Reagan called Africans monkeys

[MikeN1]

"[Reagan] said: “To see those… monkeys from those African countries - damn them, they’re still uncomfortable wearing shoes.”

Hey, remember when Republicans weren’t a bunch of racists? Me neither.

[bojack]

1971, different times. I’m sure there were Democrats who said equally bad - if not much, much worse things about black Africans then.

Democrats wouldn’t be Democrating right if they didn’t expand their “racist” attacks from President Trump to all Republicans. It’s all they got.

[BiggusDickus]

If Reagan had been talking to LBJ instead of Nixon I’d imagine the language would have been even more colourful.

[bojack]

Yes, there were some “colorful” Democrats in the 92nd Congress, too. W Virginia’s Robert Byrd, for example.

Reagan was still learning about DC in 1971. I imagine most politicians based in DC, D and R alike, knew better than to speak carelessly on the phone with Nixon. Rookie mistake by the Gipper.

[Terry_B]

“The news comes as the current occupant of the Oval Office, Donald Trump, is engulfed in controversy after making racist remarks about the city of Baltimore and a black congressman whose district partially covers the city. Trump – who frequently uses racist or racially charged language – [called Baltimore] a “rat and rodent-infested mess” and the “worst in the USA”.”

Fun reporting here.

[bojack]

@Terry_B

Fun reporting here.

It’s just a coincidence that it came out now. Has nothing to do with trying to smear Trump as a racist because he used a version of “to infest.”

I certainly hope nobody thinks they’re related.

[KHHville]

Aren’t there WH tapes of LBJ’s prolific use of the N-word

[IbisWtf]

One of my biggest complaints about mankind is that Internet wasn’t invented while LBJ was alive. At least we would have records of his…let’s say “problematic” quotes and current year “”“fact checkers”"" couldn’t dismiss them as:“Unverified, cHeCkMaTe!!!”

[Charlie_Jack]

@MikeN1

Hey, remember when Republicans weren’t a bunch of racists? Me neither.

Well, I don’t have a contemporaneously-acquired memory of the event referenced immediately below (I was only four), but it’s certainly part of my memory:

The Army announced Tuesday afternoon that 500 battle equipped troops from the 101st Airborne Division were flying to Arkansas and would reach Little Rock within an hour.

–AP, UP, “Ike Moves to Enforce Integration,” Eugene Register-Guard, September 24, 1957

The above event looks pretty anti-racist to me.

Then there were the Fifth Circuit Four, three of whom were Republicans:

The “Fifth Circuit Four” (or simply “The Four”) were four judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit who, during the late 1950s, became known for a series of decisions (which continued into the late 1960s) crucial in advancing the civil and political rights of African Americans; in this they were opposed by fellow Fifth Circuit judge Ben Cameron, a strong advocate of states’ rights. At that time, the Fifth Circuit included not only Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas (the limits of its jurisdiction since October 1, 1981), but also Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and the Panama Canal Zone.

“The Four” were Chief Judge Elbert Tuttle and his three colleagues John Minor Wisdom, John Robert Brown, and Richard Rives. All but Rives were liberal Republicans; Rives was a Democrat and, according to Jack Bass, an intimate of Supreme Court justice Hugo Black.

Fifth Circuit Four - Wikipedia

The above-referenced events involve words, but they’re mainly about acts. When it comes to words alone, however, I think phrasing is sometimes important. Here are some pretty good examples of phrasing, although these words did create somewhat of a stir:

Senator Harry Reid, the Democratic majority leader, apologized on Saturday for once predicting that Barack Obama could become the country’s first black president because he was “light-skinned” and had “no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.”

–Jeff Zeleny, “Reid Apologizes for Remarks on Obama’s Color and ‘Dialect,’” New York Times, January 9, 2010

https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/us/politics/10reidweb.html

“A few years ago, this guy would have been getting us coffee,” the former president told the liberal lion from Massachusetts, according to the gossipy new campaign book, “Game Change.”

The book says Kennedy was deeply offended and recounted the conversation to friends with fury.

After Kennedy sided with Obama, Clinton reportedly griped, “the only reason you are endorsing him is because he’s black. Let’s just be clear.”

–Helen Kennedy, “Bill Clinton told Ted Kennedy that Obama ‘would be getting us coffee’ a few years ago: ‘Game Change,’” New York Daily News, January 10, 2010

Bill Clinton told Ted Kennedy that Obama ‘would be getting us coffee’ a few years ago: ‘Game Change’ – New York Daily News

If he wins the Presidency, the Georgia Democrat said at a news conference here, “I’m not going to use the Federal Government’s authority deliberately to circumvent the natural inclination of people to live in ethnically homogeneous neighborhoods.”

. . .

In making the point, he used unusually blunt language about social differences—about “black intrusion” into white neighborhoods, for example. He spoke of “alien groups” in communities, and of the bad effects of “injecting” a “diametrically opposite kind of family” or “a different kind of person” into a neighborhood.

–Christopher Lydon, “Carter Defends All-White Areas,” New York Times, April 7, 1976

https://www.nytimes.com/1976/04/07/archives/carter-defends-allwhite-areas-says-government-shouldnt-try-to-end.html

[finley]

@IbisWtf

One of my biggest complaints about mankind is that Internet wasn’t invented while LBJ was alive.

It actually was invented around the end of LBJs second term, although of course Mark Zuckerberg wasn’t around to sprinkle fairy-dust on it.

[anon96115109]

They’ll come up with an example or two of an also racist Democrats (like LBJ or the Clintons) but ignore the fact that racism defines the GOPs existence in modern day politics.

Two wrongs never made a right and neither do false equivalences.

Also notice that for the GOP racism is acceptable as a strategy but not for the Dems. Just the usual selective outrage, nothing new.

[IbisWtf]

Well, I meant in the more public way we have now.
Digging into Lbj’s Twitter account archives would have been a gold mine of problematic quotes…
But at least we got internet just in time to discuss the rights of transgender men to have their balls shaved at women waxing saloons, which is nice

[finley]

@IbisWtf

Digging into Lbj’s Twitter account archives would have been a gold mine of problematic quotes…

I reckon J Edgar Hoover’s Instagram would have been worth a look, too.

[rowland]

It’s the darnedest thing. I unearthed the actual story:

Ronald Reagan's Long-Hidden Racist Conversation With Richard Nixon

I don’t hear Reagan’s voice anywhere on either of the audio clips.

I smell fake news.

[MalcolmReynolds]

@Terry_B

“The news comes as the current occupant of the Oval Office, Donald Trump, is engulfed in controversy after making racist remarks about the city of Baltimore and a black congressman whose district partially covers the city. Trump – who frequently uses racist or racially charged language – [called Baltimore] a “rat and rodent-infested mess” and the “worst in the USA”.”

Fun reporting here.

How is this racist language? He doesn’t mention anything about race.

I’ve been to Baltimore and it truly is a ****hole!

[Dr_Milker]

@MikeN1

Hey, remember when Republicans weren’t a bunch of racists? Me neither.

Considering that Democratic senator Robert Byrd was an actual card-carrying member of the KKK, that’s some pretty selective outrage you have going on there.

[anon96115109]

That’s a pretty selective and decontextualized reading of US history you have going on. I think you know this.

[Dr_Milker]

@anon96115109

That’s a pretty selective and decontextualized reading of US history you have going on. I think you know this.

Just countering cherry-picking with more cherry-picking to point out the highly selective nature of @MikeN1’s outrage. It’s easy enough to find racists on either side of the aisle (although the Democrats are, of course, the historic party of racism), but apparently his special “racist glasses” only allow him to see racism of the Republican persuasion.

[anon96115109]

Well given that racism has defined the GOP since the 80s can you blame him? I doubt anyone in this chat room is old enough to remember when Republicans weren’t bout it but it

[rowland]

Okay, I found it. A snippet, no context.