Wake Up And Smell The Racism

One of the things the cons like to say, in the hopes of keeping people from looking too hard at their playing on racial fears to win votes, is that racism and the Southern Strategy are either dead and gone in America or just not big deals any more. They’re certainly not being used by the right wing and Republicans for nefarious political purposes, oh no.

Well, in that case, the wedding of (Hispanic actress) Eva Longoria and (black basketball star) Tony Parker shouldn’t be something that would attract a lot of negative comment, right? Right?

Guess again. Check out these comments, left by signed-in AOL users, from the AOL comments thread on this story:

 

mixspop 06:36:21 PM Jul 07 2007

bet she ends up like nicole simpson they will never learn

 

 

x1b78 06:04:56 PM Jul 07 2007

A wetback and a French jungle bunny what a pair

 

hineddh 04:28:00 PM Jul 07 2007

those mexican american women explode after there forties they are known as four b y fours four foot and three hundred lbs or four

ineddh 04:20:28 PM Jul 07 2007

so what race will there kids be mexfrican americans i

 

hineddh 04:19:36 PM Jul 07 2007

Just what the world need more mix blood marriages mexfricans= mulato kids

 

Of course, “hineddh” made the comment about Latinas being “four by fours” shortly after proclaiming himself to be Tejano:

 

hineddh 04:12:35 PM Jul 07 2007

eva longoria being should have married into her own culture ,dayum there are somany tejanos in south texas sure could use her money why do mexican american girls marry white guys and otms gd nowomder some of us cant find wives of our our blood they are all out to get rich from other races soon our tejano blood will extinct no one marrys in there owneace any more nothing but mulato mix blood kis those kids will be so confused theycant indentify with texas his panics or us blacks they will be mexafricans

Why do I have the feeling that the reason ‘hineddh’ can’t get laid has more to do with his personality (or complete lack thereof) than his ethnicity?

But here are some more charmers:

 

gasser1188 03:12:20 PM Jul 07 2007

Never marry a mexican broad they will steal the silverware and cheat on you with their brother

 

 

a1b2c7 03:11:13 PM Jul 07 2007

Is Eva technically a midget or a dwarf wetback?

 

x1b78 03:10:19 PM Jul 07 2007

Is Eva technically a midget or a dwarf wetback?

 

x1b78 03:07:17 PM Jul 07 2007

Eva is a midget mexican she is the size of a Chihuahua. Parker will drink some Colt 45s after losing a basketball game and come home and beat her like a piniata

 

 

cheryljim430 02:59:41 PM Jul 07 2007

She is a beautiful woman, why would she want a black man

 

 

bebeblisss 02:44:31 PM Jul 06 2007

she finally got the black coc*, she so desperately wanted-

Mind you, this wasn’t on Stormfront or VDare or any other known racist site. This was in a thread on AOL.

And these were just the blatantly racist ones. There were a bunch of other comments in which the commenters posted variations on “who cares?” As several folks later in the thread commented, why are they posting in the thread — often at great length — if they really don’t care? (The answer, of course, is that they do care — it pisses them off to see a black man and a Latina together, but unlike the people I’ve just quoted, they know better than say so straight out.) To be sure, there were also a fair amount of AOLers taking the racists to task as well, which made me feel a bit better about humanity.

By the way: ‘Taint just AOL. The comments thread for the Yahoo version of this story is studded with similar bons mots. I’ll spare you a recitation — for one thing, it looks as if the Yahoo readers who aren’t racist have been voting those comments off the island — and just leave you with a comment left by one of the sane people:

OK-i just happened upon this whole thing and I think that the it’s pitiful that the topic of everlasting love & marriage has turned to comments of racism and hate. Grow up-really. And coon??? As a person who was raised in the South but now live in NY-I can say to you go back to your hole and don’t come out until you’ve learned a little something about respect. This isn’t 1950.

What was that about racism no longer being a big deal again?

Cripes, racism informs damned near every aspect of life in America. Look at the post-war growth of the suburbs, for instance. It was made possible by the car, but the car (especially the Model T) had been in the garages of most Americans by the 1920s; what triggered the white exodus from the cities was in fact the migration of blacks from the South to places like Chicago and New York and other Northern cities. And Republican opposition to the latest immigration reform bill came not from any concern that the immigrants might be exploited by shady employers looking to undercut other workers’ wages, but out of a naked racist dislike of “wetbacks”. You know, like Eva Longoria.

As William Faulkner had his character Gavin Stevens say in Requiem for a Nun: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”

Related posts:

1. Can white liberals keep their eye on the prize when racism comes a knockin?
2. Louisiana Justice of the Peace Keith Bardwell Tries to Justify His Racism
3. Conservative Blogger Rick Moran Calls on the Right to Condemn “Crazies”, Sees Racism in Attacks on Obama
4. Gates and Crowley Need to Lead in Wake of Big Media Failure
5. Late Night: “Git off, Pa, Yer Crushin’ Mah Marlboros!”