Calling Herman Cain a “minstrel” is out of bounds
To my regulars: The subject of this post requires maturity and civility. If you cannot act responsibility, please don’t comment here.
A black writer who posts under the name Chauncey DeVega has written a vicious, sophomoric and unfair takedown of black Atlanta businessman Herman Cain, calling him a “minstrel for CPAC.” (h/t Dave Wiegal)
Instead, Herman Cain’s shtick is a version of race minstrelsy where he performs “authentic negritude” as wish fulfillment for White Conservative fantasies. Like the fountain at Lourdes, Cain in his designated role as black Conservative mascot, absolves the White racial reactionaries at CPAC of their sins. This is a refined performance that Black Conservatives have perfected over many decades and centuries of practice. . .
In the money shot, Cain gives the obligatory “black folks who are not Republicans are on the plantation” speech to the joyous applause of his White benefactors. And he doubles down by legitimating any opposition to President Barack Obama as virtuous and patriotic regardless of the bigoted well-springs from which it may flow.
I find that kind of criticism of black conservatives deeply offensive because it presumes that they are not entitled to think differently. Isn’t that the essence of racism — the notion that all black folk must think and act alike? Don’t racists make that very assumption?
There are very few things that Cain and I agree about. He has adopted the most rightwing views of the current Republican party, including the deluded notion that U.S. currency should be based on the gold standard. He is dead wrong about the Affordable Health Care Act, which he compares to health care in Great Britain or Canada. It has little in common with the health care systems of those countries. He believes in a fantasy called the FAir Tax.
But black men and women gave their lives in the civil rights movement so black folk like Herman Cain come applaud those rightwing principles if they chose. He is a wealthy businessman — and the more wealthy black businessfolk there are, the more black Republicans there are likely to be.
Besides, Cain was no more a ‘minstrel” than any of the other speakers who came before a rightwing audience trying to tell them what they wanted to hear.
On Wednesday, I wrote about Cain’s flirtation with a presidential campaign:
WASHINGTON — Herman Cain received no ringing endorsement for a presidential bid here last week, when he spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference, an annual gathering of hyper-conservatives. In the ritual straw poll of delegates, Cain received only two percent of the vote — clustered near the bottom of a list of 15 possible contenders.
That’s not the only suggestion that conservative activists would greet a Cain presidential bid — should he decide to run — as a wealthy man’s folly. At National Review Online, a must-read for inside-the-Beltway conservatives, writer Jonah Goldberg dismissed Cain’s chances in December. “. . .it’s hard to imagine him amounting to more than an exciting also-ran,” Goldberg wrote.
Indeed, Cain himself is given to joking about his prospects. A black businessman, radio talk show host and motivational speaker, he likes to refer to himself as “a dark horse.” He’s never held elective office; he came in a distant second to Johnny Isakson in a 2004 bid for the GOP Senate nomination.
Still, Cain, an Atlanta native and Morehouse grad, has spent a long career challenging the odds. He says that his Web site, set up for his presidential campaign exploratory committee, has drawn volunteers in the tens of thousands. Affluent donors are also ready to support him, he told me last week.
As for CPAC, Cain has at least moved up a bit in the pecking order. Last year, he said, he was given an 8 a.m. speaking slot, when very few delegates filled chairs in the main ballroom. On Friday, he had a 4 p.m. speaking slot and received, at a few points, enthusiastic applause.
But he used his time to give a very un-candidate-like speech — full of slogans and platitudes but lacking substance. It was the very opposite of that given by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, whose speech laid out substantive points of policy — he would replace the Environmental Protection Agency, for example, with an “environmental solutions agency,” he said — as well as the standard Obama-bashing rhetoric.
Still, as Cain would likely point out, Gingrich, who has a national profile, didn’t do much better with the delegates, polling only 5 percent. In an e-mail, a Cain spokesman said: “Mr. Cain came out ahead of other potential contenders such as Haley Barbour, John Thune and Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum, all seasoned Republican leaders.”
So, will Cain run? A spokesman said he is “a few months” away from making an announcement. There’s no hurry since none of the 15 potential candidates in the straw poll has formally declared a candidacy.
If he launches a bid, he will have to give up the considerable income he draws from the corporate boards on which he serves: Hallmark, Whirlpool and Agco — a Duluth, Minn.-based manufacturer of agricultural equipment. (He has already suspended his radio talk show, which aired on AM 750 WSB.)
But he actually has little to lose. A presidential bid would raise his profile — and likely increase potential income from speaking fees. He clearly enjoys the attention he receives as the rare black ultra-conservative who commands the respect of newly-empowered tea party activists.
Cain came to national attention in 1994, when, as the CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, he challenged then-president Bill Clinton about his health care proposals in a televised forum. Shortly thereafter, Cain was elected board chairman of the National Restaurant Association, an organization which dedicated itself to beating back what would have been “ClintonCare.” That makes Cain a go-to guy for conservatives who want an experienced businessman to denounce the Affordable Health Care Act.
In addition to tea party bona fides, Cain has the ambition of a man with a new lease on life, having survived State 4 colon cancer.
“I only had a 30 percent chance of being here talking to you today,” he told me last week. “God said, ‘Not yet.’ . That was one of those defining moments that got me to (this) point today.”
That point is a hair’s-breadth from a presidential campaign.
— Cynthia Tucker
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365 comments Add your comment
0311/0317 -1811/1801
February 17th, 2011
9:37 pm
Keep Up the Good Fight !
1) Sorry, I meant Tucker.
2) “I dont hate you……I hate what you stand for. And more and more people are starting to see the difference.”
EXCELLENT ! I was waiting for that! You just made my point !
I don’t hate Islam …… I hate what it stands for. And more and more people are staring to see the difference.
3) When it comes to you calling me racist ………. you have no idea what is in my heart. If the truth as I see it means you will call me that ……….. well, have at it.
4) Exodus 20:3 “You shall have no other gods before Me (Jehovah not Allah).”
And before you say Allah is just another name for Jehovah (because Jehovah was first), tell that to a Muslim and report back what you find out.
Deuteronomy 12:29-3 “When the Lord your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, take care that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve THEIR GODS (emphasis added)?—that I also may do the same.’ You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the LORD HATES (emphasis added) they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.”
0311/0317 -1811/1801
February 17th, 2011
9:38 pm
Kammy:
LOL !
Don’t you have a cabinet to make or something ?
Kamchak
February 17th, 2011
9:39 pm
Cynthia, your opinion is just embarrassing.
Oh geez…another pantywaist that either can’t own their emotions, or are looking to book someone else on a guilt trip.
B Cosby
February 17th, 2011
9:39 pm
Kamchak & They both suck. I was stating personal facts and opinion. Pick apart the easy parts if you must. Like I stated get over yourself.
Kamchak
February 17th, 2011
9:40 pm
Le petit caporal
Aren’t you supposed to be sitting on a park bench
Eying little girls with bad intent.
Avenger
February 17th, 2011
9:41 pm
Kayaker. ” CT usually defends those who uphold her beliefs. Those are not Republicans, especially those who are black. ” That applies to just about every one- including you. Any one in America that says that they don’t see race is lying through their teeth. You can see race and not be a bigot. Your constant projecting about Ms. Tucker says a lot about you.
Kamchak
February 17th, 2011
9:45 pm
Kamchak & They both suck. I was stating personal facts and opinion.
No, you were citing a personal anecdote as if it were the be all and end all of race relations.
ODDOWL
February 17th, 2011
9:50 pm
What big house is this article about ??? Herman cain or Allen West ???
0311/0317 -1811/1801
February 17th, 2011
9:50 pm
Kammy:
HA ! Did you make the bench ?
B Cosby
February 17th, 2011
9:51 pm
Kamchak, you have no idee of my personal ancedotes. That’s your opinion. Race relations are a crutch for those to lazy and ignorant to change their situation, if needed. Once again, get over yourself.
They BOTH suck
February 17th, 2011
9:52 pm
@ B Cosby
No you get over yourself and that is a fact
kayaker 71
February 17th, 2011
9:54 pm
Avenger,
CT’s constant barrage against all that is not black gets old. I see race every day of my life and I am not lying through my teeth. I will also respond to Kamchak’s post about being black. My next door neighbor is black. He doesn’t use his race to expect any special treatment. He also does not like to be called an African. He is not African, he is American. He is teaching his children that it is more important to be an American than to be African. He works hard for what he has, is proud of his country and expects his children to be likewise. What the hell is wrong with that? When the black community thinks that it is more important to be black than to be American, we will continue to have shi**y racial relations in this country. My “constant projecting about Ms. Tucker” is mere disagreement with her basic beliefs. She lives in a different world than I do and I want no part of it.
0311/0317 -1811/1801
February 17th, 2011
9:55 pm
B Cosby :
You don’t know Kammy. He’s hardcore !
Kamchak
February 17th, 2011
9:56 pm
Kamchak, you have no idee[sic] of my personal ancedotes[sic].
Don’t give a fat rat’s ass about your anecdotes, and it doesn’t matter whether they are true or not.
What you have or have not experienced does not run the gamut of human race relations
B Cosby
February 17th, 2011
9:57 pm
They both suck pretty much describes you and Kammy. Perhaps you and Kammy should get on your gov’ment issued cell phone and call someone who really give a f*ck what you think!!! I’m finished with both of you.
Thulsa the Doom speaks on Clarence Thomas
February 17th, 2011
9:57 pm
Yep. I just got through all the video clips of the liberal white people protesting judge Thomas last week. Otay- heeeere we go!!
Video 1 of older white man saying Clarence Thomas should be put to work in the fields- Nice slave analogy old feller.
Video 2 of a liberal middle aged white woman saying judge Thomas AND his wife also should be strung up and hung- niiiiiice, real nice lady there.
Video 3 of a younger liberal white women saying Judge Thomas should have his toes cut off and fed to him. Lovely. Just lovely.
Video 4 of a young liberal white couple saying once again that Judge Thomas should be lynched. Real nice folk them liberal yuppies. Yesssssirrreeee.
What did you say Cynthia? Go-
“I find that kind of criticism of black conservatives deeply offensive because it presumes that they are not entitled to think differently. Isn’t that the essence of racism — the notion that all black folk must think and act alike? Don’t racists make that very assumption?”- Cynthia T.
Right on Cynthia. Right on. And who is it that presumes to tell black people how they are supposed to think? Who are these racists making that assumption about a whole group of people???
If you answered Liberal White people then correct you are!!!!!!!!
John Galt
February 17th, 2011
9:58 pm
I’ve been labeled a racist often in Tucker’s column. I am a native American. Have not voted for a republican for President in more than 20 years. I voted for John Monds and I would vote for Herman Cain.
Aren’t we deservedly tired of the racist tag?
If that’s the only argument you have, take some time off. It no longer works.
Thulsa the Doom speaks on Herman Cain
February 17th, 2011
10:00 pm
Watch your back Herman. Those racist liberal white people are already coming after you with their usual cacophany of hate slurs- Uncle Tom, sellout,etc.
Kamchak
February 17th, 2011
10:02 pm
I will also respond to Kamchak’s post about being black. My next door neighbor is black.
So?
I spend two thirds of my time in Atlanta in an all black neighborhood and one third of my time in a small hamlet in the N.C. Mtns. and I can go days without seeing a black person.
The Leg Lamp is a "major award" much like CT's Pulitzer and Obama's Nobel.
February 17th, 2011
10:05 pm
Was it a Tea Party member who slandered Herman Cain?
Thulsa the Doom
February 17th, 2011
10:05 pm
Don’t take it from them Judge Thomas and Herman Cain. Don’t let them paternalistic, condescending liberal white people tell you what you’re supposed to think as if they know what and how you’re supposed to think. Don’t ever let them put you on that groupthink plantation.
Keep up the good fight!
February 17th, 2011
10:07 pm
When you are watching television, listening to the radio or out in public, I hear the N-word from the black community. I rarley hear it from whites, orientals or the latinos. Kinda makes you think.
Think like Dr. Laura think?
B Cosby – Not American….United Statesian
K71…when you criticize people by racial stereotypes it is racism. You can disagree with people no matter what color….when you disagree with them based on racial stereotypes, you are straying into racial territory.
I certainly have animosity toward people of ethnic groups who do not act responsibly, expect others to pay their bills, make the wrong choices in life voluntarily and expect others to pick up their slack — Now see, when you make it about an “ethnic group” then you make it racist. You dont have a problem with white people who do not act responsibly, expect others to pay their bills, make the wrong choices in life voluntarily and expect others to pick up the slack? Its only an “ethnic group” that does that, right?
PS: People making bad choices in life voluntarily…..I dare say most everyone has.
Kamchak
February 17th, 2011
10:08 pm
Shorter Johnnie-poo Galt: Boo-hoo-hoo
The Leg Lamp is a "major award" much like CT's Pulitzer and Obama's Nobel.
February 17th, 2011
10:08 pm
Is the racist Tea Party behind the slandering of Herman Cain?
Thulsa the Doom
February 17th, 2011
10:11 pm
Lie Detector turned on- buzz buzz buzz. OOOOPS. The Total BS detector is lighting up and going bonkers.
Kamchak states that he spends 2/3 rds of his time in an all black neighborhood. Not a mixed neighborhood. Not a 70/30 mostly black neighborhood. But in an ALL BLACK neighborhood he spends 2/3 of his time in. So he is the only white person in an ALL BLACK neighborhood. Hmmmm. There it goes The total BS counter has blown a fuse, the lie detector has fried up, the total crappola meter has been blown straight into the stratosphere. Red alert. Red alert. Complete and absolute total BS alert!!! Oh, and the lying sack of sh&t siren is blaring. Someone turn it off.
Thulsa the Doom
February 17th, 2011
10:19 pm
We’ve got another alert. Those aggressive, intimidating, middle aged tea party folk have physically taken over the Wisconsin senate building. They’re out there raising hell, jumping all over the place, physically taking over a building, waiving all kinds of signs calling the governor Hitler, calling him Mubuarak, imperial dictator, calling him a rapist among other vile things, these tea party folks are really aggressive.
What you say? They’re not tea party folk? They’re teachers, their students, and union thugs? The union thugs I believe. But teachers and their students? Aint they supposed to be in school?
The Leg Lamp is a "major award" much like CT's Pulitzer and Obama's Nobel.
February 17th, 2011
10:20 pm
Thulsa the Doom
February 17th, 2011
10:11 pm
How can it be an all black neighborhood if a white guy lives in it?
willie lynch
February 17th, 2011
10:20 pm
Michael Steele out Herman Cain in. Repugs may not be racist but they only have room for one at a time. Do your thing Herman, Sleep and Eat was also a persona.
Keep up the good fight!
February 17th, 2011
10:22 pm
Willie….looking forward to the Cain puppet on Jon Stewart!
0311/0317 -1811/1801
February 17th, 2011
10:23 pm
Keep Up the Good Fight! :
I answered all of your questions.
No response to my 9:37 ???
Thulsa the Doom
February 17th, 2011
10:23 pm
Unemployment alert!!!!
For the first time since the great depression unemployment has exceeded 9% in 21 straight months.
Change you can believe in! Yeee haaaaaa!!!!!!
Thulsa the Doom
February 17th, 2011
10:26 pm
Deficit alert
The Obama administration’s own 10 year projections show deficits will total 7.1 trillion over the next 10 years. And that estimate is with very rosy 4-5% avg economic growth numbers which is not realistic.
This would break the crappola meter except that Kamchak’s BS earlier already broke that meter.
Auburn Fan
February 17th, 2011
10:30 pm
Kamchak why do you argue so often? why try to annoy people into a fight ? Is this your big thrill for the day?
Thulsa the Doom
February 17th, 2011
10:31 pm
Leg Lamp,
Now I realize that the logic don’t make no sense. But we’re talking about Kamchakian anti-logic. Its an anti-logic where BS merges-fuses with a dose of anti reason and a teaspoon of negative rationality to produce Kamchakian anti-logic. Its how he splains things like his ideas and his total BS that don’t make no sense at all.
Keep up the good fight!
February 17th, 2011
10:32 pm
Scout Zero…did not know that you required my personal attention. You have a particular need for attention and support, dont you? You may want to see professional help for that “needing attention issue.” I did note your whine over at Bookmans that you needed Del’s assistance over at Tuckers. Childish really.
Thulsa the Doom
February 17th, 2011
10:34 pm
willie lynch,
Only one black man at a time under the conservative tent? You may want to tell that to JC Watts, Alan Keyes, Shelby Steele, Walter Williams, Thomas Sowell, Michael Steele, Herman Caine, Justice Thomas, and many others. Were’nt able to keep them on the groupthink plantation were ya?
willie lynch
February 17th, 2011
10:36 pm
Thulsa the Dumb
February 17th, 2011
10:23 pm
Will you please stop with that foolishness. Let’s add the fact that the country hasn’t had an economic calamity like this since the great depression. Also let’s remember both of those events were the results of Repugnican administrations. Hmm, I wonder.
The Leg Lamp is a "major award" much like CT's Pulitzer and Obama's Nobel.
February 17th, 2011
10:37 pm
Social Security/Medicare/Medicaid: 57% of Budget, 0% Cuts…
Keep up the good fight!
February 17th, 2011
10:37 pm
Thulsa the Dumb….Willie, I love it. Mind if I use it too?
The Leg Lamp is a "major award" much like CT's Pulitzer and Obama's Nobel.
February 17th, 2011
10:39 pm
willie stench
February 17th, 2011
10:36 pm
“Will you please stop with that foolishness”
Cease posting and it will stop.
Thulsa the Doom
February 17th, 2011
10:40 pm
Democratic strategy
1- blame bush
2- bash palin
3- scream racism
AAAAAAhhhhh! So I see Willie that you are resorting back to Dem strategy no. 1- Blame Bush 2 years into the Obama adminstration. I reckon you’ll be blaming bush on year 3 day #364 as well won’t you?
The Leg Lamp is a "major award" much like CT's Pulitzer and Obama's Nobel.
February 17th, 2011
10:41 pm
In a stunning move, the U.S. Supreme Court has scheduled another “conference” on a legal challenge to Barack Obama’s eligibility to occupy the Oval Office, but officials there are not answering questions about whether two justices given their jobs by Obama will participate.
The court has confirmed that it has distributed a petition for rehearing in the case brought by attorney John Hemenway on behalf of retired Col. Gregory Hollister and it will be the subject of a conference on March 4.
Thulsa the Doom
February 17th, 2011
10:43 pm
Queer up,
I can come up with some good ones too you know.
0311/0317 -1811/1801
February 17th, 2011
10:44 pm
Keep Up the Good Fight! :
Well now, you were the one who asked me the questions. I assumed you wanted me to answer them.
Obviously, I answered them to the point where you had not come back …….. or you would have.
And again, you get personal which is your style.
Thanks for the input.
0311/0317 -1811/1801
February 17th, 2011
10:45 pm
Excuse me: “no comeback”
0311/0317 -1811/1801
February 17th, 2011
10:45 pm
Auburn Fan:
That’s just Kammy. He means well, it’s just hard for him to express it.
0311/0317 -1811/1801
February 17th, 2011
10:47 pm
TAPS !
See ya’ll tomorrow !
willie lynch
February 17th, 2011
10:47 pm
Thulsa the Doom
February 17th, 2011
10:34 pm
J.C. Watts won’t be seen with a repugnican, Alan Keyes was laughed out of the party, I point you to:
Keyes first stated that he was considering leaving the Republican Party during a January 2008 appearance on The Weekly Filibuster radio show.[83] He did not withdraw his candidacy after John McCain won the necessary 1,191 delegates to the Republican National Convention, even though he was no longer campaigning for the Republican nomination.[81] On March 27, 2008, Keyes’s campaign website began displaying the Constitution Party’s logo, along with a parody of the trademarked GOP logo in the form of a dead elephant.[84] This appeared to be an indication of Keyes’s intentions to quit the Republican party and to begin officially seeking the Constitution Party’s presidential nomination.
Shelby Steele, Walter Williams, and Thomas Sowell couldn’t be identified by 10 Tea Party if you gave them the last names under the pictures. Michael Steele and Herman Cain? Dealt with them in the previous post. And Clarence Thomas, you can have him!
willie lynch
February 17th, 2011
10:49 pm
Keep up the good fight!
February 17th, 2011
10:37 pm
Feel free, I encourage it! I hold no claim on the obvious.
willie lynch
February 17th, 2011
10:50 pm
The Leg Lamp is a “major award” much like CT’s Pulitzer and Obama’s Nobel.
February 17th, 2011
10:39 pm
willie stench
———————————————————————
Now that’s funny!