A Reach or a Fair Parallel? Keith Olbermann's Special Comment on Palin, Health Care, and Right Wing Health Demagogues with a Little Dose of Lynching

Monday, August 10, 2009

A Reach or a Fair Parallel? Keith Olbermann's Special Comment on Palin, Health Care, and Right Wing Health Demagogues with a Little Dose of Lynching

I am 99 percent with Olbermann on this one. But, as I heard him mention burning folks in effigy and the frightening portent of lynchings, I bristled for the inevitable. I cringed and hoped that Olbermann wouldn't compare the faux lynching of a congressman by one of the anti-health care brown shirts, with what was once the popular American sport of lynching black Americans. Keith did indeed go there. Should I be upset? I don't know. A fair parallel, I think not. Cheapening our human suffering? I am unsure. What do you think?

I shudder as I post this clip, but I must. As I tell my students, can you imagine what it feels like to be so despised, viewed as so much a poison to the White Republic that you would be killed for sport, as the blood ritual that helped to tie together the imagined fraternal brotherhood of White men? Can you understand that level of existential disdain towards your very personhood? We should mind our collective history as this bigotry and xenophobia still lives on with the "birthers," "the Palin populists," and the Beck, Limbaugh, et al. brown shirt, 9-13 types. Be mindful folks 'cause a storm is coming. Or has it already arrived?

2 comments:

luclonde said...: I think you're right to be a bit offended. But I tremor at the notion of how much education would be necessary to put that bug in the back of the minds of white people. The bug that keeps people behind megaphones from saying things that belittle and nullify other peoples' struggles. The bug that sneaks up and says, "hey, some people in my audience might be offended with this comparison."

I'm a white guy, but I grew up in the military and lived most of my youth in places where I was the minority, assaulted and hated for my skin color, so I feel I have that bug at least somewhat. And I cringe when I hear this stuff thrown around so flippantly.

It is, however, only television; not the best source for integrity or insight.; August 12, 2009 at 1:59 PM
Lady Zora, Chauncey DeVega, and Gordon Gartrelle said...: you got that right about tv damaging out critical discourse.

i appreciate you chiming in, as a white brother in the struggle what disturbed you about this or not..there is no judgement. and what is your take on our current political atmosphere?

cd; August 18, 2009 at 1:59 AM

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Who is Chauncey DeVega?

I am a political essayist, cultural critic, educator, and host of the podcast known as "The Chauncey DeVega Show".

I have been a guest on the BBC, National Public Radio, Ring of Fire Radio, Ed Schultz, Sirius XM's Make it Plain, Joshua Holland's Alternet Radio Hour, the Thom Hartmann radio show, the Burt Cohen show, and Our Common Ground.

I have also been interviewed on the RT Network and Free Speech TV.

I am a contributing writer for Salon and Alternet.

My writing has also been featured by Newsweek, The New York Daily News, Raw Story, The Huffington Post, and the Daily Kos.

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