I've changed the title & am adding this foreword: this diary isn't meant to degrade Southerners or stir up hate. It's about using code words for racist attitudes.
Over the past several days, several diaries ("GA-Sen: Same Old Saxby" by brownsox, for one excellent example) about voting policies in Georgia have been posted; many of the comments attached to them believe the quoted bits are being misread, or could be interpreted differently than the diarists’ take.
And I’ve responded – somewhat snarkily, I admit – that not living in Georgia (or other southern states, for that matter) precludes those commenters from fully understanding the undertones implicit in such interpretations.
Atlanta’s only major newspaper, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, has a column called "The Vent." Readers submit pithy comments on any subject, whether or not they are related to actual news stories. In that sense, they represent what many Georgians truly believe, a sort of democratic process for shooting one’s mouth off.
Everything in this diary is presented verbatim (including spelling and grammatical errors).
Unfortunately, not all Vents published in the paper are available online; the comments considered the best – and I’m not sure who makes that initial decision, he’s known only as The Vent Guy, and IMHO he’s quite conservative – are posted, then rated by fellow Vent readers.
Readers of this diary who choose to follow the links below will certainly note that not all the online Vents are of a bad ilk. In fact, a surprising number of those online seem liberal in their content.
You might even think that I’ve cherry-picked the ones listed below to illustrate my point. The only response I can give is that the typical online Vents differ widely from those published in the newspaper; anyone who reads this feature regularly can attest to the distinctly right-wing attitudes of the Venters and/or the editor of the column.
For the purpose of this diary, I’ve loosely sorted them into categories, and provided links to each. Comments with no direct link are from the same page as the one(s) directly above them.
Immigrants
If they can’t speak or understand English, they are illegal. Send them back from whence they were born, Columbia, Honduras, Mexico. Don’t care where, just send them there. (This Vent received the highest vote of the day.)
http://projects.ajc.com/...
Close down the Hispanic clinc (and dental offices in private homes) and ship the employees and all patients out of here.
http://projects.ajc.com/...
School supplies for my 2nd-grader this year were over $80. A non-English-speaking family didn't have to buy a single supply, yet they drive off in a new Tacoma. I'm getting mad!
http://projects.ajc.com/...
Joe the Plumber
Scary that Joe the Plumber asks a legitimate question & Obama responds by ridiculing him & the Democrats dig up dirt to try & destroy his career. So much for valuing the American taxpayer.
Joe the Plumber represents your average American. Now the limousine liberals and elitist Democrats are belittling him. Typical.
http://projects.ajc.com/...
Colin Powell
I guess Colin Powell has proven that blood is thicker than water. What a sellout.
Colin Powell-traitor looking to keep a job in Obama's administration. Real catch there Democrats.
http://projects.ajc.com/...
Veiled racism
Obama is not going to redistribute the wealth. He's going to steal (tax) you and give it to those that haven't worked for it.
http://projects.ajc.com/...
I think all the early votes should be thrown out and all voting should be redone on election day only. Let's keep it fair for a change. ID REQUIRED.
http://projects.ajc.com/...
If the Democrats would support a qualified candidate like Mark Warner instead of affirmative action candidates like Hillary and Obama, they might actually win an election occasionally
http://projects.ajc.com/...
When Obama's record as a state senator from Illinois is brought up, why does he and his supporters immediately start screaming racism?
http://projects.ajc.com/...
A friend likes Obama because he is "attracting younger people's interest in politics." I asked him why he wanted more stupid people voting? I'm still waiting for an answer.
If John McCain didn't support the MLK holiday, he's got my vote. (Many versions of this Vent have been published.)
http://projects.ajc.com/...
I hate to be the bearer of bad news but the "less fortunate" already have cellphones, flat screen TVs, and they are one step in front of the repo dude.
http://projects.ajc.com/...
No MARTA because we want the crime to stay where it's at. No ride to the suburbs to carjack a ride. (See note below.)
http://projects.ajc.com/...
You are wasting your time venting about home invaders. They can't read!
http://projects.ajc.com/...
More Democrats watch the debate on TV because all the Republicans are at work.
http://projects.ajc.com/...
Jesse Jackson's ears perked up when he heard it was "race weekend" in Atlanta.
http://projects.ajc.com/...
When you vote out public officials because they are White, Republican, Conservatives, you end up with Clayton County. Why does everyone now want their kids in Fayette County? Duh
http://projects.ajc.com/...
Democrats have been running our inner-cities for the past 30-40 years, and blacks are still complaining about the same problems. Diabolically, every election cycle, Democrats blame Republicans for the deplorable conditions in the inner-cities, then incite blacks to cast a protest vote against Republicans.
http://projects.ajc.com/...
The "handout" crowd is growing and will eventually outnumber the productive crowd and it’s game over.
http://www.ajc.com/...
Our Anglo-American culture mantra is ‘tolerance’. I fear we have tolerated ourselves to the lowest common denominator of voters thinking that a government promise of a handout is somehow deserved or free. (Posted by citizen.)
http://www.ajc.com/...
Nice response to this one: Hmmm...I was having trouble with the logic of tolerance and the conservative pariah of "guvmint handouts". And then it came to me. Tolerance is a code word for not being racist.
So, citizen, is (1) thinking Obama will get elected because of black people depite them only being about 18% of the population, and (2) doesn’t realize that most people on welfare are white.
What exactly is it when you covet your neighbor’s hard earned pay, other than selfishness?
And deviancy.
http://www.ajc.com/...
I’ve posted this letter as a comment on a couple of other diaries here, but it deserves to be posted again.
No photo ID? That tells you something
Please, enough of Cynthia Tucker’s self-induced hysteria over voter ID ("Don’t buy frenzy over voter fraud," @issue, Oct. 19).
Republicans/conservatives have gotten enough wrong in the last four years to keep legions of liberal editorialists busy, but the one issue that absolutely rings true seems to irritate the most.
The notion that anyone eligible to vote should be able to produce some rudimentary form of identification is so innocuous that opposition to it seems odd, unless you look at it in terms of the Democratic Party’s vision of America.
They know that a majority of the would-be voters who are the focus of their current registration frenzy are the uninformed, lazy, never-bothered-to-vote-before segment of society most likely to fall for their government-as-nanny pitch, and the ones most unlikely to possess something as "daunting" as photo ID. [emphasis mine]
JAMES M. WILEY
Decatur
Note:
MARTA (Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority) was formed in 1971, and began running in 1979. A highway surrounds Atlanta, like many cities in America: I-285 is called the Perimeter. Notice that MARTA serves almost entirely within this loop. Per wiki:
For some time, MARTA had "secret" bus routes in the 700 series. These routes were designed to connect maids, home health care workers, and nannies from MARTA rail stations to their work sites.
These routes were not officially noted in any system map except for a small footprint instructing people who needed transit service in that area to contact Customer Information.[13] No schedules were publicly distributed, and no information was published on the web site.
In 1999, the routes were officially "declassified" and information was published. As part of system-wide service cuts, the 700 series routes were eliminated in 2002.[14] Despite repeated requests from the public, MARTA refuses to publish a system-wide map on its website and MARTA refuses to distribute printed maps of the system.
Despite elimination of the 700 series, the "Maid Brigade" still exists. At certain times of the day, buses weave through side streets of mostly-white neighborhood to that purpose.
It’s also interesting to note that street names change once they cross Ponce de Leon Avenue, a major avenue that cuts across most of the city. For example, Briarcliff Avenue turns into Moreland Avenue; Monroe Drive becomes Boulevard.
This hearkens back to the days when Atlanta was severely segregated (up until oh, about 30 years ago), with most of the African Americans living south of Ponce. If you lived on Briarcliff, you were white; if you lived on Moreland, you were black – a way to determine which votes to count.
I’ve been unable to find a map that I can copy to show you, but if you go to http://www.mapquest.com/... and enter Ponce de Leon Avenue at Moreland Avenue, you’ll see. If anyone can help me find such a map, your help would be appreciated. Also, as a newbie, I'm having a little problem with spacing and blockquoting...sorry, and thanks for understanding.