Racism

(P)reviewing the Right-Wing Playbook on Immigration Reform

There is near-universal agreement that America's immigration system is not working well. Unfortunately, the last major effort to achieve reform was derailed by a campaign grounded in fear, stereotypes, and a divisive nativism that is unworthy of America's ideals.

Tancredo Sets the Tone For Tea Party: Extreme, Racist, Nativist

Former Representative Tom Tancredo kicked off the tea party convention in Nashville today with an offensive speech in which he said President Obama was elected by “people who could not even spell the word ‘vote’ or say it in English” because “we do not have a civics literacy test before people can vote in this country.”

People For the American Way Foundation President Michael B. Keegan issued the following statement in response:

Fight the Right!

They said the Right was dead. We knew they were wrong.

Rise of the New McCarthyism: How Right Wing Extremists Try to Paralyze Government Through Ideological Smears and Baseless Attacks

Today, Joseph McCarthy’s ideological heirs in the Republican Party and right-wing media are using the language and tactics of McCarthy to stir fears that the nation is being destroyed by enemies from within. Republican Members of Congress and other GOP officials frequently act as an "amen chorus" to the far right’s demagogues or stay silent, hoping to reap political gain from the attacks on President Obama, administration officials and nominees, congressional democrats, and even military leaders.

Report Exposes Campaign of Racial Attacks from Far Right

People For the American Way today released its latest report, "Right Plays the Race Card." The report covers the Right's continued use of racially charged rhetoric to excite its base and attack its opponents. It also explores the calculation that politicians from both parties have made that it is advantageous not to confront racist rhetoric from the far right.

Right Plays the Race Card

Right-wing pundits and political leaders committed to the destruction of the Obama presidency have been openly fomenting racial resentment or tolerating those who do. In one breath, they accuse President Obama of being racist and in the next they and their media allies howl with indignation if their own racial rhetoric is challenged.

Mormon Leader Compares Pro-Equality Activists to Violent Segregationists

In a speech yesterday Elder Dallin H. Oaks, an official of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, compared the alleged anti-Mormon backlash over the Church's support of Proposition 8 in California to the intimidation of Southern blacks during the civil rights movement.

Documenting Hate in the 2008 Election

A collection of some of the hate and bigotry on display during the 2008 campaign season.

Hate You Can Believe In: ACORN Deluged with Threatening and Racist Voicemails and Emails

It’s bad enough that the employees of ACORN have had to endure days of baseless and outlandish attacks by John McCain and the RNC. But after McCain outrageously claimed before a national audience on Wednesday night that ACORN was “maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy,” the group came under attack, literally. In the following days, ACORN’s Boston and Seattle offices were vandalized and at least one employee received a death threat.

And for nearly two weeks, ACORN offices across the nation have been subjected to an onslaught of racist and threatening voicemails and emails. We have secured copies of some of the most disturbing and offensive messages and have reproduced them below in order to show the very real consequences of the Right Wing’s overheated and misplaced “voter fraud” rhetoric.

Warning: the emails and voicemails below are highly explicit and have only been edited to remove personally identifying information. Please also note that, where relevant, the proper authorities have been notified.

Voicemail #1:

“Hi, I was just calling to let you all know that Barack Obama needs to get hung. He's a fucking nigger, and he's a piece of shit. You guys are fraudulent, and you need to go to hell. All the niggers on oak trees. They're gonna get all hung honeys, they're gonna get assassinated, they're gonna get killed.”

Email #1: This email was received by the Cleveland office. The subject line was the name of a senior staffer who had recently appeared on TV to defend the group.

According to McClatchy, the email was traced back to a Facebook account featuring a McCain-Palin sign.

Email #2:

Voicemail #2:

"You liberal idiots. Dumb shits. Welfare bums. You guys just fucking come to our country, consume every natural resource there is, and make a lot of babies. That's all you guys do. And then suck up the welfare and expect everyone else to pay for your hospital bills for your kids. I just say let your kids die. That's the best move. Just let your children die. Forget about paying for hospital bills for them. I'm not gonna do it. You guys are lowlifes. And I hope you all die."

Josh Glasstetter's blog

The Long Shadow of Jim Crow: Voter Suppression in America

This report lays out a historical review of more than a hundred years of efforts to suppress and intimidate minority voters following emancipation, through Reconstruction and the “Second Reconstruction,” the years immediately following the passage of the Voting Rights Act.

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