/2008 3:30 PM | | Re: Racist Incidents Give Some Obama Campaigners Pause | Quote |
 |
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himself
User ID: 433223
5/14/2008 8:58 PM | | Re: Racist Incidents Give Some Obama Campaigners Pause | Quote |
the Obama race riots will give "justification" for nationwide martial law and gun confiscation.
NWO money is an incentive beyond comprehension to most of us.
Bush's became multi millionaires by selling out.
don't blame Obama
other blacks have also sold out for personal gain:
Clarence Thomas
Colin Powell
dubya's gf Condi Rice |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 284104
5/14/2008 9:07 PM | | Re: Racist Incidents Give Some Obama Campaigners Pause | Quote |
This is bullshit, they are just setting up black people to riot. Quoting: Anonymous Coward 341724
Are you dismissing that people are really this racist? Obviously you have never been a minority in small town america. I have. Yes people are that racist.
In the year 2005, our county had its first african american county fair queen. People pelted her car during the fair parade and called her racist names.
Yes, people like this still exist as evidenced by a lot of posters here as well.
How can you think Rev. Wright saying something almost 10 years ago calling Amerikkka makes up for all of the white racism against blacks that exists till this. Give me a break! and Get real! |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 341724
5/14/2008 9:10 PM | | Re: Racist Incidents Give Some Obama Campaigners Pause | Quote |
This is bullshit, they are just setting up black people to riot.
Are you dismissing that people are really this racist? Obviously you have never been a minority in small town america. I have. Yes people are that racist.
In the year 2005, our county had its first african american county fair queen. People pelted her car during the fair parade and called her racist names.
Yes, people like this still exist as evidenced by a lot of posters here as well.
How can you think Rev. Wright saying something almost 10 years ago calling Amerikkka makes up for all of the white racism against blacks that exists till this. Give me a break! and Get real! Quoting: Anonymous Coward 284104
Yes and I am sure you will riot when Obama loses. |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 392006
5/14/2008 9:12 PM | | Re: Racist Incidents Give Some Obama Campaigners Pause | Quote |
Pause, what Pause??? |
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Anonymous Coward
User ID: 429594
5/14/2008 9:14 PM | | Re: Racist Incidents Give Some Obama Campaigners Pause | Quote |
GLP is full of racists. And racists are full of it. |
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