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Dubya
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Context is such an interesting thing...
Quote:
Just Who WAS the "White Nigger" Senator Byrd Was Thinking About?
An apology to cover up the identity of the "White Nigger"
By: Mary Mostert, Analyst, Banner of Liberty (www.bannerofliberty.com)
March 5, 2001 Tony Snow on Fox News had just previously asked Sen. Robert Byrd, seven term Democrat of West Virginia, "What is his (Bill Clinton's) legacy for your party?" Senator Byrd responded without hesitation:
"You can see his legacy right here on Capitol Hill and down at the other end of the Avenue - a Republican House, a Republican Senate and a Republican White House. That's part of his legacy."
Tony Snow: "What's the other part?"
"A lowering of the standards of our culture. I've been in Washington 49 years. In these past few years I've seen a more rapid deterioration in the country's culture than ever before."
Tony Snow didn't allow him to elaborate on that point but quickly changed to another issue:
"Let me throw a couple of names out at you to get a quick reaction - Jesse Jackson."
"I've never been an enthusiastic admirer of Jesse Jackson. He made a bad mistake. We all make mistakes. I made a mistake as a young man and it's always been an albatross around my neck - I joined the Ku Klux Klan. We all make mistakes. We can strive to overcome them. That's his situation.
"What he and his God work out between themselves is their business."
The next names Snow threw out were "Terry McAuliffe" (Byrd said: "Bad Choice") and "Ronald Reagan" (Byrd said: "a very likeable individual, charming personality. He had one, two or three ideas about government and kept those ideas in front of him always…" And before Byrd finished his thought Snow threw out: "race relations." The 83 year old senator responded with the following rather remarkable, and seemingly disjointed comment:
"They are much, much better than they have ever been in my lifetime. As a personal opinion, I think we talk about race too much. I think those problems are largely behind us. I think we can all profit by our mistakes. I think we have reached a new plateau. And, I think it is going to keep going upward.- the understanding and race relations.
"I think…I just think …we talk so much about it we create somewhat of an illusion …uh…uh…I think we should try to have good will. My old Mom told me, 'Robert, you can't go to heaven if you hate anybody.' We practice that."
And then came the bombshell. His tone of voice changed and he said firmly,
"There are white niggers. I've seen a lot of white niggers in my time …it you want to use that word. We all…we all just need to work together to make our country a better country.
"I'd just as soon quit talking about it so much."
A clearly horrified younger generation among the Senator's staff and even Tony Snow tried almost instantly to try to undo the inevitable damage. His office issued a statement in an obvious effort to head off any media speculation about just who the "white nigger" he was thinking about might be. The statement said::
"I apologize for the characterization I used on this program. The phrase dates back to my boyhood and has no place in today's society.
"As for my language, I had no intention of casting aspersions on anyone of another race. In my attempt to articulate strongly held feelings, I may have offended people. . . ."
Senator Byrd was obviously not thinking about a black person when he talked of "White Niggers." What, exactly, IS a "White Nigger?"
Robert Byrd was a "boy" following World War I. The term "nigger" had a very specific meaning back in those days. It was not a term used for all black people. Black people were called "Negroes," a Spanish or Portuguese word meaning "Black." "Negro" merely described their skin. It was not inherently derogatory. It was merely descriptive of their skin color. The Latin word for "black" is "niger" which quite possibly was the origin of the word "nigger." When Robert Byrd was growing up "nigger" was a term used to define a black person of low character and loose morals. When I was growing up in the South in the 1930s and 1940s it was a term I heard almost invariably used by black people themselves, very much as it is used today in gangsta rap and blues music. Black Mississippi blues singer Sam Chatman sang::
Say God made us all, he made some at night
That's why he didn't take time to make us all white
Let me tell you one thing that a Stumptown nigger will do
He'll pull up young cotton and he'll kill baby chickens, too
I'm bound to change my name, I have to paint my face
So I won't be kin to that Ethiopian race
Those who would pull up the young cotton plants or kill baby chicks, clearly, were just no good, since cotton and chickens were often the only source of cash.
Putting Senator Byrd in the context of his own generation, then, what or who was he thinking about when he said "There are white niggers. I've seen a lot of white niggers in my time." ?
Who, of the people mentioned in his chat with Tony Snow did he feel fit his generation's definition of a white person with low character and loose morals? Who was the white person that Sen. Byrd believes has caused a "more rapid deterioration in the country's culture."?
The person Senator Byrd mentioned was clearly Bill Clinton. In f act, coming from a Southern culture, as he fell into Tony Snow's "word association" game with little time to think out his answers, I immediately thought "Bill Clinton" when he said "white nigger." Since my mother would roll over in her grave if she ever heard me say the word "nigger," I wouldn't use the word in describing the Clintons, but have used the term which was used BY the Clinton White House when they described Paula Jones as "white trash" when describing some of Clinton's behavior." I was promptly scolded by a white person who claimed they were in the "white trash" category and who felt insulted that they might be linked with Clinton.
White Southerners commonly use the word "white trash" in describing white people they believe have low cultural and moral standards much as blacks use the word "nigger" to describe blacks who have low cultural and moral standards.
And just who is it that has been described by the media as "America's first black president?" None other than Bill Clinton.
What Sen. Byrd expressed last night are probably his true feelings about the man he sees as having decimated the Democrat Party - the party he has given nearly 50 years of his life to. I seriously doubt that his slip-of-the-tongue will damage him much in his home state of West Virginia, should he decide to run again. I expect the West Virginia voters will understand exactly what their Senator was trying to say.
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Calling Bill Clinton the equivalent of "white trash" just reinforces my opinion of Byrd, but look at the context. Where is the racism? I read 3 other editorials, and the most recent they could come up with was 1964, when he filibustered the CRA. And before that? A letter he wrote in 1947. This is the best they can do? Thank you, drive through.
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