Herman Cain: Another black man skewered on a racial stereotype?

[denem]

Would Cain be getting quite so much media attention if he was another WASP?

Ask Vitter, Gingrich?

Cains' race gives this story that extra sizzle.

Now Cain is accused (the horror) of "inappropriate behavior'

To this day, MLK and Jessie Jackson infidelities' hold a special place in ditto-head folk lore, second only to WJC.

Do not tell me, the M$M do not turn up the heat, when it's a black man in the frying pan.

Fetch the gasoline boys. :puke: :puke: :puke:

[tularetom]

1. The powers that be in the republican party are fully aware of this

That's why they arranged to have these allegations leaked at this particular moment.

[Quantess]

17. You could be on to something!

The thought crossed my mind as well.

[Lil Missy]

2. That's balony. He isn't entitled to a free pass because he is an African American.

[Cosmocat]

44. More accurately - he is just another scumbag R

who because he has bought their take no responsibility line of BS in total, he thinks he can do and say whatever he wants and get away with it ...

[bluestateguy]

3. Obama never played the victim and race card when he was being racially stereotyped

But that is why he is the president while Herman Cain makes pizza for living and has never won an election or a primary in his life.

[SkyDaddy7]

43. Remember what they did to Michelle Obama?

Said she uses the term "Whitey" to describe white people.

[bluestateguy]

52. Still waiting for that tape to surface that we were all promised....

:rofl:

[SkyDaddy7]

57. I know!

The Republicans are such hypocrites! From issues of race to public policy to the Religious right always claiming they are being attacked & discriminated against by the "Gay Agenda"!

[TwilightGardener]

4. Gingrich shouldn't even be running. His infidelities make him a joke

to just about everyone, but he isn't burdened with any sense of dignity or shame. I don't think Cain's race has much to do with this, in fact. I think he's just a sleazebag.

[avaistheone1]

5. Cain is a jerk regardless of color.

No one deserves a pass on sexual harassment.

[Enrique]

6. good point

I'm assuming this was not done by the Democrats. But racially-charged dirty tricks have been known to happen in GOP primaries. Remember Rove vs. McCain in South Carolina? If I had to bet, I would say it's Rick Perry this time.

[slackmaster]

7. I thought I read somewhere that he was a wine drinker

I suppose he could also be AA.

[KeepItReal]

8. As an "AA" male from the South, I know better than to act a fool in the office

If Cain made life so vile for those women, they actually filed charges against him, he was not fit to be in the position he held.

The fact that he thought he could keep something like that secret is a testimony to his arrogance and bad judgement.

His race be damned, Cain is a embarrassment to whomever claims him as a "leader"

[denem]

10. Edited AA back to 'black'.

It's a serious issue - no need to sugar coat it. sorry.

[Number23]

40. Nailed it.

:thumbsup:

[Skittles]

42. worthy of its own thread

yes INDEED

[FrenchieCat]

9. Ask Herman Cain about Racism......

He will tell you it doesn't exist.....
and since this is about him,
guess he can't use that one! :shrug:

BTW, Cain is exactly what Black folks don't need;
a Black man who fulfills White folks' racial stereotypes,
while they hold him up as some kind of model....
as he stabs Black folks in the back and in the front.

He doesn't represent us Black folks and never has....
he represents himself, and it ain't a pretty presentation,
to say the most.

[denem]

11. Does he need:'he was chasing our women'. Whatever the politics

than narrative must be called out. Period.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

48. There's Been No Mention Of The Race Of The Women

I expect we will be learning more about these women and further expect it to be revealed these women were African American.

[jenmito]

15. EXACTLY!

His race has NOTHING to do with this according to Cain himself, since there IS no racism according to him. And he used to say he doesn't consider himself an African-American, but American who's Black and Conservative.

This is getting coverage because of how poorly he handled (or FAILED to handle) the situation.

[denem]

19. OK Race has NOTHING to do with the coverage.

Nothing at all? Is this a new color blind USA, or what? The perfected union.

[jenmito]

22. Nothing at all. He was silent for ten days on this. It got lots of coverage because of how

terribly he handled it. He's running for president. He's obviously not prepared.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

12. Apples and oranges.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

[denem]

13. But the knife is the same,

or should that be oven.

[FrenchieCat]

20. No, the knife isn't the same......

It is a Republican knife being turned on a Republican
who states that he isn't an AA. We, of the AA persuasion,
take him at his word when he says he ain't one of us.
Plus, according to him, we are too busy being brainwashed by
the Democratic Party to give a damn about what happens to him....
which is about as much as he cares about us. So no loss there.
You'll just have to deal with that. Sorry to disappoint you.

Certainly, the media will take their marching orders from the GOP PTB,
and get rid of whomever has been decided should be gotten rid of,
and it appears to be Cain's turn. Just another day in Republican politics.

Wonder if this distraction will hide Rick Perry's drunken speech, or Romney's
cowardly act of not showing up on talk shows since 2010?

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

25. That was a Herman Cain joke number 1. No. 2, as someone who has actually experienced

racism in my homeland and later on in this country. Herman Cain and these media assholes can all go fuck themselves. They were boosting him up for their amusement and he was spewing the kind of garbage they love to hear, when it comes to race. Now if the same people he's been putting his minstrel show for. Have decided to turn on him. Too damn bad. They deserve each other.

I can't wait for him to come out and make racism claims just like that piece of shit Clarence Thomas did when it suited him.

[EffieBlack]

47. +1000

I couldn't have said it better . . .

[tanyev]

14. Or merely hoisted on his own petard?

[denem]

16. Plenty RW's get hoisted. Fewer hung. Ask Newt. nt.

[GodlessBiker]

18. It feeds into the old white stereotype that the black man is sexually ...

aggressive and is able to use his larger-than-life erection to obtain his sexual desire. White males are envious and white females fantasize.

Or something like that.

[denem]

21. That stereotype is freshly minted every year, bad coins

in sweating hands.

[onenote]

23. For heaven's sake, check your history

The list of politicians whose careers have tanked because of allegations of sexual harassment or other sexual "misconduct" is quite long and hardly limited to African Americans. Indeed, you'd have to have a very short memory not to remember: David Wu, Anthony Weiner, and Chris Lee -- not an African American in the bunch. And going back in time, I recall this fellow, Clinton, that seemed to get a lot of attention for allegedly harrassing females. He was described as the first Black President by some, but that was just hyperbole. Going back farther -- there was that Packwood fellow. A white guy. Lost his job as a senator because of harassment allegations.

Wikipedia has long list of politicians involved in sex scandals. In some cases their careers survived, in some cases they didn't. Race doesn't seem to be a factor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_federal_political_sex_scandals_in_the_United_States

[denem]

26. Newt? One of the hopefuls I believe.

Say what.

[flamingdem]

24. Disagree strongly. They're giving him a PASS cause he's puke - and another incompetent! nt

[Ilsa]

27. Not in my opinion.

Bitter hired sex workers to fulfill his kinky fantasies. Newt married his mistresses.

[Carnage251]

28. Unrec

Sexual harassment in the workplace equals consensual sex to you?
Do you actually think It would be different if It were romney?
How much media coverage did Bill Clinton get? I was only 8 when that story blow up and it still sticks vividly in my mind.

[denem]

29. Too young to remember Jackson 84, 88 or Thomas then,

I get ya.

[WildEyedLiberal]

38. Ad hominem

You couldn't debate the other poster's point, so you attack his age. Classy. :eyes:

[denem]

41. Absolutely to the point. The OP notes WJC has pride of place

in RW folk lore

23. The poster is too young to remember the 'sex scandal' coverage on prominent black men.

[JoeyT]

30. Monica Lewinsky? Rielle Hunter? Meagan Broussard?

Never heard of any of them? Added together there were about three years we couldn't turn on a TV without hearing about Bill Clinton's, John Edwards', or Anthony Weiner's dicks.

The first two of those were outright consensual, the third may have been. (I don't remember)
Cain's harassment was completely non-consensual.

[denem]

31. All basically ongoing affairs, ditto Hart - not 15 years old.

There is no statue of limitation on racism.

[truedelphi]

35. Have you been able to catch any of "The Boss" or maybe it is

simply "Boss." It's on cable TV.

In the latest episode, the mayor of Chicago is coming out saying he supports one guy for governor, while having his staff remove the sound from a video that a security camera had made of that governor. The film footage makes it look like the governor is having an affair with this young staffer, when actually the young guy is just helping him with a fashion glitch, and then the governor thanks him, using a pat on the back. But without the sound, the touchy/feel-y stuff between the two men looks sexually sinister.

[onenote]

51. Paula Jones? 29 Packwood staffers? Eric Massa and Mark Foley?

Harrassment or unwanted touching cases. All big news when they occurred. Race not an issue.

Moreover, a valid distinction can and should be drawn between a "consensual" relationship between a politician and a staffer or intern and a consensual relationship between a politician and someone with whom the politician has no employer/employee relationship.

There have been a number of other instances in which politicians have been caught and put in the public spotlight because of a relationship with a staffer/intern -- and once again race has not been a factor: Mark Souder, John Ensign, Gary Condit, Dan Crane, Tim Mahoney, and Wayne Hays come to mind.

[Tx4obama]

32. If Romeny or Perry had paid out hush money to two women it would still be a big story. n/t

[denem]

33. A legal/corporate settlement in 1996?

None of the details available. Nope.

[Tx4obama]

36. Yes, details are coming out now about the hush money.

Cain was the 'president' of the restaurant association when it happened.
It shows what happened and how it was handled it while Cain was in charge,
leadership/executive skills and scandals are relevant.
When you're running for president everything should be put under a microscope.

[Enrique]

34. thanks for posting this, denem

you're keeping DU a little more real by discussing this.

We know very little about this particular case, whether the accusations were true, who leaked it to Politico, etc. But we all should know that what you say in your OP is true, even if it's about a clown like Herman Cain, even if he plays the race card himself, all the other rationalizations.

[geek tragedy]

37. Bob Packwood? nt

[WildEyedLiberal]

39. I love how quick "progressives" are to throw women under the bus

God, it's so predictable at this point. Women are ALWAYS the first to be thrown under the "progressive" bus when we need to make a point about the "greater" evils of racism, war, multiculturalism, classism, etc. I especially love how you put "inappropriate behavior" in scare quotes, like sexual harassment really isn't a big deal and those uppity wimmins need to get a hold of themselves and stop being so racist by daring to be harassed by a black guy. So disgustingly predictable.

[blueclown]

45. +1

While I do think the OP has a point that racism plays a role in this blowup, to question the veracity of these woman's claims is absolutely shameful.

[boppers]

55. Do we know that both claimants are women?

Is that just an assumption?

[EffieBlack]

46. No

Another arrogant, self-righteous hypocrite skewered on his own peccadillos.

[certainot]

49. what does limbaugh say? very telling is whether the RW radio and general messaging will

defend him (so far they are). but they were never going to nominate cain, he's there for general messaging.

romney/gingrich are probably the candidates for rove and 'mainstream" GOP, figuring they can put a fundamentalist as VP and sell them. the koch bros teabaggers are probably perry/cain ( cain's team is koch bros). both cain and perry just got swiftboated ( was perrydrugged) for that silly speech.

the main driver in US media is RW radio and the R's are fighting for control of it and their general messaging juggernaut.

three main functions of RW radio: create buzz, make excuses for the republicans, and divert attention.

if they want to get buzz on something to swiftboat a dem or divert attention, RW radio is better than a coordinated madison avenue. if they ignore something it means they want to let it die off in the mainstream. without talk radio driving it the mainstream will easily move off the front page.

in the bush days when rove have central control of talk radio whatever limbaugh did on an issue was indicated what rove and GOP central wanted. when rove lost the white house it seems the koch bros think tanks moved in and created the tea party out of dittoheads and moved them to the town halls primarily to stop health care reform. then it went from there, with RW radio going on for months that raising the debt ceiling was just a way to help obama and not doing it would help republicans.

[mstinamotorcity]

50. Bullshit

they were looking for the smoking gun and they found it in his past. This is part of the vetting process. Cause he is black?? This time is not relevant. He has been the front-runner. The Romney folks and Moderate Republicans are surly behind this. Cain is linked in with Americans for Prosperity ( The Koch Brothers ). The moderate repugs are behind Romney and do not like the Koch brothers brand of politics. The money is flowing behind Romney. And if it were between Mitt Romney and Herman Cain, They would go against their principles and choose the Mormon. Yes it is stereotypical of the premise of a black man taking advantage of a woman, but Mr. Cain's popularity was growing among tea bagger Conservatives and he had to go down. He will be destroyed or a political tool against our President when they finish with him. If you look like an idiot after you have sold yourself to racist and your on greed, Then don't blame liberals..BLAME YOURSELF!!!!

[EffieBlack]

53. "BLAME YOURSELF!"

:rofl:

[Manifestor_of_Light]

54. No, he's a scumbag whether he is white or black.

Doesn't matter.

We have equal opportunity idiots in the Republican party - stupid black men as well as stupid white men.
We also have gender equality - Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachman are just as nutty and stupid as the men.

[BanTheGOP]

56. This is why the GOP needs to be banned

Sex offenders like Herman Cain and Clarence permeate the party through and through. We should render the GOP impotent by criminalizing its status as a political entity, and identifying, charging, convicting, and incarcerating most of the republicans who have stolen all our wealth and given it to the 1%.

Herman Cain needs to be taken to task, as should every republican. Ban the party, NOW.