"tar baby" in the news

[victor steinbok]

It's worse than you think, Paul. You don't have to be a gentile to get
tagged as an antisemite for disagreeing with someone (even in the
family) on Middle East policies. There are many subsets of expats and
descendants whose filial piety does not allow others to criticize the
country of their allegiance (well, as long as they align with the
government ideologically). With some Russian immigrants it's the
opposite--one cannot support the current government's policies without
his mental capacity being questioned (Putin has now been identified
with all the indiscretions of the past 90+ years).

This, however, is not the case with the "tar baby". The simple rule of
American politics is that you don't step into the same pile of shit
that snared some of your predecessors. If it's something new, there
may be some debate as to whether anyone is /legitimately/ offended
(and, in some cases, e.g., the DC flap over "niggardly", the
collective judgments tilts against those being offended). But the
issue of "tar baby" has come up before, both during the presidential
campaign and after Obama was elected. In some cases, there was no
question of intended offense--just as was the case with references to
watermelons, collards, fried chicken, etc. And it's been rehashed in
the media enough that people should have paid attention lest they
repeat the offense. And this is exactly what happened here--whether he
intended to or not, the guy simply stepped into the same pile that's
been disturbed before.

It's a different question as to whether the /political/ discussion of
this question should continue. He apologized, claimed ignorance, and,
in the absence of further evidence of his offenses, the case should be
dropped. But there is a collective state of victimhood on both sides
that prevents this from happening. And that's not a language issue.

VS-)

On 8/4/11, paul johnson <paulzjoh at mtnhome.com> wrote:
>      None of us may like it, but if we have Jewish friends or even worse
> Jewish in-laws you don't discuss Israel.  As a Gentile, you are
> automatically disqualified.  Much the same with whites and blacks.  It's
> hard to be civil while tiptoeing on egg shells and that's in public
> dialogue, in written discourse, one certainty is that someone's going to
> end up offended.

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