Mayor of Jena to White Supremacist so-called leader Richard Barrett: "Your moral support means a lot."

Mon, 09/24/2007 - 11:11pm — lambert

Well, yes, I can see that it would. Chicago Tribune:

[T]he leader of a white supremacist group in Mississippi published interviews that he conducted with the mayor of Jena and the white teenager who was attacked and beaten, allegedly by the six black youths. In those interviews, the mayor, Murphy McMillin, praised efforts by pro-white groups to organize counterdemonstrations; the teenager, Justin Barker, urged white readers to "realize what is going on, speak up and speak their mind."

McMillin has insisted that his town is being unfairly portrayed as racist—an assertion the mayor repeated in an interview with Richard Barrett, the leader of the Nationalist Movement, a white supremacist group based in Learned, Miss., who asked McMillin to "set aside some place for those opposing the colored folks."

"I am not endorsing any demonstrations, but I do appreciate what you are trying to do," Barrett quoted McMillin as saying. "Your moral support means a lot."

McMillin declined to return calls seeking comment Monday.

Barker's father, David, said his family did not know the nature of Barrett's group when they agreed to be interviewed, adding, "I am not a white supremacist, and neither is my son."

But Barrett said he explained his group and its beliefs to the Barker family, who then invited him to stay overnight at their home on the eve of last week's protest march.

David Duke, the former Ku Klux Klan leader, last week announced his support for Jena's white residents, who voted overwhelmingly for him when he ran unsuccessfully for Louisiana governor in 1991.

Well, that's sorted. Not racist. Check.

Let's hope Krugman is right:

Yet if the marchers at Jena reminded us that America still hasn’t fully purged itself of the poisonous legacy of slavery, it would be wrong to suggest that the nation has made no progress. Racism, though not gone, is greatly diminished: both opinion polls and daily experience suggest that we are truly becoming a more tolerant, open society.

And the cynicism of the “Southern strategy” introduced by Richard Nixon, which delivered decades of political victories to Republicans, is now starting to look like a trap for the G.O.P.

One of the truly remarkable things about the contest for the Republican nomination is the way the contenders have snubbed not just blacks — who, given the G.O.P.’s modern history, probably won’t vote for a Republican in significant numbers no matter what — but Hispanics. In July, all the major contenders refused invitations to address the National Council of La Raza, which Mr. Bush addressed in 2000. Univision, the Spanish-language TV network, had to cancel a debate scheduled for Sept. 16 because only John McCain was willing to come.

If this sounds like a good way to ensure defeat in future elections, that’s because it is: Hispanics are a rapidly growing force in the electorate.

But to get the Republican nomination, a candidate must appeal to the base — and the base consists, in large part, of Southern whites who carry over to immigrants the same racial attitudes that brought them into the Republican fold to begin with. As a result, you have the spectacle of Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney, pragmatists on immigration issues when they actually had to govern in diverse states, trying to reinvent themselves as defenders of Fortress America.

And both Hispanics and Asians, another growing force in the electorate, are getting the message. Last year they voted overwhelmingly Democratic, by 69 percent and 62 percent respectively.

In other words, it looks as if the Republican Party is about to start paying a price for its history of exploiting racial antagonism. If that happens, it will be deeply ironic. But it will also be poetic justice.

Oh, I don't know if it's ironic. Seems like poetic justice, to me. Though long-delayed.

NOTE Via Lord Eschaton.

UPDATE And speaking of opposing the colored folks, here's FOX News, right on cue:

During the September 21 broadcast of his nationally syndicated Fox News Radio show, while discussing recent events surrounding the so-called Jena Six with the show's executive producer, known on air as "Angry Rich," John Gibson asserted that the demonstrators who gathered last week in Jena, Louisiana, only "wanna fight the white devil." Gibson aired news coverage of the Jena 6 protests and challenged protestors' claims that the incidents in Jena are representative of ongoing racism in this country. He said: "[W]hat they're worried about is a mirage of 1950s-style American segregation, racism from the South. They wanna fight the white devil. ... [T]here's no -- can't go fight the black devil. Black devils stalking their streets every night gunning down their own people -- can't go fight that. That would be snitchin'."

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Comments

I like the idea of the Republicans...

By lambert on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 6:40am

... becoming a regional rump party. Once nice thing about that happening is that the military industrial complex--the bases, especially--is concentrated down there, so the rest of the country is paying for it all with no "jobs" back. We got no incentive....

We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan

—

"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi

that is really the heart of the dem problem, lb

By chicago dyke on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 7:11am

those bases, the voters attached to it. there's a post in that, i wish i had the time to do it. but several people have told me that if i want an explaination for much dem behavior, that is the money trail to follow.

and just for the record: david duke spoke in the town of my birth, when he announced his candidacy for one office or another, i forget. early in his career, when he was just becoming a national media darling. up here, up north, there are just as many sheet-wearing racists as there are down south. racism has been increasingly "fashionable" since bush was installed in office, and these types are everywhere. staying over night in each others' houses, and a whole lot more. it's really important that they get the sunlight of attention, and the exposure lambert's giving them, demonstrating how feeble their claims of acceptance and neutrality really are.

Bases, etc.

By lambert on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 7:21am

I believe that the Northeast, at least, has been steadily denuded of bases and military manufacturing (certainly shipyards) in favor of states in the base. (Ditto "Northern Command," now situated, IIRC, along with the Air Force Academy, in heaviy Christianist Colorado Springs.)

The idea comes, I think, from Chris Bowers, who I linked to in past posts (too lazy to find now).

—

"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi

same with prisons

By intranets on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 9:23am

they applied the same metric to federal prisons and added their new spin of half-way religious facilities. New federal prison construction was routed over to loyal bushie towns. And millions upon millions of federal monies handed over to christian prison programs, and a halfway house plan which makes the money and organization put into homeschooling look lame by comparison.

inquiries and or need your assistance urgently

By anonymous coward (not verified) on Sat, 10/06/2007 - 5:11pm

I am looking for a true white supremist. One that is not afraid to speak out at why they believe what they believe. It is contradictory seemingly on my behalf as my skin is not white. But like Adolf Hitler who was plagued by his own contaminant genetics, I am a woman that married a pure Aryan German husband, have been a christian and personal friend to Ian Skinner, our own National leaders and they are being disrespected bya nigger from broolyn that has probably visited these sites but who needs to pay for the disrespect. needs to be taught respect in the way that he thought it was his place to teach. My name a secret for now has great weight and great authority and my physical body kept holy for my distant husband as well as my soon coming savior. While Venageanc belongs to him I am frim blevier that niggers should be kept intheir place and thais not ever linked nor desperate coattail riders of women who while not anglo saxon very much connnectd to every Klansman King and Knight within the south. Is there a bold soldier> The fiend that needs to be taught is named James or Jaymes Aarron Harris. There were those that wanted to see what my breaking point is or was. Even the Semblance of any connection to anything african american in originais repulsive to me as a woman. i understand perfectly that (ha) Latin America is not Africa I thought that the stupid niggers had gained suffient intelligance withallof the freedom allowed them to learn the same. They have threatene dto runin my blood, my genes and my body withthemsleves in disrespect of my husband who is traveling presently. Respond with action he oce lived in 278 atkins blvd. Brooklyn, New York and helpedinthe rape of myyounger sister as well.

Thank you for responding,

By lambert on Sat, 10/06/2007 - 5:34pm

Thank you for responding, anonymous coward. Your comment is very important to us. Please do not hesitate to comment again.

—

"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi

Sorry, you need to do your

By Ace (not verified) on Fri, 11/02/2007 - 3:08pm

Sorry, you need to do your history. The Democratic Party is the historic party of slave-owners. The fact that the Democrats have been able to bamboozle Blacks and other working people into supporting them (largely with the help of misleaders like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton) does not change the fact that they represent one wing of the rich elite which runs the U.S. (the Republicans represent the other wing).

The only way forward for working people of all colors, is for us to organize independently of both parties of capitalism (and all the horrors that come along with it, including war, which the Democrats partake in as much as the Republics, i.e. Korea, Viet Nam, Cuba, Yugoslavia, Somalia, etc.), in our own party.

It's no coincidence that we workers in the U.S., the only industrialized country without even a fake workers' party, work longer and harder, with the least amount of benefits, than our brothers and sisters in the rest of the industrialized world.