Take action against racism with Colour of Change

2 posts / 0 new

Mon, 2009-08-03 11:03

martin dufresne

This is really easy, folks; all you have to do is click on or cut and paste the Color of Change web site and there is a quick form to fill out to add your name to the letter. It is mildly worded, so none of you need to worry about sounding "radical", Ha Ha...

Dear friends,

As you may know, right-wing talk show hosts have been bringing race-based fear mongering into the mainstream, but FOX's Glenn Beck just took it to another level. On Tuesday, Beck said:

"This president has exposed himself as a guy over and over and over again who has a deep-seated hatred for white people... this guy is, I believe, a racist."

It's part of a larger argument Beck has been making: that President Obama wants to serve the needs of Black communities at White people's expense. This kind of talk stirs up fear, hate, and it can lead to violence.

I've joined ColorOfChange.org's effort to stop Glenn Beck. ColorOfChange is already putting calls into Beck's advertisers, asking them if they want to be associated with this kind of racist hate and fear-mongering. When the advertisers see that tens of thousands of us are behind that question, I believe they'll move their advertising dollars elsewhere, and his show and platform will be history.

Will you take a stand and be counted, and invite your friends and family to do the same? It takes just a moment:

http://colorofchange.org/beck/?id=1995-946034

Glenn Beck is appealing to the worst in America. Of course, some Americans refuse to accept the fact that our president is Black or the idea that he could truly serve all Americans. But the only way these views fade away is if they're not reinforced by mainstream society.

Instead, folks like Glenn Beck, Lou Dobbs, and Rush Limbaugh are exploiting racism and race-based fear to bump their ratings, stirring up racial discord in the process.

The dangers of these tactics are real. We saw the same dynamic during the presidential race: By the end, the McCain/Palin campaign was unable to control the violent energy whipped up by their race-baiting.

It resulted in an unprecedented number of threats on Obama's life, a rise in the number of hate groups, and an increase in the number of threats and crimes against immigrants and Black people.

FOX has a horrible track record on pushing racist propaganda, but Glenn Beck appears to be taking the network to an even lower standard. He's trying to divide and distract America when we should be coming together and talking about issues that really matter--like health care and the economy.

The good news is that we have the power to stop this. All major media is funded by advertising. And advertisers care more than anything what consumers think. If we want to change what's happening and put an end to folks like Glenn Beck having a platform, we can do it.

It's up to us, and it can start now. Please join me:

http://colorofchange.org/beck/?id=1995-946034

Thanks.

Links to more information:

"Beck: Obama has 'exposed himself as a guy' with 'a deep seated hatred for white people'"
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200907280008

"Glenn Beck: Obama agenda driven by 'reparations' and desire to 'settle old racial scores'"
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200907230040

"MSNBC's Deutsch encourages viewers to demand advertisers on Beck's show spend money elsewhere"
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200907290037

"On Television and Radio, Talk of Obama's Citizenship"
http://tinyurl.com/mb467j

Mon, 2009-08-03 12:35

martin dufresne

Putting an End to Glenn Beck's Racist Antics and Apocalyptic Rhetoric

The Fox host's attacks on Obama are beyond the pale. How much longer will his advertisers, like GEICO and Proctor & Gamble, accept this? ...Beck's attack on Obama shocked even fellow conservatives. One of the hosts of Fox and Friends Brian Kilmeade - who recently made headlines by essentially arguing for eugenics - pointed to a pretty major flaw in Beck's reasoning: for an alleged racist, Obama sure spends a lot of time around white people, who make up the bulk of his administration.(...)

Taken the tiniest bit aback by Kilmeade's rather incontrovertible logic, Beck tried to backpedal. Instead, he managed to say something even more offensive:

"I'm not saying he doesn't like white people. I'm saying he has a problem. This guy is, I believe, a racist."
This is hardly the first time that Beck's shameless scramble for ratings has led the talk show host to abuse logic and attack the President with thinly veiled racism. Or even the first time he's done so this month: a few weeks ago, Beck essentially claimed that Obama plans to surreptitiously impose reparations on an unsuspecting American public through his health care plan. The fact that there is no such thing as an "Obama health care plan" -- the President has laid out preferences but has not issued a "plan" -- was perhaps the least disingenuous part of Beck's accusation, which basically implied that Obama would betray the interests of White Americans to push the interests of Black Americans.(...)