Too dumb to check. NAACP chief’s gaffe at Gridiron dinner
posted at 8:01 am on March 13, 2013 by Jazz Shaw
Is it true? I have no idea. But it showed up in the pages of the Washington Post, so It must be … okay. Poor rationale, but still…
Ben Jealous, president of the NAACP, attended the annual Gridiron charity dinner this year and allegedly ran into a bit of an awkward situation. Still feeling a bit of resentment over the recent arguments given at the Supreme Court over challenges to the Voting Rights Act, Ben apparently thought that he’s found a sympathetic ear with another guest at the event.
The distinguished-looking gentleman told Jealous he thought the NAACP Legal Defense Fund lawyer had done a fine job arguing that the law needed to be continued.
Sure, but what happened to the solicitor general? Jealous wondered aloud, he was just awful.
Well, I am the solicitor general, Donald Verrilli Jr. replied.
An apparently mortified Jealous apologized profusely and excused himself from the table for what seemed to folks at the table an awfully long time, returning just about when the famous Gridiron petits fours arrived with coffee.
Wapo insists that they have two separate witnesses to the encounter and that they claim that Jealous returned some time later and continued his string of apologies to Donald Verrilli Jr. It’s hard to imagine how uncomfortable the entree and dessert must have been after that little exchange. But, again… did it happen? Jealous is insisting it didn’t.
We heard this story from two separate witnesses who overheard every word of the only-in-Washington conversation. Jealous, however, doesn’t remember it that way. “It didn’t happen,” an NAACP spokesman tells the Loop.
Still, there’s a moral to the story: In Washington, always know to whom you’re speaking. (And who’s within earshot.)
You be the judge. But either way, I just thought I’d start your morning with one of those perfectly awful moments which characterize the minefield life inside the Beltway. Of course, I’d have paid extra to have been at the table.
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Odd how those who so oppose religion are so willing to promote the idea of Original Sin.
iurockhead on March 3, 2013 at 12:39 PM
Chris Hayes: Racist Drama Queen
dpduq on March 3, 2013 at 12:39 PM
they are enemies, they are vile, they are opportunistic, and they are relentless. There is no reaching across the aisle. With that said its a fine country worth fighting for, but never underestimate (like so many republicans) what we are up against.
rob verdi on March 3, 2013 at 12:41 PM
I think jazz forgot about that whole segregation thing.
red_herring on March 3, 2013 at 12:43 PM
Substitute Voter ID with ID requirement to buy a gone and the argument reverses…
GeorgiaJarhead on March 3, 2013 at 12:51 PM
*Gun
GeorgiaJarhead on March 3, 2013 at 12:51 PM
Yeah, just not the way the socialists portray it.
dogsoldier on March 3, 2013 at 12:52 PM
near exact copy of rachel maddow right down to the makeup lipstick hairdo glasses & judgmental lib hipster act.
Sacramento on March 3, 2013 at 12:53 PM
More alleged “insight” from Rachel Madcow’s baby sister.
JimLennon on March 3, 2013 at 12:53 PM
Brilliance at work.
Can’t seem to find a story in an ambassador being sodomized to death and 3 others killed while the prez is not available to take calls. Too brilliant to note that a child being born today owes $243,000 in debt and unfunded liabilities.
Too brilliant to note drones flying overhead, the medical system collapsing with obamacare, our guns running across the border and killing thousands of mexicans, 500+ gun deaths in Chicago.
He’s just brillaince in action.
acyl72 on March 3, 2013 at 12:54 PM
No, he covered that pretty well right here.
SWalker on March 3, 2013 at 12:57 PM
what in the world does this sentence mean? It sounds like jazz is saying that “black history month” should be replaced with “history month.” Is it just me, or does that make absolutely no sense.
red_herring on March 3, 2013 at 12:58 PM
KOOLAID2 on March 3, 2013 at 1:01 PM
Why is Rachel Maddow’s picture on this post?
ButterflyDragon on March 3, 2013 at 1:01 PM
I don’t know how old jazz is, but segregation was going pretty strong while my grandparents’ generation was in power.
red_herring on March 3, 2013 at 1:02 PM
Are you intentional dense, or just a racist? He is saying, singling one race out for special treatment is discriminatory.
SWalker on March 3, 2013 at 1:02 PM
C. Hayes is in the same category as Michael Tomasky. They are intoxicated from eating too much Obama-sh*t. It ain’t Beluga caviar, fools.
Schadenfreude on March 3, 2013 at 1:04 PM
You are intentionally disingenuous aren’t you. The phrase, “for the sins of their great, great grandparents” is a rhetorical statement, meaning making someone pay for transgressions that they personally did not make.
SWalker on March 3, 2013 at 1:05 PM
Except a goodly portion of those being punished (and I don’t just mean the oh-so-righteous liberal Yankees) didn’t have any relatives in the South during the War Between The States.
Except bunches of those being punished didn’t even have relatives in the South then, either.
This is one of the reasons that assuming southerners are vile, racist creatures from the past is so rotten: many of them have absolutely no part in any of those doings – far past or more recent. But, it’s convenient to those who hold power over us all to demonize them so they can perpetuate the spoils system for votes.
GWB on March 3, 2013 at 1:06 PM
I’m going to lobby for a Communist/Socialist History Month. 30 days to highlight the millions of lives lost and the unfathomable amount of pain and misery it has wrought on humanity.
Maybe it can break some of these kids out of their cult fever and allow them to see the reality of it.
ButterflyDragon on March 3, 2013 at 1:08 PM
This idiotic Tweet of his only reinforces the belief that Chris Hayes must have gotten the living crap beaten out of him a number of times when he was in high school.
pilamaye on March 3, 2013 at 1:09 PM
It’s just you.
Actually, I think Jazz probably did get wrapped up in thinking about just the War Between The States at that point, and didn’t think beyond the rhetorical moment. Jazz’s writing is improving, but it still isn’t up to par with others here, generally.
GWB on March 3, 2013 at 1:10 PM
a rather poorly chosen rhetorical statement then. Jazz implies that the VRA is a punishment for slavery. It was actually a reaction to segregation.
red_herring on March 3, 2013 at 1:10 PM
You should set yourself on fire immediately to pat for the sins of you grandpappy.
VegasRick on March 3, 2013 at 1:10 PM
*pay
VegasRick on March 3, 2013 at 1:11 PM
This coming from a line up at MSNBC so blindingly white you need to wear shades to work there…….
Opposite Day on March 3, 2013 at 1:12 PM
EXACTLY…which is also what I was going to include in a comment here until I read to that part of the post, seeing the point therein already made (quoted above).
Much of the “racial entitlement” state of mind is rooted in ongoing PREJUDICE about “the South,” as if time has stood still for two centuries or more. Meanwhile, it’s also a cloud that Progressives persist in wearing over their thought-processes so they can deny it was Progressives in the South those centuries ago who were the racists. And still are, as evident in the persistence of their need for “racial entitlement” and their extreme hysterics when the concept itself is so much as attempted to be discussed.
Scratch a Progressive, scratch a Liberal, find a racist. Of any color.
Lourdes on March 3, 2013 at 1:14 PM
The Left’s prized possession is abortion. Abortion is a tactic of eugenics. Eugenics, that RACIALIST theme and political movement.
Lourdes on March 3, 2013 at 1:16 PM
I propose we take the race out of “black history month” and change it to “African american history month” and then everyone can stop freaking out.
red_herring on March 3, 2013 at 1:17 PM
One of many good points raised, Jazz.
At one time there was a need for the Voting Rights Act, but it’s an antiquated law now, rendered irrelevant by the advance of time, demographics, attitudes, and communications.
I tell you what we do need now on this model, though. A Second Amendment Rights Act and I can think of a bunch of states that ought to come under a greater than standard scrutiny when passing laws that relate to this right.
Dusty on March 3, 2013 at 1:18 PM
why can’t we just rely on the legislative process though? Why resort to the courts?
red_herring on March 3, 2013 at 1:22 PM
I agree with Dusty.
We also need a Voter ID act. The Left continues to exploit elections via voting fraud by claiming showing an ID to vote is the same as “the poll tax,” being required to pay a tax in order to vote.
The Left will cry “racism” and some sort of victimization regardless of issue when common sense and proper solutions are presented. Because the Left, ultimately, profits by one resource or another by exploiting the issues of race, “unfairness” and otherwise, having their feelings hurt, so they claim. It’s temper-tantrum stuff like holding one’s breath until you get some candy or the keys to the car.
We NEED a Voter ID act. We need to toss “racial entitlement” as to voting and everything else. It served it’s purpose a while ago and now it’s simply a ticket to cheat.
Lourdes on March 3, 2013 at 1:24 PM
ESPN is guilty of the same
msidders on March 3, 2013 at 1:25 PM
My Grandparents came here from Italy about 90 years ago, never owned any slaves and actually gave employment to many black folks. Do you propose a “European History Month” as well because I don’t. Oh, and I noticed that you capitalized “African” but not “American” in your post. Just an observation.
VegasRick on March 3, 2013 at 1:25 PM
I’m sorry but I never pay any attention to what Chris Hayes says. No one who would wear those silly glasses should be taken seriously.
SukieTawdry on March 3, 2013 at 1:25 PM
You mean like Jim Crow?
That sword cuts both ways.
ButterflyDragon on March 3, 2013 at 1:26 PM
But then, what about black people who don’t have African ancestors?
Seriously, though, this is a good post Jazz.
Cylor on March 3, 2013 at 1:27 PM
And, just how would it achieve that? AA is still racially based. Or, would this month now include “African Americans” like the one from … was it Jamaica? The one that won a medal in the Olympics, I believe, and the sportscaster fell all over themselves because they couldn’t use the word “black” and ended up calling a non-American an “African American”?
GWB on March 3, 2013 at 1:29 PM
Racists are people who think of things in terms of race.
Dems / Libs / Progs / Lefties are always the ones who bring race up first, and having done so they never let it go.
Perhaps one day when holding up the race card they will realize that it is actually a mirror.
ss396 on March 3, 2013 at 1:29 PM
It’s because Democrats have tried morphing the message to one of equal outcome when in reality it is equal opportunity.
Democrats require the victicrat mentality to maintain power. If it was to be banished, the Democratic Party would implode.
ButterflyDragon on March 3, 2013 at 1:30 PM
the problem is that if southerners are treated as a minority group that needs special protection from the courts, then basically every special interest group could claim the same.
red_herring on March 3, 2013 at 1:30 PM
Intentionally disingenuous and completely dishonest…
SWalker on March 3, 2013 at 1:31 PM
When a black presidential candidate goes on TV and gives the race speech of a lifetime and includes “typical white woman” and the reaction is was the greatest speech ever given / that tells you everything you need to know about the liberal mindset. Race is a tool(used the entire last 4 years) they will continue to use to generate guilt and the need for the VRA, Aff Action today and beyond.
We strive for equality but it will never happen when people segregate themselves into special groups that need special treatment.
The libs need that though and keep the fires stoking.
To my “own”, I am a betrayer and have been treated pretty bad-because I don’t jump on their bandwagon. The libs have done a great job keeping the victim hood alive.
bazil9 on March 3, 2013 at 1:32 PM
I understand you’re trying to live up to your pseudonym, but this doesn’t even make sense.
ButterflyDragon on March 3, 2013 at 1:33 PM
Why are you still segregating people by race? Why not just have History period. You want to separate people by outmoded notions of “race,” which, biologically makes no sense anymore; is that because you are a racist?
rbj on March 3, 2013 at 1:34 PM
There has been much progress in the South. They are no longer killing Republicans like they did in say 1895.
tmitsss on March 3, 2013 at 1:36 PM
On the other hand you can immigrate from Botswana never having lived in America or had a relative who ever did and are immediately qualified for preferred treatment.
bluesdoc70 on March 3, 2013 at 1:37 PM
Daring to have the temerity to think for ones-self often has that consequence.
SWalker on March 3, 2013 at 1:37 PM
Yeah, turn out Morning Joe on weekdays, where the starting lineup consists of Mika B, Scarborough, Mike Barnacle, Willie Geist, and some liberal white journalist. Then, during a short time each day, they’ll have on Eugene (I can’t speak a coherent sentence) Robinson or dapper and gay Jonathon Capehart, they feel they’ve checked that race box. Occasionally, they’ll have that somewhat sensible Harold Ford on, but holy crap. MSNBC is a white, liberal joke.
BuckeyeSam on March 3, 2013 at 1:37 PM
Section 5 violates the Equal Protection Clause. If the Left wants to maintain the requirements, then make them apply to all 50 states.
It’s just that easy!
Resist We Much on March 3, 2013 at 1:38 PM
Ultimately, what the court has upheld, only the court can overturn. The only reason a legislature would construct a bill that knowingly and deliberately violated the VRA would be to force the court to revisit the law. So, cheer up, they’re saving some tax money by saving a step.
Knott Buyinit on March 3, 2013 at 1:39 PM
You’ve lost me with doubling up those two questions. Is that what you really meant to ask? If so, then courts are needed to correct legislative errors, thus essential to the process. (You don’t really need me to elaborate on the nature, extent and limits of that general observation do you?)
The subject here, is not legislative – judicial system but the interference of that via the executive through that an unelected, unnominated barely accountable but persistent bureaucracy. At the time, it was there to address current circumstances of the four parameters I note. Those circumstances no longer exist such that this special interference is needed.
Oh wait, maybe I do understand your comment. Are you suggesting we never needed the Voting Rights Act in the first place because we could rely on the legislative process, and rely on it to such an extent that we wouldn’t even have needed the courts to get involved either?
Dusty on March 3, 2013 at 1:39 PM
You point out well the racialist core to the Left’s socio-political methods. They have nothing if they don’t have prejudice: segregating human beings by cosmetic and attitudinal qualities that are largely theatrical in nature to begin with.
There’s NOTHING inherent to any human race that “makes someone” act one way or another. Remove the pretense of AA, racialist and “type” casting of humans and the Left has nothing.
Think about it, it’s all, what the Left is about, largely just “acting”: act like it intensely enough and other people believe ‘it’.
Lourdes on March 3, 2013 at 1:40 PM
Only racists see race in the term african American.
red_herring on March 3, 2013 at 1:42 PM
I’m Norther European as to ethnicity and Caucasian (“WHITE”) as to race but some of my ancestors have lived in North America far longer than some of those who today claim to be “native American” or some sort of hierarchy ownership of the geography by “brown people” of various ethnicities and races.
I could assume I’m Native American simply by the time my ancestors have lived here…
Lourdes on March 3, 2013 at 1:44 PM
No surprise that Scalia’s got MSDNC all worked up. Logic is like garlic to liberal vampires. “Racial entitlements” are the entire Democrat campaign strategy, whether for voting or welfare or some other handout. Dems don’t care about improving the lives of blacks, all they do is pander with free gifts to keep the moochers on the Dem plantation.
sauldalinsky on March 3, 2013 at 1:45 PM
.
Hyphenated-American terminology O N L Y pertains to those American citizens born outside this country, and then legally ‘naturalized’.
.
ALL OTHERS EXCLUDED … period.
listens2glenn on March 3, 2013 at 1:46 PM
Not at all. It IS a racially distinguishing and quite inexact and attitudinally tag to label onesself with or anyone else.
Many who use that phrase use it to substitute for the racial definition of N**roe which they consider objectionable despite it being racially accurate (in science, in biology, it’s the accurate name for a race of human beings and has no geographical context).
Many who use that phrase use it despite the fact that they have no traceable ancestry to the continent of Africa.
Lourdes on March 3, 2013 at 1:47 PM
Switched it up I see. You should ask Allen West, Herman Cain, Benjamin Watson, JJ Watts or a slew of others if they consider themselves “African Americans” or just simply “Americans”. It might clear some of the fog that you have to look through.
VegasRick on March 3, 2013 at 1:47 PM
As an ex-pow told me once-
When over seas with the enemy, you were the enemy and an American-period.They didn’t care what damn color you were are anything else.
Only in America do we categorize Americans in special groupings.
bazil9 on March 3, 2013 at 1:48 PM
DITTO.
Like I’ve opined here already, the Left has nothing socio-politically without their prejudice. The Left’s entire angst and demands are based upon prejudice.
Lourdes on March 3, 2013 at 1:48 PM
Communism promotes and preys on tribalism and victim groups.
John the Libertarian on March 3, 2013 at 1:49 PM
Singling out ANY community for special treatment is specifically UNEQUAL and when it is based on one’s ethnicity, I don’t care if it is positive treatment or negative treatment it is still RACIST. Anyone who obsesses on the color of a person’s skin (like you do Red) is a RACIST.
Thanks for playing and showing the progressives true “colors”.
LL
Lady Logician on March 3, 2013 at 1:50 PM
And I bet our troops looked at each other the same way. Brothers in arms.
VegasRick on March 3, 2013 at 1:51 PM
When I walk the streets of my neighborhood, when I encounter people working, when I go to religious and social events, I see blacks and whites and Asians getting along, treating each other as people. The claims of the anti-racists have nothing to do with the world I live in.
thuja on March 3, 2013 at 1:52 PM
Chris Hayes looks like he plays catcher.
John the Libertarian on March 3, 2013 at 1:52 PM
I can’t remember the first time I ever met someone new and introduced myself as “a White American” or “a European American.”
I’ve met many a Ne**roe and I’ve never had to have them TELL me for any reason what their race was or that it was an issue major enough to be part of an introduction from them about who they were/are, yet many use that: “Hi, I’m an African American.” It’s an indication of a whole barrel of issues just lying under their surface that are offensive, objectionable if not also nonsensical in the realm of human congregating, except to those who NEED a segregated environment.
Lourdes on March 3, 2013 at 1:52 PM
the constitutional question turns on whether “times have changed.” That’s usually for congress to decide, not the courts.
red_herring on March 3, 2013 at 1:53 PM
In the casino business vernacular we call it “betting on the don’t”.
VegasRick on March 3, 2013 at 1:54 PM
You mean the “claims of the racists,” but I see what you’re trying there.
Somehow, you’ve oriented your very brain to view what is “up” as “down” and vice-versa.
Lourdes on March 3, 2013 at 1:54 PM
You bet! I read his book and had the opportunity to meet him.
An amazing man, something I will never forget.
bazil9 on March 3, 2013 at 1:54 PM
AND, thuja, everyone except you notices that YOU are viewing people in your “neighborhood” BY RACE.
Interesting that you distinguish all the people you see by what race they are, in other words.
Lourdes on March 3, 2013 at 1:56 PM
Racialist
Philly on March 3, 2013 at 1:59 PM
This is just a minor tremor in the fracturing of the U.S. along racial lines. Nations composed of roughly equal competing ethnic groups do not last. Empires can as long as the central authority is strong enough to enforce cohesion. But not nations.
bluesdoc70 on March 3, 2013 at 1:59 PM
Why is there not a white history month? Who cares? Rather, why is there a black history month? No other “species” requires such recognition, so maybe blacks are so inferior that they must be assigned some kind of special curry of favor. It’s either that or they are so superior that they are granted sole recognition of their race. It’s a pity, really. I prefer Cedric the Entertainer’s famous dissertation of the history of the black people’s contribution to America prior to his execution of a Russian mobster for using a racial slur in Be Cool http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7sODzCqvvs
HiJack on March 3, 2013 at 1:59 PM
AND the shark has officially been jumped. Happy Sunday, everyone.
joejm65 on March 3, 2013 at 2:00 PM
-
They will never give up their trump card… EVER. It even tops sex.
The long anticipated victory and coronation of Hillary was trumped by the race of the unknown, unproven, un-experienced, un-vetted, un-American, teleprompter reader.
The race card still (as in even as we have black president) needs to be thrown back in their faces at every HONEST opportunity.
True that Jazz…
RalphyBoy on March 3, 2013 at 2:01 PM
Well, the racist think of themselves as being anti-racist. It’s easier to persuade them if you their own label.
thuja on March 3, 2013 at 2:01 PM
God does not see different colors of skin, only His creation. We have screwed it up………..
crosshugger on March 3, 2013 at 2:01 PM
Speak for yourself.
VegasRick on March 3, 2013 at 2:06 PM
I don’t get this silly line of attack when we are in agreement.
thuja on March 3, 2013 at 2:09 PM
.
Four words, Ralph’:
Those four words spoken by ANYONE, to ANY ‘descendent of slaves’ will “cut-to-the-chase.”
THAT’S the way to throw the “race-card” back at them.
listens2glenn on March 3, 2013 at 2:10 PM
That is a lie. Other countries use our history of slavery to condemn us.
HiJack on March 3, 2013 at 2:12 PM
The muslims are big on that, but who did we buy our slaves from? Muslims!
thuja on March 3, 2013 at 2:16 PM
.
Other countries practice “ethnic categorizing” within themselves, as well.
listens2glenn on March 3, 2013 at 2:16 PM
That is a lie. Other countries use our history of slavery to condemn us.
HiJack on March 3, 2013 at 2:12 PM
You obviously missed my story and meaning behind my comment.
Oh well. Scream lie though if you desire.
bazil9 on March 3, 2013 at 2:17 PM
The self flogging by whites will continue. Everybody views people by race, everybody. This horsesh*t that we don’t view and judge people by skin color is just that, horsesh*t. The correct answer on the fact we all do it, is “yeah?, so what?”
lowandslow on March 3, 2013 at 2:19 PM
And the funny thing is that it’s usually from people living in countries that had institutionalized slavery for centuries.
ButterflyDragon on March 3, 2013 at 2:19 PM
No, the constitutional question turns on evidence and the “times have changed” is merely the process by which the evidence is produced. If “times have changed” is a rationale by which legislative matters are immune from scrutiny, courts would never scrutinize legislation.
I’m surprised you have so little interest in the judicial check established by the Constitution, especially as it guards the rights of states and individuals against the danger of centralized illiberal democracy.
Dusty on March 3, 2013 at 2:20 PM
“Race”- (from Rasen- meaning “breeds”, as in different “breeds” of critters) is a superficial concept of use only to racists.
It has no other purpose than to intimidate suckers -who fall for this device to divide the one Human Race into meaninglessly warring tribes- so that the Machiavellians can retain power over the fragmented populace.
profitsbeard on March 3, 2013 at 2:22 PM
I understood your post as most folks here did. I think.
VegasRick on March 3, 2013 at 2:23 PM
We have a different kind of segregation today… one apparently can’t be black, female or anything but a white heterosexual male unless they’re also a Democrat.
Marxism is for dummies on March 3, 2013 at 2:26 PM
Oops above: “Rassen” (two s’s).
Rasen with one s means “lawn” or “garden”.
profitsbeard on March 3, 2013 at 2:30 PM
Treating Blacks differently is a major source of the Left’s sanctimony. They’ll keep up the patronizing racism as long as they have enough willing victims for their bigotry of low expectations.
RadClown on March 3, 2013 at 2:32 PM
I understood your post as most folks here did. I think.
VegasRick on March 3, 2013 at 2:23 PM
bazil9 on March 3, 2013 at 2:33 PM
You’re right that people view one another through a lens that’s distorted by any number biases.
But there’s a difference between behavior exhibited by individuals and institutionalized racism that continues to raise its ugly head in this country. Maybe Jazz is living under a rock, but racism is absolutely alive and well in the south, as well as every other part of this country. The difference is that in the south it tends to be more overt.
In Louisiana alone:
http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/2012/01/racial_bias_alleged_in_jeffers.html
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/10/22/louisiana-hate-crime/1650645/
bayam on March 3, 2013 at 2:33 PM
Affirmative Action: Because behind every successful minority is a milky-white lib wearing George McFly glasses.
stout77 on March 3, 2013 at 2:37 PM
And yet you never hear any black folks talking about “whitey”. Amazing. You are an idiot.
VegasRick on March 3, 2013 at 2:38 PM
H as anyone seen Chris Hayes and Rachael Madcow in the same place at the same time? But what a twist! The manly one and the sissy are both playing against stereotype. Put another way Hayes is one of those liberal cowards who snark about racial views of people they disagree with but would never stray into neighborhoods that actually contain black people.
Happy Nomad on March 3, 2013 at 2:39 PM
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