Buchanan: ‘What is happening now to white men right now is exactly what was done to black folks for years.’
By on May 6th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
Buchanan: ‘What is happening now to white men right now is exactly what was done to black folks for years.’
On MSNBC’s Hardball last night, host Chris Matthews, Salon’s Joan Walsh and MSNBC’s Pat Buchanan debated the case of firefighter Frank Ricci, who was denied a promotion due to an affirmative action law. During the debated, Buchanan vociferously defended Ricci, eventually declaring that “what is happening now to white men right now is exactly what was done to black folks for years.” Matthews and Walsh quickly disagreed with Buchanan. “No, they’re not being lynched, Pat. They’re really, they’re not being lynched,” said Walsh. Watch it:
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Yes, Buchanan thinks being enslaved, shipped like cargo to a foreign country was the best thing that ever happened to Black people. His comments as are rush’s irrelevant.
May 6th, 2009 at 3:44 pmCan a white guy get a break in this world? sarcasm\
May 6th, 2009 at 3:46 pmBuchanan is as crazy, evil, and bigoted as they get. He still thinks the Nixon ordeal was a bum rap and that Raygun Democrats will turn the gop around. The guy is angry and evil.
May 6th, 2009 at 3:46 pmOh no, they’re keeping the white man down …
OK, you guys get rid of nepotism and legacy admissions and job opportunities even in the unions and then we’ll get rid of affirmative action. In the meantime, STFU you screeching maniac.
May 6th, 2009 at 3:50 pmAnother very stupid comment from a GNOP that knows nothing of what she is talking about.
Since when has the white man experienced lynchings, killings, burning of homes, made to use a different water fountain and bathroom….?
May 6th, 2009 at 3:51 pmBuchanan is very selective when it comes to empathy.
May 6th, 2009 at 3:51 pmOh those slave boats from Ireland dropping them off at firehouses across America, the horror.
May 6th, 2009 at 3:52 pmBuchanan is a racist madman. Can someone please explain why he is a contributor on MSNBC?
May 6th, 2009 at 3:55 pmFrom the sound of things, this case appears to be pretty difficult to decide. I would want to judge people in as fair a manner as possible, but I would also not want to stack the cards in anyone’s favor. If anything, I wish it didn’t require a test to decide who is the better firefighter for a job, since firefighters don’t fight fires in a testing scenario. Then again, I don’t know how the test itself is run.
However, Buchanan seems to continue to put his foot in his mouth during these segments. I suppose it is a necessary evil if you want to show two sides to a story, but I just don’t appreciate it when it’s the same people arguing those sides displaying the same ignorance towards their own words.
May 6th, 2009 at 3:55 pmHmmm…I know quite a few white men. Not one of them has mentioned not being able to drink from the same water fountains as other people, not one of them has mentioned having to ride at the back of the bus, not one of them has mentioned having to sit in a separate section of a restaurant or movie theater. They are not called “boy” or “n—-r” (or any equivalent) by non-white men.
There’s a lively debate that can materialize around the Frank Ricci case. I have plenty of thoughts about it myself. But there’s no way Ricci’s experience could possibly compare with years of Jim Crow that our black population had to suffer under for so long. Pat isn’t merely overstating — he’s trivializing the racism that has been all too serious a blot on our country’s history.
May 6th, 2009 at 3:56 pmhad enough Says:
Since when has the white man experienced lynchings, killings, burning of homes, made to use a different water fountain and bathroom….?
May 6th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
___________
You’ve never heard of the “Whites Only” lunch counters and bathrooms and water fountains? And how whites had to sit in the FRONT of city buses? How many white players were allowed in baseball’s Negro Leagues?
Yes, white folk suffered horrible discrimination during the early 20th century.
May 6th, 2009 at 3:57 pmChris Matthews and Pat Buchanan were disgusting last night, bemoaning any encroachment on the Irish Catholic hegemony of firefighter jobs. (Matthews screaming “It’s tradition!”) Joan Walsh made a valiant effort to bring sensibility and historical context into the conversation. They wouldn’t even let her bring up the concept of cultural bias in testing. Like Joan, I am a longtime time SF bay area resident and am well aware of the problems the SFFD has in integrating its membership.
May 6th, 2009 at 4:01 pmWe keep hoping the Buchanans of the world will die off, unfortunately you don’t have to be old and white to be a bigot. Race is and always will be an issue.
May 6th, 2009 at 4:02 pmNobody who complains about “reverse discrimination” can be taken seriously.
May 6th, 2009 at 4:02 pmerror in post 5… did not look at the video as I find it uncomfortable and hard to do at times.
Thought this was another ding bat comment from Bachmann… but the same goes for Buchanan.
May 6th, 2009 at 4:02 pmShame on MSNBC for giving this bigoted, racist scumbag a means to voice his hateful opinions. Buchanan should have spot for him in hell next to his old friend William Buckley.
May 6th, 2009 at 4:04 pmhad enough Says:
Thought this was another ding bat comment from Bachmann… but the same goes for Buchanan.
May 6th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
__________
No worries – they both have a very interchangeable idiocy.
May 6th, 2009 at 4:04 pmIt would be interesting to see what the tests were like. Were they slanted toward whites? According to Chris Matthews, no blacks passed the test. The story is not complete.
May 6th, 2009 at 4:05 pmShine on you crazy diamond.
May 6th, 2009 at 4:06 pmWoe unto the underpriviledged white man! Jeez! Buchanan feels, because he is white, he is superior to anyone else. This is a constant staple of the Republican Party. They beleive because they are white, they are better. Plain and simple.
May 6th, 2009 at 4:06 pmI’ve been a volunteer fireman for years.
No pay, but plenty of calls @ 2:00 a.m. when it’s -20F & 25mph NW winds.
We don’t discriminate on which type of fires we fight.
We don’t discriminate on who goes in a burning building first.
We don’t discriminate on who gets to be a fireman, because nobody is paid.
We DO discriminate on HOW we get in. You have to pass a number of grueling physical endeavors, 85% or higher on all classroom tests and yes, criminal backgrounds are checked.
(Some arsonists really do try to become fireman.
Hairballs Chris Matthews spits up some silly shit…this time if happened to be Buchanan!
May 6th, 2009 at 4:08 pmI watched the whole segment yesterday – Joan Walsh did herself good in standing up to both Matthews and Buchanan.
May 6th, 2009 at 4:10 pmBuchanan could not disguise his racism. Matthews wouldn’t chime in with him there, but Matthews defended the domination of police and fire by Irish-Americans (read white males) as a hallowed tradition. He took offense with Joan’s assertion of racism, skewed tests, etc., evn though she has firefighters in her own family.
This is reminiscent of the arguments heard ad nauseum in the 1970’s. That’s where repugs want to be, though, they want to regress about 35 years.
“Buchanan: ‘What is happening now to white men right now is exactly what was done to black folks for years.’”
Geez, it’s time for Buchanan to retire as a journalist. This is not the rhetoric that we need in this country to move forward as a nation as this country was backwards for 8 years under the Sith Administration.
May 6th, 2009 at 4:12 pmNew Haven itself concluded that there wasn’t a justification for its test — that it didn’t really do a good job at all of showing who would be the best officers.
This quote is from a really good post by:
lawyer May 5, at 12:17PM
from the first link up top (the case of firefighter Frank Ricci). If you have a chance it’s worth reading.
May 6th, 2009 at 4:12 pmReally? Hundreds of years of banning the white man’s language and religion and breaking up white families and selling the pieces down the river and hundreds of years of castrating white males for the smallest offenses?
Twenty years ago, Buchanan was a holocaust denier. Now he’s branching out.
May 6th, 2009 at 4:15 pmMore wingnuttery from Buchanan. Buchanan is another example of what is WRONG with the GOP. The idea that what white men are going thru now is the same as what black folks used to go thru is ludicrous. There’s just no comparison. I don’t see white men being lynched or burned alive.
May 6th, 2009 at 4:18 pmThis guy really needs to get get laid very badly
May 6th, 2009 at 4:20 pmWhite men are getting beaten and lynched just for making eye contact with a black woman?
Elderly black ladies consciously grab their purses and are on edge when a white male enters an elevator with them?
Young white adults are not being admitted to colleges because of poor inner city schools?
Dayum! The black “man” is keeping us whities down! I’m joining the White Panthers! White Power Unite! (heavy, heavy snark)
May 6th, 2009 at 4:25 pmAfter reading this a few times (and I hope I’m not reading too much into it), I find it interesting that Buchanan sees the plight of the “white man” being the same as that of “black folk” from the past. It just goes to show that Buchanan will always see race and gender in those roles–according to Buchanan, the white man deserves his position over that of other races and the opposite gender, and seeing him in any place other than the apex of the hierarchy would mean the end to civil society.
I hope I’m not assuming too much about this comment.
May 6th, 2009 at 4:27 pmI really can’t understand why Republicans are branded as the political home of racists.
May 6th, 2009 at 4:29 pmThe GOP continues to access white male anxiety of lessening status within the changing landscape of the United States. Unfortunately, the anxiety strongly exists, and people make a great deal of money exploiting it to their own ends. In this case, Buchanan. This is a base fear, similar to the fundamentalist anxiety. It’s all about fear, then anger and hatred towards the groups taking away their entitlements and priveleges, which is basically everyone but white straight males.
Thankfully the demographics are shifting so much, this platform of conservatives is becoming more and more laughable right before our eyes.
May 6th, 2009 at 4:32 pmFrom the case
Ricci says he studied for 13 hours a day, paid for a lot of study materials, and had friends read to him in preparation. He’s dyslexic. It’s not a simple situation. I can see why he would go to court. I can see why the tests should be questioned.
link
May 6th, 2009 at 4:32 pmexactly pat, one white man being denied a promotion is exactly the same as how blacks have been treated for the last 500 years, exactly the same.
is there a charity out there that benefits every time patty b says something this stupid?? that’s the only reasonable explanation I can think of outside of him being a racist old coot…
May 6th, 2009 at 4:34 pmBuchannan is the most RACIST BIGOTED PIG for a Catholic! All that LOVE he exudes is so overwhelming. I despise him so much that I can’t watch or listen to him at all – I have to turn the station just to allieviate the vile screech of his EVER WHINY voice and his ALWAYS RIGHT NO MATTER WHAT statements. To think he gets paid [big bucks] to sit on his a@@ and pontificate irritates me no end. Can’t wait for him to meet his dues in hell.
May 6th, 2009 at 4:38 pmPat Buchannan is a Racist and Knows NOTHING about what Black People went thru to survive until the Present.
In one limited sense though, he is right, White Folks are NOW experiencing the effects of Mechanization, Cybernation, Outsourcing, and Globalization that have Economically devastated Minorities and the Poor.
The problem is, NOT enough Good Jobs…and a workforce fighting over the Crumbs.
May 6th, 2009 at 4:45 pmSo, I guess according to Buchannan it was OK for it to happen to blacks for years, but it’s not OK for it to happen to someone who is white? That sounds like it’s what he is saying.
May 6th, 2009 at 4:46 pmBuchanan is an insult to the history of the U.S.
May 6th, 2009 at 5:20 pmFor as bigoted, mean-spirited, and generally jackass-ish as Buchanan is…at least he’s consistent. For that, I respect him…while disagreeing violently with almost every view he has.
At least he’s anti-war.
May 6th, 2009 at 5:29 pmPoor Pat springs periodic leaks. He is best contained when Rachel watches over him. The rest of the time he displays his infirmities.
May 6th, 2009 at 5:29 pmthe largest beneficiary of affirmative action for some time has been the white female. the younger the white female the better. misplaced priorities?
May 6th, 2009 at 5:40 pmOf course one of the questions was to name the counties of Ireland in alphabetical order but that’s not bias. A firefighter has to be able to fit in at the dinner table.
May 6th, 2009 at 6:05 pm/sarc
Who gives a shit about a bunch of guys chasing balls and pucks around…
May 6th, 2009 at 6:19 pmThere they go again. patty is trying to make a stupid correlation where there isn’t any.
repugs love doing this.
patty should compare his plight to the potato famine, which would make just as much sense.
May 6th, 2009 at 6:22 pmProud Says:
I am all for equal treatment, I believe that every NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL team should immediately be forced to have an equal number of Black, Asian, White and Hispanic players on the roster. Because we are all about equal opportunity. And of course in LIB World it doesn’t matter who is most qualified. It’s all about fairness.
There you go talking about ring-around-a-rosey while we talk about things more important than games. dumbass.
May 6th, 2009 at 6:25 pmSo who decides what occupations deserve equal treatment?
– The same folks that decided less qualified ball chasers should get preffered treatment over better qualified students that actually belong in the classrooms of higher education…
May 6th, 2009 at 6:35 pmIt is spelled dbadass.
May 6th, 2009 at 6:40 pmseems by your comment you do understand the obvious typo. I would be more interested in wondering why you consistently typo dbadass? Accident?
Now what about legacy admissions? Preferential treatment?
May 6th, 2009 at 6:47 pmI didn’t know taxpayers paid pro ball players Proud. Or maybe you don’t understand that firefighters are paid by the taxpayers. That’s probably it.
May 6th, 2009 at 6:49 pmI just said I do not approve of special treatment for ANY group
May 6th, 2009 at 6:58 pm—-
I trust you have no special needs children in the Proud clan….
PS. I spelled your name right.
May 6th, 2009 at 7:10 pm—
Well done…
See the thing is that I do get it and I look forward to your support of the rescinding of that idiotic DADT crap so that the best can serve as they wish. The boyscout out to get out of the way of highly qualified gay scout leaders as well and it really bums me out that Ms. Palin was offered a position she was so not qualified for at the expense of all those more qualified. You premise is exactly why old SamJoe is a grown up wannabe plumber and all other careers. He simply isn’t qualified which is why he hasn’t gotten anywhere by his mid forties. See I get it. Oh and that Powell kid had no business being employed in his position either…
How is the quation of the Powell kids employment not related to the question of equal treatment and the most qualified getting the job. Do you feel Ms Palin and Mr Powell were the best qualified or do you think the received preferred treatment for whatever reason? SamJoe is admittedly just an amusing mutt but clearly less qualified people receive special treatment all the time. I don’t think that is an ideaology thing but just a reality. I am just looking for consistency in your argument that it should be. BTW you first said their shouldn’t be preferential treatment in ed admissions until I brought up special needs and then you switched to ANY job. Again consistency is the goal…
May 6th, 2009 at 7:33 pmDamn straight.
Whites are now being denied the right to vote unless they pass a test or pay a fee, and they are not allowed to use the same restaurants, movie theaters, restrooms, or drinking fountains as everyone else.
In addition, white men are being profiled by police, predominately white membership churches are being burned to the ground, and crosses are being burned on the lawns of white families. White folks are also being lynched from trees by roving bands of minorities wearing black sheets while the local police look the other way.
I’m sure glad decent people such as Pat Buchanan are around to set the record straight.
May 6th, 2009 at 7:40 pmI do not believe in preferential treatment for any group in any setting period
— Why is it so much of a big deal to you to let that special needs kid have a little extra time to finish that test or have it read to them if need be?
May 6th, 2009 at 7:52 pmWhen I drive around my county I notice an awful lot of homeless unemployed white men. Having been slapped with affirmative action before I find some small credence to what Buchanan is saying. Sure there are degrees, but to a great extent white men are slowly disappearing from college campuses, office environments, even day labor work. Being deprived a promotion is minor. But across the board there is a definite reduction in American working class white males’ standard of living. With their incomes go their ability to maintain families.
May 6th, 2009 at 9:49 pmThere is too a great deal of minority on white violent hate crime, or assault. You can deny it, but you would be either lying or mistaken.
May 6th, 2009 at 9:51 pmSooo…do you think blacks are waging a race war on whites, Kassandra?
May 7th, 2009 at 12:36 amPat’s right. A true patriot. I’m an amateur historian, I should know. Those liberal lies about slavery, genocide, stealing land, lynching of African-Americans and Chicanos, internment camps for Japanese-Americans, Jim Crow laws, dynamiting of Chinese laborers, breaking of treaties, placing of radioactive waste or landfills in minority communities, giving of millions of FHA loans and GI Bills to White WWII vets but not minorities, and on and on. Those bleeding heart liberals. I know for a fact that African-Americans and other minorities have, and still have, near complete control of our society. They did,officially, and still do,unofficially, hook each other up with the 80% of jobs never even advertised. I believe the year was 1947. That’s the year they were asked to give up just a small percentage of the slots so that White people could get at least a little bit of a break. They have been bitter and hateful to the good White people ever since. Darn the liberal lies.
May 7th, 2009 at 5:15 amWhen I drive around my county I notice an awful lot of homeless unemployed white men. *snip* But across the board there is a definite reduction in American working class white males’ standard of living. With their incomes go their ability to maintain families.
Kassandra, could it be that maybe… just maybe… that the white men who you see are now homeless are actually victims of the ECONOMY, and not “victims” of racism/affirmative action? Or are you saying that White men should be exempt from the effects of this economy?
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