WASHINGTON, Feb. 12, 2008
Bush: Use Of Noose No "Harmless Prank"
President Says Noose Displays, Jokes About Lynching Are "Deeply Offensive"
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"The era of rampant lynching is a shameful chapter in American history," Bush said in an event marking African-American history month at the White house.
"The noose is not a symbol of prairie justice, but of gross injustice," the president said. "Displaying one is not a harmless prank, and lynching is not a word to be mentioned in jest."
As a civil society, Americans should agree that noose displays and lynching jokes are "deeply offensive," Bush said.
"They are wrong. And they have no place in America today."
For decades, the noose was a symbolic part of a campaign of violence, fear and intimidation against blacks, the president said. Sometimes, he added, it was orchestrated by the law enforcement officers charged with protecting them. Bush also said the noose was a tool for intimidation and killing that conveyed a sense of powerlessness to millions of blacks throughout the country.
"Fathers were dragged from their homes in the dark of night before the eyes of their terrified children," he said. "Summary executions were held by torchlight in front of hateful crowds. In many cases, law enforcement officers responsible for protecting the victims were complicit in their deaths."
At the event, Bush is honoring Rep. John Lewis, a leader of the civil rights movement who organized freedom rides, sit-ins and voter registration drives; and William Coleman, the first black American to be a clerk on the U.S. Supreme Court and who served as President Ford's transportation secretary. Coleman thus was the first African American to hold a Cabinet post in a Republican administration.
Bush also recognized Ernest Green, one of the nine black students in Little Rock, Ark., who were escorted into the city's all-white Central High School following the historic Brown vs. Board of Education of the mid 1950s, and Otis Williams, a leader of the vocal group "The Temptations."
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Posted by crusherking
MC had repeatedly substantiated his position on these forums. Why, have you not seen them? Wait...that would mean you''d have to read. While this walking *** we call president is 100% correct in his announcements here, that does not take back the torment he has put this country''s citizens through. And that''s not even mentioning the rest of the world. Back in the "lynching" days these criminals preyed on the fear of the black community using simple symbolisms ike nueses and burning crosses. today we have high level red terror alerts and the "scary" Iranians. You can''t blame MC for shedding some light on the irony here.
Posted by DylanXXV
Hmmm...how do you figure that? Keeping count? You know...people like you and dmotte are member of a VERY sad past for this counrty. You are out of your time, out of your element, and apparently out of your minds.
thanks bush.
65% of america is black,mex,his,asia,saudi
SO, you are saying that MCVet has provided evidence that Bush is in the KKK? I''d like to see it. Thats my point. If you make a statement that inflammatory, you have a responsibility to provide the proof. I haven''t seen it because it does not exist. He was not pointing out any "irony" he was stating that Bush was in the Klan. I DID read the post. Thank you very much.
you have been dismissed. with that type of mentality, wait.. lack of mentality, you have no credibility. good bye.
Flowers are all different colors.
Vegetation is all different colors.
Animals of land sea and air are all different colors.
The human species comes in all colors too.
Why is it that some people need reasons to be better than the next and would focus on the color of the epidermis? Answer: Because they are shamefully dumb I would guess. What an embarrassment to be them.
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The word is psychotic. Transferred from reality.
excellent post! you are so right. i''ve got light skinned friends, very dary skinned friends, asian friends and couldn''t care less what color they are. we get along and respect each other and that''s all that counts. and i have great friends! (i''m white)
Posted by crusherking
Well...MC has always been one who like to name call to drive his point home. That makes him a little abrassive, but wholly correct still. No sense being such a literalist when it comes to such remarks...sometimes you need to read a little deeper, and the irony is perfectly evident. It''s not what you read, but how you read it.
Posted by BlondMadison
Answer: Because this type of sentiment is borne of a European mentality still suffering from a mean elitist streak. There is a book by Jared Diamond called Guns, Germs and Steel...it is a must read for anyone sensitive to this sort of history and question. Sometimes I feel like there is no sense trying to level with a hardened bigot...we just have to wait for them to die off.
That was the waterboarding of that era.
But I for one applaud President Bush for really going out on a limb like this.
Imagine the guts it took to make that bold statement.
OK, now lets get back to the deficit, the mortgage meltdown and the war in Iraq, shall we?
- Posted by DylanXXV at 03:14 PM : Feb 12, 2008
Hanging and lynching are not the same thing.
You could be hanged after a trial and verdict, like John Brown.
But more blacks than whites have been lynched.
Very well stated!!
And even though it infuriated civil rights activists, at least Bush''s friend gets a higher pension for being elevated, if only for a short while.
His actions never match his rhetoric.
"Lynchings are wrong." Brilliant. We knew that.
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Posted by ThinkHarder- at 03:44 PM : Feb 12, 2008
+ report abuse
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and more are born to replace what fell off..unfortunatly we tend to condition ourselves that bigorty and racism comes only in one color...does make al sharpton a bigot?
From the time he was governor of Tejas until now I have never before heard him denounce the kind of corrosive bigotry inplied in a noose or burning cross. At least not in such uncertain terms. It''s not as if we have now just woken up and realized how serious the issue is of naked hatred those express for others who are superficially different. This (bad word) has been going on before either one of us was born.
Mind!! I''m very glad he came out so strongly against institutional and private racism. In the nearly eight years since he has appointed himself president, this is the first time I can remember his doing something I thoroughly approve of.
On the other hand.....I wonder why he waited until now. Ideally people say or do the right thing(s) for the right reason(s). I am not normally the kind of person who complains if shot with a silver bullet but given this man''s track record for placing expediency above principle, I think I can be forgiven if I am a little suspicious.
During the antebellum period, lynch mobs across the country preyed upon individuals and groups deemed dangerous because they were political, religious, or racial "others." Abolitionists, Catholics, Mormons, Asian, Mexican, and European immigrants and African Americans all were targets. The pattern of mob violence and lynching changed after the Civil War. During the five decades between the end of Reconstruction and the New Deal, there were three specific transformations in the character of American lynching: increased numbers over all; increased likelihood that African Americans would fall victim to lynch mobs; and a concentration of lynchings in the South, particularly after 1886. The Tuskegee Institute started recording statistics on lynchings in 1882 (later, the Chicago Tribune and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People [NAACP] also collected statistics). The first decade of those statistical findings best illustrates the transformation of lynching patterns. In 1882, 113 people were lynched, sixty-four whites and forty-nine African Americans. The year 1885 was the last during which more whites than African Americans were lynched, and 1892 witnessed the largest number of lynchings in U.S. history (230). From 1882 to 1903, there were approximately one to two hundred lynchings annually. Between 1882 and 1968, there were 4,742 recorded lynchings (3,445 of the victims were African American, or approximately seventy-five percent).
LOL how true is that....
- Posted by DylanXXV at 04:29 PM : Feb 12, 200
A frequent theme in Westerns, in such classics as Henry Fonda"s "The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)" and Clint Eastwood"s "Hang ''Em High (1968)"
The Bush Budget Deficit Death Spiral
Lenders talk about a %u201Cdebtor%u2019s death spiral.%u201D It occurs when borrowers get so far in over their heads they begin borrowing money just to cover the interest payments on past borrowings. The borrowers have to do this to keep the lending flowing but they can no longer plausibly pay down the principal. As new debt compounds on old, bankruptcy becomes imminent. Further lending is foolhardy. Foreclosure is only a matter of time.
The U.S. is starting to look like it is entering just such a death spiral. It is foretold not simply by the large and growing deficits, nor by the fact that their carrying costs will rise quickly as interest rates rise. Rather, it is the fact that these trends are becoming irreversible, a structural part of the U.S. economy.
Strangely enough, this talk is from the same person who approves or waterboarding and other "aggressive interrogation techniques" provided that they divulge information the Great Emperor wants to hear, true or not!
Despite this conflict, the Great Emperor talked of night lynchings with great emotion, almost as if he had been there!
SIG HEIL, BUSH!!!!
- Posted by Nancy_Naive at 05:14 PM : Feb 12, 2008
Mostly the Deep South or the Wild West. You don"t hear of many lynchings in Minnesota or Massachusetts.
D*ick Cheney is from the Wild West.
It must have been one of D*ick Cheney"s ancestors who coined the term "necktie party" for a lynching, as Cheney coined the term "dunking" for waterboarding.
The noose doesn"t fall far from the tree.
This should make a loud and clear message to those who make use of nooses to terrorize or intimidate others. Displaying a noose is not civil and invites contemptous reaction.
The next time a person is prosecuted for a crime involving a noose, the record should reflect that the President of the United States declared that nooses are deeply offensive.
This sets the precedant for a community attitude and will be considered exempt from acceptable freedom of expression.
He said "I resign" ??
When ????
Bush speaks with forked tongue.
Too Funny!!!!!
What is amazing is not this lying *** but how easily we fall for it time and time again.
Posted by michaelt302 at 05:34 PM : Feb 12, 2008
You CAN''T be THAT naive ... pull your head out of the sand man! Racism does exist on BOTH sides, I wont qualm with you on that .. but there are plenty of places black people go that will never be the same experience as a white person. Growing up with stares, refusal to provide services and harassments has and will have a negative effect on our youth and they don''t see how bad it once was and they''re are already so filled with anger and resentment. They are left with hard work, hand ups and hand outs. It''s a Godless society that can breed so much hate for one another.
If you watch any old western ... you would see it used as a capitol punishment ... for horse stealing, and I would imagine some states still have the law on the books ...
As for this sudden captivation by the media of the noose ... it is sensationalism ... nothing more .. nothing less ..
The noose was used to HANG Sadaam ... on national TV .. and not one broadcaster cried about that being insensitive ... or compared it to lynchings ...
There will always be ignorant folks .. and racist folks ... and all the whining and crying the media does will never remove that stigma ...
Funny how they treat Obama with kit gloves ... dont talk about his drug use .. or his irresponsible days at Harvard in Cambridge Ma ... how he quietly paid 10 year old parking tickets just before he announced his candidacy ...
since he wrote about that in a book the media feels compelled to allow folksto check it out themsleves ...
Or if they did report on it ... they would be racist ..
We have indeed painted oursleves into a corner ...
Silly and awful ...
"African-Americans suffered grievously under lynch law. With the close of Reconstruction in the late 1870s, southern whites were determined to end northern and black participation in the region''s affairs, and northerners exhibited a growing indifference toward the civil rights of black Americans. Taking its cue from this intersectional white harmony, the federal government abandoned its oversight of constitutional protections. Southern and border states responded with the Jim Crow laws of the 1890s, and white mobs flourished. With blacks barred from voting, public office, and jury service, officials felt no obligation to respect minority interests or safeguard minority lives. In addition to lynchings of individuals, dozens of race riots--with blacks as victims--scarred the national landscape from Wilmington, North Carolina, in 1898 to Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1921."
Excerpted from The Reader%u2019s Companion to American History. Ed. Eric Foner and John A. Garraty. Copyright ) 1991 by Houghton Mifflin Co.
"Between 1882 (when reliable statistics were first collected) and 1968 (when the classic forms of lynching had disappeared), 4,743 persons died of lynching, 3,446 of them black men and women. Mississippi (539 black victims, 42 white) led this grim parade of death, followed by Georgia (492, 39), Texas (352, 141), Louisiana (335, 56), and Alabama (299, 48). From 1882 to 1901, the annual number nationally usually exceeded 100; 1892 had a record 230 deaths (161 black, 69 white). Although lynchings declined somewhat in the twentieth century, there were still 97 in 1908 (89 black, 8 white), 83 in the racially troubled postwar year of 1919 (76, 7, plus some 25 race riots), 30 in 1926 (23, 7), and 28 in 1933 (24, 4)."
Excerpted from The Reader%u2019s Companion to American History. Ed. Eric Foner and John A. Garraty. Copyright ) 1991 by Houghton Mifflin Co.
"Statistics do not tell the entire story, however. These were recorded lynchings; others were never reported beyond the community involved. Furthermore, mobs used especially sadistic tactics when blacks were the prime targets. By the 1890s lynchers increasingly employed burning, torture, and dismemberment to prolong suffering and excite a "festive atmosphere" among the killers and onlookers. White families brought small children to watch, newspapers sometimes carried advance notices, railroad agents sold excursion tickets to announced lynching sites, and mobs cut off black victims'' fingers, toes, ears, or genitalia as souvenirs. Nor was it necessarily the handiwork of a local rabble; not infrequently, the mob was encouraged or led by people prominent in the area''s political and business circles. Lynching had become a ritual of interracial social control and recreation rather than simply a punishment for crime."
Excerpted from The Reader%u2019s Companion to American History. Ed. Eric Foner and John A. Garraty. Copyright ) 1991 by Houghton Mifflin Co.
Posted by jncc1701
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OK. Then nooses are OK. Thanks for clarifying that.
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Hey ilikecats1 you may want to read my entire post but since you clearly did not - here is my point again very slow so you can follow.....
I am not excusing racism.
but
Bush cares nothing about this topic, he is - like he did when he ran for President posturing as a moderate who care about civil rights. This is just a ---- photo up - what has he actually done legislatively on this topic?????
There is an election so look for the GOP more nuttier members to suddenly start sounding like moderate independents.
And we fools fall for the rhetoric even though this pathetic party''s policies continue to look after the ultra wealthy, corporation and military contractors. While the rest of us will be stuck with the bill.
SO I ask again, what did Bush EVER do legislatively on the topic of civil rights???????
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