Racial tensions roil Democratic race

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A series of comments from Senator Hillary Clinton, her husband, and her supporters are spurring a racial backlash and adding a divisive edge to the presidential primary as the candidates head south to heavily African-American South Carolina.

The comments, which ranged from the New York Senator appearing to diminish the role of Martin Luther King Jr. in the civil rights movement – an aide later said she misspoke – to Bill Clinton dismissing Sen. Barack Obama’s image in the media as a “fairy tale” –generated outrage on black radio, black blogs, and cable television. And now they've drawn the attention of prominent African-American politicians.

“A cross-section of voters are alarmed at the tenor of some of these statements,” said a Obama spokeswoman Candice Tolliver, who said that Clinton would have to decide whether or not she owed anyone an apology.

“There’s a groundswell of reaction to these comments – and not just these latest comments but really a pattern, or a series of comments that we’ve heard for several months,” she said. “Folks are beginning to wonder: Is this really an isolated situation or is there something bigger behind all of this?”

...

...black Clinton supporters found themselves wincing at the Clintons’ words, if not questioning their intent.

A Harlem-based consultant to the Clinton campaign, Bill Lynch, called the former president’s comments “a mistake,” and said his own phone had been ringing with friends around the country voicing their concern.

“I’ve been concerned about some of those comments – and that there might be a backlash,” he said.

Illinois State Senate President Emil Jones, a prominent Obama supporter, echoed those sentiments. "It’s very unfortunate that the president would make a statement like that," he said of Bill Clinton's criticism of Obama's experience, adding that the African-American community had "saved his presidency" after the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

"They owe the African American community – not the reverse," he said. "Maybe Hillary and Bill should get behind Senator Barack Obama."

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., through a spokesman, used even stronger language. "Following Barack Obama's victory in Iowa and historic voter turnout in New Hampshire, the cynics unfortunately have stepped up their efforts to decry his uplifting message of hope and fundamental change. "Regrettably, they have resorted to distasteful and condescending language that appeals to our fears rather than our hopes. I sincerely hope that they'll turn away from such reactionary, disparaging rhetoric.

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Obama had no personal reaction to Clinton’s remarks, and was focused on his own message of “hope.” But he’s spoken in the past of the risk of falling into old narratives of racial division.

“I think America is still caught in a little bit of a time warp: the narrative of black politics is still shaped by the '60s and black power,” he told Newsweek this summer. “That is not, I think, how most black voters are thinking. I don't think that's how most white voters are thinking. I think that people are thinking about how to find a job, how to fill up the gas tank, how to send their kids to college. I find that when I talk about those issues, both blacks and whites respond well.”

Now, though, some of those old patterns are reasserting themselves.

The series of comments Clinton critics’ cite began in mid-December, when the chairman of Clinton’s New Hampshire campaign, Bill Shaheen, speculated whether Obama had ever dealt drugs. In the final days of the New Hampshire campaign, however, the discomfort of some black observers intensified as Bill Clinton dismissed the contrast between Obama’s judgment on the war and Clinton’s as a “fairy tale” and spoke dismissively of his short time in the Senate. And the candidate herself, in an interview with Fox News, stressed the role of President Lyndon Johnson, over Martin Luther King Jr., in the civil rights movement.

“I would point to the fact that Dr. King's dream began to be realized when President Lyndon Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, when he was able to get through Congress something that President Kennedy was hopeful to do, the president before had not even tried, but it took a president to get it done,” she said, in response to a question about how her dismissive attitude toward Obama’s “false hopes” would have applied to the Civil Rights movement. “That dream became a reality, the power of that dream became real in peoples lives because we had a president who said we are going to do it, and actually got it accomplished.”

An aide later said Clinton didn’t intend to diminish King, and later that day she went out of her way to stress his accomplishment and courage in leading a movement.

Then, when Obama lost New Hampshire, the first question on black media outlets like the Tom Joyner Show was whether white racism had defeated him, and when a Clinton supporter, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, said – though not directly in connection to Obama – that politicians can’t “shuck and jive” in early primary states, it only added fuel to the fire.

Thursday, a key player in black South Carolina politics, Rep. James Clyburn, told the New York Times he’d consider endorsing Obama in response to what he considered a lack of respect in the Clinton campaign’s approach to Obama.

“For him to go after Obama, using a ‘fairy tale,’ calling him as he did last week. It's an insult. And I will tell you, as an African-American, I find his tone and his words to be very depressing,” said Donna Brazile, a longtime Clinton ally who is neutral in this race, on CNN earlier this week.

http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uui...015C8592526ACA9

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Ironically, Hillary is playing the race card.

[Sofiyya 1,687]

I don't understand why the "fairy tale" comment is racially offensive, especially coming from Bill Clinton, America's first black president.

Edited January 12, 2008 by Green-eyed girl

[Ban Hammer 13,360]

I don't understand why the "fairy tale" comment is racially offensive, especially coming from Bill Clinton, America's first black president.