Mary Mitchell, a writer for the Chicago Sun Times, called Senator Barack Obama an Uppity Black Man in an article yesterday.
Don’t worry. Its OK for Mary Mitchell to call Senator Barack Obama an Uppity Black man, not because Mary Mitchell has some African American genes herself, not because she writes for a Chicago paper in Obama’s most recent adopted town, but because she misquoted Senator Hillary Clinton. [Note. This paragraph should gush with sarcasm and scorn. I don’t like Hillary but I like people that spew racial slurs even less.]
Well, case in point, it looks like Mary Mitchell just made the whole thing up because she didn’t cite any sources or speech or comments made by Hillary Clinton using the same words not even the word that Mitchell herself quoted, “Uppity”.
You can sure as hell bet that if Senator Clinton had called Barack Obama an Uppity Black man that the press would have a field day with it and Clinton would be out of the race for President before the sun had set on Chi Town.
Mary Mitchell wrote an article that teases the reader with this concept that Hillary Clinton has played the race card.
Note. Its actually not possible in literal terms as playing the race card is a slang term for a person of a particular race that uses their race to get something that they could not get without relying on their race.
But if Mary Mitchell had wanted to instead accuse Hillary Clinton of making racist remarks at least her title and the substance of her article would have actually made sense.
So she drones on for over 700 shallow words about how Hillary Clinton is behind attacks against Barack Obama that emerge whenever Hillary is down in the polls. That actually could have substance, but Mitchell doesn’t say it that way. She says that Hillary attacks Obama based on his race whenever she is down in the polls
A disturbing trend has emerged from the long Democratic primary. Whenever Sen. Hillary Clinton is trailing in the polls, a racially divisive issue pops up.
Clinton loses 11 consecutive races, and the photograph of Sen. Barack Obama in Somalian garb shows up.
Clinton falls behind in pledged delegates and gets caught in a lie about her Bosnia adventure, and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. story reignites.
The fallout over Obama’s “bitter” comment fits that same pattern.
He’s quoted as saying: “They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”
Mary Mitchell saved the race bating comment until the very end. Here is the last sentence of Mary Mitchell’s article of approximately 710 words, which probably borders on libel.
But worst yet, Clinton is now communicating to these voters that she that can put an “uppity” black man in his place.
Mary Mitchell made her latest addition to a series of very shallow articles covering Barack Obama, with titles that are sensational indeed but often severely lacking in little things like fact, reality, perspective or insight. For a blogger, that might be par for the course, but for a journalist of the oldest newspaper in Chicago, its . . . . probably par for the course as well. Otherwise, her editors would have sent her back to her computer to cover some real news instead of fabricating a scandal.
Here’s some of Mary Mitchell’s latest and greatest Headlines
Now if you do not read those articles, you might suspect that Mary Mitchell is frequenting the Obama cool aid stand a little too often. However, if you jump in to these articles, you would realize that Mitchell is actually trying to get Senator Barack Obama to drink some of her own AUM laced cool aid and start acting black enough for her tastes.
She has also tried to get Barack Obama to support Louis Farrakhan. Apparently, that would be a good thing in Mitchell’s mind. Maybe she thinks that it would even make Obama black enough. The reality is that if Obama did support Farrakhan his attempt to rise above politics and take the high road would be over. You probably recall the debate where Obama initially hemmed and hawed about the support that Farrakhan offered him and after Hillary offered up an example of her own leadership in rejecting support from people and groups that did not treat all people of any race with respect and dignity, Obama decided to jump on the band wagon and made a snappy one liner that he’d reject and denounce Farrakhan’s support to make Hillary feel better.
Obama got a lot of credit for a wise ass (and funny) reply, but no one picked up on the issue that he didn’t have the leadership or good judgement to do so immediately.
Mary Mitchell however would have had Obama whole heartedly embrace Farrakhan and his support despite Farrakhan’s racist past comments. She was quick to jump on Don Imus and call for his ouster over racist statements, but turns a blind eye to Farrakhan.
I see Imus and Farrakhan as being about equal in their influence, reach and racist views and happy to see both fade from public life and influence. We need fewer racists of every color not more.
I am not a supporter of Obama, but I do believe that he should be allowed to be himself. If being himself is too black or too white or too elite or too good at basketball or too poor at bowling, well who cares, as long as he is being himself. Americans in general do not trust politicians of all colors, and politicians that are hypocrites loose the trust of the American people faster than anyone. So if Obama is or isn’t black enough, it doesn’t matter as long as he is being as real as he can on that given day of the week.
But Mary Mitchell has a problem with that. I don’t know why and I don’t care, but it is apparent and becomes an issue in that she is helping break America apart. I do not care what her race is, but I feel that when people use the word ‘”uppity” black man’ in print, they are extending the shelf life of racism and the racial divide in America. I do not criticize her for exercising her right to free speech. She can speak and print messages of hate and other remarks to her soured hearts content, but we should recognize the source of the hate speech as coming from Mary Mitchell and endorsed in print by the Chicago Sun Times.
As I was reading through some of her past articles and blogs, I came across her ruminations on why Jeremiah Wright can’t be left alone. To me the answer is obvious and I left the following reply to her article. Many people (including myself) listened to Barack Obama’s speech on race and saw the good in the speech that would help unite the country. What many of us, including myself failed to see what was missing. A speech on patriotism. Jeremiah Wright may have some very serious issues, and I definitely disagree with the comments popularized through YouTube, but he did serve his country and he is a patriot. He earned the right to hold and express those views and defended the rights of people like myself and Mitchell to express our own.
Barack Obama did not and has not yet stood up for patriots of the United States that offer straight talk on a topic even when that topic or the straight talk itself is hurtful to listen to and consider.
My Reply to Mary Mitchell on the topic of Jeremiah Wright
Jeremiah Wright is still a story because Barack Obama threw him under the bus last year (when he dis-invited him to the campaign) and then backed the bus up over him when the media found video examples of comments that show Wright’s extreme view.
Instead of defending Wright’s hard earned right to express his extreme views, Obama shoved him into retirement and obscurity at a time when Wright’s reputation was trashed.
Essentially, Obama allowed the country to accept the view that Wright and his church were extreme by silencing him, disciplining him, and keeping the distance with him from his campaign.
Obama stood up afterwards and made a great speech on the topic of race, a speech that he was able to draw on great personal experience to connect with America and the world in a way that few can.
However, Obama was unable and deficient at standing up for Wright and Wright’s Right to express his views no matter how out of the main stream they might be.
Republicans have just spent 8 years throwing the Bill of Rights out the window charging people as being un-patriotic whenever criticism is raised and when Barack had the opportunity to defend a patriot that fought more and harder for this country than either the President or Vice President he had not personal experience to draw upon and dismissed Wright’s patriotism.
It takes a tough person to criticize the country that they have fought for and to expose the dirty laundry and skeletons in the closet. We have to have leaders that will keep the channels of communication open for the few people brave enough to do that.
I do not personally agree with many of Wright’s perspectives or comments, but he like myself has served this country in the military and definitely earned the right to express our views.
The real problem is that when Obama backed up the bus over Wright and his right to express his views, Obama essentially jumped on the bandwagon of politicians that are trashing the Bill of Rights. Obama failed to defend the Bill of Rights in his speech and that is fundamental job responsibility of the Commander in Chief. Protect the Constitution, including the first 10 amendments known as the Bill of Rights.
So at the end of the day, we have a journalist stirring up the news with racist remarks about a Presidential Candidate that is trying to rise above the issue of his mixed heritage and get our country focused on fixing itself. Its a nasty situation and game that the media is playing with race this election season. Some truly do want to make a difference and help the country heal.
If you saw the movie “Meeting David Wilson” on MSNBC and the round table discussion afterwards you would know what I mean.
Then you have others on both sides of the racial divide that are purposefully trying to get everyone else into a fight. They must think that we need a war where blood is shed and there is a winner and loser at the end of the war. Well, I’ve got news for both sides. That war has been fought. That blood has been shed. The war is over and guess what.
RACISTS LOST!
Its not time for another war. Its time to finish the healing that is still going on after a war that saw the deaths of more Americans than any other war. We do not need more racial slurs thrown around, we need fewer. We do not need people in the media making up fake racial slurs quotes to sell newspapers or attract readers. We certainly do not need to know if Barack Obama is black enough or white enough or common enough or elite enough to be President. We do need leaders and we do need to heal and we need our Constitution back and right quick or else we are ALL going to find ourselves in chains, dead or worse.
Americans are slowly ever so slowly waking up to the fact that we have serious problems in this country and that we ALL need to work to solve those problems. The days of worrying about comforter sets matching a bedroom set and paint on the wall inspired by a home improvement show are over. We need to look at, consider and fix some serious problems now.
We can do it, but we do not need a false set of circumstances or false priorities shoved down our throats. Fortunately, we have something, a tool that we never had before that might just enable us to sift through the facts and get a little closer to the truth. Its the internet and it just might be the medium that enables Americans to use their own good judgement to figure out how we can all move forward together.
Follow Up - If you are wondering why Barack Obama and his campaign (along with the national media) did not pounce on Hillary for calling him “uppity”, its because it didn’t happen. Barack himself has dismissed the concept and that just leaves Mary Mitchell holding the bag for the “uppity” black man racial slur against Barack Obama.
Barack Obama on Tuesday dismissed a voter’s suggestion that when Hillary Rodham Clinton called him elitist it “bordered on uppity.”
“It’s politics,” the presidential candidate told a town-hall meeting on veterans affairs. “This is what we do politically, when we start getting behind in races. We start going on the attack.”
Was Clinton calling Obama “uppity?”
