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It would appear that Jamie Foxx is not too popular among conservatives at the moment. As the star in Quentin Tarantino's upcoming speculative history film Django, where he plays a slave turned bounty hunter who gets to render justice out to the white people who wronged him and his family, Foxx is now an object of rage for white conservative victimologists, and those obsessed with "reverse racism."
In an earlier post on Django, we discussed the deep anxieties about black revenge, agency, and freedom in American (read: "white" and popular) culture. The whitewashing of Spielberg's movie Lincoln in order to remove black people as having been agents in their own freedom struggle is a cousin to that example.
While it should not be a surprise given the subject matter of the film, the intensity of the racially infused vitriol being directed at Jamie Foxx (and by extension the movie Django) following his appearance on Saturday Night Live this past weekend is nonetheless quite instructive.
There are now some 3,500 comments on the Right-wing site Newsbusters (whose story on Jamie Foxx's "racism" was promoted by the Drudge Report) where all manner of hateful utterances by white nationalists are effortlessly (and indistinguishably) co-mingled with those of "respectable" conservatives. The ease with which "respectable" conservatives can dialogue with overt bigots--and how their observations and tenor so easily overlap--is a frightening barometer for the current state of Right-wing political discourse in the Age of Obama.
The contemporary Republican Party has created a brand name for itself which is prefaced on white identity politics and white nativism. As such, they are the country's de facto White Party. While the White Right searches for a way to broaden its base, and to become more diverse in the face of the public's rejection of their policies in the 2012 election, the contemporary conservative movement is stuck in a state of limbo, a political conundrum and malaise, that they themselves created.
The Republican Party's current state of paralyzing Whiteness, and herrenvolk white identity politics, came into being over several decades.
The process began when the Republican Party incorporated the racist Dixiecrats into their electoral coalition. In that instance, the baggage of Jim and Jane Crow America became that of mainstream conservatism.
They then, with the rise of the Reagan Democrats and white hostility to the gains of the Civil Rights movement, were able to brand the Democrats as evil "liberals" who were more interested in helping the black and brown poor, and betraying America's "cultural values," than in serving the racial and class interests of "The Middle Class."
In a parallel move, the Right's spin doctors and consultants developed a language and set of cognitive cues for their base that included such phrases as "small government" and "welfare queens." With the infamous Southern Strategy racism and conservatism became one in the same. Here, and as seen in Romney's overtly racist campaign against President Obama, seemingly "race neutral" language was in fact a trigger for white racial resentment and hostility towards people of color by Republicans.
The Republican Party's strategy worked so well that a polarized electorate is divided up precisely by the power and appeal of such symbolism and language. In all, because of changing demographics, as well as failures of policy proposals which mated Ayn Rand libertarianism with white racism, the Republican Party has branded itself into a state of near obsolescence. The public knows exactly who and what the Tea Party GOP stands for; the majority of the American people want nothing to do with it.
Romney failed because his party's message of White identity politics was too clear. They were not dog whistles. As I wrote about here, his appeals to white racial resentment were more aptly described as "air raid sirens." Moreover, despite his denials about the role of racism in his campaign strategy, White Nationalists heard Romney's appeals to White identity politics crystal clear.
Ultimately, as an exercise in the politics of popular culture, Django is going to attract hostility and hatred from across the political spectrum.
Some on the Left will attack the movie because of its use of racially charged (albeit historically appropriate) language.
Those on the Right will take the film to be a projection of white vulnerability and oppression in a country where there is a black President who was elected for a second term.
Because Jamie Foxx can shoot and kill white folks in a fictionalized accounting of antebellum America, somehow white people are made imperiled by threats of mass black violence and rebellion in the year 2012.
Ironically, given the Right's love of gun culture, and obsession with the Republican Party's role in ending slavery (as well as the big lie that they were the force solely responsible for civil rights legislation in the 1960s), one would think that Django would be a movie that Newsbusters and other conservative websites would love. I guess stories about negroes with guns who righteously kill white slave owners and other racial terrorists are impolitic, and trumped by white racial anxiety at the thought of empowered black people (even they are just actors in a Quentin Tarantino fantasy).
As is my occasional habit, I dig through the sewer water and political scatology of the Right-wing media so that you will not have to. What follows are some ideal-typical examples of the racist, Right-wing mouth utterance talking point reactions to Jamie Foxx and the movie Django from the website Newsbusters. There are thousands of comments there to choose from:
Doyle Bays
Carlin, while you may be able to dig up many similar comments by white people, read the fallout from the comments when you do your digging. Should a white person make a similar comment about "killin' all the blacks, how white is that?" the outcry would be deafening.The NAACP, Al Sharpton, Jessie Jackson, Chairman Maobama, and others would immediately scream "Racist". There would be riots, looting, etc. These days, white people are to be seen, not heard, and the less seen the better. White people are the root of all evil. They are the Oppressors. Call 'em what you want, whites is jus' bad. It's the Liberal PC dogma being taught in the Govt. Indoctrination Canters (you know 'em as Public Schools and Institutions of Higher Learning) nation wide. And yes, I am white, Caucasian, a honky.
Imma Fubared
I decided that during the election, being white, I get to define for myself what racism is not a black person telling me what it is. Basically if I don;t think its racism, then I don't care what any black person thinks.
legtingle
I didn't know Ali said (something like) that. I've always really admired that man. What a physical speciman, athlete and very funny, smart, charming man. He still is in his own quiet, dignified way.
A guy recently (last few years) wrote a book with this as it's central theme. It was a love letter of sorts to his great, great grandfather....to explain how appreciative he was that he got to live in America....even though his "people" had to endure horrid slavery. Looked like a good book, but I have not read it.
If I were an "African" American (I hate these groups that people put themselves in....all citizens are American)...I'd say a prayer and a big old thank you to the genetic lottery that got me delivered into this country. I'm white, and I say that prayer and thank you every day. Although, lately, our country isn't looking like America (as it was "evilllllly" founded according to Marxist Obama).....Guess nothing lasts forever. I've been reading about the fall of Rome lately. They were throwing newly born babies in trash heaps to die horrible deaths while gorging on food and wine. Sound familiar?
dominoe4
How nice to have bemoaned 'racism' for decades and decades...and then as soon as you feel the election of a black President has turned it around, you immediately take on the role of fomenting racial hatred. Proof that men, of any color, are not all 'naturally' decent and peaceful, as libtard ideology tries to pretend. The attitude of a large swath of the black community these days indicate that no one is innocent of the crime of animosity and prejudice.
Troll LaLa Troll LaLaLa
O, you must mean like all the white folks mr foxx bragged about killing were not generalized? I've been subjected to 'comedians' making fun of white males for a few decades now, and it was supposed to be 'funny'. Now it's beyond funny and just plain threatening. To ALL us white folk.
And I'm not even white. That's the most ironic part of all this - my skin tone is light-skinned but I'm nearly all native american indian. Yet i've been called 'white boy' and told 'you wouldn't understand - it's not like you white folk would know anything about it' most of my life.
Yah, i know a thing or two about generalization. Racism is racism, regardless of who's cracking the jokes.
Ted
My relatives fought for the South. Still think they were wrong about savages being savages? White men attacking and invading other white peoples' home for the sake of ...Jamie Foxx and the rest of the pack. Fattening up these pigs with food stamps. American blacks are the most coddled, spoiled and OBESE people in the history of the world. You guys did more than waste your and our lives, you betrayed your own blood, and now it's coming back to you. People who turn against their own have no honor, and neither deserve nor get no respect.
Loves Pandas Best
We all know that blacks have been killing blacks, and continue to do so now, since there were blacks. All they know it would seem. Sad race of people.
Jugears McGhetto Jr
PC has knocked America back into the 1940s. No doubt. it's like we're re living the civil rights era as they're all handed jobs they cant handle they've all gotten with these affirmative action obtained credentials which most of us non minority college and high school educated Americans know is nothing more than a color based free ride back door reparation and we're now being run by people decided upon by their gender and race instead of ability and experience.
Obama's the poster boy as to how dangerous affirmative action can be when exploited to the 't' like it was in the case of Obama all the way down the line from his foreign birth to his 'trip to Hawaii" to become an Anchor baby and utilize all the handouts and goodies they already had in place back then that were attracting third world scuummmm like flies on shiiiite.
Now they're attracting more illegals from all corners of the globe with their 'come one come all Welfare line" pleas like they did to draw illegals over the border to vote democrat in exchange for de facto "wink wink' amnesty they'll all be awarded any day now for throwing the election over principle. Don't ever let some Hispanic Supposed "Catholic" illegal tell you they care about Abortion because they vote party of death.. They're like Dem Catholics, ''in name only when beneficial to the moment''.
hydrangea1
Middle class whites don't have welfare, free medical care, section 8 housing, free phones, free SNAP cards, free everything. We are providing it to the leeches. Is that what you call a "level playing field", stealing what we've WORKED for and giving it to you? I call that thievery.