Where's Waldo?

[eracerhead.livejournal.com]

Where's Waldo? And by that I mean, find the black people at Glen Beck's Rally.



It's a fun game and you can play it with all the photos I found on http://dc.about.com/od/protestsandrallies/ss/Glen-Beck-Rally-Pictures.htm

In case you need a clue, there is one gentleman in the upper left-center wearing a badge, presumably telling the white woman where to find the restroom.

[Edited for the benefit of Htpcl]

Comments

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

I need some clarity about the purpose of you calling it the Million Moron March. Pick one:

a) baiting the opposite side from across the political barricade (namely: the tea party sympathizers) into a flame war
b) expecting cheers and applause from people on your side of the political barricade
c) just having some shits'n'giggles
d) all of the above

Your turn.

[eracerhead.livejournal.com]

D.

[geezer-also.livejournal.com]

Ah, let him have his fun. "I can see November from my house" (note the quotes that should have been around MMM...it's not original) The lefties are running scared, but the "cleverness" is better than hate filled epithets :D

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

I agree with your sentiment but I disagree with the form you've chosen to express it. I can see you're trying to troll. I don't expect this post to last long if you persist. But thanks for trying anyway.

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

there is one gentleman in the upper left-center

Of course he's left of center! It means he's a librul implant!
Center, my ass. He's a damn commie!
Upper? You mean he's an elitist?

presumably telling the white woman where to find the restroom

How did you know that? My sources say he was secretly abducting white women for O'Bama's genetic experiments in the Deth Kamps.

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

You mean Hussein's Deth Kamps.

[sagittipotens.livejournal.com]

OMG there is one!

He looks lost

[a-new-machine.livejournal.com]

I find it decidedly odd that the media feels obligated to stick in comments that the crowd was mostly white. There are no matching comments about how the crowd for the counter-protest was mostly of one race or another (I honestly don't even know the racial makeup of the other crowd). Why the need to report on the whiteness of the Beck rally? If you're gonna accuse a group of racism, do it. No need to pussyfoot around.

[sagittipotens.livejournal.com]

Once you outright accuse a group of racism it can have as defeatist an effect as comparing them to Hitler. And let's face it, if anyone knows how to pussyfoot around, it's the media.

[mijan.livejournal.com]

False patriotism: wearing the American flag as a garment, in disgustingly disrespectful violation of the flag code.

[mrbogey.livejournal.com]

The stars, bars, and colors are only a flag if in the proper configuration. Red and white stripes with a field of blue on a scarf isn't a flag.

[eracerhead.livejournal.com]

To make this clear.

We have a group of Glen Beck fans. These folks were nowhere to be found the previous decade. They seemed to have no problem with Bush's presidency racking up debt and spending. Now we have a sitting black president doing nothing that is much different from the previous administration.

The fact that the group is comprised almost exclusively of white people screaming "We want our country back" begs the question. What do they want to take the country back from?

Could it be spending or big government? Nope, as they did not object to Bush or Reagan.
Could it be taxation? Nope, as taxes are lower now than when Bush was in office.
Could it be socialized medicine? Nope, as the healthcare bill was in no way socializing medicine.
Could it be the secularization of America. Nope, as America has always been a secular nation.

What else could it be? Hmmm, that's a tough one.

[a-new-machine.livejournal.com]

You've framed a lot of that as factual that they simply don't agree with. Let's be honest, the fact that they're using "socialist" in place of "economic interventionist" doesn't do much to defeat their argument that the health care bill was a bad idea - it's just stupid adherence to semantics in what is clearly not an academic debate. The taxation issue is legitimate in some ways, seeing as how the penalties for NOT buying health insurance comes in the form of a tax, and the Bush tax cuts are set to expire. Moreover, they are arguing at least in part that the deficit spending Obama is doing will drive up taxes in the future, or for their children. They would also argue that the US has not always been secular, and there are a plethora of official recognitions of God and religion to point to that side. Finally, spending and government I've always seen as a "boiling point" issue - when Bush pushed through the first stimulus package during the recent downturn, there was a lot of rage from conservatives, too. Obama merely doubled down on Bush's bet and thus drew even more ire, and also lacked some of the leftover fondness that conservatives felt for Bush's previous policies (social and foreign) to take the edge off.

Basically what you've done is presume you've already won all those arguments in ways that cannot possibly be refuted, and then declared the only other option (racism) the reality. That's just shoddy debate, and a straw man of epic proportions. Like super epic. And the sad part is, I generally agree that there's a less-than-desirable undertone to the Tea Party; you just do a terrible job presenting the argument.

[allisnow.livejournal.com]

Funny how it's all about race with some people.

[chessdev.livejournal.com]

Yeah....WHO would be thinking of race on the "I have a Dream" Anniversary from Glen Beck who said they would "take back Civil Rights"??

[dreadfulpenny81.livejournal.com]

This whole post is racist. Seriously. Taking the time to point out someone simply because of their race?

[eracerhead.livejournal.com]

No it isn't, except under the most naive and sophomoric definition of racism.

[headhouse.livejournal.com]

Troll post. C'mon, people, don't encourage this level of stupid, please.

[eracerhead.livejournal.com]

It was potentially a troll post when I originally called it the "million moron march," which was changed per request of the moderator. Upon which it was no longer considered trolling. It isn't trolling when one believes one has a valid point, nor is it stupid just because you don't understand it.

[kinvore.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of a scene from the movie Outrageous Fortune (a movie that few have watch I'd imagine). Anyway, Bette Midler and Shelley Long are in a cab in a rough neighborhood. Shelley whispers something about not seeing any white people.

Bette says something like, "There's one. Nevermind, they got him."

[rasilio.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I mean wtf is wrong with those guys.

Maybe they should go find themselves some negroes and beat them till they agree to show up.

[eracerhead.livejournal.com]

Sorry, but they have already been warned to stay away from neighborhoods of color.

[drcruel.livejournal.com]

I think we can all agree that what Mr. Beck wants is money, and the best way to get money is to convince retired white people with lots of money and time that they are somehow disenfranchised...and being discriminated against by brown people...and they should show up at his rallies and buy his books in protest of the evil black people who have done such a great job of keeping whites out of power in America.

[whoasksfinds.livejournal.com]

all he wants is money so he helped raise 5 million dollars for a charity. lol.

[heirtoruin.livejournal.com]

Oh look a preponderance of white people!!!

They MUST be racists!!

[eracerhead.livejournal.com]

You said it, not me. What's wrong, guilty conscience?

[ytterbius.livejournal.com]

After the final tally, it'll be interesting to see if MLK had a higher percentage of white people at his event.

[eracerhead.livejournal.com]

Quite a bit higher percentage actually.

http://myhero.com/images/guest/g7643/hero7896/g7643_u4723_mlk06.jpg

[stewstewstewdio.livejournal.com]

In answer to your question: He is up on the stage wearing denim coveralls and a hat that says "Token Negro"

[reality-hammer.livejournal.com]

Similarly the Million Man March and Sharpton's opposition march and MLK's own gathering at the mall are all to be shunted into the dust bin because they didn't meet some arbitrary mix of races and ethnicities?

Did you miss one of the main speakers, Dr. Alveda King, niece of MLK?

If you only look for evil in people that's all you will find.

[eracerhead.livejournal.com]

Being racist does not necessarily make you evil. It has little to do with evil and more to do with attitudes and worldviews that perpetuate a system of class privilege.

[eracerhead.livejournal.com]

The people showing up here are fearful of losing control of the culture.

[reality-hammer.livejournal.com]

I wanted to see what the all-white hosts of MSNBC had to say about this but all they are showing is child porn tonight.

Is it a Keith Olbermann special lineup or something?

[eracerhead.livejournal.com]

To make this even more clear. (I've dug this out of the weeds of this OP)

There is a racist element to this, it has to do with the rhetoric surrounding the groups and the motivation behind getting people to rally in the first place, and it isn't necessarily intentional. The current administration was voted in by a clear majority of the population choosing an alleged progressive, so if anyone should be rallying in the streets, it is the liberals. The primary motivations are not likely to be political issues because policies really are not much different from previous administration's policies. It isn't likely that the average attendee even fully understands the policies they rail against. Why didn't they vote for Ron Paul or others who were actually more in-line with their stated goals? They didn't because most of them don't really care about the debt, the issues are a psychological smokescreen that makes them feel better about why they feel the way they do.

So why now, at this moment, do these folks and the tea partiers find it necessary to take "America and civil rights back" when nothing much has changed, and there was no where near the level of unrest among them during the last presidency? Why do they feel so disenfranchised, right now? The belief is that it is largely because they are not used to being of the minority. They aren't used to the fact that people who do not agree with them could take power. They are scared that they are losing control of the culture, and the fact that we have a black president plays a part in amplifying their fears, the tipping point that causes them to act. I would even be willing to bet that most of them aren't even aware of it.

So there is a subtle racist element to these movements mostly around losing power and influence, and of having ones worldview questioned when before it was the standard by which others were judged. This is one reason why a group comprised almost exclusively of members of the ruling class is different from groups of minorities, and should be called out. Why should it remain unquestioned why their political rally does not attract people of color? You don't see many people of color there because for the most part they have neither the history nor expectation of being in control. So the people who attend these rallies aren't bad people and aren't intentionally racist. They just fail to recognize their role in perpetuating a system that seriously needs deconstruction.

[reality-hammer.livejournal.com]

It's amusing how liberals didn't feel this way about Reagan, and how people whose race/ethnicity differed from Reagan weren't racists when they continued to object to his policies.

[eracerhead.livejournal.com]

Firsthand account:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/8/28/897086/-What-Happens-When-A-Liberal-Black-Man-Goes-To-Glenn-Becks-I-Have-A-Dream,-Too-Speech!

[heirtoruin.livejournal.com]

Are not most feminist, gay, anti-war, etc... rallies... mostly attend by ...


white people?

[eracerhead.livejournal.com]

The attendance is much better than 0.2% minority. Ever been to one?