Racial Slurs Hurled at Crowd Gathered to Meet Ford.

[NewInNewJ.]

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061103/COUNTY090101/61103031

Franklin – Supporters gathered to welcome U.S. Senate candidate Harold Ford to Franklin were shocked at the outburst of an unidentified passerby who shouted racial slurs and sexual innuendos at the crowd.

Ford was not yet in attendance at the rally on the public square in Franklin’s downtown historic district, but someone in the crowd shouted back, “You’re a redneck!” after those gathered were temporarily silenced by the comments.

[bluerum]

1. Ignorant red neck tobacco spitters -- alive and well. nt

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[retread]

5. Tobacco spitter is racist? n/t

[Howardx]

6. redneck is racist?

since when?

[bluerum]

10. Racist? Contempt? Working People? Not sure how you got that

from my post.

Contempt for racist rednecks yes.

I will back off on the tobacco spitters as I used to be one.

[Vorta]

16. I love people.

I also love open and honest discussions amongst and about behavior. I think that is missing from the dialogue: openness and honesty. Sure, we have a dialogue, but it usually has some serious rules which stifle the exchange of ideas and feelings. Right here on this board is someone who wants to shut me down for having this discussion, or at least I took his comment as a threat since it's exactly what was said to me hours before being banned on Free Republic for merely questioning the historical foundation for the belief that Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed by anything other than natural forces.

Do I think that redneck has the same impact as that other word? No, but it is a racist term. I have never heard anyone refer to a black person as a redneck. They can't even say that other word on South Park, but they can and do say redneck and cracker all the time. White-trash is another exempt term. It's decidedly racist. Not only does it specifically mention the race and class of the person described, the origin of the term is even more insulting to black people. I can assure you that someone who has been called white-trash all his life due to his station doesn't think it's OK to toss about, because I watched the pain in a friend's face once when someone jokingly called him that (having no idea that it would leave a mark).

[bluerum]

18. I am just saying racism is contemptible. In all it's stripes and colors

and variations and mutations.

I have not ever considered redneck a racist term. I can respect your delicate sensibility about it though.

And truth be told, if one does consider it a racist word, then it belongs in the domain of white people to use freely amongst themselves. Kind of like the way black people reserve the use of the n-word for themselves. It is one thing for me to call a white person a redneck - and something else for a black person to call a white person a red neck.

But if you ask me, if someone drives up to a group of people having a peaceful political rally and shouts racist smears and insults, I would say that he is a damn ignorant redneck. And I would give any folks at that rally my blessing to call him anything they want.

[nashville_brook]

8. beg to differ... these Nashville Repugs are THUGS

egged on by some particularly NASTY local talk radio on 910 FM and 1510 AM especially.

they aren't the 'bacco-spitters of yesteryear. they're fucking professionals... i've worked for them... they have money and intend on KEEPING it but in the meantime they "play ball" with this "redneck" discourse... they are as far from farm boys as you can get. they WISH they were that MANLY.

mostly they grew out of the "AX the TAX" movement a couple of years ago when Sunquist was trying to institute a state income tax. fucking spoiled-rotten SUV-driving jocks.

my only point is... beyond how much i hate these fucks... is that we shouldn't "Foghorn Leghorn" them into imaginary impotence. they have power. UGG.

[bluerum]

11. Thanks for the info. We have a couple of 'em in MA too. nt

[Phrogman]

23. Gratuitous stereotyping of redneck tobacco spitters!

I object!

It could of been a "dim-witted, stuffed-suit yuppie", or a "gruff construction worker" or a "lecherous evangelistic Pastor", or even "angry, racist grandmotherly"?

Anyone can be a bigot, and not all white Southern men are.

Spatooy....ding!

(edited because rednecks can't spell good)

[louis-t]

2. Macaca? Is that you?

[Name removed]

3. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[movonne]

7. I'm surprised that they didn't attack this guy...the more I see going

on in this country, the more I think these people have not evolved..this country was pretty well on its way to enlightenment...but since this administration has come in its fashionable to be racist...

[DeSwiss]

9. I've heard it all before....

.....and had worse done to me. I came to this state in 1965 and intergrated a previously all-white high school. 65 black students versus 700 white students. Its a hell of a lot better now. But some things never change.

~Deswiss > Black and from Tennessee....

[ninkasi]

12. I know, but...

1965 was 40 years ago. Wouldn't you think that kind of racist crap would be over by now? I graduated in 1961, before the schools in Houston were integrated, but even back then many of us were ashamed of segregation, separate restrooms, water fountains, blacks riding on the back of the bus, and things like that.

By the time I was in my late 20's, my younger son, born in 1964, had a black first-grade teacher, although I didn't know until the first parent's night that she was. He had a bit of a crush on her, I think, because of how often he talked about her, and how nice she was.It never occurred to him to mention her race. Even then, it didn't register on my children that there was any difference between races except for the shades of our skin. When I met her, she was a very sweet, tiny young lady, and it was obvious that her students adored her.

This was over 30 years ago, but it sometimes seems that either some places are slow to adjust their attitudes to evolved human behavior, or that some people are just assholes. How much longer is it going to take for some people to adapt to being in the human race?

[DeSwiss]

13. ninkasi, I would like to think....

....that in 40 years we could move away from this kind of mindless hatred. But sadly that doesn't seem to be the case. The old-line Dems from the South left in droves as the civil rights movement expanded taking with them their religious "leaders" and their justifications and joined the Republicans and Nixon.

Today, the racism has been fashioned into a thin veneer of "moralistic" teaching, and new targets of opportunity, like gay Americans were singled-out for open persecution. But the racial hatred is still there. If some people can hate Jews for thousands of years, then 400 years of hating blacks is a piece of cake.

Still, as I said, its better. But I don't think it will never go away....

[ninkasi]

17. It's sad to think that it won't

As you say, DeSwiss, "Still, as I said, its better. But I don't think it will never go away...." I sometimes wonder how it will be in years to come. In 1974, I went to work for a very large company, and the makeup of our office was pretty well even as far as blacks, whites, and Spanish speaking women. There were very, very few men at my level, the men were the bosses. One thing my friends and I observed after working closely together, was that as women, black and white women had more in common with each other, than either of us had with men.

The personal issues that were important to us, our marriages, our children, things like that, were pretty much the same. It was the gap between male and female was much larger than the gap between black, white, or Latino. As women, we all held each other's hands when we were going through rough times, we confided in each other, babysat for each other's kids, and attended funerals when a friend's loved one died. This was not the case with say, white women and white men. The common thread was between sexes, rather than races.

This might have been a unique situation, but my grown daughter has pretty much had the sam experience. To use race, or even sex as a barrier rather than a bridge to understanding, is sad, and useless. We are all the same race, human, and I'm including even Republicans, although it pains me to say that. Here on earth, we can cooperate, and achieve a lot, or not cooperate, and have death and destruction. To me, though, the ones who keep us from exploring our common experiences and bonding with each other are the fundamentalists and rigid thinkers.I want the people of this world to be my brothers and sisters, not my enemies. I don't think conservatives can function without enemies.

[theothersnippywshrub]

14. How very republican. n/t

[Doctor_J]

15. I wondered why Corker was pulling ahead

He seems to have rallied his base.

[Hailtothechimp]

19. "Base" is the best word for them

Vile, repulsive, low, vulgar, and lots of other words.

It just occurred to me. "Base" as a noun is what they think the fundies and rednecks are. "Base" as an adjective is the way they appear to me.

A nice little semantic shift, eh?

[gr8dane_daddy]

22. Not their "base"...

more like their "anchor".

[Judi Lynn]

21. The fact the racists were bellowing sexual insults as well as sending

their best racists' greetings would lead you to believe the Corker tv ad found its target audience in exactly they way they planned. Primitive, crude, simple: "Harold Ford has impure thoughts about the white flowers of the South."

He'll be lucky if they don't get up a lynching party.

All that is really allowed is that minority people lower their eyes, or look away when Southern belles sashay by them. Whatever happens, NO ONE minority person should imagine himself/herself their equal, or dream to speak to one, or see one at a party!

Does anyone remember hearing that during the violent years, some extreme racists insisted that when black men joined the police force, that they would only be allowed to patrol in black neighborhoods, and would bring down the wrath of almighty gawd if they dared to stop white racists to give them tickets?

Problems this extreme don't appear to clear up very quickly.

[Chomskyite]

20. The thing to remember: they dont reproduce as much . . .

. . . as we do. The western part of the state is bluer and its population is growing faster. The more rural parts of Tennessee and the Republican enclaves of Nashville, Knoxville, Chattanooga just aren't keeping up. So they are the demographic losers and they probably know it.