<<But it is not fighting racism to insist there is some sort of racial ideology that is betrayed when someone dares to disagree.>>
There's another straw man. Nobody criticized these Uncle Toms for "daring to disagree." That's a pathetic attempt to make me, Knute, Gilliard and others look like intellectual martinets imposing a uniform code of thought on anyone with a black skin all across the ideological board on every imaginable issue. Nice try. They are being criticized for one specific move they made, not for "daring to disagree." That one move was their support of the party of racism and privilege, a stab in the back to all black people in America and around the world.
<<By calling them traitors you have suggested that they do not have a right to choose for themselves, that they are obligated to remain Democrats, that they are to think only what you have approved for them to think as a race and any dissent is not to be tolerated.>>
That's pure bullshit and of course it's a straw-man argument. They have the right to join any party they like. They have a right to join the American Nazi Party. They have a right to turn their backs on their own mothers and insult them. This is America, there is no opinion they have no right to express, no party they have no right to join. (Of course if they join Hamas, they'll be executed or thrown in jail for the rest of their lives, but that's another story.) What you can't seem to stomach is that when they exercise that right to choose and make a really disgusting choice, they are then going to be castigated for it and called some disgusting names. Well, if the shoe fits . . .
<<I didn't claim anyone was denying that [that blacks have enough intelligence to make their own political choices] (though I could have), so I'm left wondering if you actually read what I said to you, or if you're just making a blanket reply because you don't want to address what I said.>>
Well, it was definitely alleged by ONE of the posters in this thread that to call these black Republicans "Uncle Toms" was to imply that a black man needed a liberal to show him where his best interests lay because he wasn't smart enough to figure it out for himself. If that wasn't you, my apologies, but the point needed to be responded to in any event.
<<So now you're saying all Republicans are Trent Lotts and white supremacists? I'm sure folks like BT, Plane and Sirs would be interested in seeing you defend that one. >>
If they can stomach being in the same party as Trent Lott and George Allen, they are either racists themselves or their anti-racist sentiment is so feeble as to be practically non-existent. In other words, if by some technicality they are not racists, they sure as hell don't seem to be all that opposed to racism either. You're either a part of the solution or you're a part of the problem.
<<You talk about joining with white supremacists, but the white supremacists are going to be agreeing with you that blacks should stick with their own race. >>
Something else I never said, so they can't be "agreeing with me" about it. Nice try.
<<They will not be agreeing with me that African-Americans should not be criticized about thinking for themselves and finding their own paths as individuals rather than as some piece of a racial collective.>>
The white supremacists of today can infiltrate the Republican Party and have done so. The smart ones work from inside the Republican Party like Lott and Allen, while only the losers talk like you think they would talk.
<<You and he both tried to claim those who disagree with you were acting like Nazis, as if disagreeing with you is somehow morally evil.>>
There's another lie, again something neither one of us said. I never claimed that disagreeing with me in general was acting like a Nazi. I was quite specific about the Nazi rhetorical trick being used against us, that we, who speak out against racism, who call out a black man who goes over to the racist side, are being denounced as "racist." As if the act of denouncing racism, and traitors in the racial struggle, could ever be considered the equivalent of racism. I criticized the similar application of the same Nazi tactic, this time with allegations of "hatred" - - the party of war, racism, torture and militarism - - as hateful and hate-filled as any group of people can possibly be - - has the God-damn fucking gall to label opponents like me and Knute and Gilliard as "hateful" and "hate-filled." Turning the Republicans at the stroke of a pen into humanitarian do-gooders and benefactors of all humanity. Preposterous. Ludicrous.
<<Is it hateful to imply, as Mucho did, that anyone he doesn't agree with politically is oppressing and betraying African-Americans?>>
You are becoming a joke. Knute (Mucho) never said any such thing.
<<Is it racism to claim, as you have, that people with dark skin should have their political identity defined by their skin color, by who their parents are, by their race? >>
Skin colour is not their whole personal identity and does not define their entire political identity, and nobody - - certainly not me, Gilliard or Knute - - ever claimed otherwise. But only a moron could claim that it forms no part of their personal identity and has no relationship to the way the political world affects and has affected them and their families and friends. Anyone who fights racism fights it on behalf of ALL its victims and anyone who turns his back on the struggle turns his back on all its victims. And that's not a good thing, but the far worse thing is not only to turn one's back on the struggle against racism, but to actually go over to the other side. To join the Trent Lotts and the George Allens in their under-the-radar fight against blacks and the other untermenschen, to actually undermine and betray that which generations of other blacks fought and died for. He's free to do it, of course - - but everyone else is similarly free to express their scorn and contempt upon him who does.
<<It sure seem racist to me.>>
Well you're wrong.
<< The way you and Mucho and Mr. Gilliard use language with the intent to shame any one of dark skin who dares to consider ideas other than those you have deemed acceptable for people with dark skin to think, is that racist? >>
I disagree with anyone who espouses racist ideas and policies. If the person who espouses such ideas and policies happens to be black, I disagree with him AND I show him the particular contempt I feel for one who turns his back on his own people and joins the party of their racist enemies. Sure that's treating a black Republican different than a white Republican, but only because it would be impossible for me to say the same thing to the white - - who did he betray by becoming a racist? Certainly not his own people.
You don't get that because you claim to want to live in a colour-blind world. Nice when the day comes. But the day didn't come. The world isn't colour-blind. People who live in the real world know that. People who live in the pretend never-neverland of right-wing kook ideology look up their dictionary definitions of racism and try to fit it over anybody (except the real racists in their own party) who recognizes that a black man is not the same as a white man, particularly when considered in terms of victimhood of racism.
<<If it is not racist it is certainly bigoted. Your sanctimonious condemnations of those who disagree with you politically as all supporting racism certainly fits the definition of bigotry.>>
I wouldn't know. I don't really know the definition of bigotry. I'm not as focused on affixing labels as you seem to be. What I just said was right. If it's right, I don't give a shit what label you can fit to it. If "bigotry" fit accurately, then all I can say is, bigotry isn't as bad as I thought it was. More likely it doesn't fit any better than your other labels ("racist," "hateful," etc.) fit.