Friday, July 30, 2010

Obama's "Mongrel" Comment

I cringed when I first saw this video as what I heard hearkens back to something I never want to see or hear again:



Donald Douglas of American Power makes the following interesting point about Obama's term "mongrel," and the point made explains why I, one born in the South before the Civil Rights Movement, cringed when I heard Obama refer to "mongrel":
D.W. Griffith’s 1915 motion picture The Birth of a Nation — originally titled The Clansman — a film which presented a re-writing of the actual history of post Civil War Reconstruction by the same Confederate traitors aginst whom the war had to be fought. It portrayed African-Americans in the post-Civil War South as depraved, lascivious beasts whose rampant lawlessness and alleged domination of the South — through military force and control of the state legislatures — threatened to destroy “Southern civilization” and “mongrelize the races”. The film asserts that this could only be stopped by the glorified lynchings and reign of terror carried out by the “honorable” new, secret order of the “chivalrous” Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.

<…>

In most of the Northern cities where the The Birth of a Nation was scheduled to be shown, political fights exploded, and some small riots did occur in Philadelphia and elsewhere where the film was shown. The NAACP and others attempted to seek either a banning of the film completely, or to force the editing-out of the most egregious racist scenes. For the most part, those attempts were futile. Endless hearings were held before mayors, state legislatures, city councils, and state and city censorship boards across the country. The Illinois legislature voted 111-2 to ban the showing in that state, but eventually lost on judicial appeals filed by the film’s promoters.

Those hearings became platforms for the pro-Griffith lobby to pronounce the alleged virtues of eugenics. In New York City, Griffith’s lawyer Martin W. Littleton told Mayor Mitchell that the film was a protest against the mongrel mixture of black and white.”
Donald Douglas of American Power comments:
It is disgusting and putrid that a President of the United States bring this kind of filth language into the public discourse when our nation has moved so far past it. Laura Ingraham is correct, Obama is not “post-racial” — he is the most racial and divisive President we have ever had.
Is Obama deliberately trying to divide America along racial lines?

14 comments:

Pastorius said...

I agree that it was an extremely poor choice of words, given the history of the use of the word.

But, I don't think he meant any harm by it.

Truth of the matter is, the word simply means, an animal or plant that is mixed in breed.

Unknown said...

Among humans, mongrel and mongrelize are derogatory terms for the mixing of "races", known as miscegenation.The term "miscegenation" has been used since the nineteenth century to refer to interracial marriage and interracial sex, and more generally to the process of racial admixture, which has taken place since ancient history but has become more global through European colonialism since the Age of Discovery. Historically the term has been used in the context of laws banning interracial marriage and sex, so-called anti-miscegenation laws. It is therefore a loaded and potentially offensive word.So i would say yes he's doing it deliberately.

Epaminondas said...

It's an interesting choice as to whether in his soul this represents a mistake (was he that nervous on the VIEW?) ..or a revelation of his inner self.

It's amazing to me that the election of this man has not FURTHERED race relations.

I expected some disagreement over philosophy (but not this much) but never in my wildest dreams could I have guessed that the political opposition of the leadership of the democratic party would base so much of their WIN philosophy on painting the other side as racists, nor would I ever have believed that THEY would believe such a thing as a necessity to carry on.

That things have turned out this way is a danger sign for democracy.

ALL DEMOCRACY.

After all, if the opposition is a bunch of racists, how can you compromise with them?

Pastorius said...

I am the father of interracial children. And, I know that I would never refer to my children as mongrels.

midnight rider said...

Just as bothersome, or more so, is they way he says "white America" and then "we know more about it", making a distintion between the races.

When was the last time we heard a President use the term White America?

christian soldier said...

I asked the question years ago - who 'wins' by dividing the races ?--there has GOT to be big $$$$ and power somewhere...
I'll figure it out someday and write about it --
This person in the White House has a vested interest in dividing the races and fomenting violence...
C-CS

Pastorius said...

I have a feeling he got this term from this writer:

http://www.amazon.com/Mongrel-Nation-Begotten-Jefferson-Jeffersonian/dp/0813927781/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1280500837&sr=1-1

revereridesagain said...

The answer to the last question in the post is "yes". It this interview part of it? Probably. (First question that occurred to me was, has Whoopi come down off the fear-of-flying drugs yet?)

EPAM: I'm not surprised, though a bit shocked at how blatant it has been. The race card has always been a staple of the Far Left. A truly color-blind society does them no good whatever. They need as many things as possible with which to divide us.

Wait till you see what they do to Allen West when (I'm not going to say "if", because someone that good we HAVE to get elected) he becomes a congressman. Not that West will let them get away with it.

Always On Watch said...

MR,
Just as bothersome, or more so, is they way he says "white America" and then "we know more about it", making a distintion between the races.

Excellent point!

Always On Watch said...

Pastorius,
I am the father of interracial children. And, I know that I would never refer to my children as mongrels.

I thought so.

Now, BHO was off teleprompter. I think that his remarks off teleprompter hold quite a good clue as to the man he is.

Always On Watch said...

Epa,
It's an interesting choice as to whether in his soul this represents a mistake (was he that nervous on the VIEW?) ..or a revelation of his inner self.

I have a hard time believing that HBO was nervous. Sure, he must know that November is going to be a vote of no confidence for his administration. Still, that such a comment was made by him indicates, to me anyway, that he's got some kind of problem with race.

Always On Watch said...

Pastorius,
Have you read that book you cited in a link above?

If I understand the reviews correctly, the point of the book is that America should come to term with its mixed-race ancestry.

But part of what BHO said on The View doesn't quite follow along those lines.

Epaminondas said...

The ridiculous thing is ..
WE ARE ALL, EVERYONE - 'MONGREL'
It cannot be another way

This is true whether a product of tens of generations of Japanese, or a child of south asians and 'american' genes.

Such a comment is the heart and soul of someone who believes that racial differences are real .. and is filled with the need for redress, and recompense.

If THAT is so, it is no wonder that, filling his admin with like minded racialists, if not racists of other kinds Barack Obama has driven relations to the negative and that race differences imagined in the minds of morons becomes a focal point of election.

This is a tragedy for America. Barack Obama was not the man.
It did NOT have to be this way.
So says the liberal in me.

Harold Ford
Colin Powell
Thomas Sowell
Alan West
and there have been so many others
Shirley Chisholm, Barbara Jordan..men and women to whom perpetual grievance meant NOTHING

Barack Obama is simply NOT such a man.
He is NOT the man.

Pastorius said...

AOW,
You're right. Having read ABOUT that author, he does not seem like he hates Whitey enough for Obama to like him.