Charley – Great job doing battle on WRKO this morning. You sucessfully held your ground against folks who used specious arguments in an attempt to evade the obvious: that their side coddles racists.
Considering that Finneran fled from the fray (and even seemed to work to appease Feinburg), and that there was a lack of non-fringe-right callers, it must have been particularly fun!
I did try to call in to support you, but didn’t make it through – I probably should have called way early.
Congratulations! I hope you do it again!
Please share widely!
I learned something. I learned that all we do here is throw bombs and call people racist. If this is true, I’m way below my quota this month.
do u think bmg folks invoke racism too frequently?
but the invoking of racism allegations are invoked too frequently, due to, well, racism.
I for one am tired to death of having to call it out over and over (and various other things, like sexism, etc).
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p>I’d give a lot of money for the chance that the teabagging, rightwinger crowd started actually arguing on substantive reasoning rather than racism, bigotry, call it what you will.
… every time I’ve seen racism invoked, it came with backup. If the evidence is there, calling it out seems appropriate to me. Moreover, calling out ‘not-calling-it-out’ also seems appropriate. Like it or not, this element has polluted the tea from a policy and philosophical advocacy to a swamp of slur.
It’s clearly crap, but how to defeat it? I think that Charley did a great job, but when everyone on their side says the same thing “All you guys just say we’re a bunch of racists – but it’s YOU who are a bunch of racists!”, it’s tough.
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p>Might be best to just not say that they’re racists, except for individuals that have said something overtly racist (e.g., “Obama’s should be a slave, not a President” or “Go back to Africa” or similar)). It’s far easier to show that they’re ridiculous than to show that they’re racist – for example, the Obama=Hitler and birther stuff is totally insane, and many a birther has been crushed by good questions by half-competent interviewers.
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p>What continues to strike me as flat-out bizarre is that Obama is actually the opposite of what the teabaggers think.
You mean he’s white?
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p>HAHAHA!!! Oh, I slay myself.
Supposedly when Papa Doc Duvalier, the dictator of Haiti, was asked by an interviewer how many white people lived in Haiti he said: everyone here is white. The interviewer was dumbfounded. “We follow the one drop rule,” Duvalier added.
I think it’s tempting to call people racists when they are in fact spouting racist viewpoints. But unfortunately, I don’t think it’s a good strategy — it’s just like people calling Obama a Socialist — it’s a label that short-circuits any meaningful debate.
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p>I think a better strategy is to address the actual points. Don’t label anyone — show them that their viewpoints are incorrect.
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p>I like to use a particular technique when people comment about the race of criminals. I like to point out that the gender of the criminals is even more out-of-whack with the US, and ask why people don’t think that is a trend that should be highlighted. That usually stumps them. If I simply say “you’re a racist”, that gets nowhere fast.
I love how a simple yes or no question about Mark Williams being a racist was a nearly impossible question for Rob Eno to answer. The dead air was priceless.
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p>It’s as if Eno knew that the answer was “Yes, Mark Williams is racist” but quickly changed the subject, lol.
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p>Rob: yes or no?
Every single caller believes Obama is a Muslim. The stupid, it hurts!
Heard the recording David posted, well said on Rev. Wright and Obama.
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p>Poor Eabo. Nice zing at the end even though you apologized afterward. Almost felt bad for him, almost.
I caught the tail end of the show today and heard the birthers calling in, and heard Todd take exception to your calling them birthers (and rather surprised that he is one as well). I thought it was most diplomatic of you not to call them imbeciles, as I surely would have.
you have to let others make your point for you.
Thanks for the nice comments, everyone.
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p>I don’t know … I take NoPolitician’s point that it might be more diplomatic and constructive to try to pick apart the actual factual argument being made, rather than simply call out racism as such.
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p>But I also think we should call things as we see them. I’m not about to indulge or excuse racism by “trying to understand it.” Sometimes you just have to call BS, even if it makes people uncomfortable.
see what’s become of me…
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p>Frankly, in talk radio, I have discovered to my chagrin, substantive take-downs and arguments have no place (unless you get on NPR). It’s make your point in two sentences (if that) or forget it. That’s why I am a fan of the runon sentence when I am on radio. ;D
There were a few points where by the time Charley had set up the context for what he wanted to say, the hosts forced the topic to move again.
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p>Gotta be quippish methinks.
Gotta wonder what they’re afraid of, eh? becoming speechless and not being able to reply to a cogent argument, perhaps?