Uncategorized

Re: Re: Barbour’s Baggage

By Adam Sorensen | @adamsorensen | December 21, 2010 | +

After his comments sucked up the oxygen of a slow news day, Barbour himself has decided to respond:

My point was my town rejected the Ku Klux Klan, but nobody should construe that to mean I think the town leadership were saints, either. Their vehicle, called the ‘Citizens Council,’ is totally indefensible, as is segregation. It was a difficult and painful era for Mississippi, the rest of the country, and especially African Americans who were persecuted in that time.

Past statements aside, I think this particular incident was not about overt racism, but rather his apparent apathy about or unawareness of, as he says today, a difficult and painful era. But as Jim Geraghty points out, it has to be taken in context and is unlikely to be the last Barbour will hear of it.

Related Topics: haley barbour, Uncategorized

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  • http://elvisberg.wordpress.com Elvis Elvisberg

    I think this particular incident was not about overt racism, but rather his apparent apathy or unawareness of, as he says today, a difficult and painful era.
    -
    That is, he has a complete indifference to the lives and struggles of anyone who isn’t just as rich and white as he is.
    -
    But we already knew that from his public record.

  • square1

    “All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.” — Edmund Burke

    And Barbour isn’t even a good man.

  • formerlyjames

    Not aware? What about the private white schools which accompanied desegregation and continue to flourish? That would represent a pretty significant awareness, although not in a positive way.

  • 53_3

    It’s all abut deniability, you know…

  • 3xfire3

    For all of you Liberals who love to Demonize Republicans.
    .
    POLITICO Breaking News
    ————————————————-

    Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour issued a statement clarifying his comments in a Weekly Standard article about integration: “When asked why my hometown in Mississippi did not suffer the same racial violence when I was a young man that accompanied other towns’ integration efforts, I accurately said the community leadership wouldn’t tolerate it and helped prevent violence there. My point was my town rejected the Ku Klux Klan, but nobody should construe that to mean I think the town leadership were saints, either. Their vehicle, called the ‘Citizens Council,’ is totally indefensible, as is segregation. It was a difficult and painful era for Mississippi, the rest of the country, and especially African Americans who were persecuted in that time.”
    .
    And the Truth/Facts shall set you free.

    For more information… http://www.politico.com

  • 53_3

    3xfire3 is a bit slow…

  • sy2d

    Did George Allen issue a statement clarifying “macaca”?

  • artraveler

    Barbour is right. It was great if you were white and all your friends would be white and you could do anything you wanted to. I was in MS in 1964-66 in a city west of Yazoo City and Barbour is reliving his white life in a state where 40% of the people could only imagine what it would be like to sit on the lower level at the movie, get a soda at the local fountain, or walk in the front door of a business. The WHITE Citizens Councils were the local groups who set up the white segregated schools so the white kids wouldn’t have to go to school or even be around people who didn’t look like them. BTW, it hasn’t changed that much!

    It will take at least another two generations.

  • apr2563

    Schwerner, Goodman, Cheney.
    How could you have lived through that time and not seen the evil?
    Please look at this picture of the “Mississippi Burning” trial. Sheriffs Rainey and Price were the embodiment of law enforcement in Mississippi at the time.
    .
    http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/price&bowers/price&bowers.htm
    .
    Jeppie, Haley’s older brother and in 1967 mayor of Yazoo. Haley campaigned for him. But then Haley did not attend an integrated school as he claimed so maybe he is just confused.
    .
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/20/jeppie-brother-haley-barbour-brother_n_799441.html
    .

    Maybe five years ago,” he said, “you could’ve appointed a colored man yourself. Now you simply can’t get away with it. They’re goin’ to have to pick their own leaders. You could’ve gotten on radio five years ago using these very words, ‘George Collins is this ni**er we’ve appointed,’ and could’ve gotten away with it. I guess they’re just goin’ through a state of being rebellious and hard-nosed and not listenin’ to white people like they used to.”
    The town has seventeen policeman in all, which struck me as a substantial force for a town of 14,000, and Mace is standard equipment; the policemen carry it on their belts. “You get a drunk,” Jeppie says; “you either get him to come with you or you have to manhandle him. You give him Mace and he’ll want to go anywhere with you. It keeps that ni**er’s head in good shape.”

    Discipline has likewise been a problem with “the little ni**ers around town. One seven-year-old stole a pistol, but the chief has his own homemade juvenile delinquency kit. He has a belt that’s bigger than a Sam Browne belt, and he calls the parents and gets them to come down and take the kid into the basement and use the belt.”

    .
    A special thank you and recognition should be given to TPM for the research they have done.

  • 3xfire3

    IQ 53,
    .
    I thought you might like to see the entire statement.
    Apparently in your fact less world that’s not important.
    .
    “3xfire3 is a bit slow.”

  • 53_3

    In case you hadn’t noticed, it’s already out there, and alluded to in the post. I already read it.
    .
    In case you hadn’t noticed, my comment at 4 says it all. You might not agree with my conclusion, but unlike your recap of a recap, it remains a conclusion.
    .
    Try peddling a tweensy bit harder…

  • sacredh

    I think that the more Haley tries to clarify his past comments the worse it’s going to be. He’ll have to clarify his clarifications ad nauseum. Way to go dipsh!t. Don’t let your opponents take you out of the race, do it yourself and save everyone else the trouble. Throw your support to someone who has less baggage than Madonna on tour.

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