Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa

OK here we go again. I have called the voters of West Virginia crackers. Yes, I know. It was wrong. Just because 22% of West Virginians when polled, by a complete stranger, felt perfectly fine saying race would be an issue for them in the election, doesn't mean all West Virginians are crackers. Pollsters estimate that if 22% admit that race would play a role in their vote, probably translates more accurately to 40% give or take a few percentage point. I know every citizen of West Virginia was not polled--it was a sampling. But since my mother's family comes from small town Texas, and never hesitated to express their racism, and I have always thought of them as crackers, family yes, but crackers none the less, still it was wrong of me to paint my portrait of the fine upstanding hard working white citizens of West Virginia all as crackers. But to all those crackers out there, you know who you are. I assure you I am not black, but even if I were, it wouldn't be cool to send the clan to my house to burn a cross on the front lawn. Even so, I think Hillary went way out of the way to fashion herself as one of them. The unelites. The regular folks. White folks. Hard working white folks, just like them. Their kind of people--those hard working, hard working white voters of West Virginia, whose racial mix is 89.61% white, undoubtedly hard working, mostly at Wall Mart, or however you spell that store I'll never set foot in. They have a black population of 7.49%. Jesus, that's small by even Utah standards. I know the times they are a changing, but my god, how long will it take for even the most inbred, ignorant, white trash bastards to get the clue that it isn't any longer cool to proudly declare yourself a racist to perfect strangers? But to those of you living in West Virginia, you have my apology. it doesn't make me like or respect Hill and Bill, but if calling a cracker a cracker's a crime, I'm guilty.

20 comments:

Liquid said...

(Oo)

Utah Savage said...

I have tried to leave comments on you site but have been thwarted in my attempts by the intertubs gods. But I've been reading.

Bob Keller said...

..... no comment .....

Just wanted you to know I stopped by.

K McKiernan said...

You are right about one thing.. it is sad that there are way too many people who feel "just fine" calling themselves racist... they also are the ones you can see waving the confederate flag from their blazing red ten ton truck.

But what I read in an article yesterday--Hillary saying that some people vote for her because they are racist, and some people vote for Obama because they are sexist, but that many of the people who are racist or sexist would not be voting for either one of them anyway come November election time--True, that.

Randal Graves said...

I like crackers, but even they have high fructose corn syrup in them these days. Seriously, check the ingredients.

There are crackers everywhere. I live in Cuyahoga county, by far, the bluest of the counties in Ohio, but there are plenty of them here, many of whom live in my town. Their ubiquity cannot be escaped. As long as they don't vote for The Maverick®. Otherwise they can fuck off.

Unconventional Conventionist said...

Well, you've gone and done it, insulted crackers everywhere.

My beloved box of Saltines is now whimpering. I hate that. When they cry, they get all soggy.

Utah Savage said...

Oh Randal, UC, you guys made my morning. Thank you so much for the laugh. If I keep insulting people I'm afraid they'll come take my blog away.

And K, don't forget Hillary got most of the cracker vote in West Virginia. And if it's Clinton v McCain, those crackers with vote for McCain, so what the hell is all the fuss about?

anita said...

This brouhaha over the use of the word "cracker" is very, very bizarre. Political correctness on behalf of racist-leaning people? WTF?

K McKiernan said...

No... trying to be fair... we would never dream of calling the group of people who vote for Obama in southern states the N word, so if we want to be fair individuals, we really should not call the group of people who vote for Hillary crackers.

If we get so mad at the idea of people perceiving us as "elite" then we should friggin avoid doing the very things and saying the very things that give 'em that very idea.

We really should want to unite people... not divide... unless we are closet Republicans. Do I hate that some people ARE crackers and do not give a good man a chance because he is black. Yeah, it really torks me. But it also torks me that people do the same thing to Hillary because she is a woman.

No, Utah, Hillary has a chance to beat McCain in WV. I really wish you understood how much I love Obama; I just see how so many things could go wrong come November. I know you all blew off her speech the other night, but did you even notice that much of what she said about key, swing states... its what I said to you in a very long blog two months ago. I have seen this for awhile. Its not that I WANT to see it... its that I DO see it.

All it takes is another Wright issue, the Republicans go biserk on Obama's ass, the racists back the white guy, black people feel as if their vote won't matter... we are SCREWED. If for ANY reason, the number of blacks who have been voting in primaries stay home... we are dead. DEAD. Black people and young people are where his votes lie... and both have been known to not carry through on vote day (although youth are far worse).

I hope I am wrong. But when all the primaries are over and if Obama does in fact win the nomination, I hope we can fight together to show him for what he is and that we can get him elected President of the US. Its not gonna be easy and living some pie in the sky dream that because he COULD be good that he will GET IT... well, it will get us nowhere .... nowhere but on unfortunate street with Maverick-the Prick-McCain.

DivaJood said...

can someone explain what it means to be a "cracker"? I have no idea what the fuss is.

I'm from the North.

Blueberry said...

A cracker is a "poor Southern white person." A hillbilly is "a person from a backwoods area." Those are from the dictionary. I was raised by and grew up with people like that (maybe that makes me one too, by some definitions). I've lived in tar paper shacks with no plumbing. Racism was open and unhidden, it was the norm, N-word and all.

Referring to people are are openly racist as "crackers" is pretty tame, almost nice.

DivaJood said...

so, a cracker is different than a redneck? Yikes, so many descriptions, so little time.

Ghost Dansing said...

one of my favorite all time songs about crackers.....

origins? what's the sound a whip makes?

Utah Savage said...

Ghost, that was sound was chilling, the the Shirley Temple part but the other. Like the whip on the back?

Stella by Starlight said...

K, you wrote "All it takes is another Wright issue, the Republicans go beserk on Obama's ass." Absolutely, I agree.

But why aren't the Democrats going beserk on McCain's association with the Fat Toad Hagee, who's far more horrid than Wright. Well, at least that's IMHO for what it's worth.

Do you think this is more evidence of manifest bigotry? I'm guessing that both preachers are opportunists, proving to me that fanaticism and greed are color blind.

I believe that both Wright and Hagee should lose their tax-exempt status for their failure to separate Church and State in their actions.

Pardon my frustration and previous rant, but I can't find my own voice all of a sudden. So, I'm going to borrow Yeats.

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?


Hey, Utah, FIVE blogs? I'm awed. Domine nom sum dignum.

Utah Savage said...

Stella, you really know how to ring my literary bell. Yeats my all time fave. And this poem especially.

As for the five blogs, they just magically appeared. Perhaps my Administrator is sending me a message.

K McKiernan said...

Oh, Stella, you are speaking to the choir. I don't think there can be ENOUGH separation between church and state, but I am a raving atheist. But yes... they are opportunists.

And you know, it is sad that I don't know one thing about what you mentioned regarding McCain and Hagee... and the reason why I don't and why you perceive no one cares is that we all tend to be so preoccupied with Obama and Hillary and the constructed argument the media feeds us.

This does not mean either candidate should give up yet.... for NEITHER candidate has the requisite 2,000+ delegates. However, we should not be sitting here on this blog tearing either of our stellar candidates apart when we have a much much larger war to fight. A war that we should be proud to have either candidate help us fight.

Side note: You are really well versed... what do you do for a living? Are you a literature teacher?

Vigilante said...

I agree with you MCK! I should read this before I commented in a subsequent thread.

K McKiernan said...

Thank you VIg... I do not think we are different in our thinking... I WANT an elite president... but he has to be able to convey being "down to earth" so we can get him in there...

That is all I was saying... I do NOT subscribe to how OTHERS have slurred the term. But I have to analyze the way they have done so as to try to bring the word back from their "cold dead hands."

Let's play nice... shall we? All of our animosity should be for Weasel boy and the Crone who wants 4 more years of the hell that has been dished out already.

Stella by Starlight said...

K, LOL, you busted me. I was training to become an English professor when I realized the job market was impossible (1,000 applicants for each job...)

I can't thank you enough for the compliment. Maybe someday I'll be able to go back to school and get my Ph.D. Then, I'd be even more insufferable. I am currently a technical writer and love what I do because I've always been part literati, part geek.

I'm not an atheist, but believe everyone is on the path they need to travel. I listen to people from all faiths, and consider atheism a faith, also. Like you, I believe that separation of church and state is a scared trust from our founding fathers who were Deists (NOT Christians). My faith compels me to respect all beliefs.

People like Hagee are opportunists, not people of faith. That's his path, but I firmly believe he and his church should lose their tax-exempt status because he's participating in politics.

Alas, in a perfect world...

Thank you again for the compliment K. Please say hi to J for me. Utah, my dear, all my best to you, too.