Palin's racially charged Obama remark

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin released a statement on her Facebook page accusing President Obama of engaging in "shuck and jive shtick" regarding last month's attack in Benghazi, Libya.

"Why the lies? Why the cover up? Why the dissembling about the cause of the murder of our ambassador on the anniversary of the worst terrorist attacks on American soil? We deserve answers to this. President Obama's shuck and jive shtick with these Benghazi lies must end," Palin wrote.

For those who aren't familiar with the phrase, "shuck and jive" is a racially-tinged expression. According to the user-submitted Urban Dictionary, the term "originally referred to the intentionally misleading words and actions that African-Americans would employ in order to deceive racist Euro-Americans in power, both during the period of slavery and afterwards."

As Politico points out, this isn't the first time the phrase has come up and inspired controversy. Several years ago, Andrew Cuomo, then New York's Attorney General, used the expression while campaigning for Hillary Rodham Clinton. "You can't shuck and jive at a press conference. All those moves you can make with the press don't work when you're in someone's living room."

Cuomo was promptly blasted by CNN's Roland Martin, who wrote, "'Shucking and jiving' have long been words used as a negative assessment of African Americans, along the lines of a 'foot shufflin' Negro.' In fact, I don't recall ever hearing the phrase used in reference to anyone white."

http://news.yahoo.co...--politics.html

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Apparently, the OP does

Apparently

[Kathryn41 3,205]

2 posts containing inappropriate and offensive language and violating TOS have been removed along with one post quoting one of the removed posts. Surely you can express yourselves without resorting to obscenities?

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

http://news.yahoo.com/racist-palin-accuse-obama-shuck-jive-233648869.html

Was It Racist for Palin to Accuse Obama of 'Shuck and Jive'?

By Elspeth Reeve | The Atlantic Wire – 2 hrs 53 mins ago

Sarah Palin condemned President Obama's response to the attacks in Benghazi as a "shuck and jive shtick" in a note on her Facebook page Wednesday. This seemed so obviously overtly racist that The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg tweeted, "Palin's use of 'shuck and jive' isn't an example of a racist dog-whistle because it's too obviously racist to be considered code." But when it came time for everyone to explain why it was racist, many struggled. (Mediabistro, for example, block quoted a section of the 2010 book What Can You Say?: America’s National Conversation on Race, which discussed the time Andrew Cuomo used the phrase. But that just listed two bloggers linking to two dictionary definitions, and one blogger linking to Yahoo Answers. So we at The Atlantic Wire thought we've give a brief primer on what shucking and jiving means and whether it's racist for white people to use the phrase to describe black people.

1. It does come from black slang.

The origin of "shuckin' and jivin'" according to Explorations in the Ethnography of Speaking, published in 1989, is in shucking corn, and refers to using words and performance to decieve and manipulate. Some sources say it started in the slavery days, others say it's from jazz in the 1930s. But all say it started as black slang.

2. It means lying.

For example, the Rev. Cecil Williams used it in a December 1970 article in The Black Scholar titled, "Black Folks Are Not for Sale." Williams wrote, "The church is shuckin' and jivin'. By shuckin' and jivin' I simply mean talking out of both sides of its mouth."

RELATED: What Do GOP Candidates Get Out of a Trump Photo-Op?

3. But it also means making yourself look subservient to authority figures.

In 1990's Ribbin', Jivin', and Playin' the Dozens: The Persistent Dilemma in Our Schools, Herbert L. Foster explains:

Shuckin' and jivin' is a verbal and physical technique some blacks use to avoid difficulty, to accommodate some authority figure, and in the extreme, to save a life or to save oneself from being beaten physically or psychologically. Gestures, facial expressions, speech pronunciation, and body poses are all used to provide the authority figure with the appearance deemed acceptable and subservient to placate him. Shuckin' and jivin' also often requires an ability to control and conceal one's true emotions.

4. And it does often refer to communication between blacks and whites.

Foster says jiving plays off the expectations of white people. He cites this passage from Eldridge Cleaver's book Soul on Ice, when Cleaver is pulled over by a cop for running a red light.

'Say, Boy,' he said to me, 'are you color-blind?' I didn't want a ticket so I decided to talk him out of it. I went into my act, gave him a big smile and explained to him that I was awfully sorry, that I thought that I could make it but that my old car was too slow. He talked real bad to me, took me on a long trip about how important it was that I obeyed the laws and regulation and how else can a society be controlled and administered without obedience to the law. I said a bunch of Yes Sir's and he told me to run along and be a good boy.

And here's an example from the book Airtight Willie & Me by Iceberg Slim, the assumed name of Robert Beck, a former Chicago pimp whose books were turned into blaxploitation films: "I was having one ###### kitty of a time tuning out the interracial sewer mouth shucking and jiving and playing the 'dozens' from cell to cell on our tier."

And here's an example from the Associated Press on April 3, 1987, when there was controversy in the South Carolina state senate over whether to accept invitations from segregated clubs. (Yes, I know: 1987!) State Sen. Kay Patterson, who is black, sponsored a controversial resolution to stop accepting those invites, and said, "Let's stop shucking and jiving. I brought you a simple resolution. All it says is that we will not accept invitations to any segregated clubs. What's so bad about that?" (State Sen. Charlie Powell, who was white, responded by referring to the Black Caucus and saying that if Patterson "would permit whites to join his club then I'll also vote to let blacks come join our clubs.")

And here is The Washington Post on March 2, 1979, on the Harlem Globetrotters:

Beloved as the Trotters are, they persistently hear the charge -- muttered usually, occasionally printed -- that their whole act is pure shucking and jiving, Uncle Tomism, just another version of Amos 'n' Andy.

If the Trotters are not reinforcing invidious black stereotypes -- poor speech, bad grammar, shambling walk -- then why are crowds in New York and Washington more than 90 percent white?

5. White people do use it innocently.

White House press secretary James Carney used it during a press conference in September 2011, saying, "Sorry. I'm going to shuck and jive! Time to shuck and jive" because he brought the wrong notebook. The Twitter handle @shuckandjive belongs to a Presbyterian minister named John Shuck, who also runs a blog at the url ShuckandJive.org. He writes about wholesome things like "Autumn Leaves."

A lot of politicians who publicly use racist terms like this -- Michele Bachmann once said Obama was "waving a tar baby in the air" with an energy proposal, for example— are often from really white places in the Midwest and Northwest and may be unaware that terms like "cakewalk" have racial Southern roots. Maybe they don't really know the history? (When the former governor of Mississippi favorably refers to White Citizens Councils, on the other hand, he has no such excuse.)

6. But whites have used it racially.

If you do not have any unenlightened relatives to give you an example of this, here are a couple: The Miami Herald reported on April 4, 1991 that a Sarasota nightclub banned black people from coming in. Roger Shaw, the co-owner, told the newspaper, "We've found so many problems... We wound up with 30-40 people just shucking and jiving outside with no intention of coming in. They also viciously attacked people with regularity." In 1990, the National Labor Relations Board banned a lawyer for a year when he accused the prosecutor, who was black, of "shucking and jiving," USA Today reported on August 6, 1997.

You can see why a term that often is used to mean black people showing insincere subservience to whites might sound bad when used by a white person to describe a black person. (Think about how Bill White, the black All-Star first baseman who went on to become the president of the National League, can title his autobiography Uppity, but that word sounds very different when used by a white guy to refer to the first African-American First Lady of the United States.) Since Sarah Palin has no problem accusing people of lying, she should stick to a straightforward term like that next time.

Edited October 25, 2012 by Bad_Daddy

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/daily/jan99/district27.htm

Williams Aide Resigns in Language Dispute

By Yolanda Woodlee

Washington Post Staff Writer

Wednesday, January 27, 1999; Page B1

The director of D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams's constituent services office resigned after being accused of using a racial slur, the mayor's office said yesterday.

David Howard, head of the Office of Public Advocate, said he used the word "niggardly" in a Jan. 15 conversation about funding with two employees.

"I used the word 'niggardly' in reference to my administration of a fund," Howard said in a written statement yesterday. "Although the word, which is defined as miserly, does not have any racial connotations, I realize that staff members present were offended by the word.

"I immediately apologized," Howard said. " . . . I would never think of making a racist remark. I regret that the word I did use offended anyone."

When Howard, who is white, noticed the reaction to his use of the word, he apologized to his three-member staff, which is made up of two blacks and another white. It is unclear which two employees he was addressing when he used the word.

Soon after the remark was uttered, the rumor mill started churning that Howard had used the word "***."

Howard said he has received numerous telephone calls since Jan. 15 from people in the community who had heard "I had made a racist remark . . . [which is] in fact unquotable here."

The Barnhard Dictionary of Etymology traces the origins of "niggardly" to the 1300s and the words nig and nigon, meaning miser, in Middle English. It also notes possible earlier origins in languages including Old Icelandic, Old English and Middle High German. There is no mention of any racial connotation.

Howard said the rumor that he had used a racial slur "has severely compromised my effectiveness as the District's Public Advocate and in the best interest of my office, I resigned," effective Monday.

Howard is the second mayoral appointee in two weeks to quit, and his resignation comes at a time when Williams's administration is being bombarded with questions regarding race relations -- his "loyalty" to his race as well as the diversity of his staff. Williams (D) is black; Howard was one of four white men Williams appointed on the first official business day of his administration.

Five days after Williams named the senior policy advisers, a group of residents from east of the Anacostia River -- many of whom had been part of the Draft Williams Committee -- complained that the mayor had "missed a unique opportunity" to name someone who lives in Southeast Washington to his personal staff. And they questioned whether Williams would be responsive to the predominantly black and working-class communities of the city.

The issue of race continued to dog the mayor the next week, when a D.C. resident wrote an opinion piece in the Jan. 17 Washington Post questioning whether Williams is "black enough."

Williams said that he was "confused" by the opinion piece and that he had a track record of helping minorities. Williams said he recognized during his campaign that race was creating a "great divide in the city." He said his campaign was a diverse coalition that represented people across the District.

"While I'm troubled by recent news stories concerning race -- questions about whether I'm black enough or have too many advisers who are not -- I understand that they reflect a great hurt within our city," Williams said in a written statement last night. "I am committed to representing all of the people of our city and making sure my administration truly reflects the city's diversity.

"I am particularly sensitive to the need to include people that have felt excluded from the political process and governance of the city, such as residents east of the Anacostia River.

"One thing I've learned, we will never relieve the pain or heal a hurt if we refuse to talk about the cause," Williams said. "We need to get issues around race relations out in the open."

Williams said yesterday that he accepted Howard's resignation after reports that Howard had made an "inappropriate racial comment."

Howard's resignation follows that of scheduler James Day, who left after a salary dispute.

Howard served as the volunteer coordinator and office manager during Williams's mayoral campaign, overseeing 1,600 volunteers. When Howard was appointed to head the office that responds to residents' complaints about services such as trash pickup, welfare benefits and police protection, the mayor's office put out a brief biography that said Howard was "often referred to as the 'glue' that bonded everyone together." He was to be paid $58,148 a year.

According to the biography, Howard graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in economics and has managed several top restaurants in the city.

Edited October 25, 2012 by Bad_Daddy

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

http://www.cracked.com/quick-fixes/3-racist-incidents-that-werent-actually-racist/

3 Racist Incidents That Weren't Actually Racist

By:Diana Cook 08-15-2012 370,239 views

#3. Acting Niggardly

David Howard, an aide to Washington, D.C., Mayor Anthony A. Williams, used the word "niggardly" in a discussion with two of his city employees. While his real crime was trying to shoehorn a ten-dollar word into a two-dollar conversation, D.C. employees objected to the use of "niggardly" due to its "racial overtones."

The problem is, "niggardly" isn't even sort of a racist term, it just sort of totally sounds like one. But it really just means "frugal." The contemptuous "N-word" comes from a Latin word meaning "black" and has absolutely nothing to do with "niggard," aside from the fact that both words will likely get you punched in the face if you're overheard saying them in public.

The misunderstanding got so out of hand that Howard was forced to resign, although he eventually got his job back after everyone realized that this was a controversy that could literally be squashed by consulting Merriam-Webster.

#2. Become a Black Hole

You know what sucks? That one department at your company that always messes things up. For Kenneth Mayfield, a county commissioner in Texas, that department was central collections. In fact, he was so frustrated with their habit of losing important paperwork, he opined that central collections "has become a black hole."

Mayfield was, of course, referring to the kind of black hole that is a thing in outer space that eats astronauts and anything else in its path. Judge Thomas Jones, on the other hand, apparently took this reference to mean that central collections had literally turned into a hole filled with black people. Mayfield assured him that it was only a science term, but the judge demanded an apology anyway.

It's a mix-up made all the more hilarious by the fact that the man who made the mistake may literally hold your freedom in his hands someday. Funny!

#1. The Yellow Line

If you're in a city with anything resembling a subway system, there's an excellent chance that riding the "yellow line" is a thing you do regularly. Or at least it is as long as you don't live in Atlanta.

Caving to pressure from the Asian community, the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority changed the name of their transit system's yellow line to the "gold line."

John Park, an attorney with the nonprofit Center for Pan Asian Community Services, argued that having a yellow line "physically paints a very unattractive picture. I don't consider myself 'yellow'."

But come on, it's not like the train ran through the heart of Atlanta's Asian community, used to be called something else and then was just up and renamed the "yellow line" for no discernible reason.

What's that? That's exactly what happened? Well fine then, maybe that's kind of messed up, Atlanta. Maybe.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/longterm/williams/williams020499.htm

D.C. Mayor Acted 'Hastily,' Will Rehire Aide

By Yolanda Woodlee

Washington Post Staff Writer

Thursday, February 4, 1999; Page A1

D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams said yesterday that he will rehire a former top aide who resigned last month because some city employees were offended that the aide used the word "niggardly" in describing how he would have to manage a fund's tight budget.

Williams, whose quick acceptance of David Howard's resignation last month led to a national debate over racial sensitivity and political correctness, indicated in a statement yesterday that he had made a mistake and "acted too hastily" in allowing Howard to resign as head of the city's constituent services office.

The mayor said that an internal review had "confirmed for me that Mr. Howard did use the word 'niggardly,' but did not use a racial epithet" during a Jan. 15 discussion with two employees of the Office of the Public Advocate. "Niggardly" means miserly and has no racial connotation.

Williams said that one of the employees, identified by Howard as Marshall Brown, interpreted Howard's remark as a racial slur. Brown has declined to comment on the incident.

In a private meeting yesterday, Williams asked Howard to return to the Office of the Public Advocate. Howard declined but said he would accept another job in Williams's administration.

Howard, 44, said yesterday that he never felt "victimized" but that the experience has given him "a certain awareness" he did not have before the incident occurred.

"I just feel very pleased that this whole thing has a silver lining," he said. "The silver lining is that this has led to a discussion that can help everyone understand each other better. . . . I used to think it would be great if we could all be colorblind. That's naive, especially for a white person, because a white person can't afford to be colorblind. They don't have to think about race every day. An African American does."

Howard's resignation Jan. 25 made him the subject of dozens of television and radio broadcasts and newspaper columns across the country.

Locally, it focused attention on Williams's discomfort over criticism from some black residents that he has brought in too many white department managers who have little feel for their community. Williams also drew criticism from gay activists for allowing Howard, who is gay, to resign.

Many of those who blasted Williams focused on his management of the situation and how he accepted Howard's resignation before reviewing the circumstances that created the furor. Political pundits and linguists alike debated whether an employee's resignation should be accepted merely because a colleague did not understand a word used in a conversation.

"While it is important for a mayor -- or any leader -- to act decisively, make bold decisions and create a sense of urgency, it is not always necessary to act hastily," Williams said. "I believe I acted too hastily in accepting David's resignation."

Williams added that his chief of staff was working with the office of personnel to find a new position for Howard.

Howard said he was reluctant to return to the same office, not because of any potential conflict with employees there, but because he believed the public would focus too much attention on him.

"It has nothing to do with other people in that office. It really doesn't," Howard said. "People are so interested in this thing that it will get in the way of the business we have to do in that office. I told the mayor it would be best if I do something out of the public eye."

Williams's decision to rehire Howard pleased the former aide's supporters.

"It's to the mayor's credit that he offered to reinstate him," said Philip Pannell, a gay activist. "I think it's very big of him and prudent. I hope this is a situation where everyone at large, as a community, learned from this."

But Ronald Walters, a professor of political science at the University of Maryland, said that Howard is best suited now for a government job "where he's not in the public face."

"This is a problem of political inexperience on all sides compounded by culture ignorance on all sides," Walters said. "The mayor can't afford to have an aide in a town that is 63 percent black making this kind of mistake. I think he did the right thing [accepting the resignation]. Williams sent a message that racial insensitivity won't be tolerated in his administration."

Joslyn N. Williams, president of the Metropolitan Washington Council of the AFL-CIO, commended the mayor for being "forthright and brave enough to admit he's made a mistake and to seek to correct it." He said two basic questions need to be asked: What was learned from this situation, and how will Williams make sure it doesn't happen again?

"One hopes that this administration doesn't have a tendency to be termination-happy whenever there's a problem," he said. "Creative management means that you counsel people, warn them and deal with the problem. You do not solve the problem by putting them out on the street."

NAACP Chairman Julian Bond, who in criticizing Williams last week said that people should not have to "censor" their language to meet other "people's lack of understanding," praised Howard's reinstatement.

"I'm happy to learn that this episode has come to some happy conclusion and that the citizens and the government of the District of Columbia can get back to talking about real issues," he said.

Anatomy of a Controversy

David Howard, a top aide to D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams, resigned last month after being criticized for saying the word "niggardly" during a meeting with two city employees. Howard's resignation, and Williams's decision to accept it, raised questions about whether the mayor acted too hastily and fueled discussions across the nation about appropriate word usage. A look at the key dates in the Howard situation:

Jan. 15: In a discussion of how little money his office would have to serve residents, Howard, the head of the mayor's constituent services office, tells two associates that he'll have to be "niggardly" with his agency's budget. Niggardly, meaning miserly, has no racial connotation, but soon rumors begin spreading among some city workers that Howard had used the "N-word."

Jan. 25: Howard offers his resignation to Williams, who accepts it, citing the District's sensitive climate for race relations.

Jan. 27: Williams, under criticism from some black leaders as well as the gay community, says he will review the circumstances that led to Howard's resignation. Howard, a former restaurant manager who is active in the gay community,

says that he alone decided to resign and that Williams should not be criticized.

Jan. 28: Julian Bond, chairman of the NAACP, says Williams overreacted in accepting Howard's resignation.

Sunday: During a commencement speech at American University, Williams acknowledges he might have acted too hastily in agreeing to Howard's resignation, adding that the episode has taught him that "if you are driving down the road when it's raining, you ought to slow down."

Monday: Reba Pittman Evans, Williams's chief of staff, completes her probe into the Howard incident.

Yesterday: Williams issues a statement saying he has asked Howard to withdraw his resignation and return to D.C. government. Williams says Howard has agreed to do so, but in another job.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

http://news.yahoo.co...--politics.html

Reported. You have been warned about these topic titles before. It's not even close to the title of the article linked and quoted in your post.

[OnMyWayID 1,489]

I spent the evening with my mother tonight who is an MSNBC junkie. They had a discussion on air if the Ann Coulter's remark (she called Obama a "retard" in a tweet) was offensive only to the disabled or if African Americans should be offended as well.. Then they had the same discussion about Palins remark.. .All the while at the bottom of the screen was that rape quote next to a small icon of the guy who said it and a much larger picture of Romney overshadowing the guy. Classy move...

If I was a comedian playing Palin that quote is exactly the type of language I would use because that is exactly how she talks - tell me when you read that you don't hear her voice?

[Danno 1,228]

People died, Obama lied (or shucked and jived).