Senator Jake Knotts Slings Racial Slur at Candidate Nikki Haley: Is an Apology Going to Be Enough?

The thing about racist stuff coming out of someone's mouth is that it originated somewhere inside. This stuff doesn't just come falling out of someone's mouth unless they already think it. It's no accident and it's always an insight into someone's true thoughts.

Deana Birks
Eat. Drink. Read. Blog. ( http://www.deanabirks.com )

Few of us show all the fruits of the spirit.
I agree the fear factor is at play often in political punditry and used to advantage by politicians.

I also think arrogance, the missteps of pride, are at the root of insulting others. And sometimes what looks like pride is a cloak for low self-esteem.

I don't know that Knotts has any spiritual beliefs that motivate him. In the south, however, politicians have learned to exploit religious beliefs by appealing to traditional Bible belt culture and whatever biases surface from it.

I'm glad to hear some Bible scholars express concern about Glenn Beck and Limbaugh because we have churches where people hang on Beck and Limbaugh's words more than they do Sunday School lessons.

Thank you for commenting.

Nordette Adams ( http://www.bookotopia.com ) is a BlogHer CE ( http://www.blogher.com/haystackprofile/viewprofile... ) & you can find her other stuff through Her 411 ( http://her411.com ).

In the south, this kind of language has been used for years by whites to remind other whites that a politician of color is "not like us." So, he's following a tradition known as the Southern Strategy. Republicans and Democrats alike have used it to best non-white opponents. However, they've learned to code the language and not be as blatant as Knotts has been. He must have skipped "code switching" class ( http://dashes.com/anil/2008/10/what-sarah-palin-is... ).

We'll have to wait and see if this strategy works in Knotts's favor in the future.

Nordette Adams ( http://www.bookotopia.com ) is a BlogHer CE ( http://www.blogher.com/haystackprofile/viewprofile... ) & you can find her other stuff through Her 411 ( http://her411.com ).

It would be a feather in the people of South Carolina's cap to move toward getting rid of him, but South Carolina being similar to my own state of Louisiana on race and racism, Knotts will be safe in politics unless the GOP pressures him out.

Nordette Adams ( http://www.bookotopia.com ) is a BlogHer CE ( http://www.blogher.com/haystackprofile/viewprofile... ) & you can find her other stuff through Her 411 ( http://her411.com ).

Won't we'll all be happy when people stop saying nonsense that requires commentary on ignorance and divisions in the nation?

Nordette Adams ( http://www.bookotopia.com ) is a BlogHer CE ( http://www.blogher.com/haystackprofile/viewprofile... ) & you can find her other stuff through Her 411 ( http://her411.com ).

My mother, a teacher who is deceased, believed there is a link between sense of humor and level of intelligence and maturity. When I hear people joking the way Knotts thinks it's o.k. to joke, I think their emotional intelligence level is around that of a middle school bully.

However, I don't think he was really joking the way we think of joking. He was doing something black people call "cracking and facking," telling what you think is the truth in the guise of a joke.

In other words, he knew what he was saying. He assumed his audience feels the same way about others as he does.

Nordette Adams ( http://www.bookotopia.com ) is a BlogHer CE ( http://www.blogher.com/haystackprofile/viewprofile... ) & you can find her other stuff through Her 411 ( http://her411.com ).

I didn't even catch that. Let's hope it's a typo.

But you know, maybe Knotts himself subconsciously means it as an epitaph when you think how negative epithets are akin to curses upon a person's head, killing people in the spiritual sense.

WOW! I should add that documentary you linked to my collection. Thank you, Kim.

Nordette Adams ( http://www.bookotopia.com ) is a BlogHer CE ( http://www.blogher.com/haystackprofile/viewprofile... ) & you can find her other stuff through Her 411 ( http://her411.com ).

If “other” disrespectful things Republicans in Power have blurted out recently…i.e. ”YOU LIAR,” etc… have gone unpunished, there is no reason to hope a feeble apology by such a man as this would be meaningful in any way. I was glad to hear you quote Scripture. The one I was thinking of was “the truth always comes OUT.” (I’m paraphrasing, no time to look it up.) Maybe what is happening at this time in our history is all the dirty little “secrets” are being made known. The last time my husband said… “I’m just kidding” I told him…”You are not. You hurt my feelings.” It stems from lack of self esteem and certain amount of cruelty. I forgive my husband, of course, because I love and understand him, but I do not forgive Politicians who we “pay” to be someone we can look up to, that we must trust with our very lives. There is a scary movement in the South, I live in the Lake of the Ozarks (Missouri was a split State ½ Blue ½ Gray) and I am beginning to see that old Confederate flag on boats and rural homes. Terrifying! All I can say is the South was whipped before and they would be whipped again…quicker and much more decisive this time. Also, I was raised Southern Baptist and have observed over the past 10 years as a Southern Baptist Church Secretary the prejudice they just cannot overcome…even knowing better, even the Clergy, (ESPECIALLY the Clergy!) Needless to say I have found a new worship experience as of late. The Princeton study about prejudice showing in the brain my not be as inclusive as just analyzing a person’s demeanor. Trust your intuition. Look at this man’s face in his picture. He is weak, overfed, over confident and over self-righteous in his appearance. Sorry, but if a person is honest with themselves, you can usually tell if they truly have “the fruits of the Spirit” (love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness) or if they are Christian frauds and impersonators. What is truly disappointing to me is that these people (Rush, Glenn) who have let us down are of the generation that should have known better. For those of us who came of age in the 70’s we cut out teeth on “we become what we think.” And “Thoughts are Things.” I’m disappointed in my own generation… Woodstock just a faint memory. What has happened? Greed. On a more positive note…a recent letter from a favorite Bible Scholar of mine…he was saying that Glenn Beck recently revealed that his worst fear was “Reichstag moment – an end to our Republic soon”… This Bible Scholar remarked that these media leaders often called “fear-mongers” do not and cannot understand what is truly ahead. For God has not called them to understand. I'm glad we are in the hands of someone or something much bigger than our own. –DJ Parsons

We need an updated, multicultural version of his documentary "Ethnic Notions" because the tolerance for this kind of ignorance is rising. Thank you, Nordette, for an excellent post.

For those who don't know about Ethnic Notions, there's information here: http://newsreel.org/nav/title.asp?tc=CN0026

I've got to comment on one more thing. The post from Politisite refers to racial "epitaphs" as opposed to "epithets." I wonder whether the editors of the site understand the difference.

Kim Pearson
BlogHer Contributing Editor ( http://blogher.org/blog/kim-pearson )|KimPearson.net ( http://kimpearson.net )|

Just think of what that as a premise implies. That's what gets me.

In order for the "I was just joking/it was meant to be a joke" to be a valid excuse, the speaker of these things has to 1) find what he or she is saying as being FUNNY and 2) has to believe that the people listening think it's FUNNY too.

So - from the start, Knott's thought this was a funny thing - to call someone a raghead? He was really trying to make people laugh?

What kind of person finds slurs, name-calling funny? This damns both the speaker and any listener who actually would admit to saying "hell yeah, calling people ragheads is out of this world hysterical! Can't stop laughing."

Who on earth is teaching people that such name calling has ANY humor in it, whatsoever?

This, to me, is the threshold problem.

Jill Writes Like She Talks ( http://www.writeslikeshetalks.com )

In The Arena: Jill Miller Zimon, Pepper Pike City Council Member ( http://jillmillerzimon.blogspot.com )

You've done it again -- got right to the heart of the matter, eloquently and passionately.

Great post, Nordette.

Barb

This is good stuff! Knotts said it out loud and now everyone knows just what kind of trash he is.
We are in the 21st century it's time he stayed back in the old south where he belongs.
It's easy vote him out and keep him out.
Is Glenn Beck really Bigot? I missed something, I thought he was just long winded
http://mgco4you.com/sValentino/

There is no excuse for his behavior, no little ethical crack through which he can slither. These words would not even come to the surface of his mind, let alone his tongue, unless they were rooted in a sick belief system, one that cranked out racist remarks as coy soundbites. I'm glad he is getting called out about it.Now I hope he gets called out of public service.

BlogHer does not take a political stand. But I do.

~~ Contributing Editor, Mata H. also blogs right along at Time's Fool ( http://timesfool.blogspot.com )