The Unforgivable Racism of Rush Limbaugh
As the world watched with horror the tragedy of the Haitian disaster unfold this last week, Rush Limbaugh took it upon himself to denounce relief efforts and urge his listeners to not donate any money. He claimed that this tragic event was tailor made to burnish Obama’s “credibility with both the light skinned and dark skinned black community in this country”. The media was quick to condemn Rush for his insensitive and inappropriate remarks but in light of Rush’s long history of racism how shocked could they really be. A brief rundown of just five of his most racist statements clearly shows that Rush Limbaugh has a real problem hiding his racism.
- “Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?”
- “The NFL all too often looks like a game between Bloods and the Crips without any weapons.”
- “The NAACP should have riot rehearsal. They should get a liquor store and practice robberies”
- “They’re 12 percent of the population. Who the hell cares?”
- [To an African American female caller]: “Take that bone out of your nose and call me back”
These are just a few. The list actually goes on and on and obviously it keeps getting longer every single day. These quotes, however, are not just mistakes on Rush’s part. Everything he says on his radio show is designed to get his listeners to think about politics and race relations as a war between “real America” and the “other America”. Let us take his statement about the Haitian relief effort and analyze how a typical Rush listener would process his words. On one level it represents Obama as a pure politician who is willing to use any tragedy for his own gain. On another level, however, it seems to imply that Obama would only show this much compassion and extend this kind of effort because the Haitian people are black. Finally, on a deeper level, the statement goes on to make it alright for his listeners to not care about the tragedy because it’s all about politics anyway and besides, they are just poor black Haitians. If division is Rush’s goal than this statement pushes all of his listeners buttons.
Rush Limbaugh, however, only has as much power and influence as he does because the Republican Party and the conservative intellectual elite allow him to continually get away with his outrageous statements. Despite all of the ample evidence of his racism and divisiveness, the Republican leadership refuses to condemn him publically. Where was John McCain or Michael Steel this week? Why didn’t the Minority leadership in the House and the Senate denounce his words? By forgiving him time after time they have only given him license to push the envelope further and gain a larger audience. Now the Republican Party is saddled with his racist legacy with no possibility of redemption. It has ceased to be the Party of Lincoln and has now become the Party of Limbaugh.
As we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday we should remember that Dr. King never preached division but always strove for people to come together as Americans. The only things he wanted to defeat were hatred and intolerance. And most of all he was willing to lead and stand up for what he believed was right no matter the personal and ultimately fatal consequences. How many listeners of Rush Limbaugh would have been willing to march with Dr. King? How many of the Republican leadership would? If they can’t find the courage to denounce Rush Limbaugh today than I seriously doubt they would have been brave enough to march across that bridge in Selma.
If Dr. King were alive today he would be undoubtedly calling for all Americans to come to the aid of the Haitian people. Undoubtedly, Rush Limbaugh would condemn and criticize him for it and his audience would love him all the more. The real question is do we want to live in Dr. King’s America or Rush Limbaugh’s.
Unfortunately racism is ALIVE and WELL in America. We can no longer ignore that fact. It is the underlying face that we see in millions of Americans today after the masks came off. They no longer can hide the ugliness under “Christian Values” labels and “Conservative” Slogans. The death of freedom as we know it is near. The march of facism has started playing its drum and millions are heeding the call. One would ask why all of a sudden is the Tea Party movement up in arms about big government and constitutional rights. Did we not see these rights get trappled on during the Bush administration? and there has definitely been Big Government in the past. Where were the Tea party patriots then???? Now that we have a “Black” man in the “White” House, many americans are uncomfortable with that thought. They start to spread fear, doubt, and anger. We as americans have lost our focus. To be a leader in the world we need to show the world how to lead, not to hate. Are these the Christian Values we are tought to follow? I think not. Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini and many other tyrannts have started their campaign in this very same manner:
1. Use of patriotic slogans, and mottos.
2. Ignore human rights because of enemies and need of security.
3. Identify scapegoats and enemies as a unifying cause.
4. Military unit formation….example: the Oath seekers.
5. Control mass media and using it to mislead the nation.
6. Religion and government are intertwined….”conservative christian”
It is quite clear where our nation is headed.