There’s a reason we’re hearing about the Pigford settlement again these days, from the likes of Michele Bachmann and Rep. Peter King. Bachmann and King have blasted the settlement to black farmers in the past, which is funny considering Bachmann has received over $250G in farm subsidies herself. And here we go again, with Bachmann calling it an “inefficient project,” and saying the money should be used for flood control along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers:
“When money is diverted to inefficient projects, like the Pigford project, where there seems to be proof-positive of fraud, we can’t afford $2 billion in potentially fraudulent claims when that money can be used to benefit the people along the Mississippi River and the Missouri River.”
Pigford, of course, is not a “project,” efficient or otherwise. It’s a class-action lawsuit filed against the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture in 1997 and settled in 1999. So the money is a legal settlement. Are we sure this woman went to law school?
And I love all the crying about the need for flood control along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Back in February 2009, Republicans released their list of “wasteful spending” in the Democrats’ economic stimulus bill. Guess what made the list? If you guessed $500 million for flood control projects on the Mississippi River, you’d be right.
I have my own problem with the Pigford settlement, namely that Pigford II was paid for in part by taking funds from WIC, the USDA’s child nutrition program. Explained Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack at the time:
“This comes from a surplus account in WIC that we’re fairly confident won’t be needed given the fact that we’re seeing slightly…declining levels in participation in WIC. So, nobody’s going to loose their WIC benefits.”
I don’t buy that, not with our economy in the toilet, and I think it’s morally wrong to make amends for one injustice by causing another.
But whatever. So why are we hearing about Pigford again? It’s been all over the conservative blogs and publications, to the point where it even crossed the radar of my Wingnut Friend and he’s so out of it he’s the last to hear everything. So when Michele Bachmann opens her yap on the campaign trail and starts blowing wingnut dog whistles, you’ve got to know something is up.
I think it’s pretty obvious: this is a racial politics. The president is blackety-black-black! Slavery reparations! Uppity Negroes! It’s a racial dog whistle at a time when the Republican Party is pissing off its base and the independents over the debt ceiling thing. Fearmongering about black people taking your shit is a time honored way to whip the true believers back in line.
I have some high-school acquaintances still in Nashville; and see some things from them on my facebook page (under my real name, not this nom de guerre of course) and well, I find some of their comments disturbing.
My old neighborhood, where I grew up (around Nolensville Road and Thompson Lane) has turned decidedly Mexican– lots of signs in Spanish, lots of Mexican grocery stores and restaurants.
That surprised me when I discovered it on a visit home a few years ago, but I thought it was kind of cool– but then, I am (somewhat) fluent in Spanish and really enjoyed being in this new Mexican neighborhood.
My acquaintances who still live in the are, however, are very unhappy about it. One went so far as to go out to paint over graffiti in the area “Gang signs!!” and was asking people to “have his back” as he did it– like he was in Fallujah or some bloody where… but I digress.
Since you’re based in Nashville, what is your take on the local views of the President? (White folks, of course, I still have family in the city and I know their attitude!)
What you describe in this post surely covers the national Republican approach, but I’m curious as to how much traction (I was born there, so I know there has to be some traction) for these dogwhistles.
(ps- love your place; it feels almost like i have a correspondent back in Nashville, keeping me up to date)
The Nolensville road area does have a thriving Hispanic community but it’s way more diverse than that, there are a lot of Middle Eastern and Asian immigrants in the area too. The great thing are all the wonderful businesses which have cropped up: amazing Mexican restaurants like La Hacienda, great Halal grocery stores, some wonderful Thai places. These folks have really added to the quality of life in Nashville.
Nashville has its racist elements, but they are a minority, most of these folks are in the ring counties. Councilman Eric Crafton’s attempt to get an English Only ordinance passed was a huge fail and the local Republican moneybags who supported it, namely Lee Beaman, were publicly humiliated. But immigrants are still an easy target resulting in things like the Sheriff’s 287g program, and the state of Tennessee is as much a knuckle-dragging bastion of racism as it ever was. We’ve got our own version of the Arizona immigration bill and similar stuff.
As for President Obama, you know Nashville is in general fairly liberal but the state is not. So while you still see plenty of Davidson County cars with Obama stickers, you also see plenty of wingnutty stuff and incidents like this one do happen.
And of course the Muslims … yeah lots of Islamophobia around here.
Between the various universities (TSU, Fisk, Meharry, Belmont, and of course (eww) Vanderbilt), Music Row and the tourism that comes from that, I always considered Nashville to be a very cosmopolitan city for a Southern city– but it is a Southern city nonetheless.
In that comment thread on FB about graffiti, someone mentioned Kurds, but the post was… well…:
and
Americans, of course, are white. No one else could be, legitimately.
(as an aside, note that this individual can’t frickin’ spell Laotian!)
I would have a hard time living in Nashville anymore, I’m afraid.
Please excuse my use of the word, “nigger”, for the purposes of this comment.
Governmental social programs = Giving my money to NIGGERS!
Judicial/prison reform = Giving NIGGER criminals a pass!
I could go on, but I think you get my drift.
It really doesn’t matter where you live, I think. I encounter unthinking, overt racism every single day.
*except for Medicaid, Medicare, SS, SSI, WIC, Disaster funding, unemployment compensation, Mortgage tax deduction–ad infinitum, when they’re for white people.
Americans, of course, are white. No one else could be, legitimately.
Yes, that’s it in a nutshell. White, Christian, hetero …. anyone who is different, foreign, whatever is not a Real American. This is a very provincial attitude, it’s very prevalent here despite the city’s cosmopolitan elements, and it’s something the GOP has exploited all across the South.
But guess what: demographics are not on the Republican Party’s side. So good luck with this English-only, Whites-only, Straights-only crap. In the long run they are slitting their own (political) throat.
“demographics are not on the Republican Party’s side.”
Demographics won’t matter in a couple more years. With voter repression/elimination, computer manipulated vote counts, denial of services (jobs, education, govt money) to black/brown segments of the population and increased incarceration of same to both corral the male population…
Demographics are being planned out of the equation.
Gosh, how nice that surplus at WIC won’t be needed any time soon. After all, it isn’t like the American economy is going into a crisis or Social Security payments are about to be cut off as well as food stamps and every other government service ’cause we couldn’t possibly ask rich people to pay a bit more in taxes.