Reader Chris writes in about the GOP's use of the word "negro":
I can tell you that, as someone growing up in the South when everyone was a Democrat, the people who switched parties to the Republicans did so precisely because they ARE racist. This guy’s standing up for their right to make fun of black people, and that speaks to them in a way that most of us can’t understand.
And I’ll also tell you that most – not all, but it’s close – of the gay Southern Republicans I know are Republicans precisely because of race. Sometimes they couch it in terms of taxes and welfare spending, but most don’t feel the need for euphemisms.
I don’t think I’ll ever figure it out, really, but the best explanation I can come up with is that they 1) perceive “Republican” to be a more establishment label than “Democrat,” and therefore more respectable, and 2) that at least in the GOP they know there will always be two groups of people who are lower on the totem pole (blacks and Latinos). Now, gays might be lower on the totem pole in terms of the party rank and file, but we know that’s not true among the party leadership.
I guess what this all boils down to is that the Magic Negro recording probably will help Saltzman in many quarters.
Note that Ken Blackwell quickly became an apologist for this. “Oh, it’s all in fun. The media are over-reacting.”
One of the things that tells you what a party is about is identifying those issues where they plant the flag and take a stand. In other words, what principles are more important to them than winning elections?
For a significant swath of the Republican Party, and in their remaining base in the South, keeping black people “in their place” is more important to them than anything else. This is just one more case in point.
