.
I mean, not normal-ass white people like you and me, but that insecure, noisy, politically overrepresented minority of white people that comforts and drugs itself with FOX News. I’m just asking, because last week (before the Massacre) humorous liberal radio host Stephanie Miller was suddenly inundated by dozens of pieces of hate e-mail.
They called her a hater! A bitch! A “dried-up [C-word]!” Some of the e-mails were death threats (which she dutifully ridiculed before forwarding off to the FBI.) Most of them mentioned “I’m white” for some reason. And, strangely, most of them ended “Merry Christmas!” (We realized after a while that these right wingers think that’s a phrase that liberals hate to hear, and was intended as a sort of curse, a flash of garlic as it were.)
Quick research revealed that all of these infuriated white people had watched Sean Hannity’s show the day before, and Sean had played a little clip from a parody song that Stephanie had played earlier in the day – a parody of Mel Torme’s “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire” (created by “Rocky Mountain Mike,” who sends Stephanie new song parodies nearly every day.)
You can hear that section of Sean’s show here. Sean prefaces the song clip by telling his audience they’re going to be hearing “hateful venom” from “liberals.” He even says “I’m the victim here” – I LOVE it when rightwingers do that! His guest, some alleged rightwing “comedian,” opines that this clip proves that “the progressive movement is built on HATE, this makes that clear.” Then they play the clip, which consists of a Karen Carpenter sound-alike singing:
“Ev’rybody knows a turkey like Sean Hannity
gets an audience that’s white;
tiny-brained people who just don’t know
that what he says just isn’t right.”
We were all “huh?” And we hit rewind a couple of times. THIS was the horrible “hateful venom,” the hate that tars and defines all progressives, the hate that drives Sean’s listeners to want to murder Stephanie Miller in revenge? This innocuous clip? Was the problem calling Sean a “turkey?” The “tiny brains?” The pointing out that what he says “just isn’t right?”
Then I remembered how most of the angry e-mails Stephanie got mentioned “I’m white!” Some of them added “and you’re white too, you bitch!” One of them, in absurd “some of my best friends” style, mentioned, “Don’t you know Sean is friends with Juan Williams?” (Notably, none of them said “I listen to Sean and I’m not white.”) So THAT was the problem – just mentioning that the FOX News audience includes nearly no minorities! I wouldn’t have thought that would be taken as so offensive.
But, being, as a liberal, naturally empathetic, I tried to imagine what could cause this strong reaction. What could make it feel like a poisonous affront to be called “white?” By another white person? Is it really that upsetting, that apocalyptic, to see our nation’s first Black President resoundingly re-elected? To hear, on the mainstream media, that this was the last election that could have been possibly won with only White votes, and that it didn’t happen?
I’m getting the sense that SOME white people are having trouble settling comfortably into the thought that we are soon going to be one more minority in America. Funny, it doesn’t bother me – am I deficient in racial pride? Is anyone else seeing signs of this phenomenon? And do any readers agree with Sean and his “comedian” friend that Rocky Mountain Mike’s song is “hateful venom” proving the “progressive movement is built on hate?” (Also see last year’s “Boundless White Self-Pity, With a Poll“)
The car belonging to OJ commenter “Even Steven,” shortly after this past Election Day. Note Obama sticker and smashed window.
I am thinking there is rage because many people are not used to a diverse population. Even if Democrats are killing our economy, maybe there is white flight out of California because its human nature to live with people that look like yourselves as another reason for the exodus.
Obviously, major overreaction by many (or a few, depending on your perspective) who sent hate filled emails to Ms. Miller. I would imagine that the part that got some all riled up was possibly how I first took it- the singer/writer seemed to be saying that white folk are small brained. This is derived because the singer/writer is saying that Hannity’s audience is mostly white and that his audience (again, mostly white) is small brained. Hence, the assertion that whites are small brained. Insert most other ethnicity and it would be hateful speech.
If one would not want that inference, they easily could have found another word to rhyme with “right” such as “night”…
Well, these people didn’t say much about the “tiny brain” thing. Maybe they just didn’t feel completely sure about contending that their brains were not tiny.
I had thought, if Rocky Mountain Mike were not so slavishly loyal to the rhymes of the original song (“help to make the season bright”) he could have, with equal accuracy, had his vocalist sing. “gets an audience that’s OLD … dense sclerotic geezers who lack / the sense to come in from the COLD.” But as usual nobody asked me.
Yeah maybe…
If the term “white” was used purely for rhyming and not meant purposeful with a connection to tiny brained, I would think that maybe a less controversial lyric, yet still accurate, would have been (yes, I will keep my day job):
“Ev’rybody knows a turkey like Sean Hannity
gets an audience at night;
tiny-brained people who just don’t know
that what he says just isn’t right.”
The bigger issue for those who threw the insults over email was that they showed their intelligence, or lack thereof, through their own words…regardless of who they watch on TV.
This should more properly be a Venn diagram, but I’ll go ahead with it as is. All of these figures are made up, by the way — either rough approximations or total fabrications.
Let’s say that there are 200 million white people in the U.S.
Let’s say that 20 million of them, a mere 10%, have “tiny brains.”
Let’s say that Hannity has an audience of 2 million people, which is composed ENTIRELY of people in that tiny-brained 10%.
In that case, it would be correct to say that Hannity’s audience is composed of “tiny-brained whites” without implying in any way that most whites (or even more than the 1% of whites in question — that number is just a coincidence — are “tiny brained.”
Linguistically, it seems clear to me that “tiny-brained” is intended to modify “his audience” rather than “white[s]”, but I prefer the math explanation.
Greg, hopefully you can at least see that perhaps if another race/social group/ethnicity was used in place of “white” that it would be considered by that group, and many others, as something that should be addressed…
Nice math by the way…
It could be taken that way in such a case, perhaps, but that would be a function of minorities being a more common target of stereotyping than majorities. If it had been “Blacks,” I may well have wanted an explanation; I would not have called for her firing, etc.
the problem, as i have expressed before, is godless communism which is determined to destroy the white christian values that made this country great. i remember, back in the day, when only white male property owners were allowed to vote (sort of like alabama today). in those days, the country had the money to buy louisana, alaska and parts of north dakota. now we have to spend our money on food stamps, sex change operations and the destruction of christmas. hannity should be named a saint, if not the pope.
The problem isn’t godless Communism or white-men’s inability to buy more land. It’s the fact that the white men don’t understand their own history. They take, conquer, and take some more all in the name of God and their self-ordained right to own what belongs to others.
The Native Americans welcomed the white folks, offered turkey, and then their land is taken from them so the whites can buy and sell their land (louisana, north dakota, etc) like monopoly pieces. Once America has been conquered they turn their eyes to other countries and colonize them. All these colonies have their own “god” but since its not the same as the white men they are labeled as “godless”. Then there’s the history of slavery which I won’t get into.
Now there is a black man as President, for a 2nd term too. No wonder some white people are going crazy. They can’t stand when they are not in control of the world anymore.
willie, i hope this is a spoof letter because if it isn’t, you qualify as one of those Hannity audience members.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/12/20/mosque-arsonist-tells-court-i-only-know-what-i-hear-on-fox-news/#.UNNrHGDKrEh.facebook
When I consider Boutwell’s suggested improvements, I have to admit that the fact of FOX News’ audience being 99% white sort of IS one point of the song parody … but it’s not meant as some poisonous insult to all white people or any white people in particular, but just as a trenchant observation on the nature of FOX News and what they sell.
Still, OLD would also have worked.
“Old” does not rhyme…
It may not have meant to be an insult to all white people, but hopefully one can see why someone could think that…without thinking that they are going crazy. Again, if white was substituted for another group, and lets say it was played about the audience of Al Sharpton on MSNBC (solely b/c his show was just on our TV’s in the office so he is on my mind), I can imagine there could be some outrage.
I made OLD rhyme just fine up above!
And you can’t say that about Reverend Al because a whole BUNCH of us white folks and latin and Asian folks listen to his Blueberry Pie stories!
Ok ok… hey – we need a bio for you, for our “about us” page.
You are right…old and cold- good job.
I just used Rev Al b/c he was just talking in my ear for an hour…choose someone else if you would like, possibly a Spanish speaking host, and you will see what I mean.
BTW, are you able to find race info on Hannity or Sharpton? When I search for it, I find lots of age/income/education type info but not race…
“Ev’rybody knows a turkey like Obama
gets an audience that’s black;
tiny-brained people who just don’t know
that what he says is ’cause he’s a hack.
How’s that sound?
Does that make ME black? Im confused.
as chris rock once observed, there are rich people and there are wealthy people. guess which groups he identified as rich and which he identified as wealthy. that, despite what vern and greg are trying to do to lessen their guilt, will never change
You know …. I really don’t like white people all that much. I mean, when you get too many of them all bunched up together they are pretty nuts .. creeps me out.
I’ll mark that down as one “white person going crazy.”
If your point is that one shouldn’t say that about groups — OK, although outside of extreme Fiala-level commentary we’d probably just make fun of you for saying it.
Are you looking forward to a “White Christmas”?
I’m looking forward to the line “… and children listen …”
Is Willie serious?
willie is tongue-in-cheek, dude.
Willie is difficult to comprehend at times.
Because he’s usually satirical like in his first comment above, and then sometimes he’s himself – a reasonable good-humored conservative – like in the second comment. Maybe he should use two names.
how about tedd nugent and bobb marley
I’m still trying to find a definition of a normal ass so I can then go on and read the rest of Vern’s rant.
Note: I have no idea what’s in here, but here’s an appropriately entitled rap video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qs3Z26WMTyU. Let us know what you find!