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I was driving to work this morning listening to WGN radio out of Chicago. The radio host was talking about the libertarian party and what appears to be a veiled attempt at racism, by wanting to allow 1st amendment rights to overceed civil rights of the 1960s. For example the host of the radio program asked his audience if they thought it was OK for a white restaurant owner to deny entry to their restaurant based on the color of skin (black, Mexican) and also if the reverse should be allowed, a black owner denying entry to his restaurant based on someone being white. The entire topic seemed sort of, well, awkward and a bit silly. I thought to myself- are their really still people who think that is OK in this day and age. I expected people to call in and be outraged at such an idea. The responses from callers were jaw-dropping. Every singlecaller...10-15 callers in all...said they thought it should be up to the owner of a business whether to discriminate on the basis of race (even though it is outlawed) the idea being that it would eventually put the owner out of business. Many callers thought that the 1st amendment is far more important than peoples civil rights. Some thought that being black was somehow the same thing as being overintoxicated at a tavern.
I was stunned. The DJ host was stunned. I'm sure many listeners were stunned.
Chicago has always had a reputation for closet racism, and I have often defended Chicago on this board, but I can't defend the amount of hate I heard this morning. The host went on to say ...
"I cannot belive we have this many callers that think this would be OK, to hang a sign that says no blacks allowed in 2010..we'll be back in a moment on WGN Chicago..on what I think is still planet Earth"
Is this a common attitude in many big cities...New York, L.A. etc? Are people really living in the 50s?
Last edited by nanci boydlin; 05-21-2010 at 01:10 PM..
honestly, i don't think america is as "over" racism/biggotry as the general consensus thought it was...
all types of stuff is out in the open now. the whole AZ thing, the shots at obama, the image of the tea party (whether they feel its deserved or not), rand paul's views, etc. etc.
hell, even when obama was running, the clintons led a pretty eyebrow raising campaign IMO.
sometimes i don't know about this country. this is not just back woods stuff at all. a vast amount of ppl in this country feel a certain way. this has nothing to do with party affiliation, either.
Any large city where the majority are Republican would fit the "most closet racism\ bigotry" criteria. But right off hand, I don't know of any large cities [500,000 or more] that vote Republican.
I am going to go out on a limb here and say that all big cities have closet bigots.
Also were the callers actually saying that it was ok to ban blacks from the restaurant. Or were the callers saying we should not force a business owner to serve everyone. There is a big difference there.
There is no closet racism in saying that business owners should be allowed to choose who they serve. Now if the owner says they do not serve blacks then yes the owner is being a bigot. But even if you force the owner to serve everyone, does not mean that everyone is getting the same amount of service and well made food.
Also were the callers actually saying that it was ok to ban blacks from the restaurant. Or were the callers saying we should not force a business owner to serve everyone. There is a big difference there.
No, in fact the host made the distinction very clear to each caller. He used the example "If a white southerner perhaps wants to hang up a sign that says NO BLACKS ALLOWED and enforce that policy, do you think that is the business owner's right? Like I said I was shocked that not one caller was outraged at the idea. It's almost like they were purposely screening callers who were racist idiots. Either way, the DJ/host was thoroughly disgusted. Even his co-host who claimed she was a devout Republican stated that the entire idea was "backwards"
I guess it raised my ire a bit as well as others I'm sure. It got me thinking right away that maybe the rumors I hear, that much of Chicago is still in the dark ages socially, well the radio program did not cast a good light on the average Chicago radio listener. That much is for sure. It was a small sample of people, so obviously you take it with a grain of salt. But not ONE caller who thought it to be blatently racist or going against all we fought for in the 60s?? It was very odd to hear on a big city radio station.
Any other big markets experience anything like this???
honestly, i don't think america is as "over" racism/biggotry as the general consensus thought it was...
all types of stuff is out in the open now. the whole AZ thing, the shots at obama, the image of the tea party (whether they feel its deserved or not), rand paul's views, etc. etc.
hell, even when obama was running, the clintons led a pretty eyebrow raising campaign IMO.
sometimes i don't know about this country. this is not just back woods stuff at all. a vast amount of ppl in this country feel a certain way. this has nothing to do with party affiliation, either.
This is very true.
Virginia has a lot of improvement it can make in this area. But Ive heard several people from up north, NY & Philly, who say that there is a lot of closet/low key racism. I always thought that upnorth had more of a class/money issue moreso than race. I guess its everywhere though. (Big City/Small City/Country/N,S,E,W/etc.)
Location: Austin, TX/Chicago, IL/Houston, TX/Washington, DC
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Quote:
Originally Posted by californio sur
Any large city where the majority are Republican would fit the "most closet racism\ bigotry" criteria. But right off hand, I don't know of any large cities [500,000 or more] that vote Republican.
I don't know for sure since I lost connection with politics in 2009 due to school and all, but doesn't Phoenix normally vote Republican? Same can be said for Oklahoma City. And those would just be two off the top of my head.
Location: Austin, TX/Chicago, IL/Houston, TX/Washington, DC
10,138 posts, read 16,031,388 times
Reputation: 4047
Quote:
Originally Posted by eek
honestly, i don't think america is as "over" racism/biggotry as the general consensus thought it was...
all types of stuff is out in the open now. the whole AZ thing, the shots at obama, the image of the tea party (whether they feel its deserved or not), rand paul's views, etc. etc.
hell, even when obama was running, the clintons led a pretty eyebrow raising campaign IMO.
sometimes i don't know about this country. this is not just back woods stuff at all. a vast amount of ppl in this country feel a certain way. this has nothing to do with party affiliation, either.
I'm with you on that, they had to call for reinforcement in College Station on election day. Some idiot hung a dog, and then put a pillow case on the dogs body with the word "Obama" on it...
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