Benen: 'Actually,' Byron York is a casual racist

[BurtWorm]

Steve Benen of Political Animal caught something fucked up about a Byron York comment in which he seemed to be arguing that African-Americans do not actually count as much as white Americans:

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_04/017962.php

April 29, 2009

'ACTUALLY'.... I've read quite a few columns from Byron York over the years, first during his tenure at the National Review, and more recently as the chief political correspondent for the Washington Examiner. I've seen plenty of commentary I strongly disagree with, but none has offended me quite as much as his latest column.

On his 100th day in office, Barack Obama enjoys high job approval ratings, no matter what poll you consult. But if a new survey by the New York Times is accurate, the president and some of his policies are significantly less popular with white Americans than with black Americans, and his sky-high ratings among African-Americans make some of his positions appear a bit more popular overall than they actually are. <emphasis added>

For crying out loud, what the hell does that mean, exactly? I read the rest of the piece, hoping to see York explain why the president's seemingly popular positions are exaggerated or inflated. Why, in other words, these positions "appear" more popular "than they actually are."

But all the piece tells me is that African Americans tend to support Obama in greater numbers than white Americans.

The problem, of course, is that damn phrase "than they actually are." York argues that we can see polls gauging public opinion, but if we want to really understand the popularity of the president's positions, and not be fooled by "appearances," then we have to exclude black people.

There's really no other credible way to read this. York effectively argues that black people shouldn't count. We can look at polls measuring the attitudes of Americans, but if we want to see the truth -- appreciate the numbers as "they actually are" -- then it's best if we focus our attention on white people, and only white people.

Adam Serwer added, "This is another example of a really bizarre genre of conservative writing, which I call 'If Only Those People Weren't Here.'"

This is unacceptable.
—Steve Benen 3:35 PM Permalink | Trackbacks | Comments (59)

[imdjh]

1. I'm not sure if it gets him out of the hole.

If I have read this person before, I didn't notice. I don't read a lot of slicks, actually I don't read any offline magazines except the occasional visit to the doctor.

The backtrack would be that if his ratings with black Americans were "sky high" as in "unheard of" then we would have to see those ratings as something other than representative because they would be.

For example, if George Bush enjoyed a 99% approval rating amongst registered Republicans, then you would have to say, "Hey, this is not approval, it's party."

But we went through this with in the primary, where blacks voting above 80% levels for Obama was portrayed as "hope" or some happy horseshit while whites voting for Hillary were called "racists".

It's a stupid game.