Others' jaws have already dropped at the reading of this from Kathleen Parker. Here's a sample:
It's about blood equity, heritage and commitment to hard-won American values. And roots.
Some run deeper than others and therein lies the truth of Fry's political sense. In a country that is rapidly changing demographically—and where new neighbors may have arrived last year, not last century—there is a very real sense that once-upon-a-time America is getting lost in the dash to diversity.
We love to boast that we are a nation of immigrants. But there's a different sense of America among those who trace their bloodlines back through generations of sacrifice.
Contributing to the growing unease among yesterday's Americans is the failure of the federal government to deal with illegal Immigration. It isn't necessarily racist or nativist to worry about what these new demographics mean to the larger American story.
Read the whole thing. These, apparently, are reasons to vote for McCain over Obama. But just out of curiosity, which of those two candidates was born in America? The answer may surprise you.
In light of all of this ein Volk, ein Blut, ein Boden business, you might also contemplate the "true" origins of fascism.
h/t Blogosphere and Ed Burmila.
What is interesting is the place of this in the larger social arc. It was long expected to be openly and explicitly racist. Then it was tolerated to be openly and explicitly racist. Reagan’s “welfare queen” dog whistle ushered in the era in which one could be open, but implicitly racist. This seems to be one more step back in which to be racist, you cannot be open or explicit, but rather one must work very hard to find cover for one’s racism.
It’s interesting to see this rhetoric of thinly veiled racism creeping into the Op-Ed pages, as it’s something I’ve been following in the past 3-4 years in sports journalism. There’s now an elaborate code in sports journalism that seems to be, as SteveG suspects, now developing in the larger social arena. It’s a code that enables one to engage in implicitly racist forms of discourse while cloaked in a veneer of history, tradition, and patriotism.
Don’t forget the veneer of bad science
pmayo, I’m interested in your comment regarding sports journalism and the elaborate code used in writing. Which writers would you say practice the type of opining that Parker engaged in? Or is it more sports talk radio? Thanks
One of the most prominent offenders is Peter Vecsey of the New York Post, but it’s fairly prevalent in much of MSM sports media, not just the mouthbreathers on talk radio. I don’t know that I have a comprehensive list, because it’s more an issue of the overall tone of sports media. White athletes are “smart,” “gritty,” “gym rats,” “hardworking,” etc. Minority athletes, especially African-American and Latino athletes, are “toolsy,” “gifted,” “selfish,” “stats oriented,” hot-dogs. etc. That’s where it starts, anyway.