At least he will be after this gets out...
Always at the End
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There’s a classic Matt Drudge, Gloria Allred, and Internet Freak Show
fire getting ready to go to full conflagration, and some are concerned it
could emb...
12 years ago
Posts
3 comments:
So I'm going to throw myself into the fire and say "Why is this a controversial statement?". Don't burn me at the stake.
Taken in context, he's saying that Obama shouldn't be a puppet for corporations. I think wisdom in our ridiculously sensitive times would tell him to refrain from making such statements. It's okay for Alan Keyes, Thomas Sowell, or only the 2nd black Supreme Court Justice in our history, Clarence Thomas, to be called Uncle Tom because they don't give in to politically correct and racially destructive ideologies like affirmative action and welfare programs but Nader can't say that Obama should refrain from being used as an Uncle Tom on behalf of big corporations.
So that's my devil's advocate position. Personally, I wouldn't have used those words but I think it's a bit much to jump down this guy's throat (not that you're doing it but the Fox talking heads).
I'm not commenting on the validity of applying the term "Uncle Tom" to any of those other guys, but I think for Nader to use it at the time and in the fashion he used it, against a guy who angered Rev. Jackson with his calls for black men to step up to their responsibilities (you'll recall the "cut his nuts out" comment), is despicable. Nader, the man of the people and defender of the poor, should understand the implications of calling Obama an Uncle Tom the night he becomes the first black president. It's enough to say Obama shouldn't be a puppet or pawn of the corporations - Uncle Tom comes with a very different set of connotations.
Had Nader said he shouldn't be a "slave to the corporations" and people got up in arms, I'd tend to agree with you that it's due to ultra-sensitivity. But to blatantly call him an "Uncle Tom", and then confirm that you said what you meant on the matter is beyond the pale.
Definitely agreed (for the public record since we already talked about this face to face). It was a dumb choice of words and seemed largely rhetorically driven (to get the play on words of Uncle Sam and Uncle Tom) but yeah, given the occasion, the historical implications and the exuberance of those who wanted to see this happen, it was a really foolish choice of words. Point taken. Style not.
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