Racism alive, well at town hall meetings
Published: August 20, 2009
After learning that people armed with guns have been showing up at President Barack Obama’s town hall meetings, I must change the last sentence of last week’s column.
It read, “I’m thinking that many of the 54 million supporters want you to lead marches and demonstrators, too.”
Here’s what happened:
A man stood outside a meeting in Portsmouth, N.H., with a gun strapped to his leg. The town’s police chief told reporters that it’s legal for people to openly carry guns on private property.
On Monday, a dozen gun-toting protesters showed up in Phoenix, where Obama was defending healthcare reform. One of the protesters carried an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle. Police said no laws were broken.
In both cases, the protesters had nerve. The Secret Service was well aware of Kostnic and the Arizona protesters and constantly watched all of them.
I understand the New Hampshire and Arizona laws but disagree with them, just as I continue to disagree with Virginia’s gradual loosening of its gun restrictions.
Virginia law allows guns to be carried openly in bars and restaurants. I don’t care for this law. And I particularly oppose allowing college or high school students to have weapons on their campuses – again whether concealed or not.
Going back to the Obama episode: Even though neither of the incidents I described involved law-breaking, one would think that a president’s safety takes precedence over local gun rights laws. When Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and other Gulf Coast communities, President George W. Bush received extraordinary criticism for his slow response to the disaster.
Can anyone imagine a black man or men licensed to carry firearms openly being allowed within a mile of Bush’s news conference? Heck no!
But the Secret Service allowed white, gun-toting men near Obama.
Experts have said that Obama receives more threats than any past president including 400 percent more than Bush. According to investigative journalist Ronald Kessler, Obama averages 30 death threats a day.
As much as I would have liked for former Secretary of State Colin Powell to have run for president in 1996 it’s easy to see why his wife, Alma, objected. She feared for his life.
I’m sure Michelle Obama gave serious thought to her husband’s safety just as Powell’s wife did. Mrs. Obama, others and I thought America had changed and was ready for a black president.
We want to think and believe that our country has moved beyond issues of race and color.
It hasn’t.
Nelson Graves, of Augusta County, is a columnist for The News Virginian. E-mail him at .
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Okay - just ran across this. So, is the author just trying to point out that HE is a racist?
It always amazes me that when there are those that exercise their rights, that others question it. I admit I open carry my gun, it’s my right to protect myself and my family, but I can’t count the times I have been looked at like a criminal or been questioned as to why I am armed, I always answer the same, just exercising my right to open carry my weapon and the right to protect myself, most Police I encounter that ask and I reply that understand, some still ask why do I carry a gun, which I always reply, well why do you carry one ? at that point they usually understand.
The reason people didn’t assemble and protest Bush this way, was because Bush wasn’t planning on trying to disarm the population, the same way Obama plans to. The reason guns sales have skyrocketed, is because we want to make sure we already own the guns, that they will more than likely try to ban, That AR-15 is the same as the rifle your great great great granddad owned to hunt with, only difference is the AR looks cool, and is better engineered , it still fires the same way, but because it looks cool, they will label it a assault weapon and try to ban it’s sale. The real fact is gun laws never have been nor never will be effective, as they only affect those who care about the law, criminals don’t care about any other laws, why would they care about a gun law ?
Now onto the Racism topic at hand. I agree with many other posters, and know from my own personal experiences that the most racial people are black. They cry and whine about what happened before most of us were even born, like we really had any control of history. To say your proud to be white, is like saying your racist.
I read something years back that always stuck with me, The blacks have the NAACP, All Black Colleges, The Million Man March. IF we the white people had a organization dedicated just for the advancement of white people, it would be labeled racist, IF white people had a all white college, it would be sued for being discriminatory and the head master would be labeled a white supremacist racist, and if a million white people marched to show our white pride, we would be called the KKK and all labeled racist ! So my question is, how do you want us to forget and have equal rights, when you never allow it to die ?
Racism will always be alive and well as long as people like you are shouting at every beck and turn. I,personally am sick and tired of black people trying to make me feel guilty because I am white. Ofcourse,there is racism in this country. But,in my experiences…BLACK PEOPLE ARE MORE RACIST THAN WHITE PEOPLE! The dividing line will always be visible as long as racism is used a “crutch”,because an african american or some radical,like you, doesn’t get his way. I voted for Obama,I believe he was the best man for the job, however I had a black lady tell me that most affluent, white people voted for Obama,because they harbored guilt. What a bunch of bull! I wasn’t born in the 60’s nor was I, a slave owner in the 1800’s. So for god sakes you and all these other radicals, need to stop shouting racism all the time. This country is trying to change or a black man wouldn’t have been elected in the 1st place,so get over the civil war.Get over the 1960’s.
Nelson Graves thoughts and words are no different now than they had been for all the years I worked with him at American Safety Razor,
He carried a chip on his shoulder then and that was many years ago.
I see he still has that inferior mentally and not able to accept he was born black.
Nelson Graves thoughts and words are no different now than they had been for all the years I worked with him at American Safety Razor.
He carried a chip on his shoulder then and that was many years ago.
I see he still has that inferior mentally and not able to accept he was born black.
Some of my best friends then were black (remember Monk and Meatball) and some of my best friends now are black.
Remember Nelson, that although it was not right - it is history and we don’t need you fueling fires of hatred.
Most blacks we all know have moved past that. Why don’t you give it a try?
Yes, that’s what I’m saying. I believe that it is very difficult to comprehend how hatred towards a minority (Jews, Catholics, African Americans, Chinese, et cetera) in America has affected the mindset of someone who has been the target of said hatred. I can only assume it would have strong psychological impact, maybe even oversensitivity towards racism in some cases. I wouldn’t know, I’ve not been that type of target. Your well thought out response pleases the King. Uh huh!
@Elvis
It doesnt “pain” me, this was the first of his articles I have read. Trust me, I won’t read anymore.
So you are saying, what happened in the 40s and 50s (not sure why those decades, I would have said the 60s, but whatever you think) has a bearing on him putting a racial twist on current events. So you are saying that because a persons grandparents suffered racial times, it is okay for that person to be a racist? Because that’s what it looks like you’re saying. I am sure most will agree with me when they say they don’t have a hatred for Mr. Graves, but rather a hatred for racism, which is what Mr. Graves exhibits. I asked myself what ethnic group had been the most racist, I also asked myself which had been the most oppressed. The answer I got was jews. If you have forgiveness in your heart, anything will “dissipate” overnight. If you are a hateful racist you will continue to write articles once a week and more than likely continue to wish you had been born a different color. I will gladly pay reparations to people of another race that I have oppressed. However, I refuse to at the very least apologize for the wrongs my great grandfathers and their sons committed against someone todays great grandfather whom they cant even tell you his name. sorry youve got the guilty white thing going on.
C’mon people, you’re all so fast to spit your hatrid of Mr. Graves. So it’s his opinion, but hey, that’s what he’s paid to give. Stop reading his articles if it pains you so much. As for racism, lets just say it hasn’t been very long since segregation, lynchings, KKK marches (in Staunton in the last 10 years), and plenty towards Obama. My parents grew up in the 40’s and 50’s, and maybe Mr. Graves did too. So his childhood memories probably contain some nasty racial episodes. Ask yourselves what American ethnic group has been the most racist in the last 150 years, then realize that it doesn’t dissipate overnight, but attitudes die out slowly and with some, not at all.
Mr. Graves could take some lessons from the very gracious and very articulate Thelma Newman, who is an African-American contemporary of his (in terms of general age range and presumably life experiences) who writes occasionally for the News Leader. Her columns are always uplifting and do not necessarily focus exclusively on the African-American community. On the other hand, it has gotten to the point where each of Mr. Graves’ columns is simply a variation on a theme, whereas I would think any columnist in any publication would change his subject matter once in a while. If you really want to impress us, Mr. Graves, write just once about something positive and supportive so we can see if you can even conceptualize those emotions.
This comment is related to “Card53’s” post.
Card,
Thank you for bringing up the biased mindset, deep seeded hatred, and long standing bigotry of this article’s author. I very carefully read the other related article you mentioned.
I find Mr. Graves actually has no problem with guns, but he uses guns as an inroad to publish and promote his racist mentality. He has zero problems with guns, but his hatred of white people rings throughout his postings.
Personally, I despise racists, and now I understand why he kept making glaring errors in this latest piece.
I thought this was the most racist article I had ever read. then I read another article from him on June 11. In which he said,
“This trend of increased sales of guns and ammunition says a lot about white Americans’ psyche. Evidently, with the election of America’s first black president, they feel they must protect their homes and property from roving bands of lawbreaking African-Americans, welfare-wanting Hispanics and Arab terrorists.“
The increased sales are only white people buying guns? do black people not tote guns? oh wait We’ve already been through that.
I’ll play my race card. If a white columnist was saying the things this guy was saying, he would be out on the street.
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