GOP Equates Being Black With Being a Drug Addict

[Clay Fink]

What gets me is how the GOP would not vote to have an unreasonable, oviously racist statement struck from the record. Do they support statements like this or are they just too stubborn to admit it when they're wrong.

As far as the ban on lawsuites against gun makers, I don't know.

Debate on Gun Rights In House Turns Racial

By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 10, 2003; Page A03

A House debate over gun rights legislation erupted into a racially charged dispute yesterday when a Republican lawmaker from Wyoming seemed to equate African Americans with drug addicts or people undergoing drug treatment.

Rep. Barbara Cubin's remark -- which triggered a vote on whether to strike it from the congressional record -- nearly overshadowed the House's approval of a measure to protect gun manufacturers and dealers from lawsuits resulting from the criminal use of firearms. One independent, 63 Democrats and 221 Republicans backed the bill, which could block several pending lawsuits by counties, cities and individuals stemming from gun crimes -- including last year's sniper shootings in the Washington area.

President Bush and more than half of all senators support the bill, giving it strong odds to become law and immediately affect such lawsuits.

Yesterday's debate suddenly veered from guns to race when Cubin criticized a failed Democratic amendment that would have banned gun sales to drug addicts or people in drug treatment. After noting that her sons, ages 25 and 30, "are blond-haired and blue-eyed," she said: "One amendment today said we could not sell guns to anybody under drug treatment. So does that mean that if you go into a black community you can't sell any guns to any black person?"

Rep. Melvin Watt (D-N.C.), who is black, interrupted and demanded that Cubin retract the statement. Cubin said that she did not mean to offend her "neighbors" on the Democratic side, and maintained that her comment was within House rules.

Watt was not satisfied. "She needs to apologize for using words that are offensive for the entire African American race," he said. He demanded Cubin's comment be "taken down," meaning it was inappropriate for a House debate. In a largely party-line vote, the GOP-controlled House voted 227 to 195 to uphold the chair's ruling that the remark fell within House rules.

Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said GOP leaders should have condemned Cubin's comment. "The Republican Party has consistently said it's working hard to become a racially diverse party," he told reporters. "If that is true, the Black Caucus calls on the Republicans to synchronize their conduct with their conscience."

A few Republicans criticized Cubin's statement. "She should have withdrawn them," Rep. Jack Quinn (R-N.Y.) said. "I can really understand how they would have been found offensive."

When the dust settled, the House returned to the most high-profile debate on gun issues since it voted in 1999 against banning gun shows as part of a juvenile justice bill. Yesterday's outcome was a major victory for the National Rifle Association, a steadfast supporter of Republicans.

The bill will move to the Senate, where 52 members say they back it. The White House issued a statement of support, saying: "The manufacturer or seller of a legal, non-defective product should not be held liable for the criminal or unlawful misuse of that product by others."

The debate focused on whether individuals and state and local governments could seek damages from gun manufacturers and licensed dealers when guns are used illegally or injure innocent people. Rep. Melissa Hart (R-Pa.), who supports the bill, said Congress needed to step in before gun opponents bankrupt a legal industry.

"Having lost the fight in Congress to curb the rights of law-abiding firearm owners, like the many sportsmen who live in my district, the gun control lobby has turned increasingly to the courts with frivolous, time-consuming lawsuits against manufacturers," she said. "These lawsuits don't curb crime, but they do destroy jobs by driving many manufacturers out of business."

Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) disagreed. "This is special treatment for a special interest," he said. "This body should work to protect our citizens, not the gun lobby."

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said the bill would keep victims of the Washington area snipers from getting compensation from gun manufacturers and dealers, even if they had provided weapons to illegal buyers. "My community was terrorized and paralyzed by a pair of snipers last fall," he said. "It is outrageous that we would even consider a bill that would deny the families of sniper victims a fair day in court."

Denise Johnson, whose husband, Conrad, was killed in the sniper shootings, has sued the manufacturer of the rifle believed to have been used, and the store that sold it.

The legislation would not protect someone who transferred guns or ammunition knowing they would be used in connection with a violent crime or drug trafficking. Nor would it bar claims alleging a manufacturing or design defect in a gun or ammunition.

The House rejected several Democratic amendments, including one that would have preserved a plaintiff's right to sue on product liability grounds.


© 2003 The Washington Post Company

[jesus marion joseph]

Have to agree with you, CF. It's one thing to make an unintendedly dumb tatement, but quite another to refuse to acknowledge that it was dumb.

[RainyDay]

I dunno that this is any different than some of the dumb merde that showed up on the Race, Class and Art thread. I mean, it's America and people are free to say any stupid, meaningless thing that drags race into a discussion but only adds oil to the fire. The First Amendment, and all that. At least she didn't use the "n" word.

[Vince Kargatis]

I prefer that no comments are ever stricken from the Record. Let readers know what elected representatives think and say.

[Al in NYC]

I agree with Vince. Let the racists show themselves for who they are. I do wonder what makes JMJ think that the statement was "unintended"? I think it was about as "unintended" as Trent Lott's statement at ol' Strom's party. Segregationists are alive and well in the Republican Party, and we shouldn't let their prettier words fool us.

[Gary Sisco]

What too many Americans fail to realize is that most addicts are white, and most poverty (two thirds) is rural.

[clinthopson]

If you don't think this has turned into a redneck country, you're kidding yourself.

[Clay Fink]

Originally posted by Gary Sisco
What too many Americans fail to realize is that most addicts are white, and most poverty (two thirds) is rural.

That's right on the money.

[Darryl G. Thomas]

Sisco's comment reminded me of something a white guy told me once. He thought the only people on welfare were black. I didn't consider him a racist or trying to make a racist statement. He lived in a segregated, all white Philly suburb. The only thing he knew about blacks was either from TV or anectodal.

Cubin's from Wyoming. Probably the only blacks in the entire state plays for the U. of Wyoming basketball team.

The Republican Party has made great gains painting the picture of drug addicted criminals being black. They've made great gains playing on white fears of blacks. It's part of their party's culture and its gotten them control of the presidency, Congress and the Courts.

Fear of a black planet indeed.

[Clay Fink]

Having lived in Eastern Kentucky I can assure anyone that the qualities assigned to poor blacks by a lot of Amreicans are shared by poor rural whites. Not everyone in Eastern Kenucky is poor, but a sizable percentage are. Anything you're got in the inner city you have back in some of the "hollers".

I have also known a lot of white middle class crack heads (which more than likely comes close to describing your "average" crack head) here in the DC burbs. People in the poorer areas of DC end up paying a price for the addictions of their better off white neighbors from Maryland and Virginia.

[jesus marion joseph]

Originally posted by Al in NYC
I do wonder what makes JMJ think that the statement was "unintended"?

Maybe I misread the article, but the person made a statement that I construed as saying "I didn't mean it to come out thaty way". I don't know the speaker, so perhaps I'm wrong.

[Pete C]

Originally posted by RainyDay
I dunno that this is any different than some of the dumb merde that showed up on the Race, Class and Art thread.

Examples?

[Gary Sisco]

The Vermont "authorities" have only just realized in the past year that the place is awash in heroin. I've been saying that since the '80s, but was scoffed at and boo-hooed all along. Truth is, I could have any drug I wanted in less than 10 minutes in a simple walk through downtown Burlington. Truth is, too, I know all the players, including the cops and the plainclothes, having run the shelter there for ten years. I know the scene through and through.

But the real thing is, the most rural part of Vermont (the most rural state in the union), the Northeast Kingdom, has *always* been a heroin stronghold for some reason, going back to the 60s. Nothing at all new about the heroin in Vermont except in the past couple of years suburban white kids have been dying in droves from O.D.'s. Until they started dying, no one wanted to even acknowledge that heroin was and is a mainstay of Vermont life.

Weird how nothing in this country is real to people until it's real to suburban white people. In the neighborhood I grew up in (in NY) for example, *all* of the households had two parents working full time and *all* of the kids were what they now call "latch key kids." Difference is that the experience has now touched the middle classes. Nothing else.

[JamesH]

Rep. Cubin must have grown up believing all the crap she see's on TV. News reporters only show crime and drug usage in urban areas and they prefer black urban criminals and drug users.

My rhetorical question is: Why are almost all of our elected officials evil, greedy and stupid? Unfortunately I know the answer.

[Gary Sisco]

Those are all essential job requirements for politicians, that's why.

Hell, even most crackheads are (and were) white. Hartford, CT, had a hell of a problem with kids from burbs driving into the ghetto to buy crack through the car window and then beating it out of town. Never even had to get out of the car. But the violence stayed in the ghetto. So, what they did, in a rare moment of imagination, probably an idea given to them by someone from the neighborhood, was to install huge concrete street barriers, to make a kind of maze out of driving out of the 'hood. Cut *way* down on the white kids coming into the city to buy crack, and therefore, put an enormous dent in the trade.

[walto]

"I dunno that this is any different than some of the dumb merde that showed up on the Race, Class and Art thread."

I've already admitted to being a bit thick, but I've read that thread pretty closely and I have to say that I haven't got the slightest idea what you are talking about, Rainy. I don't think there was a single racist comment...unless, like Ellery, you take issue with some of the stuff Brian said about "second hand stories."

What this Congresswoman said was absolutely reprehensible. No similarity whatever that I can see.

BWTHDIK?

[GoodSpeak]

Do they support statements like this or are they just too stubborn to admit it when they're wrong.

My vote?

Too damned stOOpid.

Too damned stubborn.















But, hell...they're republicans after all.




[duh]

[Darryl G. Thomas]

I hate to say this but politicians are of the people. They don't come from Mars, they're not some foreign species. They reflect the communities they come from.

Intellectually, we're a lazy people and I think many of our politicians reflect that. One of George Bush's "pluses" was the fact he was an anti-intellectual. The people that voted for him liked that part of his character.

Personally, I want someone smarter than me running things. Unfortunately, smart doesn't play too well in this society. It smacks of elitism I guess.

[Gary Sisco]

I hear you, D. Weird how having an intellect and smarts can be seen as "elitist" but being of the actual megarich elite is not. Americans always cry "elitism" unless they're dealing with a real elite. Then they bow and scrape and hope to be one of them one day themselves. But not a brainy one. Just a rich one.

[Gary Sisco]

An aside. One day on the way home from work I was listening to Sharpton talking to the wash journalists association. He talked about he'd given some kind of tour to some honky functionaries through black neighborhoods in NY. (Post-9/11). Afterwards, he said one of the mandarins commented on how American blacks didn't seem to be as patriotic as others. Sharpton asked him how in the world he'd come to that conclusion. The cat told him because he hadn't seen as many flags as he sees in other neighborhoods. Sharpton told him that if he had paid a bit more attention, he'd have noticed that black neighborhoods often don't have as many or much of many things other neighborhoods have, never mind flags. I nearly drove off the road, laughing so hard.

I'd have reminded the guy that American blacks serve in the military in *hugely* higher proportions per capita than whites and turned the question back on him, since most the whites apparently think carrying a rifle is going a bit too far with the patriotism bit.