NPR Talk Show’s ‘Year for White Americans’ Analysis Repeats Anti-Obama-Racism Line; Caller Objects
NPR's weekday afternoon talk show Talk of the Nation addressed the year 2010 in terms of how it went for Muslims, gays, blacks, and on Thursday, “The Year for White Americans.” All four segments were interviews with guests on the left. While the minorities received a predictable NPR sympathy, the triumph of Tea Party candidates clearly suggested to NPR there's something wrong in white America. Host Neal Conan welcomed liberal historian Douglas Brinkley to suggest there's just too many whites who are racially anxious with a black president, that white people feel “perhaps we are losing something in America, the, you know, white male ascendancy. If you look at even a children's breakfast mat, you'll see it's all white presidents. And now, suddenly, there's Barack Obama.” The segment's first caller jumped in: ” I disagree with the gentleman's premise. You know, I'm a white man. I'm an educated white man. And I have to tell you, I resent being called a racist because I don't necessarily support the programs of, you know, President Obama.” NPR's Conan defended the liberal guest, claiming Brinkley “said that there's a racial aspect to it. He did not say that anybody who disagrees with Barack Obama is, per se, a racist.” The caller refused to budge and said ” I heard everything he said and I resent his position because I don't think it's true.” Brinkley did not say all Obama opponents were racist, but he clearly described white opposition to Obama with the vaguest of generality as anxious about white dominance, and even hailed literary archetypes of uptight white Protestants as evidence: read more
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NPR Talk Show’s ‘Year for White Americans’ Analysis Repeats Anti-Obama-Racism Line; Caller Objects
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on December 31, 2010. Filed under