In recent months, I've managed to upload 206 of the worst video clips you'll ever see on YouTube. I'm certainly no cameraman, and sometimes get dizzy watching them because my hand shakes so much. As poorly as they are done, they do show local government and pols in action. Three of these clips capture Northampton County Councilman-elect Bruce Gilbert, who happens to be the first black person elected to county office. Now he is without question the most brilliant man I've heard in this election cycle, but he's also the lousiest politician. It's a miracle he was elected.
Now Gilbert is very conservative and very Republican, so I guess it must be OK to make racist remarks about him. Someone posted a bigoted remark attacking both Gilbert and his children. "Look at this Uncle Tom negro. No wonder his kids are so whitewashed and are grateful for slavery. I bet he is even accepted into the KKK. His kids sure are (or wish they were!)."
I mention this for two reasons. First, racism is alive and well in the Lehigh Valley. Second, many people feel that racist slurs are entirely appropriate when their victim is conservative.
We need more Bruce Gilberts and fewer bigots.
i assume the comment was posted anonymously. posting that way makes people much "braver" with their slurs. i admire the newspaper for insisting all letters must be signed and verified.
ReplyDeleteBernie,
ReplyDeleteLynn Swann was impugned by state Democrats three years ago as a “football payer”. While we all love the game the use of the term was clearly an insult. The left routinely insults conservatives and they often make it personal. Because of their supposed moral and intellectual authority they feel are above reproach, therefore any tactic that furthers their righteous objective is justifiable.
It is hard to find better people than the Gilberts
Scott Armstrong
This is one of the saddest posts I've ever read on this blog.
ReplyDeleteBruce Gilbert is simply one of the finest human beings one could ever hope to meet - in or out of politics.
I am apalled at this attitude. I would like to mention that these fine folks do a lot for the community. Does that idiot who made the remarks know anything about the Gilbert FAmily?
ReplyDeleteFor the record: Kids for America, the Gilbert children, sing at events and shows around the state (even at an inaugural ball in DC) THey do not charge. THey put out donation buckets. Once a year the kids give EVERYTHING they have made to the Blue Star Mothers Lehigh VAlley Chapter. That money maintains an emegency relief fund for military families in crisis,
Since 2005 they have donated $14,000. to that fund. It goes to Black, White, Hispanic families, it is color blind. It has paid rent, sent families to visit wounded, put groceries on the family tables of fallen American Heroes.
GOD BLESS THE GILBERTS! They are ALL a role model for Americans.
THe kids are what they are becasue the parents are exemplary parents. Bruce Gilbert is a credit to this community and will be proven to be a asset to the COunty.
The Gilbert children are wonderful. I've heard them sing at numerous community events. Charming, beautifully dressed, polite and gracious, they are indeed the future of America.
ReplyDeleteOur daily job takes us everywhere in the Valley. From morning till night, we're out there. Never have we heard such a comment about any African-American. Never. This is an anomaly.
ReplyDeleteMassa Bernie does Turncoat, Ratter or collaborator qualify as a racial slur... ..Me thinks this is a tree you have no business barking up? but controversy is clearly your drug of choice? and the poor black community needs your help in policing their online commentary.
ReplyDeleteI bite my thumb at Thee....
Imagine this kind of stuff that goes on locally. They carry that out at the federal level.
ReplyDeleteIf either the Norco councilman or the President should respond when asked, opponents will lay claim they are playing the "Race Card". If they ignore it, they're "Uncle Toms".
I sincerely believe what one accuses of others shows a hellva' lot more about oneself. So in my eyes the author is trashing their own self rather then that of their intended target.
It's one thing to attack what one says or does and go after that, but when you make it personal you only end up making a disrespectful jackass of yourself.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteOh and same goes for anonymous (jackass) 7:44 AM ..and his "Massa Bernie" remark
ReplyDeleteI'll take a black Republican any day over someone receiving Medicare who is against public option healthcare. Now THAT'S an anomaly. You won, Bruce! Just remember that! Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteIf you had a brightly lit, white washed room filled with black conservatives, liberals still couldn't see them.
ReplyDelete.
The Uncle Tom thing should be no suprise, it comes with the territory. So much for diversity, huh?
"Massa Bernie"
ReplyDeleteWell, we can see that racial intolerance is fine when practied against either a conservative or someone defending a conservative.
Dorothy,
ReplyDeleteThanks for telling us what the Gilbert kids do. It's very impressive. I've seen them perform and they are very good.
Anon 7:42,
ReplyDeleteAnon 7:44 just proved you wrong. Racism is alive and well.
Scott, Lynn Swann was a foorball player, as was Gilbert. I have referred to both of them in that way myself, but not out of any sense of disrespect. They were both very good football players. For people like me, who mostly hugged the bench, this reference is a compliment. I see that it can be used disparagingly.
ReplyDeleteFirst, a disclosure. I'm an African-American.
ReplyDeleteI don't know Mr. Gilbert or his children, but the comment is uncalled for. I really don't consider the comment racist so much as just plain stupid. The guy is just taking a position on an issue, so how is taking a position on something considered being a "race traitor"? That's really silly.
In some circles, an African-American being a conservative republican is heresy and this is what he's "guilty" of. I tend to lean democratic for the most part and find very few republicans that appeal to me (Ron Paul being one of the few exceptions), but that's just me and I certainly don't think that all of us need to be marching to the same drum.
Scott, I hear the right call Al Franken a comedian...which is accurate, he was a comedian. He's now also a US Senator.
ReplyDeleteRonald Reagan was a bad actor and a good TV pitchman for GE appliances. He was also a President.
Arnold was a bad actor as well, he was an equally ineffective governor.
Tom Delay used to kill bugs.
Barack Obama was a community organizer (ignoring his legal degree and his proffesor role).
Pat Toomey was a banker...trading in derivatives. Expect that to be brought up a lot in 2010.
Lynne Swann was a bad candidate. He lost, that is what happens when you run someone with no political experience for an office as high as Governor.
Professions are often used to trash candidates from both the right and left. Get over it, it's part of the stupid game.
Scott, you would try to say calling someone a "football player" is racist. The people who had a bigger problem with Swann's race were out in the "T" of the state, your voters, who didn't show up. Your comment is, as usual, ignorant. You have about zero grounds to complain about personal attacks. People you agree with are calling the President a Nazi and Fascist.
ReplyDeleteThe comments about Gilbert and his kids are disgusting. Kids are always out of bounds, as is race. Unfortunately, ignorance lives.
It's curious that liberals who preach inclusion and diversity refuse to accept that Americans who are black might hold a variety of political opinions. Instead, when black Americans are perceived as having strayed from the reservation, they are disparaged as ungrateful, stupid, or even racially suicidal for expressing independent thought.
ReplyDeleteYou needn't peel many layers from the onion before seeing the latent ugliness. When conservative blacks rise up and speak, the subtle, liberal racism of low expectations and family shattering "help" programs are quickly replaced with the kind of overt racial slurs reported here.
The bad news for racists, however, is that they've probably not met the likes of Bruce Gilbert. I'm honored to be served by a councilman such as he.
Obama is not a Nazi.
ReplyDeleteHe is a Marxist, just like his dad.
Acorn did not fall far from tree obivously.
Moms and senior citizens are the ones being called Nazis by Democrats upset about their agenda being opposed.
Obama is not a Nazi.
ReplyDeleteHe is a Marxist, just like his dad.
Acorn did not fall far from tree obivously.
Moms and senior citizens are the ones being called Nazis by Democrats upset about their agenda being opposed.
Obama is about as close to a Marxist as Bernie is to being a Catholic Priest.
Just keep thinking that while Obama redistributes your wealth.
ReplyDeleteAnita Dunn has resigned.
:)
Has the Obama administration requested a list of traffic to this site? Any more support of Dent, and Bernie will make the Enemy's List and infect anyone who dare stop here.
ReplyDeleteYoutube has a worldwide viewership, this comment could have come from anywhere on a blind search.
ReplyDeleteIf I had to bet it was probably some County republican who can self-rigteously wring their hands.
You tear Obama to pieces but lament this. How convenient and hypocritical. The Democratic Party is made up of all races and colors regardless of personal ideology. Republicans only seemto notice black conservatives, very convenient.
Now how about showing you relly care and pass healthcare reform.
Bernie,
ReplyDeleteI'm from Pittsburgh and old enough to have been a fan of the super bowl team of the seventies. Those were great years; Lynn Swann played a big part of the Steelers success, but the use of "football player" was, at best, meant to imply that this small part of Lynn's life defined him.
It is noteworthy to point out as well that as far as the press and media are concerned it is only racially significant when Democrat African Americans run for public office.
Scott Armstrong
Scott is full of crap. It is the only truely accurate way to describe the nonsense that comes out of his mouth.
ReplyDeleteLester!
"You tear Obama to pieces but lament this. How convenient and hypocritical"
ReplyDeleteI voted for Obama so I don't know what the hell you're talking about. Your attempt to excuse this inecusable behavior makes my point - it's OK to be a racist if your victim is a Republican.
Bernie,
ReplyDeleteI lived in the southern parts of the US for more than ten years. I have never seen racism so openly displayed as what I have witnessed in my fifteen years in this Valley.
TND
One time I was getting directions in South Allentown and I asked an older man how to get to Emmaus Ave. He didn't know what I was saying because he said it "EE MOSS" and we got talking and I mentioned it being named for the Road to Emmaus in the Bible. He said that Emmaus Ave. was named after the "EE MOSS" Indians and then he squinted his eyes and said, "Now what's this Road to Emmaus you're talking about? Is that a Catholic thing????" The Lehigh Valley is full of people who hate because they don't come from teh right side of Alsaice-Lorraine so I admire anyone of color who deigns to live in this hillbilly hub. Good for Gilbert. We're 50 miles away from PHilly and NY but about 500 years from it them too.
ReplyDeleteScott,
ReplyDeleteI think you must have been living in a hole when Obama ran for office. Sarah Palin talking about community organizing, local republicans bringing chimps to the McCain rally. The entire 3 months of Jerimiah Wright and Black Liberation theology on TV. Of course that didn't fit into your political agenda so you ignored it.
Anon 7:02, you actually illustrated what an ignorant ass you are.
ReplyDeleteLester!
scott, what else did lynn swann ever do in his life besides play football? I forgot: when he went into business, he didn't pay his pa taxes.
ReplyDeleteyes, he was a football player, just as Bill Bradley was a basketball player. funny how he was able to take his horrible label and get elected.
stop trying to justify swann's loss as anything beyond what it was: the sacrificial lamb that the gop put up against the best funded democrat to walk into harrisburg. football player or not, no R had a chance in 2006 against rendell and you know it.
and as far as gilbert goes, we'll have to see how terrible his attendance record is after 2 years on council. my guess is that he will make absentee bums that bernie has tagged in the past look diligent.
ReplyDeleteIt’s too bad some here remain ignorant of Lynn Swann’s accomplishments and achievements. Perhaps his greatest asset in the election three years ago was that unlike his opponent he was not a career politician.
ReplyDeleteAnd that made all the difference for me.
Scott Armstrong
"I forgot: when he went into business, he didn't pay his pa taxes. "
ReplyDeleteYou also forgot it was pa sales taxes not paid. Plus, he formed the company in California, which had NO requirement to pay Pa Sales Tax.
Lester,
ReplyDeleteYour post stands as just the latest example of the craven and contemptible behavior of the left.
Scott Armstrong
“Scott,
ReplyDeleteI think you must have been living in a hole when Obama ran for office. Sarah Palin talking about community organizing, local republicans bringing chimps to the McCain rally. The entire 3 months of Jerimiah Wright and Black Liberation theology on TV. Of course that didn't fit into your political agenda so you ignored it.”
Putting words on paper doesn’t create the truth if what is written is false or misleading . When did “local Republicans bring chimps to the McCain rally”?
Do you defend the sermons of Obama’s preacher of twenty years and do you believe they don’t reflect his own Marxist point of view?
What in the world is wrong with questioning Obama’s resume as a community organizer as a qualifier for the world’s most powerful position?
Scott Armstrong
Scott is right, Obama should be compared to a chimp!
ReplyDeleteI am with you Scott.
David Duke
anon 9:50,
ReplyDeleteGratuitous insult betrays the true nature of too much of the left’s real nature. You do Conservatives a favor every time you show your true colors.
Scott Armstrong
IGNORANCE at it's finest. I,too Know the Gilbert's and He is no fool I am sure that being in the political arena He has been bashed before racially, politically and so on. And we wonder why we have a hard time building COMMUNITIES. HA!
ReplyDeletefrom what I understand he is a homophobic hater...color of the skin doesnt matter. he is divisive and has no campassion.
ReplyDeletehe also is a tea party loyalist.
enough said.
This comment proves my point. Gilbert is admittedly very conservative. For all I know, he may even ... gasp ... oppose gay marriage. So it is OK to victimize him and his children with racist slurs. The only person who can speak against gay marriage is Gore Vidal.
ReplyDeleteBruce makes slurs towards others.including homophobic slurs.
ReplyDeleteAnything goes for him to put others down. He's a bigot.
So stop sticking up for him like he's an innocent victim.
He is as ignorant as whoever makes the bigotted comments about him.
Polls consistently indicate most Americans oppose homosexual marriage. And blacks and Hispanics are opposed to homosexual marriage in far greater numbers than whites. Given the tone of heterophobics, as expressed here, Bruce has all the right enemies. And I thought I couldn't like him any more than I already do.
ReplyDeleteAnon 9:53 proves my point again. First, I doubt very much that someone with Gilbert's intelligence would express homophobia. he may have a philosophoical objection to gay marriage, and I only say that bc he is a conservative. but let's assume arguendo that Gilbert is a blatant hiomosphobe. That's no justification for the racism directed at him or his children.
ReplyDeleteI am not talking about gay marriage. That is as little of a council role as abortion rights.
ReplyDeleteHe likes to call people who don't agree with him gay, people who arent. He is a bigot.
Let's talk about gay marriage since you keep bringing it up.
ReplyDeleteYes, he is a typical black person. The effect of that is gay black american's are on the "down low".
African Americans make up only 13 percent of the U.S. population, yet they account for 57 percent of new AIDS infections.
~ If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn't part of ourselves doesn't disturb us. ~
Herman Hesse
"African Americans make up only 13 percent of the U.S. population, yet they account for 57 percent of new AIDS infections."
ReplyDeleteI see. So let's lynch them all.
"He likes to call people who don't agree with him gay, people who arent. He is a bigot."
ReplyDeleteI see. I've never seen that and it is inconsistent with his intelligence to make grade school arguments like you. You, on the other hand, are anonymously throwing stones.
This whole thread is like totally gay.
ReplyDelete“Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteI am not talking about gay marriage. That is as little of a council role as abortion rights.
He likes to call people who don't agree with him gay, people who arent. He is a bigot.”
What a craven act to make such an accusation anonymously. The accuser here is the problem and it is sadly typical of those who claim, and think themselves to be tolerant and altruistic.
Scott Armstrong
"Massa Bernie does Turncoat, Ratter or collaborator qualify as a racial slur... ..Me thinks this is a tree you have no business barking up? but controversy is clearly your drug of choice? and the poor black community needs your help in policing their online commentary.
ReplyDeleteI bite my thumb at Thee...."
The comments on this thread would be laughable if they weren't so tragic.
- Alfonso Todd
I agree Alfonso, Scott should be ashamed of himself.
ReplyDelete