When…when…when the fuck will we finally get past all this bullshit? I mean fucking REALLY?
Johnny Telvor was not happy about Barack Obama becoming the Democratic presidential nominee. Not happy at all.
Standing outside the sturdy courthouse in the sweltering heat of a West Virginia afternoon in the small town of Williamson, Telvor smoked a cigarette and bluntly gave his opinion of Obama’s historic mission to be America’s first black president.
‘We’ll end up slaves. We’ll be made slaves just like they was once slaves,’ he said. Telvor, a white Democrat who supported Hillary Clinton in West Virginia’s primary, said he planned to vote for Republican John McCain in November. ‘At least he’s an American,’ he added with a disarmingly friendly smile.
and further down…
But behind such optimism, another America looms. It is an America far from the headlines that have proclaimed Obama’s candidacy a revolution that will atone for a race-tinged history. This is the America where outrageous rumours that Obama is a Muslim are readily believed. It is the America where Telvor is able to voice a sentiment that ‘Obama might actually be the antichrist’ without apparent irony or fear of contradiction. It is a slice of America trapped in the dreadful history of race relations and the legacy of slavery and segregation.
If you can stomach it, the entire thing is here. Obama as the antichrist? Darkie gonna make us slaves? I can’t even begin to control my anger at this kind of shit. I won’t get into the whole jesus-angle as I think that’s a whole load of bullshit in a red wagon; what I will say is this. Fuck Appalachia. And fuck Ohio, Florida, Texas and all those shitty little enclaves where people like this harbor thinly (and not so thinly) veiled racist bullshit fears. There is no reason for that kind of shit to exist. As David Cross explains; its taught by the parents etc. No childs first words are ‘The jews have all the money’ or ‘The mud people should be exterminated’ or any shit like that.
If anyone needs me I’ll be in my Angry Dome.
—bp
Roly on June 10th, 2008 1:59 am
When Obama does become president it will be a lot easier to spot people who a just a ‘little bit’ racist… Going to be quite fun watching all that from the U.K. how many will fall back on their right to free speech, even if it shows them to be real fuckbags?
Seattle Steve on June 10th, 2008 4:12 am
BikePunk,
You must not be from Philly.
Wine Dog on June 10th, 2008 5:23 am
I might have to meet you at the Angry Dome. How about the jerkoffs at Fox leading with the “fist bump” was a terrorist signal? How about Kentucky all but SAYING OUT LOUD that they couldn’t bring themselves to vote for a NEGRO? My God Big Jonny this election is going to make my head blow off of my shoulders before it’s over. On the other hand, it’s exposing the racist teabaggers this country is rife with and that might not be a bad thing.
GrantB on June 10th, 2008 5:27 am
European media outlets love nothing more than to find the most backward exponents of Americana and give them the bully pulpit. They love to rub our noses in it.
Though the story referenced Appalachia, they really just went down south, didn’t they? In the rest of the south, white democrats went the way of the Dodo, more or less starting in the era of school desegregation. They all jumped ship long ago and re-tooled themselves as Republicans. The idea that there is this massive, white Democratic voting block in the south that will unexpectedly turn away from the party because of Obama is a joke.
The Guardian succeeded in finding perfectly meaningless pockets of Appalachian ignorance. Good for them.
ToneBone on June 10th, 2008 6:03 am
Whoa!..thanks for reminding me how F’ed-up some of the people are in this country. Dang, we give the rest of the world enough ammo to mock us…I think I need a timeout.
peACE
mxracer652 on June 10th, 2008 6:10 am
GrantB,
You’d get the same response in central PA or NY. Find any small rust belt town and the story never changes.
GDUB on June 10th, 2008 6:33 am
what you need to remember. These people are salt of the earth; the common clay of the new west..you know, morons
-dan on June 10th, 2008 6:36 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zklTTAaDaD0&feature=related
yeah, east kentucky, west-by God-virginia. keepin’ the niggers and spics out for 200 years…of course, after we got rid of those fucking indians.
I’d rather see this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBCos2MlQ1Y&feature=related
-dan on June 10th, 2008 6:49 am
forgot one more…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tb5ug-uSE8I
dentext on June 10th, 2008 7:04 am
Slam not only on texas and the stars & bars states, (not that kind of bar, ya damn drunk)
Day 2 of my being from tx in c..iali I saw overt jaw dropping racism. Several years ago I was geeking in the funeral home bidness. It a very explicity racist profession. I was further suprised that many of the really benighted were good, honest, kind..great folk. (and then the others who were in it simply to take advantage of people)
Even if Barak looses, it’s the best damn thing for us, just to make the country go through this.
IE,..DO ..NOT ..HATE…Racists.
Talk to em, listen, …figure out how the fuck the got that way.
Hell, the scary ass dude in question is probably a more honest, better guy to have beer with than anyone on the staff of the Observer.
And, btw..this I learned from SCLC guys way back.
Never be knee-jerk on race. Use yer noggin.
Be thoughtfull & kind. (until fox/haliburturn/et al go krystalnacht on yer ass..then get a fucking gun. But not till then)
KG on June 10th, 2008 7:14 am
Obama won’t lose because he’s black, he’ll lose because he’s weak.
KG on June 10th, 2008 7:19 am
When is the Boonen post coming?
Pfaff on June 10th, 2008 8:06 am
I am from a small town in North Carolina and have lived in the Appalachian mountains, and have a father from West Virginia who expresses racist tendencies that he learned from his dad(he likes to say Osama-bama which was probably coined on the O’reilly factor).
I am voting for Obama.
So slow down with your stereotyping of entire states and geographical areas because it makes you seem just as ignorant as the racist D-bags you like to rant about. If you want to find racist morons in any place in this country, all you have to do is look (and sometimes people actually like to put a microphone/camera in front of them and record the stupidity that spouts forth from their mouthes).
Unfortunately small pockets of these fucksticks reside everywhere, but fortunately this way of thinking is on the way out (I am a testament to that) and the hate mongers who still want to view others differently due to their race will be chastised for it and labeled as what they are: Afraid, Ignorant, Uneducated Idiots.
Obama for President. Booya.
bikesgonewild on June 10th, 2008 10:41 am
america ! america !
god shed his grace on thee
& crown thy good w/ brotherhood
from sea to shining sea !!!
…ah, yes, the beautiful diversity that is america once more rears it’s ugly head…
…i hope when the polls open, people see this as a real opportunity for change & have not been just regarding it as an “equal opportunity” sound byte but “lets now go back to our tired old ethics & ways”…
…we’ve not only pissed away any goodwill that had been developed on the world stage but we’ve 180*ed & pissed off just about everyone, as well…
cyclonecross on June 10th, 2008 2:38 pm
I live in Cleveland and the number of Obama signs and stickers out numbered both McCain and Clinton combined 10 to 1. I’m still suprised that Obama lost in Ohio’s primary. Even though Ohio has tended to lean a little more toward the red side of things, I think that Obama stands as good of a chance as Clinton did of beating McCain in Nov.
Humpty on June 10th, 2008 3:18 pm
ifin’ you kant speek ‘merikun…than git tha hell out mah kuntry…
Seoul Brother on June 11th, 2008 2:21 am
Very well said, Pfaff. It could be incredibly easy to dismiss this jagoff as “Well c’mon – the dude is from [FILL IN THE BLANK],” but that is doing a gross disservice to people from that area who manage to defy stereotypes and -gasp- get on with their lives.
I’m not surprised that stronzos like this exist. They don’t understand that they are representatives for more than their ill-informed dumbfuckery. They don’t understand that it makes things frighteningly easy for people not from (or familiar with) Appalachia to dismiss this as what you’d expect from Cletus, the Slack-Jawed Yokel.
It’s unfair for anyone to say “Hey, I ain’t with this jagoff,” but as long as simple bitches are given camera time, it is a necessary evil.
nate on June 11th, 2008 6:32 pm
Racism in the south is so ingrained that it’s simply casual. I moved to Arkansas three years ago and quickly learned that these people think that their racism is acceptable because of the ‘unique’ circumstances under which the races exist here, or something. I’ve lived in a few different parts of the country and found racism in each of them. The only difference was which minority was found in the greatest abundance. In South Dakota it was indians (or native americans), it Kansas City it was blacks and mexicans, in Arkansas it’s blacks. And I’m just talking about white racists here, race issues among minorities are even more radical and up-front. Nobody seems to talk about that though.
Here’s the deal on the election: Obama is going to motivate more voters from certain ethnic groups and age groups of formerly low voter participation than any other candidate. I don’t think their is a fart’s chance in a whirlwind of any old white guy winning this election.
And I’m sick of hearing people say that America is so great. Seems to me that you have to ignore a bunch of really horrible things to reach that conclusion.
Mike on June 17th, 2008 12:26 pm
Racism is taught. I live in Alabama and could give a damn less about some idiots racist trash. It is a lie that this is the first Black to run for president. I voted for Alana Keyes in the primary that brought us Bush and Alan Keyes IS RUNNING AGAIN IN THIS VERY ELECTION! He is running in the Constitution Party. I will vote for him again. He is brilliant and we need what he brings to the table. Not some leftist idiotic shill.
Cam on June 29th, 2008 7:58 pm
I think this is some racist BS, but what about the fact that 99% of black people in the US are not going to vote for McCain just because he’s a whitey? Its pretty freakin hypocritical to trash this hillbilly without addressing the fact that black folks are voting for Obama just because he’s black. i don’t get it.