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1/14/2003 09:00:00 PM | Timothy Rush and Race I swear I did not set out looking for this, but while reading atrios (one of the blogs that was instrumental in pushing the Trent Lott story) I came across some comments on how Clarence Thomas was only planning on promoting his upcoming book on outlets like Fox News and the Rush Limbaugh show (and maybe Barbara Walters). I followed some of the links back a few steps and I came upon some stuff on Rush Limbaugh's history on race. These are excerpts from Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), a liberal media watchgroup whose interpretations I don't always agree with, but who I have found to get the facts right (ie. this isn't just some looney-sounding left-wing site like some of the ones that use FAIR's information, but a respected liberal group. You can judge in this case whether they are "over-sensative.") -As a young broadcaster in the 1970s, Limbaugh once told a black caller: "Take that bone out of your nose and call me back." A decade ago, after becoming nationally syndicated, he mused on the air: "Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?" -In 1992, on his now-defunct TV show, Limbaugh expressed his ire when Spike Lee urged that black schoolchildren get off from school to see his film Malcolm X: "Spike, if you're going to do that, let's complete the education experience. You should tell them that they should loot the theater, and then blow it up on their way out." -In a similar vein, here is Limbaugh's mocking take on the NAACP, a group with a ninety-year commitment to nonviolence: "The NAACP should have riot rehearsal. They should get a liquor store and practice robberies." -Such quotes and antics -- many compiled by Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) for our 1995 book -- offer a whiff of Limbaugh's racial sensibility. So does his claim that racism in America "is fueled primarily by the rantings and ravings" of people like Jesse Jackson. Or his ugly reference two years ago to the father of Madonna's first child, a Latino, as "a gang-member type guy" -- an individual with no gang background. -Once, in response to a caller arguing that black people need to be heard, Limbaugh responded: "They are 12 percent of the population. Who the hell cares?" And some very interesting commentary on Rush Limbaugh and race (full post here: Conservatives always sputter when you bring this stuff [about Rush Limbaugh] up. It's not naked racism, they say. Perhaps not, if you live in a cocoon. But out in the real world, those of us who have spent any time around bona fide racists (and I'm not just talking about neo-Nazis, but the working-class and white-collar racists we all know about) know exactly how this kind of talk is perceived. It is an unofficial -- but high-profile -- endorsement of their own private views. Most of the examples MWO cites fall into this category. As does one of the more egregious instances I witnessed (there are no links, BTW, because no one archives Limbaugh's material, which is one of the main ways Limbaugh insulates himself from being called to account for his words). It came on Limbaugh's thankfully short-lived TV program. Limbaugh promised to show his audience footage of everyday life among welfare recipients. He then ran video of the antics of a variety of great apes -- mostly orangutans, gorillas and apes -- hanging about zoos. The audience, of course, applauded and laughed. Limbaugh is important, by the way, not merely because he now is one of the primary drivers of the conservative agenda. He also has played a significant role in the transmission of ideas and agendas from the extremist right into the mainstream over the past 10 years. perma link |
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