Come on Brian!! This guy is racist and you didn't even call him out when he used the perverted sexual term "tea bagger"...

THE truth-- "racism is not only a tool, it is a way of life for a whole lot of people!"

lifestyle for some just a tool for others

Thanks hjs. Becky, I am not making any assumptions about you, how could I? I don't know you. I am trying to understand how we can propel the dialogue forward and move past simplifying complexities too much. I hope, though it seems not to be the way comment boards work, that we can can also speak respectfully to each other. If my first post set you off, that was not my intention. Be well.

Thank you HJS for translating, smiles reeeeallly thinks that I am afraid to say what I mean, if he/she was smart she and was listening to the show and not just responding to posts, he/she would note that mine is/was a response to Reed, not an attempt to avoid saying Black or white...I am not shy smiles, I dont hide behind word games, thanks for playing try again.

Smiles
seems to me from reading the post "they" refers to those who hate obama.

john from the office- if you don't agree with him he must be taken off the air? Even if one doesn't agree isn't it worthwhile to have opposing views? Maybe you need to stick to Fox where you won't have the unfortune exposure to thoughts that might differ from yours.

I don't really understand Becky. I am looking for truth, not word play.

Zach
know where u came from to know where you're going!

Agreed NMW...most will need to get a dictionary before responding to your post but....agreed.

Interesting discussion but apart from the direct malicious opposition to Obama, two other issues seem fundamental to understand poor civic climate.

One, is the lack of commercial viability of pragmatic civic minded media to counter the oppositional sound bite model that feeds our tabloid hunger. Reasoned policy discussions are boring compared to emotional WWF takedown language.

Two, there is an inherent human nature not to listen to views that are different from our own no matter what evidence is presented. We protect and apologize for our own, regardless of their guilt. Tribalism, cognitive dissonance, confirmation bias represent closed minds that will argue and defend regardless of the facts. That cannot be changed.

But there is a proportion of the electorate that is skeptical and emotional whose minds are not completely closed. we must be more effective in using the tools of persuasion and emotion to pull them to the truth and away from the mindless crowd.

NMW

Voter, can't believe I am agreeing with you today...will wonders never cease! but you are spot on.

@ "you are not the truth" - I am the TRUTH and you are a coward! Truth hurts...get gonads together and post a REAL name thanks. Oh and I don't recall saying I was Black...hmmm, check your racism meter.

Smiles - you are they

mnhtn

Stirring up racist feelings among the populace in order to "play politics" is NOT ok and does not get a pass. The thought that that can be excused as "playing politics" is disgusting.

I'm all for clear, perceptive, and even brutal criticism of our collective, American identity. It's the overly broad brush stokes that fail us. I expect more of intellects like Mr. Reed.

The Truth from Becky,
I think non-black members of the media who get hung up on Barak Obama being half Irish forget what I’ve posted before (and usually gets redacted): Racists don’t check your birth certificate before calling you “n-word”.
(Funny Note: Apparently now I can't even post the title of the book: "Watch your mouth! The words "n----r" are not allowed here" --care of the WNYC site)

...and another thing:

back when the Iraq war started, the protestors were treated in the media (including on NPR) as a fringe movement made up of extremists and weirdos. Despite the fact that there were serious questions about the premise of the war (which turned out to be justified in the end as we all know)

and yet...these looney tune tea baggers who seem to be fueled mostly by hate and no real coherent ideology when you scratch the surface quite frankly, are taken with the utmost seriousness by the media (including NPR and your show in particular).

Thankfully a short segment, it was a faux pas to have this guest.

Who's "they" again Becky?

The Truth from Becky, it is people such as yourself who give African-Americans a bad name, not everyone is out to get us

How ironic that the same person decrying racist treatment of Obama and saying that no one brings up Obama's Irish heritage then used the offensive term "paddy wagons." I wish you had called him on that, Brian!

Brian, NPR does it own racial stereotyping. Weekend Edition went so far as to call candidate Obama a racist for not defending John McCain and lauded candidate McCain for adopting a dark-skinned child.

I agree with the guest; however, using the charge of Jim Crow by the media against a markedly pro-Crow president it a bit ironic, don’t you think?

FYI ZACH, I was responding to HJS' comment..see hjs second comment thanks.

Wait- I didn't catch that joke. Could you repeat it one more time?

White middle-aged woman from suburbia-this premise is 100% correct!

This guy sounds like a paranoid conspiracy-theorist. Yeah, now Hillary Cinton is a Jew-hating racist b/c of Graham. WTF!
Enough already, they're playing politics. Has your guest ever heard of POLITICS!
He sounds racist to me - generalizing and always looking for faults.

I didn't catch the word Mr. Reed said before "Diaries" when he was talking about Billy Graham. Was this a book Rev. Graham wrote? How far back does it date--does it necessarily reflect his current attitude?

Oh please don't forget to mention what Time Magazine did.

Why must everything said which poorly reflects on President Obama be race-related? There is nothing worse than the over-sensitized nature of race relations here in America and it benefits NO ONE. Mr. Reed makes the point that media critics don't reference the President's Irish heritage, however when filling out his census form, President Obama himself refused to identify these roots. As a proud Irish-American, should I take this to mean he is disgraced by this portion of his heritage? If I was and I came out publicly and admitted this, would I then be stapled as a racist-thinking white man?

The joke was not funny, there are black conservatives, who are made to feel inadequate by fools like this guest. Get him off the air, he is a joke and a stereotype.

The Black race thanks you so much john from the o, for your support...NOT

Aren't sweeping historical analogies like this just reductive and lazy when it comes to analyzing the REAL and pervasive racial bias against this president? Writing about slave-breakers or making erroneous statements about "The Jews," (see "The Truth's" FOURTH comment) serve only to distract from the issue.

Yes Brian, he is Black enough...in the United States they still believe in one drop. I don't know any Black person who asked that question, had to come from someone in the media someone white.

Brian, where do you find these guests. He is not a spokesman for the black community. Another voice of victimhood,

Gates was not Harrassed, he overreacted to a police inquery. Gates was the aggressor.

"Not part of the mainstream commentary", Brian?

Are you nuts??? The media is extremely disresptful of this President on a level I have NEVER seen in my life, including with the last moron we had in office (who actually DESERVED to be beat up by the media-but the press KISSED his butt instead)

Perhaps you are too busy listening to Rush Limbaugh (I've noticed all the Limbaugh references of late- WTF???) and it's rotting your brain.

Wake up already.

"They" hate President Obama more than hitler hated the jews.

Brian, I am soooo proud of you for using the N word. Wow. You broke every PC rule in the book.

This guest is just another black activist that is paranoid and a weight on the black community. Always seeing the negative.

HJS - racism is not only a tool, it is a way of life for a whole lot of people!

I have to say that you are correct Ishmael "they" are extremely disrespectful and degrading of this President. It is beyond the normal government hating behaviour.

it seems to me that racism is just a tool used by some in the on going war between working people and the trust funds that own this country.

You had already said the N-word Brian when you read the title, you didn't seem to have problem, why switch back when you asked the question?