If you didn’t see ACORN spokesman Scott Levenson take on Glenn Beck on Wednesday, you missed a bit of a dust-up. Enough of a dust-up for Keith Olbermann to name Beck his “Worst Person in the World” for Thursday May 7.
For most of the nine minutes, Beck did his best to continue the rich Fox News tradition of smearing ACORN’s work, especially around the voter registration drive we did last year. Scott did his best to give as good as he got.
For the most part, he did pretty well, I’d say, forcing Beck to shut off his mike one point. (Here’s an aside: Why is it that right-wing radio and TV hosts always prattle on about the first amendment when they get called out for their hate speech, but when they can’t bully guests into submission, then need to cut the other guy’s mike? Are they scared to actually deal in facts?)
But the real confrontation happened off-screen, when, during a commercial break, Beck said that ACORN was “bad for America” and Scott responded, “You’re just afraid of black people.” You can almost see Beck’s head explode in this clip.
Follow me over the flip for more on how Beck exemplifies the problems conservatives have with race.
Oh the outrage! But the real point about this incident is how the right wing perceives the issue of race. Here’s Matthew Yglesias on this point from yesterday,
“Glenn Beck, by contrast, like most conservatives, think that the preeminent racial problem in the United States is that white people are too put upon by political correctness. Conservatives are very very very concerned about this alleged problem of anti-racism run amok. And they’re very concerned about the alleged problem of reverse discrimination. But they don’t seem concerned at all about racism or discrimination and certainly not nearly as concerned as they about helping out the poor, put-upon white man.”
“Of course, Beck and Fox can demonize ACORNandminorities all day long, but my, how sensitive Beck's widdle feewings get when the tables are turned.”
Let me be crystal clear about this. ACORN’s 2008 voter registration program, in which we helped 1.3 million Latinos and African-Americans complete voter registration applications, would not have been the subject of so many attacks and hysteria if we’d been conducting it in mostly-white affluent suburbs. But because the program targeted some of the most marginalized constituencies in the United States, it not only posed a threat to the status quo, but it tapped into deeply held suspicions and stereotypes about people of color. ACORN became the proxy for “Black people are coming to take your stuff.”
And conservative activists can’t seem to help themselves when it comes to us. We’re the boogeyman in their closet, the organization onto which they can project all the manifestations of their lizard-brain fear of people with skin darker then theirs.
It would be funny if it weren’t so dangerous. It would be pathetic if it wasn’t used by conservatives as a way of distracting huge sections of the American people from some of the practices that affect all working families, not just those of color. The folks at News Corpse make this point:
“While Beck and his ilk get so worked up about an organization working to help low income communities - even though the things they allege produce no harm except to ACORN itself - these same guardians of virtue don’t seem to care much about the criminal behavior of defense contractors who have been responsible for outfitting our soldiers with faulty gear, electrocuting them in their showers, and bilking American taxpayers for billions of dollars.”
Make no mistake. ACORN members, regular people from places like Watts in Los Angeles, Apopka in Orlando, Anacostia in DC, Phillips in Minneapolis, or Lents in Portland (to name just some of the neighborhoods in which ACORN members live), stand up every day for low- and moderate-income families and families of color. And whether it is addressing the devastation of the foreclosure crisis, the need for health care for all, calling for a raise in the minimum wage, or helping rebuild from the destruction of Hurricane Katrina, ACORN members will continue to do so, no matter what Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, or Michelle Bachmann has to say about us.
So get ready for more whining from the winguts because we’re just getting warmed up.
