MSNBC analyst and Democratic strategist Karen Finney disgustingly
smeared Rush Limbaugh and several Republican presidential candidates on
Thursday, charging that the racist hate of these conservatives had
"lethal consequences" in the case of Trayvon Martin, an African American
teen shot in Florida.
After decrying "bigotry and stereotypes tak[ing] over our better judgment," Finney sneeringly insisted that when "Rush
Limbaugh calls a presidential candidate, Senator Barack Obama, a magic
negro...In the case of Trayvon, those festering stereotypes had lethal
consequences." [MP3 audio here .]
Since MSNBC chose a Democratic operative to guest host the Martin Bashir show, it shouldn't be surprising that Finney completely misrepresented the facts. Limbaugh did not create the term "magic negro." David Ehrenstein did in the Los Angeles Times , March 19, 2007. He wrote of the then-candidate:
But it's clear that Obama also is running for an equally important
unelected office, in the province of the popular imagination — the
"Magic Negro."
Limbaugh repeated the words and used the phrase in a skit on his radio show.
Finney also blamed Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney for the shooting:
So, when Newt Gingrich, presidential candidate Newt Gingrich says
that, quote, "really poor children in really poor neighborhoods have no
habits of working and have nobody around them who works. They have no
habit of I do this and you give me cash, unless it's illegal," or Rick
Santorum says, "I don't want to make black people's lives easier," or
Rush Limbaugh calls a presidential candidate, Senator Barack Obama a
magic negro, or Mitt Romney says nothing at all, the effect is
dangerous.
This isn't the first time the Martin Bashir show linked horrible acts of violence to conservatives. On January 6, 2012 ,
Bashir highlighted the story of a murdered British teen and ordered
Gingrich to "cut out the food stamps rhetoric right now before things
get any worse."
From May of 2007: “NBC Impugns Limbaugh Over ‘Barack the Magic Negro’ Parody Song ”
A transcript of the March 22 segment, which aired at 3:58pm EDT,
KAREN
FINNEY: It's time now to clear the air. When I was a little girl my
father and I were pulled over one night on a highway in Virginia. We
were headed back to New York after visiting family in Martinsville. I
wasn't scared until I heard the police officer order my father out of
the car like a criminal, and he said "Boy, you got some ID?" I'd never
heard anyone talk to my dad like that. As he got out of the car, he told
me not to worry but I have to say the way he said it only frightened me
more. My father's offense wasn't speeding.
My father's offense was that he was a black man driving a nice car. To
the officer, this seemed out of place, just as a young, black man in a
hoodie wrongly seemed out of place to George Zimmerman the night he shot
and killed Travvon Martin. Left unchecked or unchallenged our biases,
bigotry and stereotypes take over our better judgment. People,
in Trayvon Martin's case, a teenager walking home from the store, are
dehumanized into some form of other, unworthy of respect and it's
justified as a way to make people some kind of separate and unequal
status.
So, when Newt Gingrich, presidential candidate Newt Gingrich
says that, quote, "really poor children in really poor neighborhoods
have no habits of working and have nobody around them who works. They
have no habit of I do this and you give me cash, unless it's illegal,"
or Rick Santorum says, "I don't want to make black people's lives
easier," or Rush Limbaugh calls a presidential candidate, Senator Barack
Obama a magic negro, or Mitt Romney says nothing at all, the effect is
dangerous, because they reinforce and validate old stereotypes that
associate the poor and welfare as criminal behavior with
African-Americans and people of color, calling us lazy, undeserving
recipients of public assistance. In the case of Trayvon, those festering
stereotypes had lethal consequences.
You know, early this month, I joined civil rights hero John Lewis in
retracing the steps of the civil rights movement through Birmingham,
Montgomery and Selma, Alabama. It was very painful of the hate that they
endured and had to absorb. But, it was also inspiring to be reminded of
the courage that people from all backgrounds, black, white, gay,
straight, men, women, conservative, liberal. They refused to let their
silence endorse the evil around them. They stood up against the hate,
against the racism, and against prejudice.
-- Scott Whitlock is the senior news analyst for the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.
