LISTEN TO JOEL SEGAL:
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On August 28, 1963, civil rights workers and their allies descended on the nation’s capital for the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.” On this historic occasion, standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and looking out over the National Mall, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I Have A Dream” speech to a crowd of more than 200,000.
Saturday marked the 47th anniversary of the March on Washington and once again King’s beautiful and powerful voice rang out over the National Mall to a crowd numbering in the hundreds of thousands. Unlike in 1963, however, those listening to King’s words were not interested in advancing civil rights, but in “Restoring Honor.”
Saturday’s “Restoring Honor” rally was organized by radio and Fox TV personality Glenn Beck who has called President Obama a “racist” who has “a deep-seated hatred for white people.” Washington Post columnist Courtland Milloy wrote about Beck and the “Restoring Honor” rally (“The only thing being restored by Beck is prejudice“):
“‘Something beyond imagination is happening; something that is beyond man is happening,’ the conservative TV talk show host told a massive crowd of hero worshippers who’d gathered Saturday on the Mall. ‘America today begins to turn back to God.’ “And he led them not back to God but to a rally that had to be the whitest ever held at the Lincoln Memorial on the anniversary of King’s 1963 ‘I Have A Dream’ speech. “‘We don’t want to transform America,’ said Sarah Palin, Beck’s sidekick prophet of the day. ‘We just want to restore America.’
“Back to when? Before the ‘progressive movement’ began to destroy the country 100 years ago, says Beck. Which would make the restore date somewhere around 1910 – the nadir of the post-Reconstruction era. Don’t forget to bring your lynching rope.”
Sitting by the Washington Monument, Joel Segal watched – and occasionally greeted – wave after wave of white people heading to the Lincoln Memorial for the “Restoring Honor” march. Just after I completed an interview with Segal, an activist with Progressive Democrats for America, he asked an elderly man what he thought of President Obama. The elderly man responded by saying that Obama is the first nigger President.
Before being pulled away by his fellow rally-goers, the elderly man explained that he was upset with President Obama because he was wasting money and creating an enormous deficit. When Segal responded that, in fact, it was Bush, not Obama, who created the massive deficits with the Bush wars, the man said that was wrong. Period.
Based on the “facts” he’s been given, this man is right to state that it’s Obama, not Bush, who is responsible for the deficit. Like millions of other Americans, he likely gets his “news” from Glenn Beck and the other right-wing ideologues who occupy so much of our precious public airwaves. These right-wing TV/radio personalities (you can’t call them journalists) do not bother to inform their vast audiences about basic facts that do not fit into their ideology.
And let’s be clear: their ideology is not just narrow and frightening, but racist. It is not a coincidence that the “Restoring Honor” rally coincides with the first black president occupying the White House (a more accurate description of the rally might be, “Restoring a White Male to the White House.”) Nor is it happenstance that the rally consisted of hundreds of thousands of almost entirely white people.
While some commentators have pointed out that the march itself was peaceful, this misses the point. It was “peaceful” broadcasts about the “controversy” of a mosque (or center) being built at (or somewhat near) Ground Zero that may well have led to the recent slashing of a Muslim taxidriver’s neck. Similarly, it is “peaceful” gatherings like Saturday’s which may lead to greater numbers of people of color being attacked and killed all over this country.
After Saturday’s enormous rally, it appears that Beck’s racist ideology is on the verge of fueling a mass movement (if it isn’t doing so already). If a massive FDR-style jobs program is not created immediately in order to quell this anger, it is possible that this country will head down a very dark road.
How has this fringe ideology gained a stronghold in this country in less than two years? From its founding, America has been a deeply racist country, so the argument could be made that Beck’s racism is not really a fringe ideology. But I think it is. The election in 2008 of a black man named Barack Hussein Obama to the presidency shows that millions of Americans are thinking somewhat differently – and more progressively – about race. But within the last two years, a racist movement has sprung up, seemingly out of nowhere. How?
Returning to the elderly man who called Mr. Obama the first nigger President: He was not angry and in need of confrontation, like a number of the other racists at Saturday’s rally. No, this man’s eyes were soft. So was his voice. I could easily picture him advocating for better treatment for custodial workers or possibly even protesting at an anti-war rally. But instead he has joined this large and growing racist movement. Why?
He “knows” that Obama is running up the deficit and destroying the country. If ever there was an indictment of America’s “mainstream media,” this is it. While there will always be some racists, the massive turnout on Saturday indicates that a significant part of this country – consisting of those consuming Fox TV, Clear Channel Radio and their allies – is having their anger directed in racist ways. It is this misuse of America’s public airwaves that has turned Beck’s fringe ideology into an American movement.
The best and worst moments in history are not all that different. At our best, we come together to direct our anger at the power structures carrying out injustice, as exemplified by King and the civil rights movement. At our worst, we come together to direct our anger at the most vulnerable, as exemplified by Beck and the racist Tea Party movement.
It is unbelievable that our public airwaves are fueling the latter. And it is shameful that the Democrats have created such fertile ground for this hatred to spread like wild fire by not addressing America’s pain with a massive FDR-style jobs program.