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Remember When Rosa Parks Drove a Car Into a Ditch?

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by Tommy Christopher | 9:38 am, October 27th, 2010

» 19 comments

Neither do I, but a host of conservatives, like Glenn Beck, apparently do. They have re-cast President Obama‘s back-seat placement of the GOP in his “car in the ditch” metaphor as a reference to Rosa Parks‘ historic act of civil disobedience. Twice during his radio show, Beck attempted to invent context, while some conservative blogs followed suit.

If you actually read what the President said, however, none of this makes any sense, so why all the gymnastics? It’s part of a longstanding effort by some of the President’s opponents to cast him as a “reverse racist,” while simultaneously attacking him with race.

Here’s Beck morphing the President’s quote, and pleading to know why Republicans have to sit in the back:

It’s really quite simple, Glenn. In this metaphor, you’re not Rosa Parks, you’re the guy who not only can’t drive, but who messes with the radio knob, never shuts up, and just might give the steering wheel an untimely yank. So, yeah, sit in the back until you get your license back.

Ironically, one of the earliest and most enduring such race-related attacks has to do with Obama’s reference to his grandmother as a “typical white person” following his 2008 speech on race in America. The remark is cited to this day as an example of the President’s supposed racism, but here’s what he said:

“The point I was making was not that my grandmother harbors any racial animosity, but that she is a typical white person. If she sees somebody on the street that she doesn’t know (pause) there’s a reaction in her that doesn’t go away and it comes out in the wrong way.”‘

He was candidly discussing the same reflexive prejudices that the right now lauds Juan Williams for addressing.

Not all conservatives are on board with the Rosa Parks smear, however. From Hot Air:

I know Drudge and Fox are having fun with The One saying at a rally that the GOP needs to “sit in back,” as if it was some sort of veiled Rosa Parks allusion, but I think he’s getting a bad rap on that. That’s just part of his dopey car metaphor: We can’t let Republicans drive because they’re the ones who steered the car into the ditch, yadda yadda, so now they need to ride along as passengers while the Dems steer for awhile… I don’t think he means anything racial in it at all; “great communicator” that he is, he’s just stretching this already exhausted metaphor to its breaking point. Good luck convincing Megyn Kelly of that, though.

They also point out that, just as I suspected, the “back seat” part of the story isn’t actually new.

barack obama, Glenn Beck, Juan Williams, Robert Gibbs, Rosa Parks, Tommy Christopher, typical white person

More Liberty

While I don’t believe Obama is a racist, I thought that the following quotes should sign some interesting light on Mr. Christopher’s opinion piece.

“I ceased to advertise my mothers race at the age of 12 or 13, when I began to suspect by doing so that I integrating myself with whites.” – Dreams of my Father

“There was something about him that made me wary, a little too sure of himself, maybe. And white . . .”
-Dreams of my Father

“It remained necessary to prove which side you were on, to show your loyalty to the black masses, to strike out and name names.” He added: “I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist professors and structural feminists.” – Obama

“THAT HATE HADN’T GONE AWAY,” he wrote, BLAMING WHITE PEOPLE,- SOME CRUEL, SOME IGNORANT, sometimes a single face, sometimes just a faceless image of a system claiming power over our lives.” – Obama

Like I said, I don’t think he’s a racist but he sure has made some very interesting remarks.

Glad to help you out Mr. Christopher
CosmosDan

More Liberty said:
Like I said, I don’t think he’s a racist but he sure has made some very interesting remarks.

I think he said when he got on a plane and saw people in garb that identified themselves as white people, he felt nervous.
More Liberty

CosmosDan said:
I think he said when he got on a plane and saw people in garb that identified themselves as white people, he felt nervous.

He might have. Speaking of crazy quotes:

“There is nothing more painful for me at this stage in my life,” according to Jesse Jackson, “than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery—and then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved.”
ondrock

A pointless and biased commentary….the point was valid. If you so loath the rhetoric of the past…why do you so quickly use it on your political adversary. It’s just a shame Obama doesn’t use such harsh language born the Nations real enemies.
And…how stupid is this ‘whole car in ditch’ metaphor…are we 5?
Cecelia

I like blogger Dan Riehl’s comment on the whole matter. While Riehl doesn’t believe the president was making a racially insensitive remark, he thinks he was suggesting (ala Chappaquiddick) something far worse:

“However, it causes me even greater concern than if he had been. He’s a Democrat and he was in New England. We all know what happens to people who ride in the backseat with those bastards. I have no intention of being in the back when this idiot Obama drives Democrats off the bridge on Nov 2nd.”
jondar2

I think it would be the lesser of two evils to be in the “car in a ditch”, than to be in the one this POTUS is driving off the cliff. Since the dems took over congress in 2007, they have added 5 trillion dollars to the deficit, three of that since Obama came to power with his 40+ czars and socialist agenda.

Wake up America, get your self to the polls and put an end to this death knell for America.
RIChris

This was just one of the dozens of times that Obama has declared half the country to be the enemy. His hateful, arrogant rhetoric is overwhelming, no matter which way he phrases it.
Nahu Tuk

Barack Hussein 0bama. Public Enemy #1.
CosmosDan

More Liberty said:
He might have. Speaking of crazy quotes:

“There is nothing more painful for me at this stage in my life,” according to Jesse Jackson, “than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery—and then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved.”

I think the relevant and current story is the incredible dishonesty of trying to turn this into a racial statement. If you’d rather not look at that it’s up to you.
FearMonger

Why not go all out and conjure images of “Driving Miss Daisy” with the old white blue-hair in the back seat and the black man alone in the front seat driving….
Big_F-ing_Deal

If anyone can show me where Obama said “back-of-the-bus” they might have a point otherwise they are just lying race-baiting scumbags which describes Glenn Beck perfectly.
BobHahn

This article is entirely too whiny for public consumption. Both parties regularly distort and stretch the other’s statements… I’d give you an example of the D’s doing it but then I’d be as tedious as Christopher is. Welcome to the NFL.
Big_F-ing_Deal

BobHahn said:
This article is entirely too whiny for public consumption. Both parties regularly distort and stretch the other’s statements… I’d give you an example of the D’s doing it but then I’d be as tedious as Christopher is. Welcome to the NFL.

lol…when you’re side does it it’s the “NFL” but when the other side does it you whine like punk-ass bitches about the lamestream media.

Typical teaturd hypocrisy.
I condemn it where ever I see it.
Jenigma

More Liberty said:
While I don’t believe Obama is a racist, I thought that the following quotes should sign some interesting light on Mr. Christopher’s opinion piece.

“I ceased to advertise my mothers race at the age of 12 or 13, when I began to suspect by doing so that I integrating myself with whites.” – Dreams of my Father

“There was something about him that made me wary, a little too sure of himself, maybe. And white . . .”
-Dreams of my Father

“It remained necessary to prove which side you were on, to show your loyalty to the black masses, to strike out and name names.” He added: “I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist professors and structural feminists.” – Obama

“THAT HATE HADN’T GONE AWAY,” he wrote, BLAMING WHITE PEOPLE,- SOME CRUEL, SOME IGNORANT, sometimes a single face, sometimes just a faceless image of a system claiming power over our lives.” – Obama

Like I said, I don’t think he’s a racist but he sure has made some very interesting remarks.

Glad to help you out Mr. Christopher

How is any of this different from Juan Williams saying Muslims on a plane make him nervous? We all have race-related opinions, it’s impossible to avoid, since we grow up in a culture that perpetuates these stereotypes. Obama’s are just different from yours, since he is of a different race.
Jenigma

jondar2 said:
I think it would be the lesser of two evils to be in the “car in a ditch”, than to be in the one this POTUS is driving off the cliff. Since the dems took over congress in 2007, they have added 5 trillion dollars to the deficit, three of that since Obama came to power with his 40+ czars and socialist agenda.

Wake up America, get your self to the polls and put an end to this death knell for America.

If you take your head out of Glenn Beck’s hiney for a moment, FactCheck.org has de-bunked this myth. Obama has appointed EIGHT brand-new czars, while Bush W had 35. Learn something. I promise it doesn’t hurt.

http://www.factcheck.org/2009/09/czar-search/
Jenigma

CosmosDan said:
I think he said when he got on a plane and saw people in garb that identified themselves as white people, he felt nervous.

No, I actually think Obama said he doesn’t like any “motherfucking snakes on any motherfucking plane.” I could be remembering it wrong, though.
http://none pyrope

Jenigma said:
No, I actually think Obama said he doesn’t like any “motherfucking snakes on any motherfucking plane.” I could be remembering it wrong, though.

HAHAHAHAHAHA
hanoisteve

CosmosDan said:
I think he said when he got on a plane and saw people in garb that identified themselves as white people, he felt nervous.

No he must have seen a bunch of white cops. They make me nervous too.
disenlightened

I’ve got one word for you, little Tommy Christopher, “Macaca”.