More Muddled Right-Wing Thinking About Race

Posted by Thers, Whiskey Fire at 11:26 AM on July 17, 2009.

I suspect the difficulty the GOP is having with race is twofold. First, they are committed to loudly asserting that nobody should ever "see" race, except for when this is to the advantage of white people. Second, they're idiots.

So what we have is, uh, this.

Red meat by the slab, folks! Barbara Boxer wound up getting reamed by Harry Alford, the chair of the National Black Chamber of Commerce, after attempting to challenge his testimony on energy policy. When Boxer started waving position papers from the NAACP and the 100 Black Men of Atlanta, Alford called it a “condescending” attack and complained about Boxer’s focus on black people rather than science flaboo shmool gambol mumble poop.

You can find the triumphant youtubery if you believe sufficiently and click heels according to the commonly prescribed instructions for such things.

Or else you could point out the obvious idiocy, which even, Lord help us, John Derbyshire is able to detect:

If Henry Alford objects so strongly to Senator Boxer putting all that race-based stuff in the record, what's he doing as President of the National Black Chamber of Commerce? Wouldn't that be, sort of, you know, a kind of race-based organization?

Boxer should have just said nothing and walked away. But then, that's our Boxer! And our Derbs, who confuses Harry and Henry, poor dope.

As to Harry, my lord, I can think of many descriptions, but "disinterested scientist" is not among them.

Joshua H adds ...

What makes this charge of "racialism" against Boxer so ridiculous is that in his opening statement, Alford, whose organization has gotten at least $275,000 from ExxonMobil, said he was speaking on behalf of the “black community” about energy policy. Having made the claim, Boxer was perfectly justified in noting that Alford's   views on the subject mesh with those of only a very small minority of African Americans.

Tagged as: boxer, energy bill, alford

Thers runs Whiskey Fire.