Saturday, October 29, 2005
A bigot and a coward
The other night I referenced this disgusting post from blogger Steve Gilliard. The original depicted Maryland Senatorial candidate Michael Steele as a minstrel performer, with black face painted over a, well, black face. The imlplication is that Mr. Steele is not authentically black because he has the temerity to be a conservative Republican. After a couple of days of being justifiably hammered in the blogosphere, Dilliard has now altered the photo so that it simply shows a smiling Michael Steele surrounded by dollar signs. The post title, "Simple Sambo wants to move to the big house," remains.
It has been argued in some corners that since Gilliard is himself black there's nothing wrong with his abysmal depiction of Lt. Governor Steele. Not only is it wrong, it is perhaps even more disgusting. It seems that Gilliard has appointed himself guardian of all things black, and he will not tolerate black political viewpoints which deviate from his own. This attitude has always greatly troubled me for it creates the impression that black people should be a monolith. One would think that after four decades of devotion to one party it would be men like Gilliard who would be viewed as suspect. After all, he preaches continued adherence to a party that has not done anything to manifestly improve the lot of blacks in this country.
It has been argued in some corners that since Gilliard is himself black there's nothing wrong with his abysmal depiction of Lt. Governor Steele. Not only is it wrong, it is perhaps even more disgusting. It seems that Gilliard has appointed himself guardian of all things black, and he will not tolerate black political viewpoints which deviate from his own. This attitude has always greatly troubled me for it creates the impression that black people should be a monolith. One would think that after four decades of devotion to one party it would be men like Gilliard who would be viewed as suspect. After all, he preaches continued adherence to a party that has not done anything to manifestly improve the lot of blacks in this country.
# posted by Paul Zummo : 9:25 AM
