Herman Cain’s bigotry
WASHINGTON — If we didn’t already know this, here’s what Herman Cain’s regrettable campaign for the Republican presidential nomination has taught us: Black Americans are as capable of ugly and inexplicable prejudices as any other group. Our collective history as victims of ugly and inexplicable prejudices has not made us immune to the virus of bigotry.
So you knew that already? So did I. Still, Cain’s reflexive animosity toward law-abiding Muslim Americans has served as an unnecessary reminder.
In a recent appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” Cain told host Chris Wallace that the U.S. Constitution gives Americans the right to ban any mosque they don’t want built nearby. Having spoken out specifically against a planned mosque in Murfreesboro, Tenn., Cain seemed oblivious to the fact that the people attempting to build the mosque are also entitled to First Amendment protections.
A retired Georgia businessman turned rightwing talk radio host, Cain had been building to that preposterous and discomfiting moment since he emerged on the campaign trail. In March, while attending a gathering of conservatives in Iowa, a reporter for a progressive blog, ThinkProgress.org, asked him, “Would you be comfortable appointing a Muslim, either in your cabinet or as a federal judge?” He said flatly, according to ThinkProgress, “No, I will not.”
That revealed not only deep-seated prejudices hardly befitting an American president but also an unsettling ignorance about the U.S. Constitution, which tea party supporters like Cain claim to venerate. There is no religious test for political office in this country. The Founding Fathers were attempting to steer their new republic away from the blood-soaked waters of state-endorsed religions.
While he flirted briefly with sounding more reasonable on the issue of Islamic Americans and their religious freedom, he couldn’t resist, in the end, reverting to nutty notions — common enough among paranoid ultra-conservatives — about Sharia law and an Islamic mandate to convert infidels. All the while, he insists that his bigotry bears no comparison to that he experienced as a boy growing up in the Deep South.
Cain was never going to win the Republican nomination. He’s politically inexperienced, ignorant about major policy issues and hardly highly-regarded among the big-time donors he’d need to fund a serious run. He enjoyed a brief boomlet among the GOP’s tea-party-adoring social conservatives, but he’s been eclipsed by their latest star, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Wisc.) It’s hard to see how Cain is more than an after-thought by the time the GOP primaries start next year.
But his candidacy will prove costly. He will leave the campaign trail having tarnished not only his personal reputation but also having contributed to the GOP’s difficulties with voters who are not white Christians. Ironically, Cain has managed to worsen the problems that the party has reaching outside its homogenous ranks.
Indeed, he perfectly illustrates the GOP’s current moment — an ever-shrinking tent of narrow-minded know-nothings who insist that those who come inside pledge absolute fealty to their most ludicrous pronouncements. As a black man, for example, Cain draws enthusiastic applause from rightwing audiences for his insistence that the tea party movement holds not a shred of racism. Perhaps Cain really believes that, but it sounds like the price of admission.
Moreover, he has enthusiastically castigated President Barack Obama, a tactic unlikely to lure many black voters, who take great pride in the nation’s first black president. Cain has not only cozied up to birthers, but he has also questioned Obama’s manhood, telling The New York Times that the president isn’t “a strong black man.”
Cain should have represented a breakthrough for the Republican Party, which hasn’t had much success luring substantive black men and women to its presidential trials. The GOP’s most memorable black presidential contender has been the clownish Alan Keyes.
As the former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, Cain has serious business credentials. He should have taken the time to develop a substantive platform so he would have had more to sell than clichés about taxes, disrespect for Obama and Islamophobia.
Instead, he became one more member of the GOP’s lunatic fringe. Oh, well. I guess the fringe needs diversity, too.
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
462 comments Add your comment
interested observer
July 23rd, 2011
10:37 am
Sad news for all you Muslim bashers – the suspect in the Norway bombing/shooting incident is blond haired, blue-eyed and radically anti-Muslim. Oh, and right-wing.
ATLol
July 23rd, 2011
10:43 am
interested observer – note that at least two militant Muslim groups took credit for it, so jumping to that conclusion is not illogical
"Whitey" for Cain
July 23rd, 2011
10:46 am
Cynthia…. Have you NOT heard…. Obama is NOT “black”… He is 1/2 White and 1/2 Black!!
Talk about “INEXPERIENCED”… Herman Cain is MUCH, MUCH MORE EXPERIENCED than Barrack Barry Husain Obama AND his “zars”!!!
You need to GET A JOB!!
Reality
July 23rd, 2011
10:50 am
CT, once again a jerk.
Egbert
July 23rd, 2011
11:04 am
I love it when CT writes columns like this. Her service to society – her only service – is as a continual reminder of the idiocy of the far left and the danger to our republic of its domination of our media and its infiltration into the highest levels of our government. We have to win 2012, people. It won’t be Herman, but it needs to be someone with a puncher’s chance of beating Obama. Be informed. Get involved. Do it now.
Stevie Ray
July 23rd, 2011
11:08 am
“I know one thing, Herman Cain can have a meth smoking stripper, but he better not have a white live-in girlfriend.” Hey Judge, that’s funny I don’t care who you are!! I know, Who is Marion Berry?
The most savage controversies are about those matters as to which no good evidence exist either way. Not likely Cain could ever win but if he was elected in 2008, I guarantee he would have generated a financial pro forma and taken steps to address oncoming debt crisis a couple years ago unlike our resident dope who instead he focused on relection gimicks such as Healthcare, Libya, Impotent Stimulus and golf. He inherited a mess for sure but it’s gotten worse….excuses are now fallling on deaf ears.
boots
July 23rd, 2011
11:15 am
Help me out with something here – Michelle Bachman is highly educated (law degree, masters in business), but liberals have been attacking her how? By suggesting her husband is gay. Now, neverrmind they have children of their own (along with a dozen or more foster kids they have helped raise), which would make him bi-sexual at a minimum, but doesn’t this mean the liberal attack hacks are suggesting being gay is morally wrong? You can dismiss it how you want by saying “we are just criticizing him hiding it,” or “he is a hypocrite,” but it all boils down in the end to you trying to have it both ways. That is, others should never tell someone else how to live their lives, especially when it comes to morals or sex, but if you are a conservative, then a liberal can toss out accusations, however wrong they may be, and not worry about what it says about their own predjudicies.
Charles
July 23rd, 2011
11:19 am
CT, here you go again- you stand up for for Muslims rights, but then when Christians have their rights violated, you turn a blind eye! I tell you what, I would love to see Cain running against the “Messiah”, then the Blacks can’t use race as an excuse for who’s running for president. Then we’ll see where their true hearts lie- do we , as blacks, vote for the man who espouses getting by in this world without interference from the gubment, or vote for the man that will give us free stuff?
Tired of Ms. Smugness
July 23rd, 2011
11:23 am
All you libs are the same- full of nasty comments trying desperately to discredit folks. CT job is to stir things up calling others bigots, while it is her that is the bigot and not accepting of others views. Americans need to wake up and smell the coffee: many Muslims main goal in life is to kill us, and to allow it and promote our own death “by religion” as one mentioned earlier is just plain stupid, like allot of comments made here. Hey CT, how’d you feel about having the KKK headquarters for the southern states build an office next to yours? Oh, that wouldn’t do? You must be a bigot then. Shouldn’t they be allowed to express their views like the Muslims who want to kill all of us? After all, not ALL of them are killers!
Bobby T
July 23rd, 2011
11:23 am
Honestly, I don’t understand all the fuss. As someone raised in the south, I grew up with conservative views, but as someone who grew up in Atlanta, I got to see the otherside of issues. Let them build their mosque if it makes them happy. Don’t force your religion and beliefs on me, and in the same respect, I’ll keep my beliefs to myself. Seems pretty simple until you let a bunch of bible thumpers get involved. Christians are way worse about expressing their views on a community than muslims. Either way, as long as they both stay away from my front door, then I’m fine with either religion and their freedom to practice in a country developed because of religious persecution.
The truth
July 23rd, 2011
11:26 am
Yeah Bush created this, and yes any black who joins the republican party is a complete sell out..I loved reading this article, I am so glad CT exposed Cain for what he is, A UNCLE TOM! It is time for Blacks to realize that Whites don’t understand any other ethnic groups and consider anyone other then whites weird.It is nothing wrong with being Black. How can any black man go along with the crap that white people do and think?..Cain is talking crap about Muslims, but what about the Christians who killed, mistreated and slaved his own people ?.Whites have killed more innocent people then the muslims will ever kill..Who is the only country to drop a nuclear bomb? thousands have died in Iraq for no reason, then whites were tricked into this fake Bin Ladin mess..Come on White people you are getting very sad!
Olderandwiser49
July 23rd, 2011
11:28 am
“revealed…deep-seated prejudices hardly befitting an American president”
And where, Ms. Tucker, is your outrage expressed for King Obama, whose deep-seated prejudices for the American people is exposed in virtually every action he takes? The Blacks, who supposedly are so in love with Obama, are proven to be worse off now than they were before his election. Sorry, CT, but while you are trying to snow…I mean, show the people that you are against prejudice from people of any color, what your words actually do is rail against the GOP and Tea Party because of your blind loyalty to your failure of a President and the continuing failure of the Democrats. Maybe they’ll make you their poster girl for 2012, the perfect illustration of the Brainwashed Democrat!
Summit Dawg
July 23rd, 2011
11:31 am
Make fun of Mr. Cain now, and realize down the future road when Muslims have taken over America as they have some other countries, that he’s a “True American!” and so-called journalist such as you are not!!!!!!!!!!!
hobby
July 23rd, 2011
11:37 am
CT knows how to play the race card—
last 6 posts = about 100 or less comments each
This one = already over 400
gm
July 23rd, 2011
11:38 am
Hey bigots, tea party idiots, you dont speak for all Americans, people are going to come out in big numbers against the puppets you support, you angry white middle low class are a small fraction in America.
Put your rebel flags and SSi. Va checks, Medicaid cards in the trash and we can have a real conversation, you idiots are not Americans in fact you are Anti Americans, you could care less about the country, Bush raised the debt 7 times and added 4 trillion to national debt and you idiots never said a word.
Schrodinger's cat
July 23rd, 2011
11:39 am
Well who knows bigotry better than CT?…but it’s not, Islam is more than just another religion. To deny that is foolish and dangerous
hobby
July 23rd, 2011
11:42 am
CT is quick to point out ‘bigotry’ (either real or percieved) in others, but is always blind to her own…….
carlosgvv
July 23rd, 2011
11:47 am
intrested observer – 10:37
Well, golly, I guess that fact will just make all those Islamic fundamentalist terrorists go away.
real america
July 23rd, 2011
11:50 am
Why do President Obama continue to sit down with these Anti Americans Rep? they could care less about the rest of the country, these people dont care about middle class America, their goal is to try to destroy the President of the United States, Hannity, Limbaugh day after day throw insults at the President of the Untied States.
What so amazing the two high school and college dropouts have a million idiots following the misinformation they throw out, Reagan raised the debt ceiling 17 times and he was the retard on the right God, this shows Rep have no interest in America, these people are Anti American and the world is looking at the idiots on the right”””
zeke
July 23rd, 2011
11:54 am
Way to state the obvious, Jim -7/22 @ 2.27 pm. CT and the rest of the moron leftist are jokes! Herman has no experience? OBOZO HAD EVEN LESS, EXCEPT FOR HIS TIME AS A SCUM SOCIALIST COMMUNITY ORGANIZER! He is clueless! He must be defeated!!!
Isaiah
July 23rd, 2011
11:57 am
Cynthia Tucker writing a blog about bigotry……….. “Hello Pot, yes this is the Kettle…. you’re black.”
Brian
July 23rd, 2011
11:59 am
CT says “Moreover, he has enthusiastically castigated President Barack Obama, a tactic unlikely to lure many black voters, who take great pride in the nation’s first black president.” aside from being black would someone please tell me what this President has done for anyone to take pride in? The most bigoted people in this country are those that stick by Obama just because of his skin color.
Lil' Barry Bailout
July 23rd, 2011
12:03 pm
Herman Cain’s bigotry
11:34 am July 22, 2011, by ctucker
———————————
Just remember that Ms. Tucker gives a pass to a politician who has friends who are domestic terrorists and regret not bombing more of their fellow citizens.
jimbo
July 23rd, 2011
12:04 pm
Honkies for Herman !!!
Brian
July 23rd, 2011
12:04 pm
You can always tell the true idiots on here. Anyone that says “they could care less” is a complete moron, the phrase is “couldn’t care less”. Do you really expect us to believe you have a grasp of economic or political issues when you don’t have a grasp on basic English?
athensjack
July 23rd, 2011
12:07 pm
Just wait and see how “peaceful” some of those muslims turn out to be. This country will pay the ultimate price for letting them settle in America. It’s just a matter of time.
AmVet
July 23rd, 2011
12:09 pm
Cain is a publicity huckster who panders to the lunatic fringe’s lowest common denominator of hyper-intolerance and proud, willful ignorance.
Outside of dogcatcher in Cobb County, this buffoonish bigot could not, and will not ever get elected to any office.
But it sure is great spectacle to watch him say such stunningly stupid things and then watch his lamebrain fans try to justify them.
Good times out on the fringe…
dinkunk
July 23rd, 2011
12:18 pm
When they require the women to wear scarves and burkas can you get one with the Auburn AU on it?
real america
July 23rd, 2011
12:19 pm
Brian
Dont be stupid, go on line and read the bills he has passed, did you ever hear the country say whites voted for Bush becaue he was white? This is the kind of idiots we have in the Rep party.
Brian: You had the last President who did not have grasp on English but you gave him a pass, typical hypocrite have no case so you dodge the issue.
JIMBOB (aka James Robert)
July 23rd, 2011
12:23 pm
Post MLK, Jewhating black idiots are infinitely bigger bigots than Cain. Mosques are bigotry indoctrination centers. Discuss world issues with your average mosque-going Muslim and sit back and listen to the nutty Protocols of Zion type conspiracy theories, and ingratitude over all the US lives lost making states for pious Muslims.
Iraq is a Muslim only state, ditto for Afghanistan and gazastan. Muslims have nothing to gripe about.
fox news hater
July 23rd, 2011
12:24 pm
herman cain is a step and fetch it negro that only is trying to play into the hands of white rednecks ..matter of fact he wished he was one..sad..to be wanna be ignorant and narrow minded like them..only in the south..to critisize our president does not put you in good light mr cain it only makes you look foolish cause the very same folks your trying to cater to will throw you under the bus before the say vile racial slurs too boot..instead you should respect president obama and say so and above all respect the office and then say and mean what you will do differently to help the country out of the mess started by your party
Montrell
July 23rd, 2011
12:30 pm
Cain’s an uncle tom and will not get any votes from African-Americans or other liberals. He shouldn’t betray his people and run as a republican. They are all racist.
Larry
July 23rd, 2011
12:36 pm
@ The Truth
What’s wrong with Herman acting/trying to be white ?
Whites have a much lower crime rate,lower rate of out of wedlock birth rates,lower rate of sexually transmitted disease,we are more likely to finish high school,less likely to become a victim of violent crime,more likely to graduate from college,our neighborhoods are safer,we become more involved with our community,we fit into society better because we have more conservatives that act in eveyone’s interest, making our country a better place to live.
There are a lot of good hard working black people out here in Cherokee county that want nothing to do with you liberals in Fulton,Dekalb,counties.They feel safe out here.They don’t want to be stuck shopping at Wayfield Foods or having to pay first for their gas and dry cleaning.
They have told me and our other neighbors personally how you people think.
Your free ride is coming to an end as latinos,whites will eventually take over the city of Atlanta and only the qualified will be left standing.
Herman Cain is a good start,he will get rid of the waste in big government.
Brian
July 23rd, 2011
12:39 pm
Real America, whites have been told that even disagreeing with this idiot in office makes them racist, Obama gaffes up the language all of thee time but gets a pass by a media in love with him.
fox news hater
July 23rd, 2011
12:49 pm
hey my fellow poor and working class white america…your fellow republicans hate you and willing to do anything to bring your beloved country down and making your poorer and angrier they want to cut your SSI,MEDICADE,FOOD STAMPS,WELFARE,UNEMPLOYMENT AND EVERYTHING ELSE!!but are not willing to do away with TAX CUTS FOR MILLIONAIRES AND BILLIONARES and corprate welfare taxes..this shows how much they care about if your not worth a million and up..BUT YOU KEEP VOTING FOR THESE CLOWNS FURTHER DESTROYING YOUR OWN SELF INTEREST AND YOUR KIDS…AS A VERY WEALTHY WHITE MAN THIS PUZZLES ME BUT I LAUGH ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK!!THANKS FOR MY TAX BREAKS!!i in turn reinvest it making me richer..BUT I DID AND WILL SUPPORT PRESIDENT OBAMA IN 2012..he has bought america back from a financial melt down in 2008…REDNECK SIMPLY DISLIKE HIM BECAUSE OF RACE!!!!
Lil' Barry Bailout
July 23rd, 2011
12:57 pm
Yeah, fox news hater DEFINITELY sounds like a “WEALTHY WHITE MAN” to me.
emmysmom
July 23rd, 2011
12:58 pm
“Black Americans are as capable of ugly and inexplicable prejudices as any other group.” Quite. You have proven yourself guilty of same many times over in your columns. “People who live in glass houses…..”
Let the Big Dawg Eat!
July 23rd, 2011
1:20 pm
Lil BB, you got dat rite!
Typical Liberal
July 23rd, 2011
1:26 pm
The truth
July 23rd, 2011
11:26 am
Yeah Bush created this, and yes any black who joins the republican party is a complete sell out..I loved reading this article, I am so glad CT exposed Cain for what he is, A UNCLE TOM! It is time for Blacks to realize that Whites don’t understand any other ethnic groups and consider anyone other then whites weird.
Tucker’s brother and racist piglet like her! The truth is really The Bigot. Like his sister CT. And that is the truth!
WAKE UP PEOPLE
July 23rd, 2011
1:26 pm
WELL WELL WELL…. Its amazing how many BIGOTS have commented on this story. Its really surprising to see how many people that comment have serious issues with Islamophobia…
“See what happened in Oslo” … Yeah.. IT WAS A RIGHT WING CHRISTIAN … NOT MUSLIM who carried out the attacks… OH! but wait! I guess that doesn’t count… right?
Any terror related attack anywhere in the world is automatically aimed at Muslims… That just goes to show how much Bigotry the GOP and Tea-Party idiots have…
I’m ashamed to call myself an American….
“At least 85 dead in Norway youth camp attack
Premier says ‘my youth paradise’ has turned into ‘hell’; police say suspect’s website indicates he was a right-wing, Christian fundamentalist” …. —- NOW SAY SOMETHING!
Silverchief
July 23rd, 2011
1:28 pm
CT is a left wing idiot and will write anything to bash a consrvative and she prays to Osama..Obama every night asking for guidance…….what a bore !!!
White man
July 23rd, 2011
1:32 pm
What is wrong about tellin the truth? No phoney is he, he is a read man and you should be in the fields picking cotton woman.
Silverchief
July 23rd, 2011
1:32 pm
Well, “Wake up People” You can leave anytime, NOW, would be a good time. Wouldn’t want your sorry arse to be ashamed. What an AH
WAKE UP PEOPLE
July 23rd, 2011
1:38 pm
“Silverchief” … Why Should I? b/c YOU want me to? GTFOH… You have the nerve to call me an AH, but I guess the TRUTH HURTS HUH???
YOU ARE WHATS WRONG WITH THIS COUNTRY… Idiots and BIGOTS that can’t face a simple TRUTH when it is thrown in YOUR FACE!!!
You and the entire REPUBLICAN Party should ROT in Hell!
#thatisall
joe in tucker
July 23rd, 2011
1:40 pm
What’s wrong Cynthia? Can’t keep Herman on the Democratic ‘plantation’?
bud7dy
July 23rd, 2011
1:40 pm
This column is so rank, I can’t use it to line a litter box! Ms. Tucker, your ignorance never ceases to amaze and repulse me!
BigDave
July 23rd, 2011
1:41 pm
I side with Herman Cain on this! I hope He sticks to His guns and doesn’t apologise to that bitch
phil
July 23rd, 2011
1:44 pm
Your commentaries are just like Obama. Laughable.
JB
July 23rd, 2011
1:46 pm
Sounds like you just describe OBama.
Jeff Park
July 23rd, 2011
1:48 pm
How dare you call him a racist! Are you serious. At least he tells the truth.