I came across a headline yesterday that
could have been from The Onion or CNN, who can tell? The gist of it was;
“Republicans are upset that Cliven Bundy isn’t using the prescribed code words
in his racist rants.” Bundy is truly and old school racist in the tradition of
many of our grandparents who used phrases like “the negroes” and “those people”
and then denied vehemently that they had a racist bone in their bodies. His
isolation in the Nevada desert has put him a generation behind.
So I thought I would do Republicans a
favor and translate Bundy’s coarse comments into more acceptable, modern
conservative language. This is how Sarah Palin or Newt Gingrich might tackle
the same issue semantically. Here is a Bundy quote:
"And
because they were basically on government subsidy, so now what do they
do?" he asked, referring to African-Americans. "They abort their
young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned
how to pick cotton. And I've often wondered, are they better off as slaves,
picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better
off under government subsidy? They didn't get no more freedom. They got less
freedom."
Here
it is translated in contemporary conservative code:
“The
American welfare state has its victims; these are the minority men and women
who have been trapped in a cycle of dependency for generations, which has
undermined their self-respect and denied them the satisfaction of an honest
day’s work. Has creating a legacy of dependence benefitted anyone? No. This is
modern day slavery that keeps people shackled to the government, dulls their
hopes and dreams, and throws off their moral compass. With little motivation or
preparation for work, young people turn to crime as an easy way to make money.
Are the people living in this grim reality better off than they were
generations ago? That, I believe, is debatable.”
RNC,
you’re welcome.
No comments:
Post a Comment