Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Chris Matthews (MSNBC) - 'Israelis do Not Like Obama Because They Are Racists'

I am sure it has nothing to do with repeated attacks and snubs.

Video embedded below.

5 comments:

  1. I think chris matthews is an idiot.

    that said, I don't think you should be surprised if Israeli does racist things, and then someone calls them racist.

    South Africa under Apartheid was being called racist. The situation is not the same at Apartheid, but you can understand how people would think the south african government at the time was racist.

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  2. Well, They are both victims of colonial-settler enterprises, which historically tend to be the most violent and ideologically entrenched kind of imperial endeavor.

    I don't at all think most Israelis are racist and as dumb as I think Chris Matthews is, I think you have to have a rather odd concept of what racism is to think that’s what he is thinking. In fact, most of the information we have letting us know about Israeli government atrocities does not come from Palestinians, it comes from Israelis brave enough to to stand up and defy the fanatical religious blocs and hierarchies that have power in Israel.

    Again, I think Chris Matthews is an idiot, but I don't think his understanding of racism is the same as yours is, at least in the sense he was clumsily trying to convey. The problem with a term like "racism" is that in its use in the US it tends to denote a style of social-resentment that does not really depend on skin color. Anti-Semitism and racism are manifestations of the same artificial manufactured social resentments, but we have different terms for historical reasons. Broadly I think you can define a “racist” as anyone who even sees racial differences or accepts racial concepts. As I’m sure your aware the concept of “race” in itself is an artificial concept. It’s a total human creation that has really no baring in reality other then the fact that we observe genetic differences and in reaction create labels. Palestinians are only “Arab” because people are referring to them as “arab”. Even the concept you gave, they aren’t even a different “race” then the Israelis if you consider they are all semitic peoples.

    If you look at a map showing global skin color genes, you will see that the darkest skinned people are along the equator, creating a gradient towards the lightest skinned people from the north-you can look at dozens of maps like this with things like hair color, immunities, diseases, lactose intolerance etc. “race” is as arbitrary a feature as your eye color or your sexual orientation.

    and honestly, you havn't heard people you know in the United States who are Jewish or otherwise, who have said they are worried about Obama and Israel or Obama generally, partly because he has "muslim roots"? I've heard that alot when I was in Boca, I hear it alot all the time casually. I think its pretty dumb to deny the prevelance of these concepts.

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  3. I mean just to show how ridiculous your conception is, There are indeed alot of "black arabs", Obama's grandfather I think was was an "african Muslim" but whatever, who cares? There are also 'Christian arabs" as well as "persian jews"

    to believe that has any relevance you must think "arab" or "muslim" is some kind of homogeneous cultural block united by Jew hatred.

    p.s.
    I know you disagree with the "equivalency", what I don't know is if you have any compelling reasons why.

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  4. At the heart of it all, Arabs and Jews lay claim to the same Patriarch - Abraham. They divide from there - Islam through Ishmael, Judism through Issac.

    However, if one calls themselves a Christian, then one should also know that the God of the Bible promised the land upon which Israel sits to the descendants of Isaac, not Ismael.

    Put simply, this has nothing to do with race and everything to do with genealogy.

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  5. @Ian Spencer Dubrowsky - worrying about Obama because you (not you specifically, the generic 'you') incorrectly think he is a Muslim is not racial discrimination, it is religious.

    Your point about the historic geographic distribution of skin color is the reason for it. Darker skin offers more protection from the sun, while lighter skin does the opposite. The sun is most intense at the equator; hence the darker skin. I do not think Arabs are a completely homogeneous block. I was just pointing out that they tend not to be black to point out the ridiculousness of the statement.

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