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| Community Organizer is Code for Black | |
| 2008-09-10 | |
| McCain Campaign Fumes Over Paterson's Racism Claim N.Y. Governor Says Palin's Repeated Use Of 'Community Organizer' Is Another Way Of Saying 'Black' ALBANY (CBS) ― On Monday, Gov. David Paterson angered some state lawmakers by comparing them to vampires, calling them a bunch of "blood suckers." On Tuesday, he raised eyebrows again, and tempers, by accusing the John McCain campaign of veiled racism. At the Crain's Business Forum this morning, Paterson drew attention to a phrase used numerous times by speakers at the Republican National Convention to describe Barack Obama's leadership experience: community organizer. "I think the Republican Party is too smart to call Barack Obama 'black' in a sense that it would be a negative. But you can take something about his life, which I noticed they did at the Republican Convention -- a 'community organizer.' They kept saying it, they kept laughing," he said. Paterson referred to McCain's running mate Sarah Palin who compared her work experience to Obama's. "So I suppose a small town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except with real responsibilities," she said at the convention. Paterson sees the repeated use of the words "community organizer" as Republican code for "black". "I think where there are overtones is when there are uses of language that are designed to inhibit other people's progress with a subtle reference to their race," he said. But the McCain/Palin campaign quickly fired back in a statement, saying: "It is disappointing that Governor Paterson would launch accusations of racism. ... Governor Palin's remarks about Barack Obama's work as a community organizer was in response to the Obama campaign's belittling of her executive experience." The statement goes on to point out Sarah Palin's own experience of civic involvement and says Paterson's comments are "a sure sign of a flailing campaign that is bordering on desperation". Paterson raises the question of whether the Presidential race has become desperate or devious. "At this point, Americans wouldn't tolerate a racial appeal. What I'm saying is that there are sneaky ways to try to hurt someone," he said. Paterson does say he's not certain that's happening.
Paterson is New York state's first black governor. | |
| Posted by:Beavis |
| #25 heck, I think Obama looks bad any time he's w/out a teleprompter. Honestly though, I see nothing sexist in this latest so-called gaffe. Neither does some of the talk show hosts on Sirius Patriot - Wilkow for one. As another poster said - I wasn't planning on voting for him anyways. I'm barely planning on voting for mccain....however, since the Corps has issued me a gas mask I'll be able to vote for Mr. Strong on the War but useless on the borders. |
| Posted by: Broadhead6 2008-09-10 21:20 |
| #24 Liberalhawk says: !it equates something Obama did early in his adult life with Palins next to last job before being nominated to Veep . Too funny!! You are so scared of her you can't even say it! I'll say it for you: "Governor of Alaska". Despite the hype, even her mayor experience is more valuable as it does require balancing needs and having the buck stop here. Obama's Community Organizer experience is more in line with Palin's PTA days. But thanks for the good laugh. |
| Posted by: Betty Grating2215 2008-09-10 18:03 |
| #23 No one cares about Patterson. Patterson only digs the hole deeper for the "code word" tactic at a time when people's patience with it has run thin and The One himself has aggravated it. The problem is the lipstick comment came from The One. And there's no way you can't avoid him looking stupid. Apologize and move on. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2008-09-10 15:53 |
| #22 im not going to venture a guess. the game here is when someone on your side goes over the top, you distance, but when someone on the other side does you explain how its all coordinated and denials of coordination are cynical. You see that right here all the time, when Obama is held responsible for anything the Kossacks say, but McCain is held innocent of anything from the rightwings blogs. So, no I dont know. Im going to hold each campaign responsible for what that campaign officialy says. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2008-09-10 15:50 |
| #21 LH, roger. You think Paterson is working on his own w/that line of attack? |
| Posted by: Broadhead6 2008-09-10 15:47 |
| #20 broadhead - No not really, I think Patterson is over the top on this one. Esp as most community organizers Im aware of are white, and the godfather of the whole modern (im excluding dorothy day and all that otehr old stuff) movement, Saul Alinsky, was not only white but Jewish. I think the attack is ignorant on several levels- it ignore what Community organizers actually do - it ignores why Obama moved on from that - and it equates something Obama did early in his adult life with Palins next to last job before being nominated to Veep - but no, its not racist. And guess what, I havent seen the Obama-Biden campaign say it was. Just Patterson. In contrast to the stink over lipstick. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2008-09-10 15:45 |
| #19 "Community organizer" might be a codeword for "race hustler." As in: Al Sharpton, community organizer Jesse Jackson, community organizer Sonny Carson, community organizer ACORN, an organization of community organizers Just lovely people, all of them |
| Posted by: Grumenk Philalzabod0723 2008-09-10 15:45 |
| #18 Okay LH, to be intellectually honest - I thought Obama's lipstick remark was not intended as slander toward Palin. Do you think McCain's use of community organizer is slander code for "black" against obama? |
| Posted by: Broadhead6 2008-09-10 15:35 |
| #17 I agree with TW and Spot. A "community organizer" is just that neither black nor white. Highly edited:Community organizing is most identified with the (WHITE) left-wing Chicago activist Saul Alinsky (1909-72), who pretty much defined the profession. Jerry Kellman, (WHITE), a follower of Alinsky, who had gotten into organizing in the 1960s, was trying to help laid-off factory workers on the far South Side of Chicago during the mid 1980s. He led a group, the Calumet Community Religious Conference, that had been created by several local Catholic churches. The Calumet region was an industrial area that had been hard hit by the closings of Wisconsin Steel and other industries. Kellman and the churches hoped to get some of those jobs back. But there was a problem. The area around the Altgeld Gardens housing project and the neighborhood of Roseland in Chicago was nearly 100 percent black. Kellman as well as the others who worked for CCRC were WHITE. The people didn’t open up to him like they would to somebody who was black and really understood what was going on in their lives. Kellman decided to hire a black organizer for a new spinoff from CCRC to be called the Developing Communities Project, which would focus solely on the Chicago part of the area. So Kellman set out to find a black organizer. He ran an ad in some trade publications, and Obama responded from Hawaii. Once Kellman learned he was BLACK, and not a Japanese –American he hired him in 1985. So why should "community organizer" be a code for "Black" and not "Left Wing" or anything else.? Source: Byron York's What Did Obama Do As A Community Organizer? |
| Posted by: GK 2008-09-10 13:52 |
| #16 The thing is LH, Obama brought it up to help pad his very, very thin resume. Evan Bayh would have been a much better choice for the Dems. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2008-09-10 13:34 |
| #15 "Didnt he leave community organizing and go to law school precisely because he thought comm org didnt have a big enough impact?" That's the problem: he wasn't very good at community organizing but he thinks he'll be good at country organizing. |
| Posted by: Darrell 2008-09-10 13:27 |
| #14 To which I replied, "using the same logic, we shouldn't elect Barack Obama just because he was a community organizer." Has obama said we SHOULD elect him because he was a community organizer? Didnt he leave community organizing and go to law school precisely because he thought comm org didnt have a big enough impact? Community organizing is irrelevant, as is whatever Palin did at the same age (sportscasting?) |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2008-09-10 13:23 |
| #13 At a dinner last night, one of my very good friends (truly) pointed out that while Sarah Palin has lived an interesting life, we shouldn't elect just because she had served on a PTA and as mayor. To which I replied, "using the same logic, we shouldn't elect Barack Obama just because he was a community organizer." My good friend was at a loss for words for a few moments :-) |
| Posted by: Steve White 2008-09-10 12:59 |
| #12 When I hear community organizer I think commie - and that's what I see in Obama. |
| Posted by: Spot 2008-09-10 12:58 |
| #11 Community organizer is the guy who runs the highly popular "Beer and smokes for votes" program. |
| Posted by: Capsu 78 2008-09-10 12:54 |
| #10 community organizer you can put lipstick on a pig and it is still a pig. |
| Posted by: Betty Grating2215 2008-09-10 12:44 |
| #9 I think "liberal" is a code word for "pants-on-the-head-retarded-moron". |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2008-09-10 12:36 |
| #8 thought it meant "ward heeler" |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2008-09-10 12:29 |
| #7 Hmm. Based on my previous experience working for city government, I thought "community activist" was code for "someone who manages to get federal grants year after year without producing one damn thing of note" or "some idjit who spends more time issuing press releases than providing actual change". |
| Posted by: Swamp Blondie in the Cornfields 2008-09-10 12:27 |
| #6 I need a copy of the "code" book, doesn't anyone have a link? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2008-09-10 12:26 |
| #5 I thought "community organizer" was code for liberal activist. |
| Posted by: Darrell 2008-09-10 12:17 |
| #4 I'm very confused, I thought "community organizer" was code for "goatse" - that's what I was led to believe with the obama hand sign, anyway. Looked pretty self-evident for me. |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2008-09-10 11:59 |
| #3 Are we sure Gov. Paterson isn't a muslim? He's got this "everything the Repugs say offends me" pattern down pat. The Donks just can't seem to get the idea that people usually vote for something other than socialist ideology. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2008-09-10 11:49 |
| #2 That's about the silliest thing said this election season. It seems to me Barack Obama's community organizing hero Alinsky was white, and his community organizer friend and backer Ayers is also white. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-09-10 11:47 |
| #1 This is the most fluffy nonsense the Obama people have floated. Since Obama used the term first as part of his resume the word is fair game. The only people this might get traction with have already decided to vote Obama and that McCain is racist for even going up against The ONE. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2008-09-10 11:38 |